CKDBWR.TXT "Beware File" for C-Kermit Version 7.0 -*- text -*- AOS/VS VERSION Applies to C-Kermit 7.0.195 Beta.11 Last update: Sun Dec 5 14:31:19 1999 Authors: Frank da Cruz, Christine M. Gianone, Columbia University. Copyright (C) 1985, 1999, Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York. All rights reserved. See the C-Kermit COPYING.TXT file or the copyright text in the ckcmai.c module for disclaimer and permissions. Report problems, suggestions, fixes, etc, by e-mail to: kermit@columbia.edu The Kermit Project Columbia University 612 West 115th Street New York NY 10025-7799 USA http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ AOS/VS C-Kermit system requirements and installation instructions are in the file CKDINS.TXT. Please be sure you have read that file before concluding that C-Kermit isn't working correctly on AOS/VS. DOCUMENTATION Frank da Cruz and Christine M. Gianone, "Using C-Kermit", Second Edition, 1997, Digital Press / Butterworth-Heinemann, Woburn, MA, ISBN 1-55558-164-1 US single-copy price: $44.95; quantity discounts available. Available in computer bookstores or directly from Columbia University: http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/manuals.html Features added after version 6.0 was released are documented in the text file, ckermit2.txt. RESTRICTIONS Accessing AOS/VS from outside: . When making Telnet connections *to* AOS/VS from C-Kermit 7.0 or later, or K95 1.1.18 or later, it might take several minutes for negotiations to complete; this is because the AOS/VS Telnet server does not reply to messages for which replies are mandatory (thus violating the Telnet protocol specification). To speed up your connections, tell the C-Kermit or K95 Telnet client to "set telnet wait off". Commands: . Sliding windows don't work very well, or at all, at least not over TCP/IP connections, so if you have trouble transferring files, "set window 1". (If anybody can get select() working, this will be fixed.) . During file transfer, be careful about unprefixing control characters when sending files to the AOS/VS system; in general it best to "set prefixing all". . Incoming TCP/IP connections are not supported. . Local C-Kermit commands such as WHO, DIR, etc, that are implemented through CLI calls cannot be interrupted except by entering BREAK (CMD-BRK on DG terminals) followed by ^C^A. . The server end of the MAIL command has not been implemented. . The server end of the BYE command has not been implemented. The BYE command in Kermit is NOT the same as the BYE command in AOS/VS. . The WHO command does not accept arguments. . It is not possible to suspend AOS/VS C-Kermit sessions. Installation: . If you obtain the AOS/VS C-Kermit binary from Columbia or elsewhere, be sure to transfer it in binary mode, or else it will be corrupted and will not be usable. . If you transfer the binary using certain utilities (such as CEO-BLAST), it might wind up with an inappropriate type, such as UDF, in which case AOS/VS reports "Error: Illegal File Type" when you try to "x" it. In this case you need to change the type to UNX or PRV. Example: ) x kermit Error: Illegal file type x,kermit.pr ) create/type=prv x.pr ) copy/a x.pr kermit.pr ) delete kermit.pr )nrename x.pr kermit.pr ) x kermit C-Kermit> ... If you have C-Kermit on a tar tape, you should be able to read it with TAR_VS. Just type "tar_vs" at the CLI prompt for a summary of options. Communications: . The AOS/VS serial communication device driver requires the RS-232 Carrier Detect (CD) signal to be on before it can communicate. For dialout connections, therefore, the modem must be configured to force Carrier Detect to be on at all times. Direct connections should feed another active signal, such as DTR, into the VS system's serial port CD circuit. . Incoming characters are very likely to be lost if they come in spurts longer than (some number, perhaps as low as 128), especially on serial ports, where the IAC ring buffer size is the limiting factor. For file transfer, incoming packet-length x window size might need to be reduced to fit this size. Devices can be re-gen'd to use larger buffers. When sending files, AOS/VS Kermit can (usually) use arbitrarily large packet and window sizes. . AOS/VS Kermit cannot determine the status of modem signals on a line. . Hardware flow control (char/on/hifc/hofc) on the controlling terminal doesn't seem to work. Xon/Xoff (char/on/ifc/ofc) seems to fare better. . When a locally-established connection to a remote system has been broken, the local AOS/VS C-Kermit will write "Communications disconnect" to the screen, but will not finish the rest of the line until there is input from the keyboard. . Domain Name Service (DNS) might not work. In that case, you must use numeric IP addresses in your SET HOST and TELNET commands. Reportedly, this problem is fixed in AOS/VS II 3.00 / TCP/IP 1.30, but in order to get the improved functionality in C-Kermit, C-Kermit must be compiled and linked on a system of this level (the current development system is still running an older release). File Transfer: . The fullscreen file transfer display is not supported. . When AOS/VS C-Kermit is running in server mode, and receives a BYE command, AOS/VS C-Kermit terminates but its parent process does not. Thus you must still CONNECT back to the AOS/VS system and log out. . When AOS/VS C-Kermit is receiving a file, and the file collision action is set to "update" (meaning that the incoming file should overwrite the existing file only if its "creation" date is more recent), and the incoming file is in fact newer, the modification date on the resulting file will actually be the date/time of the transfer (the real last modification date/time). This can cause succeeding "update" operations on this file to fail. . One user reports that in order for AOS/VS C-Kermit to receive 8-bit binary files, the CLI command CHAR/ON/8BT must be given before starting C-Kermit. KNOWN PROBLEMS Abnormal terminations (stack dumps) may occasionally occur on expiration of certain timers (when, for instance, the local Kermit gets no response from the remote Kermit). Apparently this happens only in local mode, i.e. when C-Kermit was used to initiate a connection to another computer by DIALing. Cause: Unknown. Cure: Unknown. Possible workarounds: (a) Tell C-Kermit to SET SEND TIMEOUT 0; (b) Make your connection without using the DIAL command. (These workarounds are untested.) (End of CKDBWR.TXT)