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OS/2 Help File
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1995-05-31
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260KB
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6,540 lines
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Welcome ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.1. Introduction ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Welcome to OS/2 C-Kermit 5A(191), full-function 32-bit native communication
software for your OS/2 system from Columbia University, offering terminal
emulation, file transfer, script programming, and international character-set
conversion for both serial and network connections.
The documentation for C-Kermit is the book, Using C-Kermit. If you are using
C-Kermit software, please purchase the book if you haven't done so already. It
teaches how to use the software effectively, how to get the most out of it, and
how to take advantage of its advanced features. Book sales provide most of the
income that pays for the Kermit project, a unique nonprofit worldwide
cooperative software development effort.
Kermit software is protected by copyright. It is not in the public domain.
Please read the copyright notice and licensing information.
This file describes the changes made to OS/2 C-Kermit since version 5A(188) was
released and the first edition of Using C-Kermit was published to accompany it
in early 1993. Also incorporated are numerous hints & tips and questions &
answers arising from years of help-desk experience. This INFO file applies to
version 5A(191) of OS/2 C-Kermit, released March 1995. This file is a
supplement to, and not a replacement for, Using C-Kermit.
This file was written by:
Frank da Cruz, Christine M. Gianone, and Jeffrey Altman, Columbia
University, New York City, March 1995.
Acknowledgements and thanks to Kai Uwe Rommel, ARS Computer and Consulting
GmbH, MБnchen, Germany, and to Dave Bolen for some of the information herein.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.2. OS/2 Environment ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
OS/2 C-Kermit 5A(191) is available only as a 32-bit application for OS/2 2.00
and later. Version 5A(190) was the last version produced in a 16-bit version.
The 32-bit version is designed to take advantage of OS/2 2.x and Warp features
including:
Multiple threads for efficient task scheduling and low CPU load
Fast semaphores for intraprocess communication
HPFS
Extended attributes
Sizeable terminal screen (Warp only)
VIO session mouse support
TCP/IP, NETBIOS, DECnet, and Named Pipes networking methods
LAN Server remote modems
PM Clipboard
High-speed asynchronus communication services
REXX language interface
And all of C-Kermit's file transfer, terminal emulation, script programming,
and character-set conversion features.
The 16-bit version lacks certain features of the 32-bit version due to
architectural or compiler limitations: various printer operations, the REXX
programming interface, SET FILE TYPE LABELED (for OS/2 Extended Attributes),
mouse support, Named Pipe support, NETBIOS networking, loadable fonts,
performance improvements, etc.
The 32-bit version should be used with OS/2 2.x and Warp. The 16-bit version
is for use on OS/2 1.x systems.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.3. Copyright Notice ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Copyright (C) 1985, 1995, Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New
York. The C-Kermit software may not be, in whole or in part, licensed or sold
for profit as a software product itself, nor may it be included in or
distributed with commercial products or otherwise distributed by commercial
concerns to their clients or customers without written permission of the Office
of Kermit Development and Distribution, Columbia University. This copyright
notice must not be removed, altered, or obscured.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.4. Licensing ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
C-Kermit software is distributed by Columbia University and its licensees.
Kermit software may not be resold or otherwise provided to customers or clients
of commercial enterprises, or included with any product (including CD-ROM
software collections), without the written permission of Columbia University.
Large institutional and corporate users of Kermit software are encouraged to
help support our efforts by purchasing adequate copies of the manuals and/or
making tax-deductible contributions, and are requested to provide their own
internal technical support (which may liaison with ours) rather than sending
all of their users straight to us for help. CLICK HERE for further information
about technical support.
Contact Columbia University for further information about licensing and
quantity discounts.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. C-Kermit Documentation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The user manual for C-Kermit 5A is the book:
Using C-Kermit by Frank da Cruz and Christine M. Gianone, published by
Digital Press / Butterworth-Heinemann, Woburn, MA, USA, 1993, 514 pages,
ISBN 1-55558-108-0.
Using C-Kermit contains thorough step-by-step instructions, examples,
illustrations, tutorials, reference material, tables, a bibliography, and a
comprehensive index. It shows you how to hook up, get online, interact with
dialup and network hosts and services, upload and download files, achieve
maximum efficiency, access text in many languages, and how to automate all
your routine communications tasks.
If you do not have this book, please order it. You may use the enclosed order
form. The book will show get the most out of your Kermit software. It will
answer your questions and give you ideas. And remember, book sales are the
major source of funding for the Kermit project.
This INFO file is a supplement to, and not a replacement for, Using C-Kermit,
concentrating on the OS/2-particular aspects of C-Kermit, and describing
features that were added recently.
Using C-Kermit is available in computer bookstores or directly from Columbia
University. To order from Columbia University, use the order form.
You can also order by phone from the publisher, Digital Press /
Butterworth-Heinemann, with MasterCard, Visa, or American Express:
+1 800 366-2665 (Woburn, Massachusetts office for USA & Canada)
+44 1993 414414 (Rushden, England office for Europe)
+61 2 372-5511 (Chatswood, NSW office for Australia & New Zealand)
+65 220-3684 (Singapore office for Asia)
A German-language edition is also available:
C-Kermit-EinfБhrung und Referenz, Frank da Cruz and Christine M. Gianone,
Verlag Heinz Heise, Hannover, Germany (1994). ISBN 3-88229-023-4. Deutsch
von Gisbert W. Selke. Price: DM 88,00. Verlag Heinz Heise GmbH & Co. KG,
Helstorfer Strasse 7, D-30625 Hannover.
Tel. +49 (05 11) 53 52-0, Fax. +49 (05 11) 53 53-1 29.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.1. Documentation Order Form ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
_______________________________________________________________________
OS/2 C-KERMIT DOCUMENTATION ORDER FORM
Using C-Kermit, by Frank da Cruz and Christine M. Gianone, Digital Press /
Butterworth-Heinemann, 1993. 504 pages.
Payment in US dollars:
USA, Canada, and Mexico: $36.95.
Elsewhere: $47.00.
Price includes shipping. Do not add sales tax.
_______________________________________________________________________
________ Book Using C-Kermit, $36.95 / $47 . . . . . . . . $__________
Quantity
You may pay by (1) credit card or (2) check:
_______________________________________________________________________
1. PAYMENT BY CREDIT CARD
[ ] MasterCard [ ] Visa AMOUNT OF YOUR PAYMENT. . . . . . $__________
Card Holder______________________________ Today's Date ______________
Card Number _____________________________ Expiration Date ___________
_______________________________________________________________________
2. PAYMENT BY CHECK
[ ] If your check will not be drawn on a USA bank, please add $35.00
check-cashing fee.
TOTAL AMOUNT OF YOUR CHECK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $__________
Please make your check payable to:
Columbia University Kermit Distribution
_______________________________________________________________________
SHIPPING INFORMATION
Name __________________________________________________________________
Organization __________________________________________________________
Address _______________________________________________________________
City ______________________________ State/Province ____________________
ZIP or Postal Code ________________ Country ___________________________
Telephone and/or E-mail _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Return this form by e-mail to kermit@columbia.edu,
by fax to +1 212 663-8202,
or by post to:
Kermit Distribution
Columbia University
612 West 115th Street
New York NY 10025-7721
USA
_______________________________________________________________________
(End) (Thank you!)
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.2. Errata & Corrigenda ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The following errors in Using C-Kermit (first edition, English, first printing)
have been noted, most of them by Gisbert W. Selke, while translating the book
into German:
PAGE REMARKS
xviii Fridrik Skulason's name is spelled with an eth, not a d.
xx Ditto.
13-14 The list of systems supported by C-Kermit is not exhaustive. New
systems discovered since the printing date are listed in the file
CKCxxx.UPD, where xxx is the current edit number, e.g. 190.
46 The SET CARRIER description says that it doesn't take effect until
the next SET LINE command. In fact, it can have an effect at
certain other times too, such as when you issue any
communication-oriented command that changes the communication
device modes. The SET CARRIER AUTO description should say:
"Requires carrier during CONNECT, TRANSMIT, INPUT, OUTPUT, and
SCRIPT commands, but not during DIAL operations or file transfer."
These fine distinctions in SET CARRIER operation apply mainly to
System-V or POSIX based UNIX C-Kermit implementations and OS/2
C-Kermit, but (in general) not to others.
53 Table 3-2, HST-COURIER, contains extraneous typesetting information
("Courier10PitchBT-Roman"). (This probably happened because an
error-correcting protocol was not used to download the final
PostScript to the printer :-) Two new modem types, COURIER and
SPORTSTER have been added, which are the same as HST-COURIER. The
description should say "US Robotics modems".
85 The command in the final line in the example, "send olga It's
765-4321", should be underlined.
91 SET KEY CLEAR added in 5A(190), restores default key mapping.
93 The description of SET SESSION-LOG fails to mention that XON and
XOFF are removed from a text-mode session log.
101 In the HINT inset, the words SEND and RECEIVE should be exchanged.
144 In REMOTE CD [ directory ] description, the brackets should be in
italics.
145 There should be no right parenthesis in REMOTE DIRECTORY [
filespec) ].
150 "Now start C-Kermit on the VAX..." should say "Now start C-Kermit
on the UNIX system..."
164 The description of compression predates the new SET REPEAT command,
described below.
172 Table 9-2. The text fails to mention that the Chinese Roman,
Icelandic, and Japanese Roman sets are not used by C-Kermit. All
nine occurrences of accent acute (') by itself in column 6/00
should be accent grave (`). Column 7/14 for Norwegian should show
macron (overline) rather than vertical bar.
174 Table 9-4, row 03, column 13 should be O-acute, not O-grave.
178 Next-to-last paragraph: "rlogin -8", not "rsh -8".
185 C-Kermit>set unknown-char-set (not "sent unknown-char-set").
189 The description of JIS X 0201 says that it differs from a Latin
Alphabet in that the right half has some empty positions. Some
Latin Alphabets (e.g. Latin/Hebrew) also have empty positions.
195 Second example: "type diab.asc" instead of "type diab.lat".
197 6th line from bottom: MSCUSTOM.INI, not MSKERMIT.INI.
203 Examples should say XM (XMIT) rather than XF (XFER).
215 Example should say "duplex" rather than "duplux".
226 \m() variables are really not like \%a-style global variables, in
that the do not get recursively evaluated - on the literal
definition is returned.
239 Line 3: "secret" should be "oofa". Middle paragraph, material
beginning "In these commands, literal strings to be compared must
not contain any spaces..." As of version 5A(190), this is no
longer true. Multiple words can be grouped together within braces,
e.g. "if equal {\%a} {here are four words} echo ok"
242 First line should have no comma at the end.
246 Description of label syntax should state that in a macro
definition, labels are set off by commas.
249 In the syntax description of the FOR command, the words "initial",
"final", and "increment" should be in italics, and there should be
no right angle bracket (>) following the word "increment". Also,
the description of the FOR command fails to state explicitly that
the increment can be negative for counting backwards, in which case
the completion test is that the variable becomes less than the
final value, not greater than the final value. Also, the book does
not mention that the value of the loop variable can be changed by
the commands in the loop contents, and this will affect the
execution of the loop.
250 In the wakeup-call example, the tests should be "if llt" rather
than "if not lgt".
252 Comments on the example should say "third is smaller or equal".
252 Text fails to mention that functions can not change their arguments
(i.e. arguments are passed by value).
254 \Flower() and \Fupper() functions only work correctly on 7-bit
ASCII letters.
258 Table 12-2, operator |. Example should say \%a | 4 gives value 6.
264 Table 12-3, entry "double width line" should be \27#6, not \27#4.
264 Table 12-3, entry "set scrolling region" should refer to top row,
bottom row; not to row, column.
264 Table 12-3, entry "Stops transparent printing", Kermit Notation
column, should say "\27[4i", not "\27[0i".
264 Table 12-3, entry "Starts transparent printing", Kermit Notation
column, should say "\27[5i", not "\27[0i".
264 Table 12-3, entry "VT200 ID" should say "ESC [ 62c", not "ESC [
6c".
264 Table 12-3, entry "VT300 ID" should say "ESC [ 63c", not "ESC [
6c".
266-267 The section File Transfer Shortcuts does not apply to file transfer
with MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 or later. The escape sequences associated
with the TERMINALR and TERMINALS macros in MS-DOS Kermit 3.12 and
earlier are now used for changing screen-writing direction during
terminal emulation, as on real DEC Hebrew VT terminals. See the
MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 update notes (KERMIT.UPD) for detailed
information.
267 The description of the RETURN command says it may not be used in
the command list of a FOR, WHILE, or XIF command. As of edit 190,
this is no longer the case.
268 Carl, not Karl, Friedrich Gauss.
269 The OPEN !READ command example for VMS should use /EXCLUDE= rather
than /EXCEPT=.
272 Line 14 of example should say "if = \%n \%d", not "if = \%i \%d".
275 Comma missing after closing brace of FOR loop in CALL macro.
276 Line 13: When you give a SERIAL (not LINE), NET, or CALL command...
286 The OUTPUT command in the middle of the page should say "\27[\?6c"
rather than "\27[\?1c".
287 SET INPUT TIMEOUT QUIT in the VMSLOGIN macro should be SET INPUT
TIMEOUT PROCEED. The continuation hyphen is missing from three
lines. The VMSLOGIN macro in the distributed CKERMIT.INI file
corrects these errors.
294 The CISLOGIN macro has several mistakes. The following section:
input 5 User ID:,-
output \%2\13,-
input Password:,-
output \%3\13,-
input 20 Enter Choice!,-
Should be replaced by:
input 5 User ID:,-
output \%1\13,-
input 5 Password:,-
output \%2\13,-
input 20 CompuServe Information Service,-
299 Paragraph after "define ACCESS": "and assigned to the local
temporary variable \%9" should be removed. Towards the bottom of
the page, the example and the last two paragraphs should be
adjusted to discuss the ACCESS macro definition as it appears at
the top of the page! The \%9 variable is not used. The example
"if def \%9 doaccess { \%2} \%9" should read "if success doaccess {
\%2} \v(return)". In the first line of the last paragraph, "\%9"
should be changed to "\v(return)".
315 VMS examples:
$ define compuserve $sys$system:kermit.exe sys$login:compuserve.cmd
$ define sprintnet $sys$system:kermit.exe sys$login:sprintnet.cmd
Should be:
$ compuserve :== $sys$system:kermit.exe sys$login:compuserve.cmd
$ sprintnet :== $sys$system:kermit.exe sys$login:sprintnet.cmd
323-324 The description of C-Kermit program exit status codes fails to
mention the special method used by (Open)VMS, in which these codes
are assigned to the symbol CKERMIT_STATUS (see CKVKER.BWR).
336 PRINT, PING, and similar commands work by running the corresponding
system command (PRINT, lp, lpr, etc), which must be in the user's
PATH with execute permission, otherwise an error message appears
stating "command not found" or "permission denied", etc.
346 SET KEY CLEAR added in 5A(190), restores default key mapping.
352 The syntax of SET TELNET TERMINAL-TYPE should include italicized
square brackets around "text" to indicate that the text is
optional, and that if it is omitted, the TELNET TERMINAL-TYPE
reverts to the default, usually the terminal type of your login
session.
352 The entries for SET TERMINAL ANSWERBACK, ARROW-KEYS, KEYPAD-MODE,
and SCROLLBACK, etc, are missing. These are OS/2-specific commands
(all of these except those new to edits 189 and 190 - are described
in the OS/2 Appendix on page 432). See the OS/2 updates file.
353 The entries for SET TERMINAL TYPE and WRAP are missing. These are
also OS/2-specific commands (described on page 432).
354 SET TRANSMIT PAUSE description is inaccurate. An accurate
description appears on page 204.
366 In Table II-2, "ATSO=0" should be "ATS0=1".
402-403 "define sys$input" and "define sys$output" in the examples on these
two pages should be "define /user_mode sys$input", etc. This makes
the definitions effective only for the next program invocation. In
that case the "deassign sys$input", "deassign sys$output" commands
can be removed.
403 The section "Running C-Kermit in DCL Command Procedures" fails to
describe how to use C-Kermit's exit status codes (see CKVKER.BWR).
409 The Backup date in the example at the top of the pages should not
be earlier than the Created and Revised dates. The maximum record
length is 65534, not 32767.
419 The "stepping-stone" at the beginning of the OS/2 Appendix fails to
refer readers to the CKCKER.BWR and CKOKER.BWR files, and the OS/2
updates file CKOKER.UPD.
420 Footnote. The COMDMA driver, though discussed in the OS/2
documentation, never actually existed. The regular COM.SYS driver
is used instead.
425 The first paragraph in the Serial Communications section fails to
mention that other serial-port device names are also acceptable.
425 Bottom - OS/2 C-Kermit now also supports VT100, VT220, and ANSI
terminal emulation.
428-432 These pages are largely obsolete as of version 5A(190). The
CONNECT-mode actions shown in Table V-1, as well as the Arrow keys
(Table V-2), Keypad keys (Table V-3), now have \Kverbs associated
with them, exactly as in MS-DOS Kermit. Additional \Kverbs are
provided for VT220 (LK201) F keys and editing keys.
430 Table V-3 fails to include the Num Lock key, and the accompanying
text does not mention the fact the fact that it can be assigned
with SET KEY. See CKOKER.BWR, CKOVTK2.INI, and the OS/2 updates
file for further information.
431 Third paragraph. "F1 through F4" should be "F1 through F10". Also,
the Home key should be included in the list of keys that control
screen rollback.
432 The description of SET TERMINAL ANSWERBACK is missing. Also,
numerous new SET TERMINAL commands have been added for OS/2; see
the OS/2 updates file.
435-439 Tables V-4 through V-9 need to be augmented with VT220 sequences.
See the OS/2 updates file.
438 No explanation of "nbits". 1=8-bit characters, 2=7-bit characters.
"baud" should be "bps".
440 Table V-10. ESC W misplaced (alphabetically).
447 "SET FILENAMES" should be "SET FILE NAMES".
462 The text at the top of the page should say "ISO 8859", not "ISO
8858".
463 Table VIII-3. Same as for Table 9-2, page 172. Plus: Fr-Canadian
should be listed as Canadian-French.
486 The Cyrillic expansion for "KOI" is misspelled.
491 Reference [6]. The third Cyrillic word is misspelled.
495 Reference [48]. "Unterschiessheim" should be "Unterschleissheim".
Reference [50]. Second Cyrillic word misspelled.
... Hebrew character set tables need to be added.
Index Needs entries for:
Command-line options
Delay
Encryption
Grouping of words in commands
Commands, grouping of words in
Length, of packets
Length, of files
Prompt, how to set
Spaces, in commands
Telenet (see SprintNet)
Terminal servers, dialing out from
umask
Please send reports of other errors to the authors, as well as suggestions for
improvements, additional index entries, and any other comments.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. Installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
C-Kermit should be installed by running the INSTALL.CMD REXX program.
INSTALL.CMD installs the proper version of OS/2 C-Kermit for your system into
the directory of your choice, configures the initialization files for the
default values that you choose, and with your permission updates your
CONFIG.SYS file by adding the C-Kermit directory to the PATH, LIBPATH, DPATH,
and BOOKSHELF lines.
To execute the install program, place the C-Kermit distribution diskette in the
A: drive and then either click on the drive icon from the desktop or type
"a:install" in an OS/2 command window. (You can also use disk B:). Then
simply follow the instructions on your screen.
To bypass the INSTALL procedure and install OS/2 C-Kermit by hand, please read
the installation instructions in the OS/2 Appendix of Using C-Kermit.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. New Features ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
New features have been added in many areas since the release of version
5A(188). The following sections describe the changes and additions in detail:
Program Management
Making and Using Connections
Terminal Emulation
File Transfer
New Client/Server Features
International Character Sets
Script Programming
External Protocols
New Command-Line Options
Network Communications
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1. Program Management ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Significant advances have been made in processing and parsing of commands at
the C-Kermit prompt:
Runtime Priority
Command Processing - Command recall, retry, etc.
Commard Parsing Improvements - Entering OS/2 filenames, etc.
DIRECTORY Command Improvements
The SET EXIT Command
The CKERMIT.INI Environment Variable
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1.1. Runtime Priority ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As of edit 191, you can set C-Kermit's runtime priority for best fit with your
system's multitasking environment. The command is:
SET PRIORITY { FOREGROUND-SERVER, REGULAR, TIME-CRITICAL }
By default, C-Kermit's priority is FOREGROUND-SERVER, meaning that it is a bit
higher than that of other processes, because one generally wants snappy
performance from a communications application. In case Kermit is slowing down
other processes too much, use this command to reduce its priority to REGULAR.
On the other hand, if other processes are slowing Kermit down too much, then
set the priority to TIME-CRITICAL; this will, of course, interfere with your
other processes.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1.2. Command Processing ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
These features apply only when you are typing commands at the C-Kermit> prompt,
and not to command file or macro execution. They were added in edit 190.
Command Retry
Commard Recall
Typeahead
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1.2.1. Command Retry ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
If you enter a command that contains a syntax error, C-Kermit now reprompts you
automatically with the portion of the command that was correct, so you don't
have to retype it. Example:
C-Kermit>set block-check oofa
?No keywords match - oofa
C-Kermit>set block-check Γûô
"Γûô" shows the position of the cursor after you are reprompted. At this point,
you can type question mark (?) to find out what is legal here, or you can
complete the command, or you can erase it with Ctrl-U, etc, just as if you had
retyped the initial words yourself. If you want to disable this feature, tell
C-Kermit to:
C-Kermit> set command retry off
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1.2.2. Command Recall ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As of edit 190, C-Kermit saves your commands in a command recall (history)
buffer, which, by default, holds your last 10 commands. To recall your
previous command, press the Up-Arrow key or type Ctrl-B (that is, hold down the
Control or Ctrl key and press the B or b key). Type Up-Arrow (or Ctrl-B) again
to recall the command before that, and so on. If you try to go back too far,
C-Kermit beeps at you.
Each time you recall a command, it appears before you as if you had typed it up
to, but not including, the Enter (Carriage Return) that actually causes it to
execute. If you want to execute the command, press the Enter key. If you want
to edit it, use the editing keys, including Ctrl-U to erase it.
When you are viewing recalled commands, you can also go forwards in the command
recall buffer by pressing the Down-Arrow key or typing Ctrl-N. This is handy
in case (for example) you went back too far.
You can change the size of the command recall buffer to hold any number of
commands you like, subject to the memory limitations of your computer. The
command is:
SET COMMAND RECALL-BUFFER-SIZE number
where number is the number of commands you want to keep. The more you keep,
the more memory C-Kermit uses. If you enter a size of 0, the command recall
feature is disabled. Whenever you give the SET COMMAND RECALL-BUFFER-SIZE
command, your previous command history is lost. You can display the size of
your command recall buffer, as well as your COMMAND RETRY setting, with SHOW
COMMAND.
Warning: Other versions of C-Kermit use Ctrl-P to go up in the command buffer,
but you should not use Ctrl-P in OS/2 because it is likely to turn on your
printer! (An OS/2 feature.)
If you type Ctrl-P at the C-Kermit> prompt and nothing happens (no beep, no
recalled command, but you hear some disk activity), then type Ctrl-P once again
to turn off the printer.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1.2.3. Typeahead ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Typeahead is now permitted during entry of interactive commands. Typeahead is
not preserved, however, over execution of command files or macros, because
these might themselves require keyboard input, or might enter CONNECT or file
transfer protocol mode.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1.3. Command Parsing Improvements ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Command Parsing Improvements were added to ease the use of C-Kermit by those
familiar with OS/2 file and directory naming conventions.
Entering OS/2 Filenames
The SET COMMAND QUOTING Command
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1.3.1. Entering OS/2 Filenames ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Certain characters have special uses in C-Kermit commands: space separates
command words, backslash is a prefix for special items like variable names,
question mark produces a short help message. How does one refer to files or
directories whose names contain these characters? In most contexts, you can
include a literal space in a file or directory name using "backslash" notation
(see pp.21-22 of Using C-Kermit). In this example, \32 is used to enter a
Space character (32 is the ASCII code for Space):
C-Kermit> cd a\32b
C-Kermit> send w\32x.y\32z
or by enclosing the file or directory name in braces:
C-Kermit> cd {a b}
C-Kermit> send {w x.y z}
Backslashes in filenames (i.e. directory separators) must normally be doubled:
C-Kermit> cd e:\\budget\\food
C-Kermit> send c:\\ckermod.ini
or represented as "forward" slashes:
C-Kermit> cd e:/budget/food
C-Kermit> send c:/ckermod.ini
Question marks, which are used in OS/2 as "wildcards" to match any single
character, must be quoted by backslash:
C-Kermit> send cker\?\?\?.ini
As of edit 190, it is possible to enter OS/2 and DOS file specifications in the
natural way in most contexts, using backslash as the directory separator, for
example:
C-Kermit> send c:\ckermit\ckermit.upd
This notation works in any command field where a file specification or a
directory name is expected, except when the command ends in a backslash
(explained later).
"Natural notation", however, does not ordinarily work in command fields that
Kermit treats as text strings, as in the RUN command. So, for example, while
you can now type:
C-Kermit> delete \foo\x.x
You still must type:
C-Kermit> run del \\foo\\x.x
(because this is just "unknown" text that Kermit sends to OS/2).
However, you still must represent imbedded spaces as \32.
If desired, you can temporarily turn off Kermit's processing of backslashes and
question marks to allow these characters to be used naturally in any command,
using the new SET COMMAND QUOTING command. But as long as COMMAND QUOTING is
ON, which is the normal situation, the rules are:
1. When parsing the name of an existing file or directory, Kermit first
tries the literal string, and if it fails, then it evaluates the string
for backslash escapes and tries again. For example, if you type:
C-Kermit> send c:\mupeen\oofa.txt
and the file c:\mupeen\oofa.txt exists, Kermit will send it. If you
type:
C-Kermit> send c:\%a
and a file named %A does not exist in the root directory of the C: disk,
Kermit will attempt to evaluate the \%a variable to obtain the name of
the file. Affected commands include: CD, DELETE, DIRECTORY, IF [NOT]
DIRECTORY, IF [NOT] EXIST, IF [NOT] NEWER, MSEND, OPEN READ, PRINT,
PSEND, RENAME, RESEND, SEND, TAKE, TRANSLATE, TRANSMIT, and TYPE.
2. When parsing the name of an output file, Kermit first prescans the string
to see if it contains any variable names, function calls, etc; if so, it
evaluates the string; if not, it takes the string literally. For example,
if you type:
C-Kermit> receive \%a
Kermit will attempt to evaluate the variable \%a to obtain the filename,
rather than creating a file called %A in the root directory. But if you
type:
C-Kermit> receive \letters\oofa.txt
Kermit will take the backslashes literally and attempt to create the file
\letters\oofa.txt. Affected commands include: multine GET, LOG, OPEN
APPEND, OPEN WRITE, RECEIVE, RENAME, TRANSLATE.
3. You can't mix single backslashes as directory separators and backslash
escapes in the same string. If you want to include a directory
specification AND backslash escapes in the same string, the directory
separators must be either "/" or "\\", for example:
C-Kermit> send c:ckermit/ckermit.\%a
or:
C-Kermit> send c:\\ckermit\\ckermit.\%a
4. You can't terminate a string with a single backslash, since that
indicates a line continuation; you must use either "/" or "\\". For
example, you can't type:
C-Kermit> cd \
but you can type:
C-Kermit> cd /
or:
C-Kermit> cd \\
5. You can avoid ambiguities by using "/" or "\\" as directory separators,
which is how you had to enter them before this change. Thus this change
should be transparent to current users and existing scripts.
Exception: This change does not apply to the SET LINE / SET HOST / SET PORT
command, so any backslashes that must be included in the port or host name
must either be doubled or replaced by "forward" slashes. For example, if you
want to "set port \\server\modem", you must enter "set port //server/modem" or
"set port \\\\server\\modem" (or "set port //server\\modem", or...)
Minutiae: So what if a file called \%A exists in the root directory, but you
want to send the file whose name is stored in the variable \%A? "send \%a"
will send the former rather then the latter. Well, you can always FORCE an
item to be treated as a variable by using the \Fcontents() function: "send
\fcontents(\%a)".
Here's another: single backslashes in a filename that is assigned to a
variable won't behave as you might expect. For example: "define \%a
\letters\oofa.txt", "dir \%a". The problem here is that \%a is evaluated
recursively, and when the single backslashes are encountered in the first
level evaluation, that triggers a second level, which destroys the string.
Again, work around by using "/" or "\\" or "\fcontents()".
Such problems will affect only the most advanced Kermit users (who should be
able to cope with them) and are more than offset by the benefits to "ordinary"
users who are more likely to use literal OS/2 file specifications in commands
than C-Kermit variable or function names.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1.3.2. The SET COMMAND QUOTING Command ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
There is a new command in edit 190 to turn C-Kermit's backslash and
question-mark features off and on for any commands at all:
SET COMMAND QUOTING { ON, OFF }
SET COMMAND QUOTING OFF gives you the ability to forget about all the
complicated rules regarding backslashes and question marks in commands.
You can enter OS/2 file and device names in the natural way in any command
at all, but you will not be able to get help by typing question-mark, nor
enter variable names and so forth in commands (but backslash notation for
special characters, e.g. \32 for an imbedded space, still works).
When ON (which is the default), backslash and question mark fulfill their
normal roles in C-Kermit commands. When OFF, backslash and question mark are
treated just like any other ordinary text characters by the command reader.
You can display the current command quoting setting with:
SHOW COMMAND
Examples:
set command quoting off
send foo.bar c:\foo\bar\baz\oofa.txt
get d:\files\???.?
set command quoting on
instead of:
send foo.bar c:\\foo\\bar\\baz\\oofa.txt
get d:\\files\\\?\?\?.\?
Or:
set command quoting off
cd \
set port \\server\modem
directory e:\pictures\pic???.gif
set command quoting on
rather than:
cd \\
set port \\\\server\\modem
directory e:\\pictures\\pic\?\?\?.gif
Caution: Expect unpleasant results if you try to run script programs with
COMMAND QUOTING OFF.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1.4. DIRECTORY Command Improvements: ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As of edit 190, the OS/2 C-Kermit DIRECTORY command, which works by asking the
command shell specified in the COMSPEC environment variable to print a
directory listing, has been improved to allow option switches and output
redirection to be included. The syntax is now:
DIRECTORY [ filespec ] [ switches ] [ > file-or-device-name ]
The file specification (if any) must precede any switches, and a space or tab
must separate the filespec from the switches. If there is no file
specification, then there can be no spaces in the switches or output
redirection. Examples:
directory ; List all files in current directory
directory /p ; List all files, pause between screens
directory >x.x ; List all files to file x.x
directory /o-d>x.x ; List all files by date to file x.x
directory a: ; All files on current directory of A:
directory a:\foo ; All files in FOO directory of A:
directory oofa ; List all oofa files
directory oofa.* ; List all oofa files
dir oofa.* /p ; List all oofa files, pause between screens
dir oofa.* > prn ; Print a listing of all oofa files
dir oofa.* /o-d > oofa.dir ; Chronological listing of oofa files to a file
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1.5. The SET EXIT Command ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
SET EXIT WARNING { ON, OFF } Tells whether C-Kermit should issue a warning
message and require confirmation if an EXIT command, or a SET LINE
(SET PORT), SET HOST, or TELNET command is given and a connection
(dialed or network) still appears to be open, since any of these
commands would close the currently open connection. The default is
OFF, meaning no warnings.
If SET EXIT WARNING is ON, a warning is issued if a network connection appears
to be open:
C-Kermit>exit
A network connection to foo.bar.edu might still be active.
OK to exit?
at which point you can type Yes or No.
You will also get a warning if the serial SET LINE device has the carrier (CD,
DCD) signal and C-Kermit has not been told to SET CARRIER OFF:
C-Kermit>set line com2
A serial connection might still be active on com1
OK to close?
Note that not all versions of C-Kermit have access to the carrier signal; if
your version of C-Kermit says "Modem signals not available" when you give a
SHOW COMM command, then SET EXIT WARNING ON will always warn you about a
possibly active serial connection when you try to exit after using a SET LINE
(SET PORT) connection.
SET EXIT STATUS number Tells C-Kermit to use the given number as its program
exit (return) code. This lets the user set program return code
without actually having to exit; for example, the user can OR in
various bits at different times.
Display the SET EXIT values with SHOW EXIT. The SET and SHOW EXIT commands
were added in Edit 190.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1.6. Other New Commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
SET BELL { AUDIBLE [ { BEEP, SYSTEM-SOUNDS } ], VISIBLE, NONE }
Controls handling of Control-G (BEL) characters during terminal emulation
and the method of providing informational messages during command mode.
AUDIBLE uses a regular beep (default) or else OS/2 System Sounds (if you
have them installed) to notify you of various conditions. VISIBLE flashes
the screen for 1/4 second. NONE ignores BELs entirely. (Replaces SET
TERMINAL BELL.) Edit 191.
BEEP [ { ERROR, INFORMATION, WARNING } ]
Makes a beep or other effect (or not), according to your SET BELL setting.
Edit 191.
CLEAR COMMAND-SCREEN
Clears the command screen. Equivalent to OS/2 CLS command. Edit 191.
CLEAR DEVICE-AND-INPUT
Clear both the communications device input buffer and and input command
buffer. (Replaces CLEAR BOTH) Edit 191.
CLEAR SCROLLBACK
Emptys the scrollback buffer of all contents including current terminal
screen. Edit 191.
CLEAR TERMINAL-SCREEN
Clears the current terminal screen by scrolling it into the Scrollback
buffer. Edit 191.
SET PRINTER device-or-filename
Where to send transparent-print, autoprint, or screen-copy (\Kdump)
material during CONNECT. Default is PRN (your printer). You can also
specify a disk file name, in which case the given file is created if it
does not exist, or is appended to if it already exists. Use SET PRINTER
NUL to discard printer output. SHOW PRINTER displays the current setting.
This command does not affect the PRINT command itself, which always uses
the underlying OS/2 PRINT command. It also does not affect the Print
Screen key, since this is handled by OS/2 directly, and is never seen by
C-Kermit. Edit 190.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1.7. The CKERMIT.INI Environment Variable ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The CKERMIT.INI environment variable, if defined, provides the pathname of a
file to use as its initialization file, overriding the default procedure for
locating the initialization file.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.2. Making and Using Connections ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The following changes were made to the DIAL command in edit 191:
Since most people nowadays have high-speed error-correcting modems, the
default for SET DIAL SPEED-MATCHING was changed on OFF, and the default
for SET DIAL MNP-ENABLE was set to ON. Note that MNP-ENABLE really means
"enable error correction and compression negotiation", and applies to all
error correction and compression protocols, not just MNP. New commands,
SET DIAL ERROR-CORRECTION and SET DIAL COMPRESSION were added to
emphasize this fact, but for now they are just synonyms for SET DIAL MNP.
Also note that this command presently takes effect only for TELEBIT,
COURIER, and SPORTSTER modem types.
The CKERMIT.INI file defines a new macro, XDIAL, that dials repeatedly
until the call is successfully answered or the user interrupts with
Ctrl-C.
The CKERMOD.INI file now includes sample DIAL INIT-STRINGs for various
types of high-speed modems not explicitly supported by the SET MODEM
command.
A new Services Directory and enhanced Port assignments significantly improve
C-Kermit's functionality:
Using the Services Directory
Using Serial Communication Ports
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.2.1. Using the Services Directory ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
In the original release of C-Kermit 5A, edit 188, the services directory
feature was included mainly as an illustration of how C-Kermit's script
programming language can be used to build handy communications tools, and so it
was not presented or explained until Chapter 13 of Using C-Kermit, and
therefore was probably missed by a lot of readers (and users).
Since then, the services directory feature has proven to be quite useful in its
own right, and has also been improved in one small but important way. Here is a
brief nontechnical explanation.
The services directory is a plain-text file in your Kermit directory,
containing one line, or "entry", for each service that you want to access. Each
service listed in your services directory can be connected to and logged in to
automatically, no matter whether this involves dialing up a modem, making a
network connection, or any other type of connection that C-Kermit can handle.
The name of the services directory file is CKERMIT.KSD.
The services directory can be used only if you are also using the standard
C-Kermit initialization file.
Each line in the services directory has the following parts:
<name-of-entry> <login-macro-name> <username> <connection-details>
For example:
HP9000 unixlogin olga net tcp/ip hp.xyzcorp.com
where "HP9000" is the entry name, "unixlogin" is the login macro name, "olga"
is the username, and "net tcp/ip hp.xyzcorp.com" are the connection details.
To use this entry, you would give the following command at the C-Kermit prompt:
C-Kermit> access hp9000
or:
C-Kermit> access hp9000 xxxxxx
where xxxxxx is your password on the computer you will be accessing. C-Kermit's
ACCESS macro (defined in your C-Kermit initialization file) handles the
connection details: "net" means it's a network connection; "tcp/ip" tells which
type of network, and "hp.xyzcorp.com" tells the name or address (in this case,
the name) of the computer or service on the network. If you don't supply a
password to the ACCESS command, you are prompted for it. You do not (can not,
and should not) include passwords in your services directory file.
Here's another sample entry, in which the connection is made by dialing a
modem:
COMPUSERVE cislogin 765,4321 call hayes com1 2400 93,876-5432
Here, "COMPUSERVE" is the entry name, "cislogin" is the name of the login
macro, "765,4321" is your CompuServe user ID, and the connection details are:
"call hayes com1 2400 93,876-5432". "Call" means we will be making a phone
call; "hayes" tells which type of modem, "com1" is the name of the device that
modem is connected to, "2400" tells the communication speed, and "93,876-5432"
is the phone number to dial.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.2.1.1. Login Macros ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Each login macro looks for the appropriate prompts from the host or service and
responds accordingly with your username, password, and/or other information,
and then waits until it sees the main prompt of the host or service, or other
indication that you have been logged in successfully. The following login
macros are available in the standard C-Kermit initialization file, CKERMIT.INI:
UNIXLOGIN
For logging in to all types of UNIX systems: Solaris, HP-UX, Linux, IRIX,
DG/UX, NeXTSTEP, OSF/1, SunOS, etc etc. The default system prompt
(explained below) is "\13\10$\32"; that is, carriage return, linefeed,
dollar sign, space.
VMSLOGIN
For logging in to DEC VAX/VMS or OpenVMS systems. The default system
prompt is "\10\13$\32"; that is, linefeed, carriage return, dollar sign,
space. This macro can also be used for logging in to DG AOS/VS systems if
you specify a different prompt ("\13\10)\32"). NOTE: The VMSLOGIN macro
has been updated to account for new procedures for use with VMS 6.0 and/or
6.1, while retaining compatibility with earlier VMS releases.
VMLINELOGIN
For logging into IBM mainframes with VM/CMS over linemode connections.
VMFULLOGIN
For logging into IBM mainframes with VM/CMS over fullscreen connections.
CISLOGIN
For logging in to CompuServe.
DOWLOGIN
For logging in to Dow Jones News/Retrieval.
DJNRSPRINT
For logging in to Dow Jones News/Retrieval over SprintNet.
NOLOGIN
For accessing computers or services that do not require logging in.
Each login macro name must be followed by a username, even NOLOGIN. For
NOLOGIN, just include a "dummy" name, like "xxxx", that will not be used.
Other login macros can be easily constructed, modeled on those above. Read
Chapters 11-13 of Using C-Kermit. for full instructions. If you add or modify
login macros, you should put their definitions in your C-Kermit customization
file, CKERMOD.INI.
There was a problem with the login macros in C-Kermit 5A(188-189), namely that
the system prompt was hard-coded into the macro. For example, the UNIXLOGIN
macro assumed that the UNIX shell prompt was "$ " (dollar sign followed by
space), but in many cases it might be something else, and the only way to
allow for different prompts was to edit the macro itself. In C-Kermit 5A(190)
and later, you may include the system prompt in your services directory by
grouping it together in curly braces with the login macro name:
{macroname prompt}
For example:
CSHELL {unixlogin \13\10%\32} olga net tcp/ip bsd.xyzcorp.com
CHEMISTRY {vmslogin \10\13CHEM$} OLGA net tcp/ip chemlab.xyzcorp.com
DG {vmslogin \13\10)\32} olga net tcp/ip aosvs.xyzcorp.com
The first example specifies the C-Shell prompt, "% ", rather than using the
default UNIX (Bourne Shell, K-Shell) prompt of "$ ". The second example
accesses a system that has a custom prompt. The third uses the VMSLOGIN macro
to access a Data General AOS/VS system by specifying the AOS/VS prompt, ") ",
since otherwise the Username: and Password: prompts are the same as for VMS.
The "backslash-number" notation is a way of including special (usually
nonprintable) characters in C-Kermit commands and files, explained on pages
21-22 of Using C-Kermit. The number is the ASCII character number, such as 10
for linefeed, 32 for space.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.2.1.2. Connection Details ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Connection Details part of a services directory entry starts with one of
the following words:
CALL The connection is made with a phone call through a modem.
SERIAL The connection is a direct (dedicated) serial connection.
NET The connection is made on a network.
The subsequent information depends on the type of connection.
CALL must be followed by the following information, in this order:
1. The modem type (a valid SET MODEM value).
2. The name of the device on your computer that the modem is connected to.
3. The speed, in bits per second, at which to use the device.
4. The telephone number to dial. This can also be the name of an entry in
your dialing directory.
SERIAL must be followed by the following information, in this order:
1. The serial device name.
2. The communication speed.
NET must be followed by:
1. The network type: TCP/IP, DECnet, NETBIOS, etc (a valid SET NET value).
2. The name or address of the host or service you want to connect to.
3. Additional network-specific information, like a service name or socket
number.
For TCP/IP network connections, you can include a socket number by appending
to the IP name or address with a colon, for example:
WEATHER nologin xxxx net tcp/ip madlab.sprl.umich.edu:3000
Create your services directory file using a text editor, as a plain-text
(ASCII) file. If you are using a word processor, be sure to save your
services directory as a plain text (ASCII) file.
To use your services directory, just type "access" and the service name at the
C-Kermit prompt, for example:
C-Kermit> access hp9000
olga's password: __________
To list your services directory, type "list" at the C-Kermit prompt. To look
up a particular services directory entry, type "list" and then the name, for
example "list hp9000".
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.2.2. Using Serial Communication Ports ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
In OS/2 C-Kermit, SET LINE and SET PORT are synonyms, they do exactly the same
thing: select the communication device. The syntax is the same for both:
SET LINE [ device-name ]
SET PORT [ device-name ]
If you omit the device name, C-Kermit reverts to its default communications
device, COM1. If you include a device name:
1. If the device name is a single digit, 1 through 8, C-Kermit converts this
digit to the corresponding COM port name, COM1 through COM8. For example,
"set port 2" is converted to "set port com2".
2. If the device name begins with an underscore character (_), and all of
the following characters are numeric (for example, _12), the number is
assumed to be a file descriptor for an already-open communication device.
If the device name begins with an underscore, but any non-numeric
characters follow, a syntax error results.
3. SLIPCOM1, SLIPCOM2, ..., are special designations to be used for COM1,
COM2, etc, when they are owned by the SLIP driver; for example, when you
want to use C-Kermit to automate the SLIP connection process. See the
section on SLIP for details.
4. Any other sequence of characters (including "COM1", etc) is accepted
literally as a device name. This includes Universal Naming Convention
(UNC) designations such as "\\server\modem" (which, due to Kermit's use
of the backslash character as command-escape, must be entered as
"\\\\server\\modem" or "//server/modem"). (Hint: But see the SET COMMAND
QUOTING command description.)
5. In cases (1), (3), and (4), C-Kermit attempts to open the device, and
then, if successful, checks to see whether it is a real communications
device. This would include redirectors such as VMODEM. If not, the SET
LINE / SET PORT command fails. In case (2) above, no checking is done.
NOTE: You can also pass an open file descriptor to C-Kermit on the
command line, e.g.:
[C:\WORK] ckermit -l 4
If you have problems using COM3, COM4, or higher, specify the address and
interrupt number (IRQ) in your OS/2 CONFIG.SYS file, in the line that starts
the serial communication driver, COM.SYS (or SIO.SYS):
DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS (number,base-address,irq) ...
This example gives the addresses and IRQs for COM3 and COM4 but leaves the
values for COM1 and COM2 alone:
DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS (3,3E8,10) (4,2E8,15)
and this example gives values for COM1 through COM4:
DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS (1,3F8,4) (2,2F8,3) (3,3E8,10) (4,2E8,15)
Warning: The addresses and IRQs for COM3 and COM4 are not standardized, and
can vary depending on the design and configuration of your communication board
or internal modem. Consult the documentation that came with your device. Make
sure you don't have multiple devices using the same IRQ.
If you are unable to communicate at all on a serial connection, one possible
reason might be that you have SET FLOW RTS/CTS (which is the default), but the
serial device is not receiving the CTS signal. This can happen even if you
have given a prior MODE COMx OCTS=OFF command. Try SET FLOW NONE. If that
doesn't work, try rebooting your PC to reset the communications device driver.
SET FLOW XON/XOFF prevents you from transmitting Ctrl-S and Ctrl-Q characters
to the host. These characters are commands (Search and Quote) in EMACS. To
use Ctrl-S and Ctrl-Q as commands to host applications, you must SET FLOW NONE
or SET FLOW RTS/CTS.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3. Terminal Emulation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
VT220 and ANSI terminal emulations were added in edit 190, along with mouse
support and numerous other features described in this section. Edit 191 adds:
performance improvements; improved scrollback capabilities; adjustable mouse
functions; dynamic screen sizes; VGA soft fonts for non-local code pages in
fullscreen sessions; Telnet Negotiate About Window Size (NAWS); System Sounds
support; VT220 autoprint and protected fields; ISO 2022 character-set
designation and invocation.
In version 5A(190) and earlier, the screen was updated once per character,
resulting in somewhat sluggish terminal performance on high-speed connections.
In version 5A(191) it is updated much more efficiently. You can control the
updating method with the new command:
SET TERMINAL SCREEN-UPDATE { FAST, SMOOTH } [ milliseconds ]
(A millisecond is 1/1000 of a second.) The default value is FAST 100. As the
names imply, FAST is faster than SMOOTH; SMOOTH is smoother than FAST. The
milliseconds parameter specifies how often the screen may be repainted (if
necessary).
Screen rollback (normally accomplished by using the Page Up and Down keys) is
instantaneous, and the maximum number of saved screens is virtually unlimited
in the 32-bit version.
C-Kermit will use any screen size that OS/2 is capable of producing. Starting
with edit 191, you can adjust the size of the screen size in terminal mode from
the C-Kermit> prompt by using two built-in commands:
C-Kermit> set terminal width 80
C-Kermit> set terminal height 42
The height is the number of lines in the terminal screen, not counting the
status line. In windowed sessions, the width can only be 80 in pre-Warp
systems, but various heights can be used; under Warp, any combination of width
and height with a maximum screen area of 8192 characters can be given.
In a fullscreen session, widths may be 40, 80, or 132, and heights may be 24,
42, 49, or 59, or other values supported by your video adapter. Warp is not
required.
Host-directed switching between 80-column and 132-column mode is supported in
fullscreen sessions, and also under Warp in a window, but not in a window in
pre-Warp OS/2 releases.
Screen size is automatically negotiated on TELNET connections if the TELNET
server supports this feature (see the TCP/IP section).
The status line and the popup help screens have been totally redesigned to be
more informative, and there are more of them. For example, you get a different
status line and popup help screen if you are in regular "online mode", or if
your screen is rolled back, or if you are composing an accented character.
The new \v(keyboard) variable indicates the keyboard model: "88", "101", or
"122". Unknown keyboards are reported as 4-digit hexadecimal values.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.1. Auto Up- and Download ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As of edit 190, OS/2 C-Kermit is able to respond automatically to "autoupload",
"autodownload", or auto-anything-else directives from the remote computer
during CONNECT mode. These directives come in the form of an Application
Program Command escape sequence, or APC, when C-Kermit's terminal emulation is
ANSI, VT100, VT102, or VT220.
The APC is sent by a host application to the terminal emulator, and contains
one or more commands to be executed by the terminal emulation program. This
mechanism lets the host application software control your communications
software, allowing an unprecedented degree of automation and convenience.
Good uses for this feature include:
1. automatic communications, protocol, terminal, keyboard, or other setups
by the host application;
2. automatic initiation of file transfer by the host application.
The form of an APC is:
<ESC>_text<ESC>\
where "<ESC>" is ASCII character 27 (Escape), and text is a command or a list
of commands separated by commas. The APC sequence was originally defined by
Digital Equipment Corporation for its VT300-series and higher terminals.
There are two "ends" to an APC operation, and you need to understand how to
control each end. Let's call the application that sends an APC escape
sequence the "APC sender", and the application that receives it, and which is
supposed to execute the commands it contains, the "APC receiver".
Any host application can be an APC sender. To send an APC, all it needs to do
is display the desired commands on your terminal screen, enclosed in <ESC>_
and <ESC>\. C-Kermit 5A(189) (and later) has a command for doing this:
APC text
where the text is a command (or commands) for the APC receiver. Leading and
trailing spaces are removed from the text unless it is enclosed in braces:
APC { text }
Here's an example that sets OS/2 C-Kermit parameters from UNIX (or VMS)
C-Kermit's command line, while OS/2 C-Kermit is in CONNECT mode:
C-Kermit> apc set receive packet-length 2000, set window 4
This command causes UNIX C-Kermit to send the following characters to the
terminal (i.e. OS/2 C-Kermit's terminal emulator):
<ESC>_set receive packet-length 2000, set window 4<ESC>\
OS/2 C-Kermit recognizes the APC sequence, extracts the commands from it, and
processes them automatically, according to the rules listed below.
Here's an example in which you define and then execute a UNIX C-Kermit macro
to send a file from UNIX C-Kermit, causing OS/2 C-Kermit to receive it
automatically without your having to escape back and type "receive". You do
not need to CONNECT again after the transfer is done, either; this too happens
automatically.
C-Kermit> define autosend apc receive, send \%1
C-Kermit> autosend oofa.txt
A macro is used because if you type APC RECEIVE at the UNIX C-Kermit prompt,
OS/2 C-Kermit goes immediately into RECEIVE mode and you have no way to give
the SEND command to UNIX C-Kermit. Conversely, if you type the SEND command
first, UNIX C-Kermit goes into SEND mode, and you have no opportunity to give
it an APC command. When the macro (or a TAKE command file) is the source of
commands, the "Catch-22" is avoided because the keyboard is out of the
picture.
The APC receiver can be:
MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 or later
C-Kermit 5A(190) or later for OS/2
C-Kermit 5A(190) for UNIX
C-Kermit 5A(190) for VMS
C-Kermit 5A(190) for OS-9/68000
When one of these Kermit programs is in CONNECT mode, and an APC escape
sequence arrives, the commands it contains are executed if:
1. Terminal emulation is VT100, VT102, VT220, VT320, or ANSI, and:
2. SET TERMINAL APC is ON and the commands are not "dangerous", or:
3. SET TERMINAL APC is UNCHECKED.
After processing the APC sequence, whether its commands are executed or not,
the APC receiver returns to CONNECT mode automatically.
The C-Kermit initialization file defines several macros to let you take
advantage of the APC feature. They are to be used at the C-Kermit> prompt,
when you are accessing C-Kermit through an APC receiver. They include:
PCSEND filespec [ as-name ]
Sends the file or files from C-Kermit to the "PC" that's on your desk. (Of
course, the PC might also be a UNIX workstation, etc). If the <filespec>
does not contain wildcard characters (that is, it is the name of a single
file), you can include the optional "as-name" to send it under a different
name. The file or files are sent according to C-Kermit's current FILE
TYPE setting, text or binary (except in VMS, where VMS C-Kermit determines
the file type and transfer automatically for each file). In other words,
the PCSEND macro is exactly like the SEND command, except it automatically
puts your local Kermit program into RECEIVE mode, and then back into
CONNECT mode again when the transfer is complete. This process is
sometimes referred to as "autodownloading".
PCGET filespec [ as-name ]
This tells C-Kermit to get the specified file or files from your "PC". It
puts your local Kermit program into server mode, GETs the specified files
from it, then sends it a FINISH command and puts it back in CONNECT mode
automatically. The transfer type is governed by C-Kermit's current FILE
TYPE setting.
This process can be called "autouploading".
C-Kermit's response to APC sequences is controlled by the following command:
SET TERMINAL APC { ON, OFF, UNCHECKED }
The default setting is OFF, meaning that C-Kermit ignores APC sequences unless
you tell it otherwise. In the OS/2 version, they are harmlessly absorbed and
not displayed.
To activate the APC feature, use:
SET TERMINAL APC ON
This allows execution of all commands received in APC sequences except those
considered dangerous, such as: PUSH, RUN, !, REDIRECT, DELETE, RENAME, OUTPUT,
ENABLE, DISABLE, SCRIPT, and SET TERMINAL APC. With this setting, for
example, it should not be possible for someone to send you a "letter bomb" or
screen message that contained an APC sequence to execute a command on your
computer (because RUN and ! are disabled). The commands allowed by SET
TERMINAL APC ON are only the ones which affect Kermit itself, including the
initiation of Kermit file transfers.
Should you want to enable APC execution of ALL commands, which can be
dangerous and is therefore not recommended unless you know exactly what you
are doing and have total control over what is sent to your screen by the
remote host or service, you can:
SET TERMINAL APC UNCHECKED
Use UNCHECKED at your own risk.
Note that when TERMINAL APC is not OFF, the CONNECT command might run a bit
slower than when TERMINAL APC is OFF.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.2. The SET KEY Command ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As of edit 190, OS/2 C-Kermit's key mapping facility uses "Kermit keyboard
verbs" rather than scan codes to denote actions that can be mapped to keys. All
functions previously available are still available, but rather than being tied
to hardwired scan codes, they are tied to \Kverbs. This means:
You can move them anywhere you want.
You can't "lose" them, as you could before if you mapped something else
over a sacred key.
That is, NO keys are sacred; no keys are preempted by Kermit in any way
that you can't overcome; you can undefine/redefine any and all keys.
Key mapping files now contain descriptive verbs rather than magic numbers
as the definitions.
SHOW KEY shows the \Kverb, rather than an obscure numeric
cross-reference.
Furthermore:
The \Kverbs are totally compatible with MS-DOS Kermit (even if some of
the scan codes are not). As of edit 191, OS/2 C-Kermit has a few
additional \Kverbs that MS-DOS Kermit does not have, mostly related to
the mouse and to various national-language keyboard modes.
You can combine characters, strings, and \Kverbs arbitrarily in a key
definition; e.g. you can put two or more verbs on one key.
Examples (for the F1 key):
set key \315 \161 ; Any single character
set key \315 \27b ; Escape and "b"
set key \315 Any string ; Any string of ordinary characters
set key \315 { Any string } ; String with leading & trailing spaces
set key \315 \KupArr ; Up-Arrow
set key \315 \KupArr\KrtArr ; Up-Arrow and Right-Arrow
set key \315 abc\{KupArr}xyz ; "abc", then Up-Arrow, then "xyz"
set key \315 abc\KupArr xyz ; "abc", then Up-Arrow, then " xyz"
set key \315 \v(time) ; Time when SET KEY was executed (constant)
set key \315 \\v(time) ; Time when key is pressed (variable)
Braces are not required except to resolve ambiguity or to preserve leading
and/or trailing spaces in the definition. Note that \\v(name) is a special
case. Other backslash quantities cannot have their evaluation postponed by
"double quoting" in this way; they are simply emitted literally, e.g. "set key
\315 \\%a" causes F1 to send "\%a".
The new command:
SET KEY CLEAR
restores all default key definitions (listed below).
IMPORTANT: The key-mapping commands and command files of C-Kermit 5A(188) and
5A(189) don't work any more, and the instructions here supersede the ones
given in the OS/2 appendix of Using C-Kermit. In particular, the CKOVTK.INI
VT220 key mapping command file is superseded by the new CKOVTK2.INI file.
User-defined macros can also be assigned to keys by using their names as
kverbs. Example:
define download receive, connect
set key \417 \Kdownload
This example puts the act of receiving a file from a remote Kermit that has
already been told to send it on a "hot key", in this case Alt-Page-Down on the
PC. C-Kermit will not automatically reenter terminal emulation upon
completion of the macro unless the macro includes a CONNECT command, as in the
example above.
Keyboard verbs are of the form \Kname, where "name" is the name of the verb. A
keyboard verb may be written \Kname, or \K{name}. The latter form is needed
when the name is adjacent to other text, for example:
set key \315 \K{decF1}0
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.2.1. Keyboard Verbs ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The following keyboard verbs are available. Capitalization does not matter:
\KupArr Send what the DEC Up Arrow key sends
\KdnArr Send what the DEC Down Arrow key sends
\KrtArr Send what the DEC Right Arrow key sends
\KlfArr Send what the DEC Left Arrow key sends
\Kgold Send what the DEC Gold key sends
\Kpf1 Send what the DEC PF1 key sends (same as Gold)
\Kpf2 Send what the DEC PF2 key sends
\Kpf3 Send what the DEC PF3 key sends
\Kpf4 Send what the DEC PF4 key sends
\Kkp0 Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad 0 key sends
\Kkp1 Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad 1 key sends
\Kkp2 Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad 2 key sends
\Kkp3 Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad 3 key sends
\Kkp4 Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad 4 key sends
\Kkp5 Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad 5 key sends
\Kkp6 Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad 6 key sends
\Kkp7 Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad 7 key sends
\Kkp8 Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad 8 key sends
\Kkp9 Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad 9 key sends
\KkpComa Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad comma (,) key sends
\KkpMinus Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad minus (-) key sends
\KkpDot Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad period (.) key sends
\KkpEnter Send what the DEC Numeric Keypad Enter key sends
\KdecF6 Send what the DEC F6 key sends
\KdecF7 Send what the DEC F7 key sends
\KdecF8 Send what the DEC F8 key sends
\KdecF9 Send what the DEC F9 key sends
\KdecF10 Send what the DEC F10 key sends
\KdecF11 Send what the DEC F11 key sends
\KdecF12 Send what the DEC F12 key sends
\KdecF13 Send what the DEC F13 key sends
\KdecF14 Send what the DEC F14 key sends
\KdecF15 Send what the DEC F15 key sends
\KdecHelp Send what the DEC Help key sends (same as F15)
\KdecF16 Send what the DEC F16 key sends
\KdecDo Send what the DEC Do key sends (same as F16)
\KdecF17 Send what the DEC F17 key sends
\KdecF18 Send what the DEC F18 key sends
\KdecF19 Send what the DEC F19 key sends
\KdecF20 Send what the DEC F20 key sends
\KdecFind Send what the DEC Find key sends
\KdecInsert Send what the DEC Insert key sends
\KdecRemove Send what the DEC Remove key sends
\KdecSelect Send what the DEC Select key sends
\KdecPrev Send what the DEC Previous Screen key sends
\KdecNext Send what the DEC Next Screen key sends
The following Kverbs are actions that may be performed during a Connect mode
session:
\Kbreak Send a BREAK signal. For serial connections, this is a 250
millisecond spacing condition. For TELNET conditions, this is
a TELNET BREAK command.
\Kclearscreen Clear the terminal screen by rolling it into the scrollback
buffer (edit 191).
\Kdebug Toggle debugging
\Kdos Synonym for \Kos2.
\Kdump Print screen or marked text, or copy it to a file, depending
on SET PRINTER. When assigned to a mouse DRAG event \Kdump
provides a simplified drag to select text and copy to printer
(or file) operation.
\Kexit Save the current terminal screen, exit terminal emulator,
return to command prompt, but do not break the connection.
\KflipScn Flip screen video normal/reverse
\Khangup Hang up the connection
\Khelp Pop-up help screen
\KholdScrn Hold screen
\Kignore Ignore this key, don't even beep
\KkbEnglish Enter English keyboard mode.
\KkbHebrew Enter Hebrew keyboard mode (see Hebrew Terminal Emulation).
\KkbRussian Enter Russian keyboard mode (edit 191) (see Russian Terminal
Emulation).
\KlBreak Send a Long BREAK (1.5 msec serial, or TELNET BREAK)
\Klogoff Deactivate logging to the current session log file but do not
close the file.
\Klogon Activate logging of session to a file. If a session log file
is not currently open, a session log file named "session.log"
is created in the current directory, otherwise the current
session log is used.
\Knull Send a NUL (binary 0) character
\Kos2 Push to OS/2
\Kpaste Copy text from the PM clipboard to the host (edit 191).
\KprintFF Send a form feed to the printer
\KprtAuto Toggle DEC auto-print mode. Print current line when cursor
moves off it.
\KprtCtrl Toggle route-incoming-bytes-to-printer on and off.
\KprtScn Synonym for \KprtCtrl
\Kreset Reset the terminal emulator.
\Ktn_ayt Send TELNET Are You There (AYT)
\Ktn_ip Send TELNET Interrupt Process (IP)
The following Kverbs may be used to manipulate the screen rollback buffer for
viewing past history or during mark mode to select text:
\KdnOne Screen rollback: Down one line
\KdnScn Screen rollback: Down one screen
\KupOne Screen rollback: Up one line
\KupScn Screen rollback: Up one screen
\KendScn Screen rollback: Latest (bottom, newest) screen
\KhomScn Screen rollback: Oldest (top) screen in buffer
The following "mark mode" verbs were added in edit 191. Read about mark mode
in Using Mark Mode from the Keyboard.
\Kmarkstart Enter mark mode if it is not active. In mark mode, clears all
marked text and begins marking from the current location.
\Kmarkcancel Cancel mark mode.
\Kmarkcopyclip Copies marked text to the PM clipboard. When assigned to a
mouse DRAG event \Kmarkcopyclip provides a simplified drag to
select text and copy to clipboard operation.
\Kmarkcopyhost Copies marked text directly to the host. When assigned to a
mouse DRAG event \Kmarkcopyhost provides a simplified drag to
select text and copy direct to host operation.
The following "mouse" verbs were added in edit 191:
\Kmousecurpos Send the definitions assigned to the grey arrow keys to move
the terminal cursor from its present position to where the
mouse cursor is (effective only when assigned to a mouse
event). More about this in Using the Mouse.
\Kmousemark Allows the mouse to be used to enter mark mode and select text
without performing a copy operation on the marked text.
(effective only when assigned to a mouse event). More about
this in Using the Mouse.
The SHOW KVERBS command lists all the \Kverbs in Kermit's repertoire.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.2.2. Default Key Mapping ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The default mapping, which applies when C-Kermit starts up, and which is
restored whenever you give a SET KEY CLEAR command, is as follows. It maps all
of the VT100/VT102 keys to PC keys, but none of the keys that are unique to the
VT220-and-higher keyboards (i.e. F6-F20 and the editing keys). For a complete
VT220 mapping, you can execute the CKOVTK2.INI command file.
The default mapping should apply to almost any PC keyboard, and does not
require the gray keypads.
Note: The keyboard is in "English" mode by default, and returns to English
mode upon reset ("English" means Kermit's Russian and Hebrew keyboard modes are
not active, and the keyboard is treated "as-is").
Verb IBM Key
\KholdScrn Scroll Lock Alternate (with Num Lock off)
\KupArr Gray keypad up arrow and Numeric keypad up arrow
\KdnArr Gray keypad down arrow and Numeric keypad down arrow
\KrtArr Gray keypad right arrow and Numeric keypad right arrow
\KlfArr Gray keypad left arrow and Numeric keypad left arrow
\KupScn Gray Page Up and Numeric keypad PgUp
\KupOne Ctrl Gray Page Up and Numeric keypad Ctrl-PgUp
\KdnScn Page Gray Down and Numeric keypad PgDn
\KdnOne Ctrl Gray Page Down and Numeric keypad Ctrl-PgUp
\KhomScn Gray Home and Numeric keypad Home
\KendScn Gray End and Numeric keypad End
\Kpf1 F1
\Kpf2 F2
\Kpf3 F3
\Kpf4 F4
\Kkp0 Alt-0, Top Rank
\Kkp1 Alt-1, Top Rank
\Kkp2 Alt-2, Top Rank
\Kkp3 Alt-3, Top Rank
\Kkp4 Alt-4, Top Rank
\Kkp5 Alt-5, Top Rank
\Kkp6 Alt-6, Top Rank
\Kkp7 Alt-7, Top Rank
\Kkp8 Alt-8, Top Rank
\Kkp9 Alt-9, Top Rank
\KkpMinus Alt-Minus, Top Rank
\KkpPeriod Alt-Period, Main Keypad
\KkpComa Alt-Comma, Main Keypad
\KkpEnter Alt-Enter, Main Keypad
\Kreset Alt-r
\Kbreak Alt-b
\Kexit Alt-x
\KlBreak Alt-l
\Kdump Alt-f
\Kflipscn Alt-v
\Kdebug Alt-d
\Khelp Alt-h
\Khangup Alt-u
\Kmarkstart Ctrl-F1
\Kmarkcancel Ctrl-F2
\Kmarkcopyclip Gray Ctrl-Insert
\Kmarkcopyhost Gray Ctrl-Shift-Insert
\Kpaste Gray Shift-Insert
Other default assignments:
Keypad Del sends DEL (127)
Gray Delete sends DEL (127)
Backspace sends DEL (127)
Ctrl-Backspace sends DEL (127)
Alt-Backspace sends Backspace (Ctrl-H, 8)
Backtab (Shift Tab) sends Backspace (Ctrl-H, 8)
Ctrl-2 sends NUL (0)
Ctrl-Space Bar sends NUL (0)
Enter sends carriage return (CR, 13)
Ctrl-Enter sends linefeed (LF, 10)
If you want the Backspace key to send an ASCII Backspace (Ctrl-H) character
instead of DEL, which is required by some hosts and applications, tell C-Kermit
to:
SET KEY \127 \8
The Alt key may be used with the numeric keypad to generate accented and
special characters. Hold down the Alt key and press 3 keypad digits
representing the decimal code of the desired character in the current PC code
page, for example Alt-161 sends lowercase letter i with acute accent in CP437
or 850.
Some users of the EMACS text editor like use the Alt key as a "Meta" key.
C-Kermit comes with an EMACSKEY.INI file that sets this up for you.
Other keys that have nothing mapped to them with SET KEY send themselves (e.g.
a, Shift-a, Ctrl-A, etc), or, if nothing is assigned and there is no default
value (e.g. for Alt-F6), nothing is sent and a beep is sounded (note: \Kignore
can be assigned to suppress the beep).
Key names that appear in the status line and popup help screens are in
"English", giving the keytop associated with a particular scan code on the USA
keyboard.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.3. Arrow Keys ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The PC arrow keys are mapped, by default, to send what DEC VT-terminal arrow
keys send. The DEC arrow keys are known as the "cursor keypad", and these keys
always transmit escape sequences on a DEC terminal. The exact sequences depend
on what "mode" the terminal and keypad are in:
Mode............................
Key Application Cursor VT52 Kermit Verb PC Scan code
Up Arrow ESC O A ESC [ A ESC A \KupArr \584
Down Arrow ESC O B ESC [ B ESC B \KdnArr \592
Right Arrow ESC O C ESC [ C ESC C \KrtArr \589
Left Arrow ESC O D ESC [ D ESC D \KlfArr \587
The first two modes can be set by either the host (ESC [ ? 1 h / l) or by the
SET TERMINAL ARROW-KEYS { APPLICATION, CURSOR } command. The VT52 mode can be
set via ESC [ ? 2 l and can be reset via ESC [ ? 2 h or by ESC <, and of course
the terminal type can also be controlled by Kermit's SET TERMINAL TYPE command.
The default (startup) arrow-key mode is CURSOR.
Of course, you can assign any other sequences you want to the arrow keys. For
example, to assign EMACS commands to them:
set key \584 \16 ; Ctrl-P to Up Arrow
set key \592 \14 ; Ctrl-N to Down Arrow
set key \589 \6 ; Ctrl-F to Right Arrow
set key \587 \2 ; Ctrl-B to Left Arrow
Whatever definitions you have assigned to the arrow keys are used by the
mouse-directored terminal cursor feature.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.4. The Numeric Keypad ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Numeric (auxilliary) keypad keys are similar to arrow keys, in that they, too,
send different sequences depending on the mode and the emulation. Note that we
are talking here about the DEC numeric keypad, which is slightly different from
the IBM one (the DEC keypad has different keytop labels, and one additional
key).
VT1xx/2xx Mode....... VT52 Mode...........
DEC Key Application Numeric Application Numeric Kermit Verb
PF1 (Gold) ESC O P ESC O P ESC P ESC P \Kpf1,\Kgold
PF2 ESC O Q ESC O Q ESC Q ESC Q \Kpf2
PF3 ESC O R ESC O R ESC R ESC R \Kpf3
PF4 ESC O S ESC O S ESC S ESC S \Kpf4
0 ESC O p 0 ESC ? p 0 \Kkp0
1 ESC O q 1 ESC ? q 1 \Kkp1
2 ESC O r 2 ESC ? r 2 \Kkp2
3 ESC O s 3 ESC ? s 3 \Kkp3
4 ESC O t 4 ESC ? t 4 \Kkp4
5 ESC O u 5 ESC ? u 5 \Kkp5
6 ESC O v 6 ESC ? v 6 \Kkp6
7 ESC O w 7 ESC ? w 7 \Kkp7
8 ESC O x 8 ESC ? x 8 \Kkp8
9 ESC O y 9 ESC ? y 9 \Kkp9
- ESC O m - ESC ? m - \KkpMinus
, ESC O l , ESC ? l , \KkpComa
. ESC O n . ESC ? n . \KkpDot
Enter ESC O M CR or CRLF ESC ? M CR or CRLF \KkpEnter
The Enter key Numeric-Mode assignment depends on whether the terminal
(emulator) is in "ANSI Line Mode", which is controlled by the host via ESC [ 20
h (Line Mode) and
ESC [ 20 l (small letter el, No Line Mode), or by Kermit's SET TERMINAL
NEWLINE-MODE command. By default, the emulator is not in newline mode, and
sends only Carriage Return (Ctrl-M, ASCII 13) when you press the Return or
Enter key.
The keypad mode is controlled by the host: ESC = puts it in Application Mode;
ESC > puts it in Numeric Mode. Or you can control it yourself with the SET
TERMINAL KEYPAD-MODE command. The default (startup) keypad state is Numeric.
Note: The PC numeric keypad keys generate different scan codes, depending on
the Num Lock state. Please read the CKOVTK2.INI file for details.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.5. The Compose Key ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As of edit 190, characters that exist in Latin-1-like (Western European)
character sets can be entered using Compose-key sequences. Press the Compose
key (verb \Kcompose, assigned by default to Alt-c), then two more keys to
produce the desired character, for example ' and A to send A-acute. Don't hold
the \Kcompose key down while typing the two other keys - it does not work like
a shift key. You can watch your progress in the status line, and if you push
the help key (Alt-h by default) while a compose sequence is active, you get a
special help screen.
If you want to cancel a compose-key sequence, just press the space bar. If you
enter a valid sequence, it is translated according to the terminal
character-set and transmitted.
Below is a complete listing of the valid compose-key sequences; if you enter a
character combination that is not in this list, C-Kermit beeps and ignores it.
If you press the Compose key during Cyrillic or Hebrew terminal emulation, OS/2
C-Kermit just beeps (use the special keyboard modes that are supplied for
entering Cyrillic and Hebrew characters).
Notice that case (shift key) matters for letters, but not for most symbols, and
that in most cases, the order of the two characters doesn't matter. The
compose sequences supported by C-Kermit are the same as those used by DEC
US-model VT220 terminals in "ISO" mode. There are no "dead keys". The full
repertoire listed below is available only if your OS/2 code page is 850. If
you are using another code page (437, 852, etc), some of these characters (the
ones that are not in your code page) might show up as question marks.
Letters...
A ` A grave a ` a grave
` A A grave ` a a grave
A ' A acute a ' a acute
' A A acute ' a a acute
A ^ A circumflex a ^ a circumflex
^ A A circumflex ^ a a circumflex
A ~ A tilde a ~ a tilde
~ A A tilde ~ a a tilde
A " A diaeresis a " a diaeresis
" A A diaeresis " a a diaeresis
A * A ring above a * a ring above
* A A ring above * a a ring above
A E A with E a e a with e
C , C Cedilla c , c cedilla
, C C Cedilla , c c cedilla
E ` E grave e ` e grave
` E E grave ` e e grave
E ' E acute e ' e acute
' E E acute ' e e acute
E ^ E circumflex e ^ e circumflex
^ E E circumflex ^ e e circumflex
E " E diaeresis e " e diaeresis
" E E diaeresis " e e diaeresis
I ` I grave i ` i grave
` I I grave ` i i grave
I ' I acute i ' i acute
' I I acute ' i i acute
I ^ I circumflex i ^ i circumflex
^ I I circumflex ^ i i circumflex
I " I diaeresis i " i diaeresis
" I I diaeresis " i i diaeresis
- D Icelandic Eth - d Icelandic eth
D - Icelandic Eth d - Icelandic eth
H T Icelandic Thorn h t Icelandic thorn
T H Icelandic Thorn t h Icelandic thorn
N ~ N tilde n ~ n tilde
~ N N tilde ~ n n tilde
O ` O grave o ` o grave
` O O grave ` o o grave
O ' O acute o ' o acute
' O O acute ' o o acute
O ^ O circumflex o ^ o circumflex
^ O O circumflex ^ o o circumflex
O ~ O tilde o ~ o tilde
~ O O tilde ~ o o tilde
O " O diaeresis o " o diaeresis
" O O diaeresis " o o diaeresis
O / O oblique stroke o / o oblique stroke
/ O O oblique stroke / o o oblique stroke
U ` U grave u ` u grave
` U U grave ` u u grave
U ' U acute u ' u acute
' U U acute ' u u acute
U ^ U circumflex u ^ u circumflex
^ U U circumflex ^ u u circumflex
U " U diaeresis u " u diaeresis
" U U diaeresis " u u diaeresis
Y ' Y acute y ' y acute
' Y Y acute ' y y acute
s s German sharp s y " y diaeresis
Symbols...
' ' Acute accent U / Micro sign
A A At sign u / Micro sign
a a At sign . ^ Middle dot
/ / Backslash X X Multiplication sign
/ < Backslash x x Multiplication sign
| | Broken bar - , Not sign
, , Cedilla + + Number sign
C / Cent sign S ! Paragraph sign
c / Cent sign S 0 Paragraph sign
C 0 Copyright sign S O Paragraph sign
C O Copyright sign s ! Paragraph sign
c 0 Copyright sign s 0 Paragraph sign
c o Copyright sign s o Paragraph sign
X 0 Currency sign P ! Pilcrow sign
X O Currency sign p ! Pilcrow sign
x 0 Currency sign + - Plus or minus sign
x o Currency sign L - Pound sterling sign
0 ^ Degree sign l - Pound sterling sign
- : Division sign R O Registered Trademark
A _ Feminine ordinal r o Registered Trademark
a _ Feminine ordinal > > Right angle quotation
1 2 Fraction one half ) - Right brace
1 4 Fraction one quarter ) ) Right bracket
! ! Inverted exclamation - - Soft hyphen
? ? Inverted question mark 1 ^ Superscript 1
< < Left angle quotation 2 ^ Superscript 2
( - Left brace 3 ^ Superscript 3
( ( Left bracket / ^ Vertical bar
- ^ Macron Y - Yen sign
O _ Masculine ordinal y - Yen sign
o _ Masculine ordinal
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.6. The SET TERMINAL Command ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The following SET TERMINAL and related commands have been added or modified
since version 5A(188):
SET TERMINAL ANSWERBACK { OFF, ON }
Controls whether or not OS/2 C-Kermit's terminal emulator treats incoming
Ctrl-E characters as ENQ requests or simply ignores them. ON means ENQ
causes C-Kermit to send an Answerback message, which is "OS/2 C-Kermit" in
edit 189 & earlier, and in edit 189 is "OS/2 C-Kermit <version><CR>",
where <version> is the numeric C-Kermit program version number, e.g.
501189 for version 5A(189), and <CR> is a carriage return. OFF, the
default, means C-Kermit ignores Ctrl-E's. In edit 190 and later, the
terminal emulation was added to the answerback string, e.g. "OS/2 C-Kermit
501191 VT220<CR>".
SET TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET { HEBREW-ISO, HEBREW-7, CP862, HPROMAN8 } ...
The Hebrew and HP character sets were added in edit 190. Type SET TERMINAL
CHAR ? to see a complete list. In edit 191, the default "local
character-set" is your SET TERMINAL FONT value, if any (see below), or if
none, your current code page.
SET TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET remote-cset [ local-cset [ G0 G1 G2 G3 ] ]
In edit 191, it is possible to designate character sets to specific
tables, as described in ISO standards 2022 and 4873. Normally there is no
reason to do this; you would only specify the Gn tables to undo some
arrangement that was caused by a malfunctioning host application or by
communication line noise, or to accommodate some unusual combination of
character sets. If you don't specify the Gn's, then if the remote-cset is
a 7-bit set, it is designated to all four of G0 through Gn. If it is an
8-bit set, then ASCII (ISO 646 International Reference Version) is
designated to G0 and the right half of the specified set is designated to
all three of G1 through G3.
SET TERMINAL CODE-PAGE number
Changes the "hardware" code page (video adapter and keyboard character
set) used by Kermit and any processes that Kermit creates. Typical code
page numbers are 437 (original US code page) and 850 (multinational code
page). Use SHOW TERMINAL to display the current code page and to list the
code pages that are available for use on your PC. OS/2 allows only two
code pages to be prepared at once; this is done via the CODEPAGE statement
in CONFIG.SYS, for example "CODEPAGE=437,850". If you try to prepare a
code page that is not supplied with your OS/2 system (for example, Hebrew
code page 862 on a US system) you will get an error message when the
system starts up. You might be able to get around this by opening your
System Setup folder, executing Selective Install, and changing your
Country. But note that "Code pages 862 and 864 [Hebrew and Arabic] are
supported with a country supplement available only in certain countries",
and "Code pages 932, 938, 944, and 948 [Japanese, Chinese, and Korean] are
supported only with the DBCS version of the OS/2 operating system on DCBS
hardware" [from OS/2 "help codepage"]. Also see SET TERMINAL FONT.
SET TERMINAL COLOR { SELECTION, ... } foreground background
Colors to be used for selected text in mark-and-copy operations.
SET TERMINAL FONT { CP437, CP850, CP852, CP862, CP866, DEFAULT }
Loads a "soft font" corresponding to the named code page into your video
adapter. Works only in fullscreen sessions, and works best with 24-line
terminal screens; might or might not work with other sizes, depending on
your video adapter. This command, new to edit 191, allows "code pages" to
be loaded that are not furnished with, or prepared in, your OS/2 system,
particularly CP852 (for East European languages like Czech, Polish,
Hungarian, Romanian); CP862 (Hebrew); and CP866 (Cyrillic for Russian,
Belorussian, and Ukrainian). The fonts come with C-Kermit in the
PCFONTS.DLL library. DEFAULT means to reload the code page that was in
effect at the time Kermit started. Fonts loaded in this manner are visible
only on Kermit's terminal screen, not the command screen or in any other
session. See the sections on Hebrew and Russian terminal emulation for
more information.
SET TERMINAL HEIGHT number
Number of lines to use in the terminal (CONNECT) screen, not counting the
status line. The supported heights depend on your display adapter, the
OS/2 version, and whether you are in a fullscreen session or a window.
(The default value is the screen size of the session at startup.)
SET TERMINAL OUTPUT-PACING milliseconds
Tells how many milliseconds to pause between sending each character to the
host during CONNECT mode. This applies to keys that you type, function
key escape sequences, key macros, and (most importantly) to material that
is pasted into the terminal window, but ONLY ON SERIAL CONNECTIONS. On
network connections, application-level pacing is not needed. Use this
command if you see TRANSMISSION BLOCKED messages in the status line when
entering data (which usually indicate serial port hardware buffer
overruns) or if data is lost when pasting into the terminal screen. The
default OUTPUT-PACING value is 0 (none). -1 means: A 50 millisecond pause
between the characters generated by function keys, arrow keys, and keys
that have character strings assigned to them via SET KEY, but no pausing
otherwise. Any number greater than zero applies to ALL characters sent to
the host during CONNECT mode on a serial connection. The maximum value is
10000, or 10 seconds.
SET TERMINAL ROLL-MODE { INSERT, OVERWRITE }
This controls what happens to incoming data when the screen is rolled
back. INSERT (the default) means that incoming data is inserted in its
proper plade in the session, usually at the end (bottom). OVERWRITE means
that incoming data writes over the screen that is showing, even if it is
an "old" screen.
In either case, you can communicate with the host by typing, pasting, etc,
while the screen is rolled back.
SET TERMINAL SCREEN-UPDATE { FAST, SMOOTH } [ milliseconds ]
Selects a method and frequency for screen updates. The default method is
FAST, the default frequency is every 100 milliseconds, i.e. 10 times per
second.
SET TERMINAL SCROLLBACK number
Size of terminal scrollback buffer. number is how many screen lines to
save including the current terminal screen. The default is 2000. The
minimum value is 255 and the maximum is 2,000,000. Every 1024 lines in
scrollback buffer size results in a potential increase in the size of the
SWAPPER.DAT file of 512k.
SET TERMINAL TYPE { ANSI, VT52, VT100, VT102, VT220 }
Allows selection of the terminal emulations listed. VT220, VT100, and
ANSI are new to edit 190.
For the DEC VT family of emulations, Kermit identifies itself
appropriately in response to DECID or DA; SHOW TERMINAL displays current
type and ID string. VT100 is exactly like VT102, but without character
insert/delete. 8-bit controls like CSI (= 155) are accepted in VT220
mode, but you must SET TERMINAL BYTESIZE 8 (and, of course SET PARITY
NONE) in order to use them, and you must also set your terminal character
set to something other than TRANSPARENT or any of the IBM code pages or
other sets that put graphic characters in the C1 area. C-Kermit will also
send C1 controls (e.g. when you push the arrow keys) if these conditions
are met AND the host has commanded it to do so.
The default emulation is VT220. VT220 emulation is almost fully
implemented (lacking mainly: downline-loadable user-defined keys,
downline-loadable fonts), and works well with most VMS applications, such
as EVE (EDIT/TPU). All-In-1, and DECnotes.
NB: To use VT220 emulation with VMS applications, you must either: (a)
tell C-Kermit to SET TERMINAL BYTESIZE 8, or (b) tell VMS to SET TERM
/NOEIGHT.
ANSI is so-called ANSI terminal emulation, used with BBS's, a subset of
VT100 with several other other features added (color, etc), using the
8-bit IBM Code Page 437 characters for box- and line-drawing. It is
approximately equivalent to the OS/2 console driver and to DOS ANSI.SYS.
Colors are automatically set to black on white, TERMINAL BYTESIZE is
automatically set to 8, TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET is forced to TRANSPARENT,
and your code page is set to CP437 (provided you have CP437 prepared;
otherwise your code page is not changed).
If you SET TERMINAL TYPE anything-but-ANSI after having SET TERMINAL TYPE
ANSI, your previous code page, TERMINAL BYTESIZE, COLOR, and CHARACTER-SET
are restored.
SET TERMINAL TRANSMIT-TIMEOUT seconds
During CONNECT mode (terminal emulation), if Kermit can't transmit your
keystrokes for some reason, it puts up a special status line saying
TRANSMISSION BLOCKED, and then shows a countdown timer. When the
countdown timer expires, Kermit returns to the prompt. This will happen,
for example, if you are using RTS/CTS flow control with a modem, and the
modem turns off its CTS signal (e.g. during retraining). The countdown
timer is set to 15 seconds by default, but you can change it with SET
TERMINAL TRANSMIT-TIMEOUT. You can put the transmit timer on hold by
typing or holding down certain keys, such as the Alt key. You can also
escape back to the prompt while the BLOCKED message is visible, but other
"hot key" functions are disabled.
SET TERMINAL WIDTH number
Number of columns to use in the terminal (CONNECT) screen. The supported
widths depend on your display adapter, the OS/2 version, and whether you
are in a fullscreen session or a window. 80 is normal, 132 is supported
by most VT100/220 applications, 40 can be used to get a bigger typeface.
The default width is the screen width of the session at startup.
SET TERMINAL DEBUG { ON, OFF }
Also known as SET DEBUG SESSION. As of edit 190, this command can be used
to turn OS/2 C-Kermit's CONNECT command into a "software line analyzer" to
watch exactly what characters (or other information) is being received,
and also as a TELNET protocol analyzer:
TELNET negotiations are written out in highlighted words
C0 control characters (0 - 31) are displayed as the corresponding
letter (e.g. A for Ctrl-A), but using the underline-simulation color
(SET TERMINAL COLOR UNDERLINE foreground background).
Carriage-Return/Linefeed pairs are shown as MJ in underline color,
but also start a new line on the screen for readability.
DEL (127) is displayed as a question mark with underline coloring
(?).
C1 control characters (128 - 159) are displayed literally in the
current code page, but using underline color
Escape sequences are shown in reverse video.
All other characters are shown as is. This means that characters
32-126 are shown as normal ASCII graphics; 160-255 are shown as 8-bit
graphics in the current code page.
Note: Incoming 8th bits are still stripped if PARITY is not NONE or
if TERMINAL BYTESIZE is not 8. If you want to see parity bits, SET
TERMINAL BYTESIZE 8, SET PARITY NONE.
Debug screens can be rolled back for quiet contemplation, and C-Kermit's
Print-Screen feature (Alt-P or <esc-char>F) and copy-and-paste features can be
used to record terminal debugging screens (even rolled-back ones) on the
printer or in a disk file, but, of course, the colors and highlighting are
lost.
The session debugging feature can be toggled on and off during terminal
emulation via Alt-D (\Kdebug), and the status is shown in the terminal-type
field of the status line ("DEBUG" replaces "VT102" or "VT52").
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.7. Using the Mouse ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Mouse support was added in edit 190 and then completely overhauled in edit 191.
The original mouse functions were copy-and-paste and terminal cursor steering.
In edit 191, these same features are assigned to the mouse by default, but:
Text selection can now span the entire virtual screen, including
scrollback.
You can reassign these functions to different mouse events.
You can assign them to keys.
You can assign keyboard verbs, macros, or text to mouse events.
C-Kermit's mouse actions all take place within the terminal screen, and they
are independent of the mouse actions in the OS/2 Window System Menu (Mark,
Copy, Paste, etc), which may also be used.
The mouse is enabled by default in edit 191. The following command controls
whether the mouse is used in the terminal window:
SET MOUSE ACTIVATE { ON, OFF }
So if you want the mouse to be ignored by C-Kermit (but still usable in the
normal OS/2 way), tell C-Kermit to SET MOUSE ACTIVATE OFF.
When the mouse is activated, you can use it to:
Mark text
Mark and copy text directly to the host
Mark and copy text to the OS/2 clipboard
Paste from the clipboard to the host
Position the terminal cursor
Transmit a text string
Execute any Kverb or macro definition
C-Kermit supports three types of mouse actions: Click, Double-Click, and Drag.
All drag operations activate mark mode and start the selection of text. Text
is marked "word processor" style, rather than rectangularly, so what you see
is what you get. (Blank lines between consecutive marked paragraphs don't
show up as marked, but they are.)
If you don't like the colors used for displaying marked text, you can change
them with the new command:
SET TERMINAL COLOR SELECTION foreground background
The color names are the same as for all the other SET TERMINAL COLOR commands.
As shipped, C-Kermit has the mouse set up as follows:
Copy to Clipboard
Press Button 1 and hold. Drag the mouse to mark the text. You can push
the mouse against the top of the screen to force the screen to scroll
back, thus allowing you to mark any contiguous block of text. Release
Button 1 and the selected text is copied to the OS/2 Clipboard, and the
highlighting goes away.
Copy to Host
This works just like Copy to Clipboard, except you have to hold down the
Ctrl key until after the mouse button is released. Instead of copying the
selected text to the Clipboard, Kermit sends it directly to the host when
you release the mouse button.
Paste To Host
Double-Click Button 2. Text in the PM Clipboard is copied to the keyboard
buffer (if it was placed in the PM Clipboard by C-Kermit or any other
application that allocates its shared memory objects as "GETable") and
sent to the host.
Terminal Cursor Positioning
Double-Click Button 1. Kermit tries to get the host application to move
the terminal cursor to where the mouse cursor is by sending the
appropriate number of arrow-key sequences.
All copy operations strip trailing spaces from the end of each marked line.
All "pastes" strip the line terminator from the last (or only) line.
Mouse-directed cursor movements send whatever the arrow keys would have sent
when pressed the number of times needed to move the terminal cursor to the
mouse cursor location. By default, these are the VT terminal arrow key
sequences, according to the current cursor keypad mode. If you redefine the
arrow keys to send something else (e.g. EMACS or VI up/down/left/right
commands), then the mouse will send those instead. Arrow key sequences,
whether sent by pressing the arrow keys or with the mouse, only have the
desired effect if the host application software understands them.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.7.1. Reassigning Mouse Actions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The following verbs are used to accomplish the functions that are assigned to
mouse actions by default. They are discussed in somewhat greater detail in
Using Mark Mode from the Keyboard.
\KMarkCopyClip (drag button 1)
Marks and copies text to the Clipboard.
\Kpaste (double-click button 2)
Copy from Clipboard to host.
\KMarkCopyHost (Ctrl-drag button 1)
Marks and copies text directly to the host.
\KDump (no default assignment)
Marks and copies text to the SET PRINTER device or file.
\KMouseMark (no default assignment)
Marks text without copying it anywhere.
\KMouseCurPos (double-click button 1)
This is the mouse-directed-terminal-cursor feature.
You can use the new command:
SET MOUSE BUTTON number key action [ text ]
to change the mouse assignments, or to assign anything at all to a mouse
event, anything that you could assign with SET KEY to a key or key
combination: a character or string to be sent to the host, a keyboard verb
(other than the keyboard-specific mark-mode verbs), execution of a C-Kermit
macro, or any combination of these.
The number is the mouse button number, 1, 2, or 3.
The key field specifies any key modifiers: ALT, ALT-SHIFT, CTRL, CTRL-ALT,
CTRL-ALT-SHIFT, CTRL-SHIFT, NONE, or SHIFT.
The action field species the type of mouse action: CLICK, DRAG, or
DOUBLE-CLICK.
The text is what you are assigning to the given mouse action. It has exactly
the same properties as the text from the SET KEY command. If the text is
omitted, any previous assignment is removed and the given mouse event will be
ignored. Examples:
SET MOUSE BUTTON 1 NONE DOUBLE \KMouseCurPos
SET MOU B 2 ALT CLICK help\13 ; sends "help" command to the host.
DRAG actions enter mark mode and select text. The only verbs that you should
assign to a drag action are \KMouseCopyHost, \KMouseCopyClip, and \KMouseDump.
Note: You should be careful what you assign to single-click actions, since
they are executed whenever you use the mouse to click on the Kermit terminal
screen to bring it from the background to the foreground.
You can use the new command:
SHOW MOUSE
to check the activation status of the mouse and see what mouse events have
definitions assigned to them.
SET MOUSE CLEAR
restores all mouse event definitions to their default state.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.7.2. Using the OS/2 PM Clipboard ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As noted elsewhere, text can normally be pasted from the PM clipboard only if
the application that put it there did so in a certain way, i.e. as a "GETable"
shared memory object. But not all applications do this.
In the UTIL subdirectory of your OS/2 C-Kermit directory, you will find a
program called CKOCLIP.EXE, the OS/2 C-Kermit PM Clipboard Server. CKOCLIP lets
you paste any text at all from the Clipboard into C-Kermit's CONNECT screen via
the \Kpaste verb.
See OS/2 C-Kermit PM Clipboard Server for further information.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.8. Using Mark Mode from the Keyboard ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Mark mode is new to edit 191. It gives the keyboard-only user a means of
marking and copying text that was restricted to users of the mouse in edit 190.
Mark mode is more powerful and flexible than the copy-and-paste feature of edit
190, allowing you to select arbitrary sized portions of text from anywhere
within the current screen or the scrollback region. Marked text can be copied,
transmitted, or printed.
Each of the mark-mode actions - copy to clipboard, copy to host, copy to file -
has a keyboard verb associated with it. Marking and copying can be done
entirely with keystrokes and no mouse, using the following \Kverbs (the default
key assignment is shown in parentheses):
\KMarkStart (Ctrl-F1)
First press enters mark mode; second press starts marking text from the
current cursor position. Additional presses clear all marked text and
start marking text from the current cursor position.
\KMarkCopyClip (Ctrl-Gray-Insert)
Copies all marked text to the PM Clipboard.
\KMarkCopyHost (Ctrl-Shift-Gray-Insert)
Copies all marked text directly to the host.
\KMarkCancel (Ctrl-F2)
Cancels mark mode without copying anything.
\KDump (Alt-p)
This is the regular \Kdump verb. When invoked during mark mode, i.e.
while a selection is active, the selection (marked text) is dumped to the
SET PRINTER device or file.
\Kpaste (Shift-Gray-Insert)
Pastes (sends) text from the Clipboard to the host.
You can reassign these verbs to any other keys or key combinations in the
normal manner, using the SET KEY command.
While in mark mode all of the scrollback and arrow keyboard verbs are active
allowing you to select text a line at a time, a page at a time, or even the
entire rollback buffer in one shot.
Here, for example, is a key definition to select all text from the top of the
rollback buffer to the bottom of the active screen ("select all"):
set key \315 \Kmarkstart\Kend\Kmarkstart\Khome
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.9. Printing While in CONNECT Mode ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
OS/2 C-Kermit offers the following printing features:
The PRINT command works (if you have a printer).
SET PRINTER filename allows transparent-print, autoprint, and \Kdump
material to be redirected to the specified file or device (32-bit version
only).
Files can be transferred to PRN in the 32-bit version only.
LOG SESSION PRN works in the 32-bit version.
The Print-Screen key prints the current terminal emulation screen in the
32-bit version. If C-Kermit is running in a fullscreen session,
Print-Screen prints a text copy of the display; in a PM window, a
graphical copy of the whole PM screen is printed (if your printer is
capable of that). This is an OS/2 feature, having nothing to do with
C-Kermit.
There is also a Print-Screen/Dump-Screen feature built into C-Kermit
5A(190) and later, that follows the SET PRINTER setting and works with
both the current screen and with rolled-back screens. This feature is
activated by the CONNECT-mode escape character, normally Ctrl-], followed
by the letter F. It is also accomplished by the keyboard verb, \Kdump,
which can be assigned to any key.
In edit 191, you can send the current selection in "mark mode" to the
printer.
The keyboard verb, \KprintFF, sends a formeed to the printer. Most
printers eject the current page upon receipt of a formfeed. Like all
keyboard verbs, it can be assigned to any key or key combination.
Host initiated "print current cursor line" and "print current screen" are
supported in the 32-bit version as of version 5A(190).
Host-initiated transparent (controller) print operations work correctly
in the 32-bit version.
Host-initiated auto print operations work correctly in the 32-bit version
as of version 5A(191).
As of version 5A(190), VT52 printer functions are also supported.
Note: Print operations, when attempted on an OS/2 system that has no printer
installed, might hang the Kermit program if the OS/2 Spooler is not active. To
avoid this, use SET PRINTER to direct print data to a file or to the NUL
device if you don't have a printer.
As of edit 190, transparent-print material no longer appears on the screen; it
is directed exclusively to the printer (or print file), as on a real VT
terminal.
As of edit 190, there is a new screen copy facility. It honors the current
SET PRINTER setting - i.e. the screen material goes either to the printer or
to a disk file, depending on SET PRINTER (the printer by default). To copy
either the current screen or a rolled-back screen use Alt-P (or Alt-p) or the
CONNECT-mode escape character followed by the letter F (or f). Characters are
dumped or printed "plain", without attributes (bold, reverse, underline,
blink, colors), and always in text (not graphics) mode, even in an OS/2
window.
Note: In the following escape sequence listings, "ESC [" means the Escape
character (27) followed by a left bracket, OR, on an 8-bit connection, the CSI
character (155).
Other printer-control improvements:
ESC [0i (and ESC [i) can be used to print the current screen.
ESC [?19h sets the print region (for ESC [0i and ESC [i) to the whole
screen.
ESC [?19l sets the print region (ditto) to the current scrolling region.
ESC [?1i prints the current cursor line.
ESC [?18h means to send a formfeed after every print-screen operation
ESC [?18l means NOT to send a formfeed after every print-screen
operation
Printer control is now available in VT52 emulation also (edit 190):
ESC V prints the current cursor line
ESC ] prints the current screen
ESC W starts transparent printing (also ESC ^)
ESC X stops transparent printing (also ESC _)
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.10. New Screen Capture Methods ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Prior to edit 191, there were two methods of screen capture: the LOG SESSION
command and the \Kdump verb. LOG SESSION copies all incoming characters to the
session log file, and so requires no actions by the user except turning on the
log and turning it off. However, it has the disadvantage that the log file can
be full of embedded escape sequences, e.g. when using a fullscreen application
on the host. \Kdump is just the opposite -- it requires you to act (e.g. press
a key) each time you want to save a screen, but it copies the screen itself,
after it has been formatted by the terminal emulator, thus filtering out the
escape sequences and showing only the final results (except, of course, for
color, intensity, etc).
Unfortunately, neither method is entirely satisfactory for capturing large
amounts of information from fullscreen host applications such as library
catalog searches. Either you must remember to "\Kdump" every screen, or else
you will have a session log containing vast amounts of escape sequences that
must be edited out before the information can be used.
Edit 191 addresses this problem in two new ways. First, you can mark an
arbitrarily large region of the scrollback buffer and copy it to a file by
using SET PRINTER filename and then using the \Kdump verb in mark mode, for
example by assigning it to a mouse event:
set printer library.log
set mouse button 2 none drag \Kdump
Now you can use the mouse to copy anything that is in the rollback buffer, no
matter how big, to a file.
But what if the material you want does not get into the rollback buffer in the
first place? This can happen with fullscreen applications that do not scroll
and also do not clear the whole screen, since these are the only two ways that
material gets into the rollback buffer. Examples would be applications that
keep a menu bar across the top of the screen and never erase it, or that scroll
text within a "scrolling region" that does not occupy the full terminal screen.
In such cases you can use the new VT220 "autoprint" feature, redirected to a
file, to capture the data cleanly, without escape sequences:
set printer library.log
set key \315 \KprtAuto
This assigns the "autoprint" verb to the F1 key. The autoprint verb is a
"toggle", meaning it turns autoprinting on if it is off, and it turns it off if
it is on. Thus successive presses of the autoprint key (F1 in this example)
turn autoprinting on, off, on, off, etc.
Autoprinting is defined as follows. A screen line is sent to the printer (or
the SET PRINTER file) whenever the cursor moves off the line with a linefeed,
form feed, vertical tab, or autowrap. So as long as lines are sent to the
terminal emulator in a sensible sequence, they will appear in your log file (or
on your printer) in a sensible and readable fashion.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.11. VT220 Emulation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As of edit 191, C-Kermit supports VT220-level protected fields for
forms-filling applications:
CSI Ps " q (Ps = 0, 1, 2) - select characters to be erasable or not
CSI ? Ps K (Ps = 0, 1, 2) - erase erasable characters in line
CSI ? Ps J (Ps = 0, 1, 2) - erase erasable characters in display
The VT220 DECID sequence sequence now properly reflects this and other new
capabilities.
As of edit 190, the VT102/220 emulator supports SRM (send/receive mode)
directives from the host:
ESC[12l turns on local echoing
ESC[12h turns off local echoing
And Kermit also now correctly responds to DECSCNM (screen mode) commands,
which apply to the entire current screen, rollback buffer, and subsequently
received characters:
ESC[?5l puts the whole screen in reverse video
ESC[?5h puts the whole screen in normal video
And to:
ESC F DEC arrow & function keys send only 7-bit sequences
ESC G DEC arrow & function keys can send 8-bit sequences
And it also supports the following VT220-and-above escape sequences for
turning off character attributes selectively:
ESC[22m turns bold off
ESC[24m turns (simulated) underline off
ESC[25m turns (simulated) blink off
ESC[27m turns reverse video off
ESC[28m turns invisible off
ESC[?25h enables the cursor
ESC[?25l disables the cursor
As well as the VT220 DECDSR report requests (printer status, etc).
C-Kermit's VT220 emulation lacks the following VT220 features:
Various host-initiated printing controls (highly dependent on DEC
printers)
CSI ? 43 h/l - Large/normal characters
CSI ? 44 h/l - Color/monochrome
CSI ? 45 h/l - RGB vs HLS color system
CSI ? 46 h/l - Background+foreground/only-foreground to printer
CSI ? 47 h/l - Rotated/normal printing
Downline-Loadable Character sets (DRCS) (graphics mode would be required)
VT240 Tektronix, Sixel, or ReGIS graphics (graphics mode would be
required)
UDK's (can be done if there is a demand, but it might be tough finding
fifteen keys with unique and unused scan codes to map them to!).
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.12. VT220 Character Sets ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Edit 191 adds support for the full range of VT220 character-set designation and
invocation, plus additional features beyond the VT220 but specified in ISO
standards. It is beyond the scope of this document to go into deep technical
detail. Until the next edition of Using C-Kermit is published, you can consult
the DEC VT220 technical manual, the book Using MS-DOS Kermit, and/or ISO
standards 2022 and 4873.
Very briefly, the new features allow the host to use escape sequences to
"designate" a particular repertoire of character sets to be used, and then some
other escape sequences (or control characters) to switch among them. You will
probably find host applications that take advantage of these features only on
VMS systems. A typical setup might include ASCII (selected when a 7-bit
character arrives), Latin-1 (selected when an 8-bit character arrives), and DEC
Special Graphics (for line- and box-drawing, selected by single or locking
shifts).
Character sets can be designated by the host if they have either (a) ISO
registered escape sequences (such as the 7-bit ISO 646 national versions and
the 8-bit ISO Latin alphabets), or (b) DEC private escape sequences that are
recognized by the VT220. All others (primarily the proprietary sets used by
IBM, Apple, HP, DG, etc) can only by selected by the SET TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET
command.
NOTE: Receipt of character-set escape sequences do NOT cause automatic
code-page switching or font loading. If they did, then the screen and the
rollback buffer would instantly turn to garbage. In general it is not possible
to mix different "alphabets" sets on the same screen, such as Hebrew and
Cyrillic, or Latin-2 and Latin-1.
ANOTHER NOTE: The SET TERMINAL LOCKING-SHIFT command now applies only to
outbound (keyboard) characters. Locking shifts are always enabled for inbound
characters.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.13. ANSI Terminal Emulation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
ANSI terminal emulation was added in version 5A(190). Select it with:
SET TERMINAL TYPE ANSI
ANSI terminal emulation is a subset of VT100 emulation, but with
host-controlled colors and using 8-bit IBM code-page 437 characters for line
and box drawing, plus some unique escape sequences for cursor save/restore.
ANSI terminal emulation is generally used to communicate with BBSs, and
actually has nothing at all to do with ANSI (the American National Standards
Institute); the misappropriated term "ANSI" seems to derive from the MS-DOS
(and OS/2) ANSI.SYS console driver, itself misnamed. C-Kermit supports ANSI
terminal emulation as of edit 190, via SET TERMINAL TYPE ANSI. You can find
the specification for ANSI terminal emulation in the back of your DOS manual,
in the ANSI.SYS appendix.
C-Kermit's ANSI emulation does nothing special with the keys; in particular,
there is no attempt at "PCTERM" keyboard handling, in which unique key-down and
key-up sequences are transmitted separately for every single IBM key (including
Shift, Alt, etc), apparently needed for the SCO UNIX console terminal (also
called "DOORWAY mode)", but evidently not needed for BBS's. There is also no
support for so-called ANSI music, which violates every conceivable rule (laid
down by ANSI itself!) about the structure and form of escape sequences.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.14. Hebrew Terminal Emulation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Use the following commands to enable Hebrew terminal emulation in OS/2
C-Kermit:
SET TERMINAL CODE-PAGE 862 or SET TERMINAL FONT CP862
SET TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET { HEBREW-ISO, HEBREW-7, CP862 }
SET TERMINAL BYTESIZE 8 ; Not needed for HEBREW-7
(choose the character set that is appropriate for the host or service you are
connecting to.) Use SET TERMINAL CODE-PAGE 862 if your OS/2 system has the
Hebrew National Language Support package installed; otherwise use SET TERMINAL
FONT CP862 (which works only in fullscreen sessions).
The following special features are available, over and above the ones listed in
the Hebrew language support section in the International Character Sets section
of this document:
The \KkbHebrew verb, which may be assigned to any key. It switches the
main keypad (mostly the lowercase letters) into Hebrew mode (see keymap
below). When the keyboard is in Hebrew mode, the terminal type in the
status line has "-H" appended to it, for example "VT220-H".
The \KkbEnglish verb to switch the main keypad back to English mode.
The \KkbHebrew function is performed automatically if the host
application sends CSI ? 35 h, and the \KkbEnglish function with CSI ? 35
l.
Hebrew keyboard mode is cleared when you execute the \Kreset (reset
terminal) function, assigned to Alt-r by default.
The Hebrew key layout associated with these verbs is NOT customizable. It
follows follows the layout used by Hebrew WordPerfect, Windows, and Word. The
names of the Hebrew letters are from the ISO 8859-8 Standard. These are the
key assignments when the keyboard is in Hebrew mode:
Hebrew Order Roman Order QWERTY Keyboard Order
q = Slash , = Taw q = Slash
w = Apostrophe . = Terminal Zade w = Apostrophe
' = Comma ' = Comma e = Qoph
/ = Period / = Period r = Resh
t = Aleph ; = Terminal Pe t = Aleph
c = Bet a = Shin y = Tet
d = Gimel b = Nun u = Waw
s = Dalet c = Bet i = Terminal Nun
v = He d = Gimel o = Terminal Mem
u = Waw e = Qoph p = Pe
z = Zain f = Kaph a = Shin
j = Chet g = Ayin s = Dalet
y = Tet h = Yod d = Gimel
h = Yod i = Terminal Nun f = Kaph
l = Terminal Kaph j = Chet g = Ayin
f = Kaph k = Lamed h = Yod
k = Lamed l = Terminal Kaph j = Chet
o = Terminal Mem m = Zade k = Lamed
n = Mem n = Mem l = Terminal Kaph
i = Terminal Nun o = Terminal Mem ; = Terminal Pe
b = Nun p = Pe ' = Comma
x = Samech q = Slash z = Zain
g = Ayin r = Resh x = Samech
; = Terminal Pe s = Dalet c = Bet
p = Pe t = Aleph v = He
. = Terminal Zade u = Waw b = Nun
m = Zade v = He n = Mem
e = Qoph w = Apostrophe m = Zade
r = Resh x = Samech , = Taw
a = Shin y = Tet . = Terminal Zade
, = Taw z = Zain / = Period
To use OS/2 C-Kermit with host-based Hebrew software such as ALEPH (the Hebrew
University library software), give these commands to Kermit:
set terminal bytesize 8
set term code-page 862 ; Or set term font cp862
set term character-set hebrew-iso
set key \319 \KkbHebrew ; F5 = Enter Hebrew keyboard mode
set key \320 \KkbEnglish ; F6 = Enter English keyboard mode
set key \321 \KdecF7 ; F7 = DEC F7 (used with ALEPH software)
Of course, you can assign the \KkbHebrew, \KkbEnglish, and \KdecF7 verbs to
any other keys of your choice.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.15. Russian Terminal Emulation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As of edit 191, C-Kermit can be used to read and write Cyrillic text on the
host in Russian, Ukrainian, or Belorussian, even if you don't have a Cyrillic
code page on your PC. The Cyrillic code page CP866 is used on the PC which may
be loaded, in fullscreen sessions only, from PCFONTS.DLL. Use the following
commands to enable Russian terminal emulation in OS/2 C-Kermit:
SET TERMINAL FONT CP866
SET TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET { CYRILLIC-ISO, KOI8, SHORT-KOI, CP866 }
SET TERMINAL BYTESIZE 8 ; Not needed for Short-KOI
(choose the character set that is appropriate for the host or service you are
connecting to.)
The following special features are available:
The \KkbRussian verb, which may be assigned to any key. It switches the
main keypad into Russian mode (see keymap below). When the keyboard is
in Russian mode, the terminal type in the status line has "-R" appended
to it, for example "VT220-R".
The \KkbEnglish verb to switch the main keypad back to English mode.
Russian keyboard mode is cleared when you execute the \Kreset (reset
terminal) function, assigned to Alt-r by default.
If your OS/2 system does not include a Russian keyboard and driver, you may
use C-Kermit's Russian keyboard mode, which is inactive by default. To use
it, you must assign the keyboard verbs:
\KkbRussian
\KkbEnglish
to the "hot keys" of your choice, for example:
set key \315 \KkbRussian ; F1 enters Russian keyboard mode
set key \316 \KkbEnglish ; F2 enters English keyboard mode
The Russian key layout associated with these verbs is NOT customizable. It
follows follows the layout used by Microsoft Russian DOS and throughtout the
former USSR. The names of the Cyrillic letters are from the ISO 8859-5
Standard. The following table shows the key assignments when the keyboard is
in Russian mode. If you do not like them, you can use SET KEY commands to
create your own layout. The "code" is the CP866 value, which applies no
matter what the terminal character set is (Kermit will translate).
US key Scan Russian Code Equivalent SET KEY command
` 96 io 241 SET KEY \96 \241
~ 126 Io 240 SET KEY \126 \240
@ 64 " 34 etc...
# 35 No 252
$ 36 % 37
^ 94 : 58
q 113 i-kratkoye 169 (Lowercase Short i)
Q 81 I-Kratkoye 137 (Uppercase Short I)
w 119 tse 230
W 87 Tse 150
e 101 u 227
E 69 U 147
r 114 ka 170
R 82 Ka 138
t 116 ie 165
T 84 Ie 133
y 121 en 173
Y 89 En 141
u 117 ghe 163
U 85 Ghe 131
i 105 sha 232
I 73 Sha 152
o 111 shcha 233 See Note 1
O 79 Shcha 153 See Note 1
p 112 ze 167
P 80 Ze 135
[ 91 ha 229
{ 123 Ha 149
] 93 hard sign 234 See Note 2
} 125 Hard Sign 154 See Note 2
\ 92 / 47
a 97 ef 228
A 65 Ef 148
s 115 yeri 235
S 83 Yeri 155
d 100 ve 162
D 68 Ve 130
f 102 a 160
F 70 A 128
g 103 pe 175
G 71 Pe 143
h 104 er 224
H 72 Er 144
j 106 o 174
J 74 O 142
k 107 el 171
K 75 El 139
l 108 de 164
L 76 De 132
; 59 e 237
: 58 E 157
z 122 ya 239
Z 90 Ya 159
x 120 che 231
X 88 Che 151
c 99 es 225
C 67 Es 145
v 118 em 172
V 86 Em 140
b 98 i 168
B 66 I 136
n 110 te 226
N 78 Te 146
m 109 soft sign 236
M 77 Soft Sign 156
, 44 be 161
< 60 Be 129
. 46 yu 238
> 62 Yu 158
/ 47 . 46
? 63 , 44
Note 1: On Belorussian keyboards, upper and lowercase letter shcha is
replaced by upper and lowercase Cyrillic letter I (the one that looks just
like a Roman I, not the one that looks like a backward Roman N). This letter
does not exist in code page 866, but you can substitute Roman letter I if
desired.
Note 2: On Belorussian keyboards, upper and lowercase hard sign is replaced
by upper and lowercase Belorussian letter Short U:
SET KEY \93 \247 ; Map ] to lowercase Short u
SET KEY \125 \246 ; Map } to uppercase Short U
On Ukrainian keyboards, these same keys are mapped to Ukrainian letter Yi
(looks like Roman I with two dots instead of one):
SET KEY \93 \244 ; Map ] to lowercase yi
SET KEY \125 \245 ; Map } to uppercase Yi
See Table VIII-6 in Using C-Kermit, pp.470-473 for complete Cyrillic
character-set listings for ISO 8859-5, CP866, KOI-8, and Short KOI.
To define your own Cyrillic key map, create a file containing the desired SET
KEY commands, in which the assigned values are CP866 values. Let's say this
file is called C:\CKERMIT\RUSSKEY.INI. Then create a second file called
C:\CKERMIT\ENGLISH.INI, which contains SET KEY commands to undo the settings
from RUSSKEY.INI, for example:
SET KEY \97
SET KEY \98
etc. Now you can define macros to TAKE these files:
DEFINE RUSSKEY take c:\ckermit\russkey.ini
DEFINE ENGLISH take c:\ckermit\english.ini
and then you can assign them to hot keys, as in this example:
SET KEY \315 \Krusskey ; F1 loads Russian key map
SET KEY \316 \Kenglish ; F2 loads English key map
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.16. Screen Rollback ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As of edit 191, rollback has undergone a major revision.
Rollback has two modes: SET TERMINAL ROLL-MODE INSERT and SET TERMINAL
ROLL-MODE OVERWRITE. When ROLL-MODE is INSERT (the default) all incoming data
is added to its proper place in your session, normally at the end (bottom) of
the screen buffer, regardless of what part of the buffer you are currently
looking at. Thus, when you are rolled back, you will not see newly arriving
characters until you return to the end (bottom) of your session, e.g. by
pressing the End key, or pressing Page Down the appropriate number of times.
This mode keeps your entire session history "intact" -- a sequential visual
history of your terminal session.
When ROLL-MODE is OVERWRITE, incoming data overwrites the screen you are
looking at, even if it is a rolled-back screen.
In either mode, you are able to type to host, paste to the host, copy to the
host, etc. In other words, you can do everything in a rolled-back screen that
you could do in the current (bottom, non-rolled-back) screen. If you are rolled
back when you issue the \KExit kverb (Alt-X), the next time you connect you
will be restored to the previous location in the buffer.
When the screen is rolled back the status line says SCROLLBACK and a line
counter indicates how many lines you are rolled back, out of how many possible.
Previous edits of OS/2 C-Kermit had SET TERMINAL ROLL { ON, OFF }. The former
ON setting is equivalent to the current INSERT mode, and the former OFF setting
is the same as OVERWRITE mode. The old commands are still accepted.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.17. Screen Width and Height ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
You can use 132 columns in a fullscreen session if your video adapter supports
it, and you can also have 132 columns in a window session if you are running
Warp. Issue the command:
C-Kermit> set terminal width 132
at the C-Kermit prompt. You can switch back to 80-column mode via:
C-Kermit> set terminal width 80
As of edit 191, host-directed switching between 80-column and 132-column mode
is supported in fullscreen sessions, and also, under Warp only, in a window.
The escape sequences are:
<ESC> [ ? 3 h Switch to 132 columns
<ESC> [ ? 3 l Switch to 80 columns
This capability is properly announced in the DECID report for VT100 and above.
Kermit uses whatever screen size its window is using at the time Kermit is
started. In edit 191, you can also have Kermit set the terminal screen height
explicitly:
C-Kermit> set terminal height 42
This command affects only the terminal (CONNECT) screen, not the command window
itself.
The height is the number of lines in the terminal screen, not counting the
status line. Under Warp, in a window session, any combination of width and
height with a maximum screen area of 8192 characters can be given. In a
fullscreen session, heights may be 24, 42, 49, or 59; not all combinations are
supported by all video adapters. Warp is not required.
Warning: Terminal widths of 80 and 132 are recommended, since these are the
only two standard widths for VT terminal emulation. Under Warp, however, you
may choose arbitrary widths, but this can lead to problems. For example, if you
choose a width that is not a multiple of 8, and you have TERMINAL WRAP ON, and
the host sends a tab-setting sequence that goes beyond the right edge of your
screen, it will wrap around and mess up your tab settings. (You can restore
tab settings to the default setting of every 8 spaces across your screen by
pushing the "reset button", normally Alt-r).
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.18. Other Terminal Emulation Changes ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Other OS/2 C-Kermit terminal emulation improvements and changes (edit 190) are
listed here:
Many bugs relating to character attributes, rollback, etc, fixed.
SET TERMINAL COLOR REVERSE is no longer operative; reverse video is now
reverse video, period - the foreground and background colors are
exchanged. More about this in the Questions and Answers section.
Host-directed switching between US ASCII and UK ISO 646 (number sign /
Pound Sterling sign) reactivated, but only if TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET is
ASCII. All other character-set selections must be accomplished by SET
TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET commands.
The CONNECT command now prints a helpful hint if it fails because of "No
carrier detected."
CLEAR TERMINAL-SCREEN (edit 191) copies the current terminal screen into
the scrollback buffer and then clears it.
CLEAR SCROLLBACK (edit 191) clears (erases) the scrollback buffer.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.19. Frequently Asked Questions - Terminal Emulation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Q: I tried to CONNECT to my modem and C-Kermit popped back to the prompt
right away, saying "No carrier detected".
A: C-Kermit's default handling of carrier is to not require it during
DIALing, but to require it at other times. If you CONNECT to a modem
before you have a dialed connection, there is no carrier signal, so i/o
operations fail. If you need to CONNECT to a serial device that does not
present the carrier signal (for example, to dial a modem "manually"),
first tell C-Kermit to SET CARRIER OFF.
Q: My Backspace key doesn't work!
A: Kermit's backspace key sends DEL (ASCII 127) by default. Some host
applications prefer Backspace (BS, ASCII 8). To make your Backspace key
send Backspace, give this command:
set key \127 \8
Q: Does C-Kermit support multiple sessions?
A: No. If you SET PORT 1 and make a connection, and escape back and SET PORT
2, the connection on port 1 is closed, dropped, and hung up. The same
happens for network sessions. To achieve multiple C-Kermit sessions, run
separate copies in different OS/2 windows. As of edit 190, C-Kermit will
put a unique identifier in the window list for each session, such as
"C-Kermit COM1", "C-Kermit COM2", "C-Kermit xyzcorp.com", etc. If you have
TCP/IP installed on your OS/2 system, you can set up a SLIP connection,
and then you can run multiple copies of C-Kermit over it, using C-Kermit's
TELNET command to make the connections. This lets you achieve multiple
sessions over a single serial port, a single modem, and a single phone
call.
Q: When I run C-Kermit with VT220 emulation to access either the DEC EVE
(EDIT/TPU) editor or DEC VAX Notes, the screen is filled with gibberish
like "m0lJ3l24rl6l7l8h;2'z;3'{4;H'z;H;H".
A: Either tell C-Kermit to SET TERMINAL BYTESIZE 8 or tell VMS to SET
TERMINAL /NOEIGHT.
Q: How do I get Kermit to simulate all the functions of a DEC VT220 keyboard,
including arrow keys, numeric keypad, Gold key, PF keys, F keys, etc?
A: TAKE the CKOVTK2.INI file that is distributed with C-Kermit. Read the
file to find out which PC key is mapped to which DEC key. If you don't
like the mapping, edit the file to suit your taste. If you always want
these mappings in effect, put the command "take c:\ckermit\ckovtk2.ini" in
your CKERMOD.INI file (or whatever your C-Kermit directory is) (Note: The
install script will do this for you if you say Yes.)
Q: Key mapping does not work as described in Appendix V of Using C-Kermit
A: That's right. In version 5A(190) and later it works just like in MS-DOS
Kermit, using \Kverbs that can be assigned to any key. See key mapping
for a complete description of the new key mapping method, or read the
material on key mapping in Using MS-DOS Kermit, but note that there are
some differences between MS-DOS Kermit's and C-Kermit's keyboard scan
codes.
Q: The SET TERM COLOR REVERSE command is gone! Version 190 now says "Sorry,
this command has been retired. Reverse video is now accomplished simply
by exchanging the fore- and background colors." I prefer the ability to
set reverse video to whichever color scheme I wish.
A: The old way was simply not workable - it appeared to work only by
accident. When all the VT100 features were fixed and VT220 and ANSI
features were added, plus the cell-coloring extensions, there was no way
to keep this feature. Color is used not only for regular characters, but
also to denote underlining, blinking, and (naturally) also for
explicitly-colored characters. So it makes no sense to have one fore- and
background color for reverse video. How, for example, does one flip the
screen between normal video and reverse video when it has 128 different
colors showing if there is only one fore/background color for reverse
video? Note that screen-video-flipping is a required feature of VT100 and
higher DEC terminals (DECSCNM = ESC [ ? 5 h/l).
Q: Reverse video doesn't always seem to actually reverse fore/background
colors. For example, if I have the terminal set to black on white, reverse
video comes out a rather muddy light gray on dark gray. If the terminal is
set to light gray on dark gray, reverse is black on white. If the
terminal is black on light gray, reverse video really is reverse.
A: The explanation for this is a bit technical. The video adapter stores each
screen character in a two-byte cell. The first byte of each cell contains
the 8-bit character value. The second byte contains the video attributes
for the character, and looks like this:
Background | Foreground
Color | Color
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| b | R | G | B | i | R | G | B |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
b = blink i = intensity
0 = nonblinking 0 = normal
1 = blinking 1 = high
The i bit applies to the foreground color. The meaning of the b bit
depends on the VIO state; it can mean (a) the foreground character blinks,
or (b) the background color is high-intensity. C-Kermit uses (b) because
blinking only works in a fullscreen session. The RGB bits select the
desired mixture of Red, Green, and Blue.
When video is reversed, only the colors-the RGB bits and not the i or b bits
are swapped. Otherwise, we would obtain effects that are even more surprising
and undesirable: highlighted characters would no longer be highlighted, etc.
If blinking were implemented by real blinking rather than color simulation,
then a bright foreground could become a blinking foreground, etc. The
confusion arises because many of the colors in the SET TERMINAL COLOR command
are not "true" (3-bit) colors, but rather effects obtained with the
high-intensity bit as shown in the Table in the Terminal Emulation Hints and
Tips section. If you stick to non-intense colors in your terminal screen,
then reverse video will work as expected.
Q: Is it possible to quit Kermit and NOT have the phone line hung up? That
is, quit out of Kermit leaving the modem connection open, so I can then
start SLIP?
A: Normally when an OS/2 process exits, all of its file handles are closed.
One of the penalties we pay for using a real operating system, as opposed
to (say) DOS. But there are two exceptions. If you start Kermit with an
already-open file handle for the communications device, it will not be
closed when Kermit exits. Second, if you use Kermit's SLIPCOMx devices,
you can "borrow" a terminal port from the SLIP driver in order to make the
phone connection, and then give it back to the SLIP driver. See the
section on SLIP for details.
Q: What does "TRANSMISSION BLOCKED: 15" mean?
A: When you are typing normal characters in CONNECT mode, C-Kermit should
normally have no trouble transmitting them. An exception occurs on dialed
serial connections with RTS/CTS flow control when the modem might drop its
CTS (Clear To Send) signal because of noise on the connection that causes
the two modems to enter a "retraining" sequence. If you type a character
under these conditions, C-Kermit will write "TRANSMISSION BLOCKED 15" in
the status line, and then will attempt to retransmit the character every
100 milliseconds for up to 15 seconds (the "15" is a countdown timer). If
the countdown timer expires, C-Kermit returns to the prompt with a message
like:
Serial port blocked
Tx waiting for CTS to be turned ON
(the second line tells you the reason for the blockage). Fifteen seconds
is usually long enough for modems to retrain, but you can increase (or
diminish) the retransmission timeout interval using the command:
SET TERMINAL TRANSMIT-TIMEOUT seconds
You can put the transmit timer on hold by typing or holding down certain
keys, such as the Alt key. You can also escape back to the prompt while
the BLOCKED message is visible, but other "hot key" functions are
disabled. Note that the BLOCKED message might not appear right away -
depending on the buffering capabilities of the UART and the configuration
of the OS/2 communication port driver, a transmission error might not be
reported back to C-Kermit by OS/2 until the second or later blocked
character.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3.20. Terminal Emulation Hints and Tips. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
When switching away from C-Kermit's terminal screen and then switching back to
it, certain video items might become confused:
The cursor might be lost or misplaced
The entire screen might be blinking (more about this below)
The screen border might have disappeared
Colors might have changed
These problems appear to be confined only to certain systems, and do not occur
on others. It is believed that they are related to the particular video
adapter or driver; the problems are most commonly reported on SVGA and XGA
systems. You can usually work around these problems in various ways:
Use Alt-R to reset the terminal emulator
Escape back to the prompt and CONNECT again
Escape back to the prompt, PUSH, EXIT, and CONNECT again
Escape back to the prompt, run MODE CO80 (or whatever), and CONNECT again
SET TERMINAL CODE PAGE only seems to work in fullscreen sessions. For that
matter, the same seems to be true of OS/2's own CHCP program, so this is
apparently an OS/2 limitation (noted in OS/2 2.1 GA).
SET TERMINAL CODE PAGE (and OS/2's own CHCP program) seem to have no effect at
all when the Hebrew NLV is installed. The code page simply does not change.
Shift-in/Shift-Out works only if you SET TERMINAL LOCKING-SHIFT ON (except in
the case of the DEC Technical Character Set, used for line- and box- drawing,
etc, which is handled specially).
Host-directed US/UK character-set switching (ASCII 35 interpreted as number
sign in US, Pound Sterling sign in UK) works only if you have SET TERM
CHARACTER-SET ASCII.
Under certain conditions on certain systems, OS/2 C-Kermit has been observed
to put the entire screen (or subsequent help screens) in blinking mode. For
example, when running in a fullscreen session, CONNECT mode active, background
color is high-intensity, and using Alt-Esc to get to the desktop, then
resuming the Kermit window can produce this effect; reportedly, this is caused
by a bug in some of OS/2's video drivers. Alt-R (reset) makes the blinking
stop. To avoid the problem altogether, don't use high-intensity background
colors:
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ΓöéYELLOW ΓöéHigh Γöé Γöé
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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4. File Transfer ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
New file transfer features include:
File Transfer Recovery
Control-Character Unprefixing
New MOVE Command
New RECEIVE Command Features
Automatic Directory Creation
IBM Mainframe File Transfer
Pausing Between Packets
Fullscreen File Transfer Display Improvements
Transferring OS/2 Files with Attributes
Transferring OS/2 Directory Trees
File Transfer Hints and Tips
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4.1. File Transfer Recovery ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
C-Kermit 5A(190) (the OS/2, UNIX, AOS/VS, VOS, OS-9, and Amiga versions), and
MS-DOS Kermit 3.14, and IBM mainframe Kermit 4.3.1 have the ability to continue
interrupted binary-mode file transfers, and also allow you to "manually"
recover from certain other types of failures.
The RESEND Command
Manual Recovery: The PSEND Command
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4.1.1. The RESEND Command ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The new RESEND command lets you continue a file transfer from the point where
it was interrupted (for example, because of a telephone disconnection) without
having to retransmit the data that was already successfully transmitted.
Imagine, for example, transferring a ten-megabyte file over a 2400-bps modem
connection when, after 9 megabytes have been sent, your call-waiting feature
kicks in and drops the modem connection. 9 megabytes at 240 cps takes about 11
hours. The remaining megabyte would take about 1.2 hours. The recovery
feature lets you complete the failed transfer in the amount of time it takes to
send the as-yet-untranmsitted part of the file, rather than sending the entire
file again from the beginning -- in this example, a savings of 11 hours.
Before seeing how to use this feature, let's look at the restrictions:
1. Recovery works only for binary-mode transfers between computers that have
stream-oriented file systems (such as DOS, UNIX, OS/2, etc). It does not
work with any other transfer modes, including text or labeled. In other
words, if you want to be able to use the recovery feature, you must tell
the file sender to:
SET FILE TYPE BINARY
2. The original transfer must have been done with SET FILE INCOMPLETE KEEP
in effect at the receiver, meaning that incompletely received files are
kept rather than discarded. In C-Kermit 5A(190) and later, this is the
default, which is a change from previous releases.
3. Recovery only works between two Kermit programs that have this capability
and negotiate it successfully. As of this writing, these programs
include C-Kermit 5A(190) and later for UNIX, OS/2, Stratus VOS, OS-9, and
the Commodore Amiga; MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 and later for DOS and Windows;
and IBM Mainframe Kermit 4.3.1 and later.
4. You should never use SET FILE COLLISION RENAME if you intend to use the
recovery feature, because the partially received file will have the wrong
name.
To recover a failed upload: reestablish the connection, access the same
account and directory to which you were sending the file previously, start
Kermit there and put it in RECEIVE or SERVER mode. Then escape back to the
local Kermit program and give it these commands:
SET FILE TYPE BINARY
RESEND filename [ as-name ]
The RESEND command should use exactly the same names (and SET FILE NAME
options) as the SEND command that was interrupted. When you RESEND a file,
the receiving Kermit, upon getting the filename, looks up the file and gets
its size; it sends the size back to the sending Kermit, and the sending Kermit
resumes sending from that point; the receiving Kermit appends incoming
material to the partial file rather than creating a new file.
You can recover a failed download in the same way. Just make sure you are
accessing the same directories as before, and the files have (or are being
sent with) the same names as before.
The RESEND command ignores your SET FILE COLLISION setting; thus you need not
change your FILE COLLISION setting when RESENDing, and you will not find it
altered afterwards either. (But please, as mentioned earlier, do not use SET
FILE COLLISION RENAME if you ever intend to use the RESEND command.)
If the RESEND command is used, but a partial file of the same name does not
exist on the receiving end, RESEND behaves just like SEND -- it sends the
whole file. If the file on the receiving is the same size as the sender's
copy, RESEND does nothing; both files are left alone. These properties let
you resume the interrupted transfer of a group of files. Suppose you had
originally done this:
Receiver: Sender:
SET FILE INCOMPLETE KEEP SET FILE TYPE BINARY
RECEIVE (or SERVER) SEND *.ZIP
and the phone hung up in the middle of one of the ZIP files. Just reestablish
the connection, and recover this way:
Receiver: Sender:
SET FILE INCOMPLETE KEEP SET FILE TYPE BINARY
RECEIVE (or SERVER) RESEND *.ZIP
The files that were already sent are skipped, the file that was partially sent
is recovered, and the files that were not sent yet are sent.
In order for the recovery feature feature to be useful at all, the default for
SET FILE INCOMPLETE was changed from DISCARD to KEEP when the RESEND command
was added in edit 190. Otherwise an interrupted transfer would leave no
partial file behind unless you had remembered to change the default. But now
you have to pay closer attention to Kermit's messages to know whether a
transfer succeeded or failed -- previously, if it failed, the file would not
show up on the receiving end at all; in edit 190 and later, you'll get a
partial file which could easily be mistaken for the complete file unless you
change the default back to DISCARD or read the screen messages, or keep a
transaction log.
Watch out for SET FILE COLLISION RENAME, especially when used in conjunction
with recovery. Recall that this option (which is NOT the default) renames the
incoming file if a file already exists with the same name (the default is to
rename the previously existing file, and store the incoming file with its own
name). It is strongly recommended that you do not use SET FILE COLLISION
RENAME if you ever intend to use the recovery feature:
When the file is first received by C-Kermit, its name will be changed if
another file already has the same name. When you RESEND the same file
after a failure, C-Kermit will probably try to append the re-sent portion
to the wrong file.
Assuming that you get RESEND to work with FILE COLLISION RENAME,
C-Kermit, when receiving the remainder of the file during a RESEND
operation, will report back the wrong name. Nothing can be done about
this because the name is reported back before the receiving Kermit
program finds out that it is a recovery operation.
Using RESEND, you can write a script program to really, REALLY send a file.
Here is a sample, in which we dial up to a UNIX computer and send the MS-DOS
Kermit distribution ZIP file. This script program runs under C-Kermit 5A(190)
or later on OS/2 (and with a change in the dialout device name, under UNIX
too), and under MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 or later. If the transfer fails, we
reestablish the connection and restart the transfer from the point of failure,
as many times as it takes to get the file across.
---(cut here)---
ask \%u { username: }
askq \%p { \%u's password: }
;
; Settings for entire session.
;
define \%s 20 ; Seconds to pause between each try
define \%n 7654321 ; Phone number
set modem hayes ; Modem type
set port com1 ; Communication port
set speed 19200 ; Speed
set file type binary ; File transfer mode must be binary
set input timeout quit ; This is just to keep the script program short
set count 50 ; Try up to 50 times to send the file
goto nomsg ; Skip message the first time
:LOOP ; Come here to redial
hangup ; Give the phone a rest
echo CONNECTION BROKEN.
echo Pausing for \%s seconds...
sleep \%s
Echo redialing...
:NOMSG
dial \%n ; Dial the phone number
if fail goto AGAIN ; Keep trying...
output \13 ; System answered, send a carriage return
input 15 login: ; Get login prompt
output \%u\13 ; Send user ID
input 8 Password: ; Get password prompt
output \%p\13 ; Send password
input 60 {$ } ; Get system prompt
cd /kermit ; CD to desired source directory
output cd mskermit\13 ; and destination directory
input 8 {$ } ; Get system prompt
out kermit -r\13 ; kermit -r(eceive) on remote system
input 10 KERMIT READY ; Wait for READY message
pause 1 ; Plus a second for safety
resend msvibm.zip ; RESEND the file
if success goto done ; Success means file is completely transferred
:AGAIN
if count goto LOOP ; Otherwise, try again.
Stop 1 Too many tries. ; Too many tries, give up.
:DONE
echo File transferred OK ; Success, give message
output exit\13 ; Log out from remote computer
pause 5 ; Give it time...
hangup ; Hang up
stop 0 Script succeeded ; Finished, the end.
---(cut here)---
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4.1.2. Manual Recovery: The PSEND Command ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The PSEND ("partial send") command is like the SEND command, but it begins
sending from a specified position in the file:
PSEND filename position [ as-name ]
filename must refer to a single file, not a file group. position is the byte
position in (offset into) the file; 0 means the beginning, 1000 means the
1001st byte. As with the SEND command, the file is sent under its own name
unless you specify an "as-name". Unlike RESEND, PSEND can be used for both
text and binary transfers, and no special capabilities are required of the
Kermit program on the receiving end. The PSEND command can be viewed as part
of a "do-it-yourself" recovery feature to be used when the other Kermit program
does not support recovery. For example, suppose you were sending a file called
OOFA when the connection hung up, and that the receiving Kermit program had
been instructed to keep incompletely received files (SET FILE INCOMPLETE KEEP).
If the transfer was in binary mode, you could note the length of the partial
file on the receiving end; let's say it was 123456. Then tell the file receiver
to:
SET FILE COLLISION APPEND
RECEIVE
and tell the sender to:
SET FILE TYPE BINARY
PSEND OOFA 123456
If the receiver does not support SET FILE COLLISION APPEND, you could just use
PSEND to create a new file:
SET FILE TYPE BINARY
PSEND OOFA 123456 OOFA.NEW
and then, after the transfer is complete, join the two pieces together on the
receiving end, using a system command or utility.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4.2. Control-Character Unprefixing ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
This feature allows you to improve C-Kermit's file transfer performance on
connections that you know are transparent to certain control characters. It
lets you tell C-Kermit exactly which control characters need to be prefixed and
encoded, and which ones can be transmitted "bare" when sending files.
SET { SEND, RECEIVE } CONTROL-PREFIX code
Sets the control-character prefix which C-Kermit uses to the ASCII
character represented by the numeric code. The code must be in the range
33-63 or 96-126. Normally it is 35 (#, number sign). SEND is the one
that C-Kermit should use in packets it is sending. RECEIVE should
normally never be used, except to override some kind of protocol
negotiation foulup with a buggy commercial or shareware Kermit
implementation.
Synonym: SET { SEND, RECEIVE } QUOTE.
SET CONTROL-CHARACTER UNPREFIXED { code..., ALL }
Says you think it's safe to include the control character represented by
code without prefixing in packets which C-Kermit sends. The code is the
numeric ASCII code for a control character, 1-31, 127-159, or 255. For
example, linefeed (code 10) is normally sent as two printable characters,
#J. SET CONTROL UNPREFIXED 10 lets linefeed be sent literally. Include
the word ALL to unprefix all control characters (except 0). Or you can
specify a list of one or more numeric values, separated by spaces, e.g.:
SET CONTROL UNPREFIXED 2 4 5 18 20
If you can safely declare a lot of control characters to be UNPREFIXED,
you can send binary files (esp. precompressed ones) up to about 20-25%
faster. If you include a control character in this category that causes
trouble, however, the transfer will fail, so experimentation is necessary.
This command will not let you "unprefix" the NUL character (0), nor the
following characters if C-Kermit's current FLOW-CONTROL setting is
XON/XOFF: 17, 19, 145, 147. Nor can you unprefix character 255 on a
TELNET connection (if C-Kermit knows it's a TELNET connection).
SET CONTROL-CHARACTER PREFIXED { code..., ALL }
Says that the given control character(s) must be prefixed in Kermit
packets. By default, all control characters, 0-31, 127-159, and 255, are
prefixed.
SHOW CONTROL-PREFIXING
Displays the current control prefix and a table of all control-character
values, showing 1 for each one that will be prefixed and 0 for each one
that will not be prefixed.
SET REPEAT PREFIX code
Sets the repeat-count prefix to the ASCII character represented by the
numeric code. Normally it is 126 (tilde). The code
SET REPEAT COUNTS { OFF, ON }
Turns the repeat-count compression mechanism off and on. REPEAT COUNTS
are ON by default. Turn them OFF in case they cause trouble when used
against a faulty Kermit implementation in a shareware or commercial
communications program. Or when transferring precompressed files (like
.ZIP or .Z files), since it is very rare to find runs of repeated
characters, and disabling the repeat-count mechanism frees another
character from prefixing, thus resulting in slightly more efficient
transfers.
The purpose of the SET CONTROL UNPREFIX command is to unilaterally configure
C-Kermit to skip prefixing and printable encoding of selected control
characters to achieve higher performance when sending files. This feature
takes advantage of the fact that most Kermit programs will accept control
characters within packet data-fields literally, provided they get through at
all, and provided they do not have a special meaning to the receiving Kermit
program (such as, in many cases, the packet-start and packet-end characters).
There is no protocol negotiation between the two Kermit programs to determine
a "safe set" of control characters, and in fact any such negotiation would be
largely meaningless, because in most cases the two Kermit programs don't have
all the needed information. For example, there might be a terminal server or
PAD between them that is sensitive to a particular control character, even
though the two Kermit programs are not.
If you include in your SET CONTROL UNPREFIXED list one or more control
characters that are unsafe, any of several things might happen:
1. Transfer of any file containing these characters will fail.
2. The receiving Kermit program might be interrupted or halted.
3. Your connection might become hung, stuck, or broken. For example because
a control character causes a PAD, terminal server, modem, or similar
device to go from online mode to command mode.
The set of safe control characters depends on the two Kermit programs, their
settings, the host operating systems and their settings, the communication and
flow control methods, and all the devices, drivers, and protocols that lie
between the two Kermit programs. Therefore, this feature is recommended only
for use on well-known and often-used connections, so the time invested in
finding an optimal unprefixed control-character set will pay off over many
file transfers.
You must be willing to experiment in order to achieve the optimal safe set.
Here is one way. Create a short file containing all 256 possible bytes in
sequence and also in pairs, as well as several text strings surrounded by
CRLFs; for example, compile and run the following program, redirecting its
output to a file:
---(cut here)---
#include <stdio.h>
main() {
int i;
puts("\r\n256-byte test pattern:\r\n");
for (i = 0; i < 256; i++) putchar(i); /* singles */
puts("\r\n256-double-byte test pattern:\r\n");
for (i = 0; i < 256; i++) { putchar(i); putchar(i); } /* in pairs */
puts("\r\nEnd of test patterns\r\n");
}
---(cut here)---
To send the file to MS-DOS Kermit from either C-Kermit or MS-DOS Kermit, try
the following settings:
SET CONTROL UNPREFIXED ALL ; Turn prefixing off for all but 0
SET CONTROL PREFIXED 1 ; Turn it back on for packet-start character
SET CONTROL PREFIXED 129 ; and 8-bit version thereof
(HINT: Abbreviate SET CON U and SET CON P)
Or to send the file from MS-DOS Kermit to C-Kermit, tell MS-DOS Kermit to:
SET CON U ALL ; Turn prefixing off for all
SET CON P 0 ; Turn it back on for NUL
SET CON P 3 ; and for Ctrl-C
SET CON P 131 ; as well as Ctrl-C + parity bit
Note 1: 3 and 131 normally need not be prefixed when sending to C-Kermit
5A(190) or later, nor to 5A(189) if you have SET TRANSFER CANCELLATION OFF.
Note 2: 1 and 129 need not be prefixed when sending files *to* C-Kermit, but
must be prefixed when sending files to MS-DOS Kermit.
Note 3: 13 (carriage return, the customary packet terminator) normally need
not be prefixed when sending files to either C-Kermit or MS-DOS Kermit, except
on a TELNET connection (because TELNET servers are likely to change CRLF into
CR).
Try to send the test file in binary mode. If it works, fine. If not, try
prefixing some of the other likely control characters (see below). Once you
find the minimum set of prefixed control characters for the test file, it is
likely they will also work for any other file on the same connection. Try
sending a large precompressed (e.g. ZIP or .Z or GZIP) file. And, of course,
for maximum performance, also use a window size greater than 1 (say, 3) and a
packet length of 1000 or more.
Under ideal conditions (totally transparent and clean serial connection, no
Xon/Xoff, and C-Kermit has been told to SET TRANSFER CANCELLATION OFF, see
below), the minimum set of control characters that need to be prefixed is:
SENDER RECEIVER PREFIXED CONTROLS
MS-DOS Kermit MS-DOS Kermit 1 129
MS-DOS Kermit C-Kermit 0
C-Kermit MS-DOS Kermit 0 1 129
C-Kermit C-Kermit 0
For example, to set up C-Kermit to unprefix the minimum set of prefixed
control characters for sending files to MS-DOS Kermit, tell C-Kermit to:
SET FLOW NONE ; Or SET FLOW RTS/CTS
SET CONTROL UNPREFIX ALL
SET CONTROL PREFIX 1 129 ; C-Kermit always prefixes character 0
When the mininum set doesn't work, consult this list of control characters
that are apt to cause trouble and are therefore likely candidates for
prefixing. In particular, note that unprefixing of the packet-start character
(normally 1 and 129), can cause problems when sending to C-Kermit if the
communication link (including device input buffers) is noisy or apt to lose
characters.
set con p 0 ; Ctrl-@ = NUL, internal string terminator in C-Kermit.
; Also, often discarded as padding.
set con p 1 ; Ctrl-A = Packet-start character.
set con p 3 ; Ctrl-C = Packet breakout for remote-mode C-Kermit,
; packet breakout for server-mode MS-DOS Kermit,
; likely to cause interruptions on other systems.
set con p 13 ; Ctrl-M = Carriage return, packet-end character.
; Always prefix on TELNET connections.
set con p 14 ; Ctrl-N = Shift Out
set con p 15 ; Ctrl-O = Shift In
set con p 16 ; Ctrl-P = Commonly-used X.25/X.3 PAD escape character
set con p 17 ; Ctrl-Q = XON, must be prefixed with Xon/Xoff flow control
set con p 19 ; Ctrl-S = XOFF, must be prefixed with Xon/Xoff flow control
set con p 27 ; Ctrl-[ = ESC, prefix if going through an ANSI device
set con p 28 ; Ctrl-\ = CONNECT-mode escape for C-Kermit
set con p 29 ; Ctrl-] = CONNECT-mode escape for TELNET
set con p 30 ; Ctrl-^ = Cisco terminal server escape.
set con p 127 ; Ctrl-? = DEL, often discarded as padding.
; Also becomes TELNET IAC if parity bit is added.
set con p 128 ; = NUL + 128 (i.e. NUL + parity bit)
set con p 129 ; = Ctrl-A + 128
set con p 131 ; = Ctrl-C + 128
set con p 141 ; = CR + 128
set con p 145 ; = XON + 128
set con p 147 ; = XOFF + 128
set con p 255 ; 255 = TELNET IAC, must be prefixed on TELNET connections
INCLUDING TELNET connections through terminal servers!
Note, by the way, that nothing special need be done for SLIP connections,
since the four special SLIP characters are in the G1 printable range:
192 SLIP END character
219 SLIP ESC character
220 SLIP END quote
221 SLIP ESC quote
Here is a suggested (conservative) starting point for experimenting with
control-character unprefixing. Tell the file sender to:
SET CONTROL UNPREFIX ALL
SET CONTROL PREFIX 0 1 3 13 17 19 127 129 131 141 145 147 255
Perhaps some of these can be removed, depending on the connection, and maybe
others need to be added. If you are going through a terminal server or an
intermediate Kermit or TELNET program, also add the appropriate escape
character values (bare, and plus 128).
PREFIXING NOTES:
If C-Kermit or MS-DOS Kermit has initiated a TELNET connection, prefixing
of 255 (TELNET IAC) is forced automatically.
IMPORTANT WARNING When you have a TELNET connection through a terminal
server, neither one of the Kermit programs knows that it's a TELNET
connection, and in this case unprefixing of 255 is NOT automatically
disabled. This can cause file transfer failures. When in doubt, do not
unprefix 255.
Kermit will not let you unprefix XON (17), XOFF (19), XON+128 (145), or
XOFF+128 (147) if its FLOW-CONTROL setting is XON/XOFF. If you want to
unprefix these, make sure *both* Kermits have first been told to SET FLOW
NONE (or RTS/CTS), and that XON/XOFF flow control is not in effect
anywhere along the communication path between the two Kermits.
When sending files to C-Kermit 189 or earlier, and C-Kermit is in remote
mode, you should normally tell the file sender to SET CONTROL PREFIX 3
and SET CONTROL PREFIX 131, because C-Kermit 189 and earlier (by default)
takes two Ctrl-C's (3 or 131) in a row as cancellation of packet-mode.
However, you can UNPREFIX these characters if you know your files do not
contain two Ctrl-C's in a row, or if you tell C-Kermit to SET TRANSFER
CANCELLATION OFF, or SET TRANSFER CANCELLATION ON code number when you
know that number copies of code do not occur in a row in the data. When
sending files to edit 190 of C-Kermit and later, you can leave 3 and 131
unprefixed unless you have disabled repeat-count compression.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4.3. The New MOVE and MMOVE Commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
By popular demand, C-Kermit now has a way of deleting files that it sends after
it has sent them successfully, in effect moving them from one computer to
another. The commands are MOVE and MMOVE. These commands are identical to
SEND and MSEND in every way, except that each file that is sent successfully --
that is, that is completely received by the other computer, or that was already
on the other computer to begin with -- is deleted from the computer it was sent
from.
For example, suppose your current OS/2 directory contains three files:
OOFA.EXE, OOFA.ZIP, and OOFA.INF. If you tell C-Kermit to "send *.*", the
three files will be sent to the other computer, and they will also remain on
your OS/2 disk. But if you tell C-Kermit to "move *.*", they will be removed
from your OS/2 disk after they are sent successfully to the other computer.
If any of the files is not sent successfully, then it is not removed from your
OS/2 disk. For example, suppose OOFA.ZIP is too big to fit on the receiving
computer's disk, but OOFA.EXE and OOFA.INF can fit. In that case, assuming
OOFA.EXE and OOFA.INF are transferred successfully, they will be deleted from
your OS/2 disk, but OOFA.ZIP will not be.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4.4. New RECEIVE Command Features ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
In edit 190 and later, the RECEIVE command can accept a device or directory
name as an argument, and all incoming files will go into the specified device
or directory under the names they were sent with, for example:
RECEIVE D:
or:
RECEIVE D:\BUDGET\1995
If the name is not a device or directory name, it is treated as before: as a
name under which to store the (first) incoming file. This change also affects
the '-a' ("as-name") command-line option.
When SET FILE NAMES LITERAL is in effect, and a file arrives that is to be
stored on a FAT (i.e. DOS) volume but its name is illegal for FAT, the file is
no longer refused. Instead, the file is created with a legal FAT name and the
original name is saved in the file's Extended Attributes, so it is visible on
the desktop and usable on HPFS volumes. Edit 190.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4.5. Automatic Directory Creation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
File names are treated according to the SET FILE NAMES command (see p.114 of
Using C-Kermit), CONVERTED (the default) or LITERAL. SET FILE NAMES LITERAL
means:
When sending files, put the filespec into the outgoing file header packet
exactly as the user typed it. What happens on the receiving end is
entirely up to the receiver.
When receiving files, use the file specification from the incoming file
header exactly as given, so if it happens to include a device or
directory specification, C-Kermit attempts to use it, and if the device
and/or directory does/do not exist or are not write-accessible, the
transfer fails.
SET FILE NAMES CONVERTED, which is the default, transforms outgoing filenames
by (a) removing device, directory, and other "extraneous" information, (b)
uppercasing all lowercase letters, (c) making sure there is no more than one
period, and (d) translating all "uncommon" characters to X's.
A new command allows us to strike a compromise between these two methods:
SET { SEND, RECEIVE } PATHNAMES { ON, OFF }
SET SEND PATHNAMES ON means to leave pathnames ON outbound file names, which
is the default for compatibility with earlier behavior. Note, however, that
PATHNAMES are always stripped from outbound filenames when FILE NAMES are
CONVERTED, and in OS/2, disk letters are always stripped.
SET SEND PATHNAMES OFF means to strip OFF path information, leaving only the
file's name. SET SEND PATHNAME applies only to the filename given directly to
a SEND or MSEND command, and not to the "as-name", which is always sent
literally and without modification, regardless of SEND PATHNAME or FILE NAMES
settings.
SET RECEIVE PATHNAMES applies to the filenames in incoming file header
packets; ON means to leave the name alone and attempt to use it as-is, OFF
means to attempt to strip the path information ON THE ASSUMPTION that any path
information found there would be in the notation of the local file system, and
therefore recognizable. If not, the results are unpredictable; for example,
if a file called MYVAX::DUA0:[OLAF.PICS]MONA_LISA.GIF;17 arrives on an OS/2
system, OS/2 C-Kermit can not be expected to distinguish the path information
from the name (it is a general principle of communication protocols that a
particular computer must not be expected to understand the conventions and
formats of some other kind of computer).
When a file arrives whose name includes a directory specification (with either
'/' or '\' as the directory separator), OS/2 C-Kermit will attempt to put it
in the specified directory.
In the 32-bit version only: If the incoming file name contains OS/2 directory
information (such as C:\TEXT\LETTERS\ANGRY\OOFA.TXT) -- either absolute or
relative, then, if the named directory, or any of its ancestors, does not
exist, Kermit attempts to create it (or them) before opening the output file.
For example, suppose your current directory is C:\USR\OLGA\BUDGET, and a file
arrives under the name AAA\BBB\CCC\DDD\BANKRUPT.TXT, and that the
C:\USR\OLGA\BUDGET\AAA directory already exists, but it does not have a BBB
subdirectory. Then Kermit will create the BBB subdirectory, and then the CCC
subdirectory under BBB, and then the DDD subdirectory under CCC, and then it
will store the BANKRUPT.TXT file in the C:\USR\OLGA\BUDGET\AAA\BBB\CCC\DDD
directory.
If a non-existent or non-writable drive is specified in the directory path,
the directory creation will fail.
Use the SHOW FILE command to display the SEND/RECEIVE PATHNAME settings.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4.6. IBM Mainframe File Transfer ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Edit 190 added new features that allow transfer of files with IBM mainframes
through 3270 protocol converters that cannot be put into transparent mode, such
as the 3708 and pre-B2 AEA controllers. IBM Mainframe Kermit 4.2.4 or later is
required. Very briefly:
Kermit-370: C-Kermit or MS-DOS Kermit:
SET CONTROLLER FULL
SET RECEIVE START 62 SET RECEIVE START 62
SET SEND START 62 SET SEND START 62
SET BLOCK B SET BLOCK B
SET HANDSHAKE 0 SET HANDSHAKE NONE
This sets the packet-start character in both directions to be the greater-than
sign (>) (ASCII 62) and enables a new block-check type (a 12-bit checksum
containing no blanks) to defeat the trailing-blank-stripping feature found in
many protocol converters. Short packets are used automatically. See your IBM
Mainframe Kermit documentation for additional details.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4.7. Pausing Between Packets ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The new command:
SET { SEND, RECEIVE } PAUSE number
tells C-Kermit to pause the given number of milliseconds (thousandths of
seconds) before sending each packet. This might be necessary when
communicating with certain devices or over certain kinds of connections. Don't
use this unless file transfers fail without it, since it slows transfers down.
SHOW PROTOCOL displays the current setting. SET SEND PAUSE and SET RECEIVE
PAUSE do exactly the same thing. Edit 190.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4.8. Fullscreen File Transfer Display Improvements ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
OS/2 C-Kermit now shows a file-transfer "thermometer" (percent bar-graph) to
graphically represent the progress of the file transfer. It can be explicitly
selected or deselected via the new trailing argument to this command:
SET FILE DISPLAY FULLSCREEN { THERMOMETER, NO-THERMOMETER }
A running display of the transfer speed in characters per second (CPS) is also
shown; it is computed as an average of actual file characters transferred so
far versus elapsed time.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4.9. Transferring OS/2 Files with Attributes ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Edit 190 also adds support for SET FILE TYPE LABELED, as in the VMS version of
C-Kermit. This allows OS/2 files to be transferred with all their extended
attributes intact-desktop material, icons, long file names on FAT partitions,
etc. Consult the VMS appendix of Using C-Kermit for information on labeled
file transfer. Briefly, the idea is that an OS/2 file can be transferred from
one OS/2 system to another with all its extended attributes intact. It can
also be transferred to an intermediate (non-OS/2) system for archival, and
later transferred to another OS/2 system and restored to its original form. An
OS/2-specific SET FILE LABEL command is also provided for controlling how
regular OS/2 file attributes are handled in labeled file transfers:
SET FILE LABEL {ARCHIVE, READ-ONLY, HIDDEN, SYSTEM, EXTENDED} {ON, OFF}
By default, all but ARCHIVE are ON. All of a file's attributes are always
transmitted; this command tells the file receiver whether to pay attention to
them (ON) or not (OFF). Use SHOW LABELED-FILE-INFO to display the values of
these settings.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4.10. Transferring OS/2 Directory Trees ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Using the new REXX interface C-Kermit provides a XSEND command similar to that
provided for years with MS-DOS Kermit. The syntax is:
XSEND path filespec
For example:
XSEND C:\ *
(note the space between the path and the filespec).
XSEND traverses the directory tree indicated by the path and sends all files
matching the filespec to another computer. To send an entire drive (desktop)
from one OS/2 machine to another:
Place the remote PC's C-Kermit into server mode.
Issue the REMOTE SET FILE TYPE LABELED command to the local PC's Kermit.
Change the current working directory on the remote machine to where you
want the files to be sent by giving a REMOTE CD command.
Issue an XSEND command on the local PC.
The entire directory tree will be replicated on the remote system including
the Extended Attributes.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4.11. File Transfer Hints and Tips ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Some communication software claims to implement sliding windows, but does so
incorrectly. If sliding window transfers fail, set C-Kermit's window size to
the smallest one that works, for example:
SET WINDOW 1
SET FILE COLLISION UPDATE has the following peculiarity: On FAT (i.e. DOS) file
systems, a file's date/time is recorded with a granularity of 2 seconds,
whereas on most other kinds of file systems (UNIX, VMS, OS/2 HPFS, etc), it is
recorded to at least the exact second. Thus when OS/2 C-Kermit records the
timestamp of an incoming file, the "one's place" of its time is truncated. If
it was an odd number, therefore, it will be one second "older" than the
date/time of the original file. Downloading the same file again with SET FILE
COLLISION UPDATE would result in a second, unnecessary transfer of the file,
since the remote file would appear to be newer than the local file. Therefore,
OS/2 C-Kermit, when making this comparison, will treat two times as equal if
(a) the local file's time is an even number, (b) the remote time is equal to
(of course) or exactly one second greater than the local time, and (c) the
local file system is FAT.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.5. New Client/Server Features ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Some new REMOTE commands and server functions are now available:
New REMOTE Commands
"WHATAMI" - Making Kermit GET more like FTP GET
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.5.1. New REMOTE Commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The following commands are new to edit 191:
REMOTE COPY filespec1 filespec2
Asks the remote server to make a copy of filespec1, calling it filespec2
The OS/2 C-Kermit server can execute this command too.
{ ENABLE, DISABLE } COPY
Enable or disable the server's execution of REMOTE COPY commands.
REMOTE RENAME filespec1 filespec2
Asks the remote server to make change the name of filespec1 to filespec2
The OS/2 C-Kermit server can execute this command too.
{ ENABLE, DISABLE } RENAME
Enable or disable the server's execution of REMOTE RENAME commands.
The following features were added in edit 190:
REMOTE PWD
Allows the client to ask for the server's current directory in
system-independent way. Formerly, this could only be done via system-
dependent REMOTE HOST commands. The response is displayed on the screen.
REMOTE SET FILE TYPE { TEXT, BINARY, LABELED }
The LABELED option has been added to this command in the VMS and OS/2
versions only. Also, the file type specified in this command also takes
effect locally. Previously, it was only sent to the server. Edit 190.
REMOTE QUERY { KERMIT, SYSTEM, USER } name
Asks the server to send the value of the variable of the given type that
has the given name. If the query succeeds, the value is displayed on your
screen and it is also stored in a local read-only Kermit variable,
\v(query) If the query fails, an error message is printed and the
\v(query) variable is set to the empty string.
In C-Kermit and MS-DOS Kermit, "KERMIT" variables are the \v(name) kind,
such as \v(time), \v(version), \v(date), etc. "SYSTEM" variables are DOS
or UNIX environment variables, such as PATH, USER, HOME, or VMS logical
names, etc. USER variables are everything else - \%a-z, \%1-9, and macro
names used as long variable names.
The name of a KERMIT or SYSTEM variable must be given in an
implementation-independent format without special syntax, e.g. TIME, DATE,
VERSION, PATH, USER, etc, rather than (say) \v(time), \$(PATH). However,
in most cases, case matters in system variables. The <name> of a USER
variable is given in the syntax of the server, e.g. \%a. Examples:
C-Kermit> remote query kermit time
13:25:18
C-Kermit> echo The server's time is: \v(query)
The server's time is: 13:25:18
C-Kermit>rem q k dir ; Note, abbreviations allowed.
/usr/olga/letters
C-Kermit>echo The server's current directory is: \v(query)
The server's current directory is: /usr/olga/letters
C-Kermit>rem q system USER
olga
C-Kermit>echo user = \v(query)
user = olga
REMOTE ASSIGN name [ value ]
Asks the server to assign the given value to the remote user variable
denoted by name. The value is fully evaluated LOCALLY before being sent
to the Kermit server. The maximum length for the value is governed by the
maximum negotiated packet length, i.e. the server's RECEIVE PACKET-LENGTH.
Synonym: REMOTE ASG.
Examples:
C-Kermit>remote assign \%a \v(time) ; Client's time to server's \%a
C-Kermit>remote query user \%a
13:41:18 ; This is the client's time
C-Kermit>rem asg myname Olga ; My name to server
To force a string corresponding to a local variable name to be sent
literally, use two backslashes:
C-Kermit>remote assign \%a \\v(time) ; "\v(time)" to server's \%a.
C-Kermit>remote query user \%a
13:41:18 ; This is the server's time.
C-Kermit>
You can disable and enable the server's handling of REMOTE QUERY and ASSIGN
with the commands:
DISABLE QUERY The server should not respond to REMOTE QUERY commands
DISABLE ASSIGN The server should not respond to REMOTE ASSIGN commands
ENABLE QUERY The server should respond to REMOTE QUERY commands
ENABLE ASSIGN The server should respond to REMOTE ASSIGN commands
By default, like all other ENABLE/DISABLE items, the initial state is ENABLEd.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.5.2. "WHATAMI" - Making Kermit GET more like FTP GET ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Those who are accustomed to using client/server applications such as FTP expect
that certain kinds of commands, when given to the client, will affect the
server correspondingly. Most notable among these commands (in FTP's case) are
those that set the transfer mode: BINARY, ASCII, etc.
In Kermit, however, the transfer mode has always been determined by the file
sender, a concept totally unrelated to the client/server distinction, and less
than obvious to most people. Furthermore, Kermit programs do not always have a
client/server relationship - there is also the send/receive arrangement.
C-Kermit 5A(190) and MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 implement a new "What Am I" feature,
which operates transparently to the user (i.e. there are no commands to control
it), and results in FTP-like operation when:
1. One Kermit program is in SERVER mode, the other is a client, AND:
2. Both Kermit programs support the WHATAMI feature. Currently, these are
limited to C-Kermit 5A(190), MS-DOS Kermit 3.14, and IBM Mainframe Kermit
4.3.1.
Presently, the WHATAMI feature affects only the GET command, and addresses the
following scenario:
1. User starts a Kermit server, giving it no special settings.
2. User tells the client to:
SET FILE TYPE BINARY
SET FILE NAMES LITERAL
GET cko190.zip
3. The file is transferred in text mode when the user expected a binary
transfer, and the name was converted even though the user wanted it not
to be changed.
At the beginning of any protocol transaction, the two Kermits exchange "What
Am I" information as part of the S or I packet data. This information
includes (a) whether I am a client or server; (b) my transfer mode (text or
binary); and (c) my file name handling (literal or converted).
Then, when the server receives a GET-command packet from the client, AND if
WHATAMI information has been successfully exchanged, then the server switches
its file transfer mode and file name handling to the client's corresponding
modes. Nothing special happens when files are sent TO the server, since this
works right anyway, using the previous mechanisms.
Hopefully this change will result in more pleasant surprises than unpleasant
ones. One Beta tester (a seasoned Kermit user), however, was unpleasantly
surprised when he sent the following commands from a client to a server:
REMOTE SET FILE TYPE BINARY
GET OOFA.ZIP
The file arrived in text mode because the client was in text mode. The user
was relying of the old rule, by which the file sender informs the file
receiver of the transfer mode via the attribute packet, but since the WHATAMI
exchange took place after the REMOTE SET, it changed the server's mode back to
text. To cure this situation, REMOTE SET FILE TYPE now sets the local file
transfer mode too.
Should all this sound confusing, remember that the WHATAMI feature (and the
other mechanisms for reconciling file transfer mode) make a difference only
when the sender and receiver's file transfer modes do not agree. The rules
can be summarized like this:
1. To be certain of the file transfer mode, give the same SET FILE TYPE
command to both Kermits (exception: when VMS C-Kermit is sending a file,
it determines the transfer mode for each file automatically).
In case you did not do this, and the transfer modes of the two Kermit programs
disagree when the file transfer starts:
2. If the file sender is VMS C-Kermit, it determines the file type
automatically unless its file type has been set to IMAGE or LABELED.
Otherwise:
3. If both Kermits have the WHATAMI feature, the client program's transfer
mode prevails. Otherwise:
4. If both Kermit programs have Attribute-packet capability, the sender will
inform the receiver of the transfer mode, and the receiver will switch to
the sender's transfer mode automatically. Otherwise:
5. The transfer proceeds with each Kermit program using the transfer mode
that the user has told it to use. This can result in mismatches, which
are usually not what was intended.
Since not all Kermit implementations - particularly those found in commercial
or shareware software packages - implement the WHATAMI feature or Attribute
packets, it is always safest to inform both Kermit programs of the transfer
mode prior to file transfer.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.6. International Character Sets ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Since Using C-Kermit was published:
Edit 189 of C-Kermit added support for Hebrew character sets.
Edit 190 added Hebrew terminal emulation to OS/2 C-Kermit.
Edit 190 added support for the Hewlett-Packard Roman8 character set.
Edit 191 added support for Russian terminal emulation.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.6.1. Hebrew Character Sets ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
C-Kermit 5A(189) has the following new commands for Hebrew file transfer:
SET TRANSFER CHARACTER-SET HEBREW-ISO: ISO 8859-8 Latin/Hebrew Alphabet
SET FILE CHARACTER-SET HEBREW-ISO: ISO 8859-8 Latin/Hebrew Alphabet
SET FILE CHARACTER-SET CP862: Hebrew PC Code Page
SET FILE CHARACTER-SET HEBREW-7: DEC 7-Bit (VT100) Hebrew
These commands work just like the corresponding commands for Cyrillic
character sets, described in Chapter 9 of Using C-Kermit When receiving
files, C-Kermit recognizes Hebrew files automatically if the file sender tags
the file as Hebrew in the Attribute packet, which the file sender should do if
it has been given the SET TRANSFER CHARACTER-SET HEBREW command; C-Kermit does
not, however, switch automatically to a Hebrew file character-set, so you must
choose one in advance if that's what you want. The tag is "I6/138" (these are
ISO registration numbers). When sending files in Hebrew mode, of course,
C-Kermit includes the same tag.
An invertible translation table between Latin/Hebrew and CP862 is used during
both terminal emulation and file transfer. The translation table between
Hebrew-7 and Latin/Hebrew, however, is not invertible because these character
sets are different sizes.
Here is an example of uploading a Hebrew file from a PC to UNIX. The PC
version is coded in the Hebrew PC code page, and the UNIX version is to be
stored in the 7-bit Hebrew character-set so it can be sent as network e-mail:
UNIX> set file character-set hebrew-7 ; I want 7-bit text for email
UNIX> receive ; Wait for the file.
Alt-X ; Escape back to the PC
OS/2> set file type text ; Make sure we are in text mode
OS/2> set file character-set cp862 ; File is in Hebrew PC code page
OS/2> set xfer character-set hebrew ; Send using ISO Latin/Hebrew
OS/2> send rab.oof ; Send the file
The file sender automatically tells the file receiver that the transfer
character-set is Hebrew.
The three Hebrew character sets are also available for use in C-Kermit's
TRANSLATE command, which translates a local file from one character-set to
another. Thus you can use C-Kermit to convert a local file from, say,
Latin/Hebrew to Hebrew-7.
C-Kermit's Hebrew file transfer features can be used in conjunction with
MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 and later (with which C-Kermit shares the same translation
tables to ensure consistent translations) and IBM Mainframe Kermit 4.2 or
later, which translates between Latin/Hebrew and IBM CECP 424 (the Hebrew
EBCDIC Country Extended Code Page). Hebrew character-set translation is
enabled during terminal emulation via the command:
SET TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET { HEBREW-ISO, HEBREW-7, CP862 } [ local-cset ]
The terminal character-set affects not only CONNECT mode, but also the session
log and the TRANSMIT command.
Please refer to the section on Hebrew Terminal Emulation for additional
details.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.6.2. The Hewlett Packard Roman8 Character Set ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
C-Kermit 5A(190) adds support for Hewlett Packard ROMAN8 as a file
character-set and a terminal character-set. This is an 8-bit character-set
roughly equivalent, but not identical, to Latin-1, and (of course) with
entirely different encoding. The translations between HP ROMAN8 and Latin-1
are invertible. Commands:
SET FILE CHARACTER-SET HP-ROMAN8
SET TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET HP-ROMAN8
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.7. Script Programming ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Script programming has been enhanced by the addition of commands, variables,
and functions.
New IF Commands
New \v() Variables
New \f() Functions
INPUT and OUTPUT Command Improvements
The New MINPUT Command
Other New or Improved Script Programming Commands
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.7.1. New IF Commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
IF DIRECTORY name succeeds if name is the name of a directory or a
file-structured device, fails otherwise. Edit 190.
IF NEWER file1 file2 compares modification (or creation) date/times of two
files, succeeds if first file is newer than second file. Edit 190.
IF REMOTE-ONLY succeeds if C-Kermit was started with the -R (uppercase)
command-line option, fails otherwise. This lets you advise C-Kermit that
you only intend to use it in remote mode (which rarely, if ever, applies
to OS/2 C-Kermit).
IF EQUAL, IF LLT, IF LGT string comparison commands, as of edit 190, allow the
use of braces around comparands that contain imbedded spaces, for example:
IF EQUAL \%a {sentence with four words} echo They are equal.
Prior to edit 190, constructions like this would cause a parse error (see
p.239, Using C-Kermit).
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.7.2. New \v() Variables ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The following built-in variables have been added since Using C-Kermit was
published:
\v(charset) C-Kermit's local character set. Use this (e.g.) in scripts
for deciding which character set to use when printing screen
messages.
\v(connection) When C-Kermit has made a SET LINE or SET HOST connection, this
variable tells the connection type: "serial", "tcp/ip_telnet",
"decnet_lat", "netbios", etc. If C-Kermit is in remote mode -
i.e. it has not made a connection to another computer - the
value of this variable is "remote".
\v(cps) gives speed in characters (bytes) per second of the most
recent file transfer. If a group of files was transferred,
the figure applies to the whole group.
\v(dialstatus) contains a numeric result code for the most recent DIAL
command:
-1 No DIAL command given yet
0 DIAL succeeded
1 Modem type not specified
2 Communication device not specified
3 Device can't be opened
4 Communication speed not specified
5 Hangup failure
6 Internal error (memory allocation, etc)
7 Device input/output error
8 DIAL TIMEOUT expired
9 Dialing interrupted by user
10 Modem not ready
11-19 (reserved)
20 Modem command error
21 Failure to initialize modem
22 Phone busy
23 No carrier
24 No dialtone
25 Ring (incoming call)
26 No answer
27 Disconnected
28 Answered by voice
29 Access denied, forbidden call
98 Unknown error
99 Unspecified failure detected by modem
\v(evaluate) result of most recent EVALUATE command.
\v(ftype) current FILE TYPE setting: "text" or "binary". In OS/2 and
VMS, also "labeled". In VMS only, also "image".
\v(keyboard) the keyboard model: "88", "101", or "122".
\v(modem) current modem type (SET MODEM value).
\v(parity) current PARITY setting: "even", "odd", "mark", "none", or
"space".
\v(newline) is the newline character or sequence appropriate to the
operating system where C-Kermit is running, for example
linefeed (\10) for UNIX, carriage return (\13) for OS-9,
carriage-return linefeed (\13\10) for OS/2.
\v(minput) a number telling which MINPUT search string was matched: 0 =
none of them; 1 = the first one, etc. (see section on MINPUT
below).
\v(rexx) (OS/2 32-bit only) the return value from the last REXX
command issued.
\v(rows) the number of rows (lines) on the console terminal / screen,
i.e. its length, -1 if unknown.
\v(cols) the number of columns on the console terminal / screen, i.e.
its width, -1 if unknown..
\v(terminal) terminal type, if known, otherwise "unknown".
\v(query) the result of most recent REMOTE QUERY command.
\v(space) number of free bytes on current storage device (OS/2 only).
\v(startup) (OS/2 only) Disk:Directory from which C-Kermit was started.
\v(sysid) Kermit system/OS code, from pp.275-278 of the Kermit book:
U8 = MS-DOS (and Windows)
U1 = UNIX
D7 = VMS
UD = OS-9
L3 = Amiga
A3 = Macintosh
UO = OS/2
F3 = AOS/VS
K2 = Atari ST
MV = Stratus VOS
etc...
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.7.3. New \f() Functions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The following functions were added since publication of Using C-Kermit:
\Fdate(filename) returns the modification (or creation) date of the given file
in "yyyymmdd hh:mm:ss" format, or else the empty string upon failure.
Edit 190.
\Freplace(s1,s2,s3). This function replaces all occurrences of the string s2
in the string s1 by the string s3. s1 and s2 must be at least one
character long. s3 can be omitted, in which case all occurrences of s2
are removed from s1. If s2 is omitted, s1 is returned unchanged.
Examples:
\freplace(oofa,o,O) = OOfa
\freplace(oofa,o,oo) = oooofa
\freplace(oofa,o) = fa
\freplace(oofa) = oofa
or (more practically for OS/2):
\freplace(\v(cmdfile),\\,/) ; replace back- by forward slashes
\Fsize(filename) tells the size, in characters (bytes), of the given file.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.7.4. INPUT and OUTPUT Command Improvements ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As of edit 190, the INPUT and OUPUT commands are buffered, which results in
greater speed of execution.
The new command:
SET OUTPUT PACING number
causes C-Kermit to pause for (at least) the indicated number of milliseconds
(thousandths of a second) between each character in the OUTPUT string. Use
this option when OUTPUT'ing characters to a device that can't receive
characters at the full communication speed without losing or garbling them. The
default OUTPUT PACING is 0, i.e. no pauses. Display with SHOW SCRIPTS. Edit
189. As of edit 190, the OUTPUT command string interprets \N as an indication
to send a NUL (ASCII 0).
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.7.5. The New MINPUT Command ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The new command, MINPUT ("multiple input") is a version of the INPUT command
that looks for more than one string. Syntax:
MINPUT sec [ string1 [ string2 [ string3 [ ... ] ] ] ]
Strings are separated by spaces. If any of the search strings is encountered
within the timeout interval, the command succeeds and the \v(minput) variable
is set to the number of the string that was found: 1, 2, 3, etc. If none of
the search strings is found, the command times out, fails, and \v(minput) is
set to 0. All SET INPUT paramaters apply - SET INPUT CASE, etc. Example:
minput 30 Login: Username: Ready
if success goto LBL\v(minput)
end 1 Prompt didn't arrive.
looks for any of the three strings "Login:", "Username:", or "Ready" and then
goes to one of the labels "LBL1", "LBL2", or "LBL3", depending on which string
was matched.
To include a space in a string, enclose it in { braces }.
minput 20 {a b} c
This searches for either "a b" or "c".
As in the regular INPUT and REINPUT commands, leading and trailing spaces are
stripped from each search string unless it is enclosed in { braces }. Example:
minput 20 { abc } {{ def }} ghi
searches for " abc ", "{ def }", or "ghi".
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.7.6. Other New or Improved Script Programming Commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
EVALUATE arithmetic-expression
The new EVALUATE command evaluates arithmetic expressions for you,
printing the answer. It is exactly like the \feval() function described
in the book, but for interactive use: you can type the expression
directly, and the answer is printed, e.g.:
C-Kermit> evaluate 1+1
2
C-Kermit> eval 6!
720
C-Kermit> def \%a (7 + 8)
C-Kermit> ev (1 + 2) * (\%a - 3)
36
FORWARD label
Like GOTO, except the label search begins at the current position in the
macro or command file, rather than at the beginning. It will not find
labels that have already been passed. The major use for a command like
this would be to improve the performance of script programs that contain a
lot of forward GOTOs, especially when that program is a command file that
will be executed from a diskette. This is obviously not good programming
practice - since such programs can easily break of blocks of code are
moved around - but then neither are GOTOs themselves. If the FORWARD
label search fails in the current macro or TAKE file, the search continues
in the forward direction only in superior macros macros and TAKE files.
Note: The FORWARD command has been used extensively in the CKERMIT.INI
file beginning with C-Kermit 5A(190), resulting in a dramatic decrease in
startup time.
GETC variable-name [ prompt-string ]
The new GETC command (edit 190) lets a script program prompt the user to
type a single character. Example:
GETC \%a Press any key to continue:
The character is stored in the given variable.
WRITE-LINE file text
This is exactly like the WRITE command, which is used to send the text to
the specified file (FILE, SCREEN, PACKET-LOG, etc). The difference is
that WRITE-LINE always formats the output text as a line, or record,
appropriate to the underlying operating system's file format. This allows
Kermit script programs to create text files in a system-independent
fashion. Synonym: WRITELN. WR, WRI, and WRIT are still accepted as
abbrevitions for WRITE. Also see the \v(newline) variable. Edit 190.
COPY oldfilename newfilename
Makes a new copy of the file. Edit 191.
RENAME oldfilename newfilename
The second argument (normally the new name for the file) is allowed to be
a directory name (or, in OS/2, a device and directory name), in which case
the file is moved to the given (device and) directory, keeping its
original name. Edit 190.
RETURN and END
These commands may now be given, with the expected results, from within
the command-lists of FOR, WHILE, or XIF commands. Edit 190.
ASK and ASKQ
These commands now allow question mark and backslash to be entered just
like any other text character. Prior to edit 190, question mark would
make a help message pop up, and backslash would fulfill its normal
function of introducting a variable or quoting a special character.
However, these commands are unlikely ever to be used by somebody who will
reply to a question with a Kermit variable name and expect it to be
evaluated. Nor should they be expected to "quote" question marks. This
change makes for smoother dialogs between Kermit scripts and users, and it
also allows users to type DOS-like filenames such as C:\TEMP\OOFA.TXT,
which could not otherwise be entered except by doubling each backslash.
However, script writers should note that the mere fact that a DOS path
name can be entered into a variable via:
ask \%f { Please type the DOS path name: }
Please type the DOS path name: c:\123\files\widgets.wks
does not mean that the resulting variable can be used bare and
unprotected. For example:
send foo.bar \%f
will not do what you think, because the SEND command will evaluate \%f
"too much" (in this case "\123" becomes becomes "{", i.e. ASCII character
number 123, and \files looks like the beginning of a Kermit function, and
results in a syntax error). The needed protection comes from
\fcontents():
send foo.bar \fcontents(\%f)
which is replaced by variable's definition ("contents") but does not
evaluate it any further.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.7.7. Using REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As of edit 190, OS/2 C-Kermit (32-bit version only) has a REXX programming
interface consisting of the single command, REXX. REXX <command> executes the
given REXX command, for example:
REXX SAY "Hello"
or:
REXX RETURN "Goodbye"
or:
REXX CALL filename [ text ]
which executes a REXX program from the given file. The text, if any, is passed
to the REXX program, where it is available as ARG(1).
A REXX command or program invoked via C-Kermit's REXX command can also execute
C-Kermit commands from within REXX procedures that are invoked via C-Kermit's
REXX CALL command, by enclosing them in single quotes, for example:
'set parity none'
'return \v(parity)'
say rc
The RETURN value from the REXX command or program is available in the C-Kermit
variable \v(rexx). Set this by including a RETURN <value> command in your REXX
command or program.
Q: Why would you want to use REXX from within C-Kermit?
A: Many reasons:
Easier-to-use math functions
Running a REXX program without the overhead of starting a command shell
C-Kermit access to additional OS/2 specific functionality (e.g. Create
WPS objects, perform directory searchs, ...)
Add your own functions to C-Kermit's script language
There are three types of functionality provided in the C-Kermit/REXX
interface:
1. Ability to execute a REXX command line.
2. Ability to execute a REXX command file.
3. Ability to call C-Kermit commands from a REXX program that is executing
under C-Kermit.
Let's say you want to execute a one-line REXX program from within C-Kermit.
You would use the new C-Kermit "REXX" command. The format of the command is:
rexx REXX-command
where REXX-command is everything after the keyword REXX to the end of the
line. A simple example:
C-Kermit> rexx say "hello"
executes the REXX command SAY with the parameter "hello", which prints the
word "hello" on your screen.
Another example, returning a value from REXX:
C-Kermit> rexx return 4 * 4
the REXX command "return 4 * 4" calculates the value "16" and returns it to
C-Kermit. C-Kermit stores the return value from the last REXX command in
\v(rexx):
C-Kermit> echo \v(rexx)
16
Let's say you want to execute a series of REXX commands, but you don't want to
create a REXX command file:
C-Kermit> rexx say "hello"\13 return 0
This prints the string "hello" and then returns the value "0" to C-Kermit.
Notice that \13 (Carriage Return, Ctrl-M) was placed between the commands.
This is necessary because REXX expects to find each command separated by a
return character just as if it was being read from a file.
To execute a REXX command file, use:
C-Kermit> rexx call oofa.cmd
where "oofa.cmd" is the name of your REXX command file.
Now let's say you want to gain access to a C-Kermit variable value from within
a REXX program, change a C-Kermit setting, or execute a C-Kermit command. You
could alter your program so it is called in separate parts from a C-Kermit
TAKE file or macro. But there is a better way. Just include the C-Kermit
command in your REXX program. For example, you want to set Kermit's parity
from within your REXX program:
/* Beginning of REXX program file */
set parity "none"
Let's say you want to set a REXX variable to the value of a C-Kermit variable:
'return \v(parity)'
parity = rc
Notice the single quotes around and the "return" command before the C-Kermit
variable statement. REXX passes the quoted statement to C-Kermit for
evaluation. C-Kermit interprets the command and returns to REXX the value of
the parity variable. This value is then stored in the REXX special variable
RC. RC stores the return value of all non-REXX commands. The next statement
assigns the value of REXX variable RC to the REXX variable parity.
Q: What happens if you create a REXX program file that contains C-Kermit
commands and you try to execute it outside of the C-Kermit environment?
A: A Syntax Error. This is because the C-Kermit commands are only available
when C-Kermit is executing the REXX command file.
Q: Can C-Kermit be used with REXX programming tools such as Watcom's VX-REXX?
A: Yes and No. C-Kermit and VX-REXX work together too. To run a VX-REXX
program from within C-Kermit, first generate a .VRM file and then invoke
it with the C-Kermit REXX CALL command. However, the VX-REXX program is
not allowed to make Presentation Manager calls, because VIO applications
(like C-Kermit) can't do that.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.8. External Protocols ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
External Protocol packages supporting file transfer protocols other than Kermit
are now supported in several ways.
The REDIRECT Command
New Macros for invoking external protocols
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.8.1. The REDIRECT Command ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Syntax: REDIRECT command [ arguments... ]
Synonym: <command [ arguments... ]
Edit 190. This command allows you to run another program from the C-Kermit
prompt, and have its standard input and output redirected to the SET LINE /
SET PORT connection.
It is useful for running "external protocols" over the C-Kermit connection
when you have made a connection to a computer or service that does not support
the Kermit protocol. REDIRECT works only with software that uses standard
input and output.
In OS/2 C-Kermit, the REDIRECT command works only for serial connections, and
not with network connections.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.8.2. New Macros ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The following new macro packages are available for calling external protocols
from OS/2 C-Kermit. They are for use with M2ZMODEM, P, CEXYZ/2, and similar
programs. To make these macros available, give a TAKE command for the
appropriate file:
P101.INI
P 1.01 is an external protocol package by Jyrki Salmi
<jytasa@jyu.fi> in Finland providing Xmodem, Ymodem, Ymodem-G and
Zmodem send and receive capabilities on OS/2 via serial connections,
available from most major ftp sites, bulletin board services and
CompuServe.
P200.INI
P 2.05 is a newer release of P offering serial, IBM TCP/IP, and
Named Pipe connections, available from the same sources. Version
2.05 of P was designed with C-Kermit in mind, and meshes naturally
with C-Kermit's serial and network connection methods. The P200.INI
file provides several macro variables which may be redefined at the
C-Kermit> prompt to alter the buffer sizes and receive directory.
M2ZMODEM.INI
OS/2 M2ZMODEM, an external protocol package providing Xmodem,
Ymodem, and Zmodem send and receive capabilities on OS/2 via serial
connections. M2ZMODEM is a shareware program. Version 2.12 costs
US$50. M2ZMODEM is available from various ftp sites, Bulletin
Boards, CompuServe or directly from the author:
M Wahlgren Software Dev.
Kransen 4E
S-416 72 Gothenburg
SWEDEN
Fax: +46 31 196417
Phone: +46 31 196074
CEXYZ2.INI
CEXYZ/2 is shareware from Cutting Edge Computing, POB 90476, Burton,
MI 48509, USA.
Each of these command files defines the following macros:
rz Receive with Zmodem protocol.
sz Send with Zmodem protocol.
ry Receive with Ymodem protocol.
sy Send with Ymodem protocol.
rg Receive with Ymodem-G protocol.
sg Send with Ymodem-G protocol.
rx Receive with Xmodem protocol.
sx Send with Xmodem protocol.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.9. New Command-Line Options ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Command-line options are commands that can be given to C-Kermit on the same
line with which you invoke it, for example:
kermit -s oofa.txt -p s
Command-line help and error messages have been improved, and the following
command-line options or new features have been added:
-a name ("as-name" for a transferred file) now allows "name" to be a device
or directory name, when used in conjunction with '-r' (RECEIVE), to
specify a device and/or directory into which all incoming files are to be
stored under the names they were sent with. If "name" is not a device or
directory name, the (first) incoming file is stored under the given name,
as before. Edit 190.
-D n (where n is a number) is equivalent to the interactive command SET DELAY
n (has no use in OS/2 C-Kermit).
-N n (where n is a number) is the NETBIOS adapter number to be used with
NETBIOS connections (32-bit version only).
-R advises C-Kermit that it will be used in remote mode only. Of no use in
OS/2 C-Kermit, which always operates in local mode.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.10. Network Connections ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
C-Kermit for OS/2 now contains a generous selection of networking options.
Support is provided for the most commonly used networking protocols, including:
TCP/IP
NETBIOS
Named Pipes
DEC PATHWORKS
LAN modem servers
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.10.1. TCP/IP Networking ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
TCP/IP networking was added in edit 189, exactly as documented in Using
C-Kermit (Chapters 3 and 4, etc) for the UNIX, VMS, and AOS/VS versions of
C-Kermit. C-Kermit's TCP/IP support works with:
IBM TCP/IP 1.2.1 (C-Kermit edit 189 and later)
IBM TCP/IP 2.0 (edit 190)
IBM OS/2 WARP Internet Access Kit (IAK) (edit 190)
Essex Systems TCP/2 (edit 189 and later)
FTP Software's PC/TCP for OS/2 (edit 190)
IP-Switch Vantage IP (edit 190)
TCP/IP support is not yet available for Novell LAN Workplace for OS/2. If a
TCP/IP package includes an IBM- or TCP/2-compatible TCPIPDLL.DLL library, then
C-Kermit should work with it. Support for other OS/2 TCP/IP packages will be
added in future releases. These can be supplied in the form of small DLLs
that can be installed after the fact, which C-Kermit 5A(190) will load
automatically if you define the environment variable CKTCPIPDLL to indicate
the pathname.
Commands:
SET NETWORK TCP/IP
SHOW NETWORK
SET HOST [ ip-name-or-address [ service ] ]
SET HOST *:port
TELNET [ <p-name-or-address [ service ] ]
<esc-char>I or \Ktn_ip in CONNECT mode (Interrupt Process)
<esc-char>A or \Ktn_ayt in CONNECT mode (Are You There?)
<esc-char>B or \Kbreak in CONNECT mode (Break)
etc, the same as for UNIX, (Open)VMS, and AOS/VS.
as described on pages 67-74 of Using C-Kermit.
The SET HOST * port command is new to edit 191. It allows OS/2 C-Kermit to
accept incoming TCP/IP connections on the given port, which should be a number
other than 23. Once a connection has been made:
SERVER mode may be used for remote file transfers;
CONNECT mode may be used for chat operations; or
scripts/macros may be executed allowing an endless number of
possibilities.
In the UTIL subdirectory of the C-Kermit directory, you'll find two programs
called TELNET and TELNETPM.EXE. These are "stubs" that let OS/2 applications
such as Web Explorer/2 use C-Kermit in place of Telnet, by accepting Telnet
command-line arguments (such as a hostname), translating them to C-Kermit
syntax, and invoking C-Kermit with them. This way, any applications that
think they are invoking TELNET or TELNETPM will actually be starting up
C-Kermit to do the same thing, which has certain advantages (see below). If
you would like to set your system up this way, just put TELNET.EXE and
TELNETPM.EXE in a directory that is higher up in your OS/2 PATH than then real
TELNET and TELNETPM programs.
The SHOW NETWORK command tells which TCP/IP interface DLL was loaded, if any.
If you think that a TCP/IP DLL should have been loaded, but it was not, you
can find out why from C-Kermit's debug log:
[C:\MYDIR] ckermit -d -Y
See messages...
C-Kermit> exit
[C:\MYDIR] more < debug.log
Hint: Remember that C-Kermit's TCP/IP interface DLLs must be kept in the same
directory as C-Kermit itself (as noted in the READ.ME file, and as done by the
install procedure).
As of edit 191, the TELNET feature also has an added "window-size" negotiation
capability, which lets C-Kermit automatically inform the TELNET server of its
screen dimensions (if the remote TELNET server also supports this capability,
known as NAWS, "negotiate about window size", use of which is negotiated
automatically).
On a TCP/IP TELNET connection, you should normally have PARITY set to NONE and
FLOW-CONTROL also set to NONE. If file transfer does not work with these
settings (for example, because the remote TELNET server only gives a 7-bit
data path), use SET PARITY SPACE. Do not use SET PARITY MARK, EVEN, or ODD on
a TELNET connection - it interferes with TELNET protocol.
TELNET sessions are treated just like serial communications sessions as far as
"terminal bytesize" and "command bytesize" are concerned. If you need to view
and/or enter 8-bit characters during a TELNET session, you must tell C-Kermit
to SET TERMINAL BYTESIZE 8, SET COMMAND BYTESIZE 8, and SET PARITY NONE.
Edit 191 supports TELNET "binary mode", meaning that C-Kermit can negotiate
binary mode with the TELNET server. This is rather complicated, obscure, and
confusing, and so you should not even bother to read more about this unless
you are having trouble with your TELNET connections.
A TELNET connection is in Network Virtual Terminal (NVT) mode unless binary
mode is negotiated. According to the TELNET specification, NVT mode means
only 7-bit characters are allowed, and carriage returns must be sent as CRLFs.
BINARY mode is generally taken to mean that 8-bit characters are allowed, and
carriage returns are sent as-is. Unfortunately, there is little agreement
among TELNET server implementations about just what binary mode means, nor,
for that matter, how carriage returns are to be handled in binary more -- or
for that matter, in NVT mode. C-Kermit 5A(191) lets you adjust to every
conceivable (mis)interpretation of the rules using the following commands:
SET TELNET BINARY-MODE { ACCEPTED, REFUSED, REQUESTED } ACCEPTED means "I will
enter binary mode if asked." REFUSED means "I will refuse to enter binary
mode if asked." REQUESTED means "I will actively request the TELNET
server to enter binary mode." REFUSED is the default, and works in most
situations. Some TELNET servers, however, might request binary mode, and
if it is refused, certain types of file transfers or other operations
might not work, or 8-bit characters might not be displayed (or sent) in
CONNECT mode. In such cases, try logging out, then telling C-Kermit to
"set telnet binary accepted", logging in again, and trying the same
operations again. (By the way, in order to see and send 8-bit characters,
you also must have PARITY set to NONE and TERMINAL BYTESIZE set to 8.) If
you still have trouble with 8-bit characters or file transfer, then try
"set telnet binary requested".
SET TELNET NEWLINE-MODE { BINARY, NVT } { ON, OFF, RAW } This command was
"strengthened" in edit 191 to allow the handling of carriage returns to be
specified separately for binary mode and NVT mode. The default is ON
(send CR as CRLF) in NVT mode and RAW (send CR as CR) in binary mode. If
you experience troubles that seem related to carriage returns -- for
example, screen lines overprinting each other, double spacing when there
should be single spacing, failure of the host application to execute
commands after you press the Enter key, etc, then escape back to the
C-Kermit prompt, "show net" to see if your connection is in NVT or binary
mode, and then try various TELNET NEWLINE settings for the indicated
connection mode.
When TELNET'ing into an OS/2 system, you should set your terminal type to
ANSI. This is particularly important if you are going to use C-Kermit or
TELNET on OS/2 system to establish a second connection out from the PC that
you have TELNET'ed into.
Users of IP-Switch Vantage IP may notice a brief TRANSMISSION BLOCKED message
after typing the first character upon entering terminal mode. The blocked
transmission does not result in any data loss or performance degradation as it
only occurs only on the first typed character.
If you SET TERMINAL DEBUG ON or SET DEBUG SESSION (same thing), TELNET
protocol negotiations will be displayed on your screen. But most of the
interesting negotiations happen at the time the SET HOST or TELNET command is
given, before CONNECT mode is entered, so you won't see them on your screen.
However, you can still capture them in the debug log ("log debug").
Q: Why use Kermit on a TCP/IP connection rather than TELNET and FTP?
A: Many reasons: Unlike TELNET, C-Kermit can also transfer files. C-Kermit
has a script programming language, a powerful key mapping facility, screen
rollback, color selection, and many other amenities lacking in most TELNET
programs. It also has a unique ability to translate character sets, both
during terminal emulation and file transfer. Many services are coming on
the Internet which do not provide FTP, but do provide Kermit file
transfer.
Q: Why is Kermit file transfer over a TCP/IP connection slower than FTP?
A: Because the Kermit program on the remote end of the connection is probably
not running directly on a TCP socket, but rather running underneath a
TELNET server, usually on a pseudoterminal and under a login shell, with
the vast amounts of per-character overhead all of that implies. Also
Kermit does more than FTP, especially when transferring in text mode.
Still, you can get reasonably fast transfer rates by using large window
sizes, long packets, and control-character unprefix (but remember not to
unprefix character 255!).
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.10.1.1. SOCKS 4.2 Client Support ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As of edit 191, C-Kermit provides support for SOCKS 4.2 servers when using IBM
TCP/IP 2.0, IBM OS/2 WARP IAK, or a compatible protocol stack. SOCKS is one
popular means of implementing a firewall between a private network and the
Internet.
C-Kermit shares the same SOCKS environment variables as IBM Gopher. It also
supports the use of local SOCKS configuration files.
To specify the default SOCKS Server, add SET SOCKS_SERVER=<hostname> to your
CONFIG.SYS file.
If you must use a SOCKS Distributed Name Server, add SET SOCKS_NS=<hostname> to
your CONFIG.SYS file.
If you must use a specific <username> with your SOCKS server, be sure to add
SET USER=<username> to your CONFIG.SYS file. Otherwise, "os2user" will be used
by default.
The SOCKS configuration file must be placed in the directory pointed to by the
ETC environment variable as declared in your CONFIG.SYS file. The name should
be SOCKS.CONF. On a FAT file system, use SOCKS.CNF.
The format of the lines in the SOCKS configuration file are as follows:
# comments
deny [*=userlist] dst_addr dst_mask [op port]
direct [*=userlist] dst_addr dst_mask [op port]
sockd [@=serverlist] [*=userlist] dst_addr dst_mask [op port]
op must be one of 'eq', 'neq', 'lt', 'gt', 'le', or 'ge'. dst_addr, dst_mask,
and port may be either numeric or name equivalents.
C-Kermit ignores the [*=userlist] and [@=serverlist] fields. Matches are
determined on a first match not a best match basis. Addresses for which no
match is found default to "sockd".
For completeness: Fields in square brackets are optional. The optional
@=serverlist field with a 'sockd' line specifies the list of SOCKS servers the
client should try (in the given order) instead of the default SOCKS server.
If the @=serverlist part is omitted, then the default SOCKS server is used.
Commas are used in the userlist and serverlist as separators, no white spaces
are allowed.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.10.1.2. Using C-Kermit to Make SLIP Connections ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Starting with edit 191, C-Kermit can be used instead of SLIPTERM for starting
SLIP connections, providing more extensive serial device and terminal emulation
support than that included in SLIPTERM.
Once the SLIP driver has begun execution, run C-Kermit and select port SLIPCOMx
as your serial port, where x is the serial port in use for the SLIP connection.
C-Kermit will obtain access to the port from the SLIP driver and you may then
use the port as necessary to log into your SLIP server and start a SLIP
session. All of C-Kermit's features and capabilities are available for use
over the serial line while C-Kermit has take control of the serial port. Upon
exiting C-Kermit, the port is returned to the SLIP driver which will once again
control the port, handling all SLIP traffic.
Note that C-Kermit should not be used as part of an attachment script, which is
started by the SLIP driver itself, but should be run as a separate command
after the SLIP driver is started. Should scripting be required, you can use
Kermit scripts (including the OS/2 C-Kermit REXX support as necessary) to
perform the same tasks as an attachment script.
As an example here are the relevant parts of three files for connecting to an
unspecified host:
CKSLIP.CMD
/* SLIP connect command file using C-Kermit instead of SLIPTERM */
'start slip -com1 -mtu 1500 -speed 57600 -rtscts -vj'
'slipwait'
'ckermit g:\ckermit\ckslip.ini'
CKSLIP.INI
; SLIP Connect script for C-Kermit 5a(191) using BOOTP protocol
set exit warning off ; make sure we can exit without a prompt
set input case ignore ; ignore case when searching input fron host
access ckslip ; use access macro to connect to host
if failure goto fail ; if access failed, terminate SLIP attempt
input 5 username ; wait for username prompt
if failure goto fail ; if it doesn't arrive, terminate SLIP attempt
output USERNAME\13 ; send Username to host
input 5 password ; wait for password prompt
if failure goto fail ; if it doesn't arrive, terminate SLIP attempt
output PASSWORD\13 ; send Password to host
input 5 slip ; wait for prompt to issue SLIP command
if failure exit 1 ; if it doesn't arrive, terminate SLIP attempt
output slip\13 ; send SLIP command to host
set port 0 ; release the port back to the SLIP driver
run bootp sl0 ; execute bootp to setup IP addresses, DNS, etc.
exit 0 ; exit with success code
CKERMIT.KSD
ckslip nologin xxxxx call hayes slipcom1 57600 555-5555
If your host does not support BOOTP protocol, then you must use the INPUT
command and the \v(input) variable with the ifconfig.exe program to setup your
SLIP adapter configuration.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.10.1.3. Using C-Kermit to Make PPP Connections ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Starting with edit 191, C-Kermit can be used instead of SLATTACH for starting
PPP connections, providing terminal emulation support which is not available
when using SLATTACH.
Once the PPP driver has begun execution, run C-Kermit and select port PPPCOMx
as your serial port, where x is the serial port in use for the PPP connection.
C-Kermit will obtain access to the port from the PPP driver and you may then
use the port as necessary to log into your PPP server and start a PPP session.
All of C-Kermit's features and capabilities are available for use over the
serial line while C-Kermit has take control of the serial port. Upon exiting
C-Kermit, the port is returned to the PPP driver which will once again control
the port, handling all PPP traffic.
C-Kermit may be executed as part of a PPP "connect" parameter. As an example
here are the relevant parts of three files for connecting to an unspecified
host:
CKPPP.CMD
/* PPP connect command file using C-Kermit instead of SLATTACH */
'ppp com1 57600 rtscts defaultroute connect "ckermit g:\ckermit\ckppp.ini"'
CKPPP.INI
; PPP Connect script for C-Kermit 5a(191)
set exit warning off ; make sure we can exit without a prompt
set input case ignore ; ignore case when searching input fron host
access ckppp ; use access macro to connect to host
if failure exit 1 ; if access failed, terminate PPP attempt
input 5 username ; wait for username prompt
if failure exit 1 ; if it doesn't arrive, terminate PPP attempt
output USERNAME\13 ; send Username to host
input 5 password ; wait for password prompt
if failure exit 1 ; if it doesn't arrive, terminate PPP attempt
output PASSWORD\13 ; send Password to host
input 5 ppp ; wait for prompt to issue PPP command
if failure exit 1 ; if it doesn't arrive, terminate PPP attempt
output ppp\13 ; send PPP command to host
exit 0 ; exit and give success code to PPP.EXE
CKERMIT.KSD
ckppp nologin xxxxx call hayes pppcom1 57600 555-5555
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.10.2. Using Named Pipes ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
As of version 5A(190), OS/2 C-Kermit (32-bit) supports NAMED PIPES as an
interprocess communication mechanism. Named Pipes support for local processes
is built into OS/2. In order to use them to communicate across a local area
network both computers must have installed Named Pipe network support software.
Each computer may be a Client, a Server or both. Each server on a particular
network has a unique Named Pipe Server Name assigned as part of the Named Pipe
software installation.
C-Kermit has been tested with the following products:
IBM LAN Server Requester (Client) to LAN Server (Server)
Microsoft LAN Manager Requester (Client) to LAN Manager (Server)
Novell NetWare Requester (Client) to Novell NetWare Requester (Server)
To have a named pipe connection connection between two Kermit programs, one
Kermit program must be the "server" and the other must be the "client". The
server is the one that is started first, and which waits for a connection to
come in from the client. The server is started this way:
SET NETWORK NAMED-PIPE [ pipename ]
SET HOST *
If the pipename is omitted from the SET NETWORK NAMED-PIPE command, a pipename
of "kermit" is used. "SET HOST *" means to wait for a connection to come in
from another Kermit program.
Then the client makes a connection to the server:
SET NETWORK NAMED-PIPE [ pipename ]
SET HOST servername
where pipename is the pipename used by the server you want to communicate with
(default "kermit"), and servername is the name of the server on the network.
If you specify a servername of "." (period), this means your own computer; you
can set up such local connections even if you don't have Named Pipes network
support installed, e.g. between two copies of C-Kermit running in different
windows.
Both pipename and servername are case-independent, and can contain spaces.
There is no particular restriction on what Kermit commands can be used on a
named-pipe connection. Here are some useful scenarios:
1. The named-pipe server is in Kermit SERVER mode. Clients can perform
SEND, GET, REMOTE, FINISH, and similar commands.
2. Both Kermit programs are in CONNECT mode, allowing two network users to
"chat" with each other. Each user should give the following commands:
set terminal echo local
set terminal cr-display crlf
connect
To close a named-pipe connection, give the HANGUP command (or the SET HOST
command, specifying no hostname) to either the client or the server.
The C-Kermit named-pipe server can also wait for a client to connect. After
the client disconnects, the connection will be reset to await the next client.
This allows for the use of kermit "server" as a pseudo-FTP site for those
without IBM TCP/IP.
Note: When using Named Pipes with LAN Server or LAN Manager, only the machine
which has the Network Server software is capable of successfully using the SET
HOST * command. This is because the client network requesters do not
implement the server side of the named-pipe network redirection.
Novell NetWare Requester for OS/2, on the other hand, implements both the
named-pipes client and server code on the client workstation and does not
require the existence of a Network server to operate.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.10.3. Using NETBIOS ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Added in edit 190: NETBIOS support, both the original NETBIOS 3.0 (NETAPI)
interface and the newer NETBIOS 4.0 (ACSBNET) interface. C-Kermit has been
tested with the following products:
NETBIOS 4.0 interface (ACSNETB.DLL):
IBM LAN Adapter and Protocol Support (LAPS) as found in:
IBM Network Transport Services/2
IBM LAN Distance
IBM Communication Manager/2
IBM LAN Server 3.x
IBM LAN Requester 3.x
NETBIOS 3.0 interface (NETAPI.DLL):
Microsoft LAN Manager Requester
IBM Extended Services 1.x
IBM LAN Server 2.x Requester
Novell NetWare 2.x Requester
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.10.3.1. NETBIOS Client and Server ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
To have a NETBIOS connection connection between two Kermit programs, one Kermit
program must the "server" and the other must be the "client". The server is
the one that is started first, and which waits for a connection to come in from
the client. The server is started this way:
SET NETWORK NETBIOS [ localname ]
SET HOST *
If the localname is omitted from the SET NETWORK NETBIOS command, then if a
HOSTNAME environment variable is defined, that is used; otherwise if a
SYSTEMNAME environment variable is defined, that is used; otherwise "kermit" is
used (the HOSTNAME variable is created by TCP/IP installation, SYSTEMNAME by
DECnet PATHWORKS installation; if you don't have TCP/IP or PATHWORKS installed,
you can add a "SET HOSTNAME=blah" or "SET SYSTEMNAME=blah" statement to your
CONFIG.SYS file). The localname must be unique on the NETBIOS network; if not,
the SET NETWORK command will fail.
"SET HOST *" means to wait for a connection to come in from another Kermit
program.
Then the client makes a connection to the server:
SET NETWORK NETBIOS [ localname ]
SET HOST servername
where localname is the new name used to identify the client Kermit session, and
servername is the localname of the server's Kermit session.
The localname and servername are case-dependent, and can contain spaces.
There is no particular restriction on what Kermit commands can be used on a
NETBIOS connection. Here are some useful scenarios:
1. The NETBIOS server is in Kermit SERVER mode. Clients can perform SEND,
GET, REMOTE, FINISH, and similar commands.
2. Both Kermit programs are in CONNECT mode, allowing two network users to
"chat" with each other. Each user should give the following commands:
set terminal echo local
set terminal cr-display crlf
connect
To close a NETBIOS connection, give the HANGUP command (or the SET HOST
command, specifying no hostname) to either the client or the server.
Unlike with TCP/IP connections, the C-Kermit NETBIOS server can wait for a
client to connect. After the client disconnects, the connection will be reset
to await the next client. This allows for the use of kermit "server" as a
pseudo-FTP site for those without IBM TCP/IP.
NETBIOS is the preferred protcol to use when transfering files with MS-DOS
Kermit or C-Kermit for OS/2 in a peer-to-peer local area network. NETBIOS is
supported over most networking protocols including: Netbeui, IPX, IP, and
LU6.2. In addition, it has lower overhead than all other OS/2 implemented
networking protocols.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.10.3.2. NETBIOS Configuration ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Each C-Kermit session requires the following resources from the NETBIOS
provider: 1 Name, 32 Commands, and 1 session. For example, if you wish to have
three C-Kermit sessions running simultaneously in Server mode, NETBIOS must be
configured to support at least 3 Names, 96 Commands, and 3 sessions.
If the number of available NETBIOS commands is unavailable, NETBIOS support for
the current C-Kermit session will not be installed.
The default settings for IBM and NetWare NETBIOS implementations are:
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The maximum settings for IBM and NetWare NETBIOS implementations are:
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The method for modifying NETBIOS resources depends on the NETBIOS product; it
is normally done by executing the configuration program (LAPS, INSTALL, ...) or
by manually modifying the configuration files and restarting OS/2.
It is possible to have two or more products each providing NETBIOS services by
running multiple NETBIOS protocol stacks. All products which use LAPS may be
mixed together. And LAPS may be mixed with up to one product which uses the
NETAPI.DLL product. However, there are limitations. In particular, you can
not successfully run Novell NETBIOS support with IBM Extended Services.
The most common dual stack combination is of IBM Netbeui (LAPS) and Novell
IPXNB (NetWare Requester). The installation procedure for each package is
completely ignorant of the other protocol. The dual stack requires that the
configuration files be manually modified with a text editor (e.g. E.EXE). The
NETBIOS configuration is defined by statements in two files: NET.CFG and
PROTOCOL.INI. These files contains statements defining how many NETBIOS Names,
Commands, and Sessions are available to each protocol stack. The settings for
each protocol stack must be consistent between the two files.
For both protocols to coexist the following section to the must be added to the
end of the PROTOCOL.INI file:
[NETBIOS]
DriverName=NETBIOS$
<virtual adapter>=<driver>,<physical adapter>,<sessions>,<commands>,<names>
<virtual adapter>=<driver>,<physical adapter>,<sessions>,<commands>,<names>
...
where:
<virtual adapter>
is ADAPTER0 through ADAPTER3. The adapter numbers must be used in
sequence.
<driver>
is either ipxnb$ for Novell or netbeui$ for IBM.
<physical adapter>
is almost always 0 since there is usually only one physical network
adapter in the machine.
<sessions>, <commands>, and <names>
must match the settings in NET.CFG (NetWare NETBIOS section) if <driver>
is IPXNB$; or PROTOCOL.INI (NETBEUI section) if <driver> is NETBEUI$.
Without this additional section in PROTOCOL.INI, only IBM Netbeui will be
available to C-Kermit. This section defines up to 4 virtual adapters (0-3),
each of which is assigned a specific NETBIOS protocol stack implementation.
C-Kermit allows you to choose which NETBIOS implementation you want to use by
using the '-N' (note uppercase) command-line option. To use the driver
assigned to ADAPTER1 in the [NETBIOS] section of PROTOCOL.INI use:
ckermit -N 1
The syntax of the option is:
-N adapter
where adapter is one of the virtual adapter numbers (default = 0).
It is important to know which NETBIOS protocol stack you are using as both
machines must be using the same stack type for them to successfully
communicate.
The following provide examples of valid [NETBIOS] sections in PROTOCOL.INI.
Example 1: Both IBM and Novell NETBIOS implementations and one physical
adapter. Novell NETBIOS is the default.
[NETBIOS]
DriverName=NETBIOS$
Adapter0=ipxnb$,0,48,128,16
Adapter1=netbeui$,0,48,255,16
Example 2: Both IBM and Novell NETBIOS implementations and one physical
adapter. IBM NETBIOS is the default.
[NETBIOS]
DriverName=NETBIOS$
Adapter0=netbeui$,0,48,255,16
Adapter1=ipxnb$,0,48,128,16
Example 3: Only Novell NETBIOS implementation and one physical adapter.
[NETBIOS]
DriverName=NETBIOS$
Adapter0=ipxnb$,0,48,128,16
Example 4: Both IBM and Novell NETBIOS implementations and two physical
adapters. IBM NETBIOS is the default. (Novell NETBIOS cannot be assigned to
two physical adapters.)
[NETBIOS]
DriverName=NETBIOS$
Adapter0=netbeui$,0,48,255,16
Adapter1=netbeui$,1,48,255,16
Adapter2=ipxnb$,0,48,128,16
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.10.4. Using DECnet PATHWORKS ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
DECnet LAT (Local Area Transport) support works in conjunction with DEC's
PATHWORKS For OS/2 product version 2.3 or later, which must be installed, and
LATCALLS.DLL must be in your LIBPATH. To make LAT connections from C-Kermit:
SET NETWORK DECNET
SET HOST hostname
and then use all of Kermit's communication features - terminal emulation, file
transfer, etc - in the same way you would on a serial or TCP/IP connection.
If you experience difficulties transferring files that contain 8-bit data, use
SET PARITY SPACE and/or use shorter packets. Reportedly, some character loss
will occur in the underlying PATHWORKS transport, and sometimes even random
disconnections; hopefully, this will be fixed in PATHWORKS 5.0.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.10.5. Using Asynchronous Communication Servers ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
There are two methods for using remote modems accessed via LAN server
(asynchronous communication server):
1. Map the remote port (modem) to a local port name (e.g. COM3) with a NET
USE command before starting Kermit, and then unmap it afterwards:
net use com3 \\server\modem
ckermit -l com3
net use com3 /d
2. Simply use the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) resource name as the
port name:
ckermit -l \\server\modem
Because backslash (\) is a special command character, use one of the following
forms at the C-Kermit prompt or in a command file or macro:
set line //server/modem
or:
set line \\\\server\\modem
or:
set command quoting off
set line \\server\modem
set command quoting on
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.10.6. Networking Hints and Tips ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The SET HOST command uses your current SET NETWORK type. For example:
SET NETWORK DECNET
SET HOST OOFA
will try to make a DECnet (PATHWORKS) LAT connection to DECnet node OOFA.
However, please be aware that a SET NETWORK command will fail if the given type
of network is not installed, or if (in the case of NETBIOS) the given name is
already in use. Thus a safer construction would be:
SET NETWORK NETBIOS OOFA
IF FAIL STOP 1 Can't access NETBIOS network
SET HOST MUPEEN
IF FAIL STOP 1 Can't make NETBIOS connection
The default network type (which is used if give a SET HOST command without
first giving a SET NETWORK command) depends on which network products you have
installed on your OS/2 system, chosen in this order of preference:
1. TCP/IP
2. DECnet
3. Named Pipes
NETBIOS cannot be a default choice because it requires a user-assigned name.
On a TCP/IP TELNET connection, you should normally have PARITY set to NONE and
FLOW-CONTROL also set to NONE. If file transfer does not work with these
settings (for example, because the remote TELNET server only gives a 7-bit
data path), use SET PARITY SPACE. Do not use SET PARITY MARK, EVEN, or ODD on
a TELNET connection - it interferes with TELNET protocol.
TELNET sessions are treated just like serial communications sessions as far as
"terminal bytesize" and "command bytesize" are concerned. If you need to view
and/or enter 8-bit characters during a TELNET session, you must tell C-Kermit
to SET TERMINAL BYTESIZE 8, SET COMMAND BYTESIZE 8, and SET PARITY NONE.
If you SET TERMINAL DEBUG ON or SET DEBUG SESSION (same thing), TELNET
protocol negotiations will be displayed on your screen. But most of the
interesting negotiations happen at the time the SET HOST or TELNET command is
given, before CONNECT mode is entered, so you won't see them on your screen.
However, you can still capture them in the debug log ("log debug").
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.11. Remote Access ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
If your OS/2 2.x system is running IBM TCP/IP, it is possible to TELNET to your
OS/2 system to have a CMD session, in which you can run only character-mode
commands and applications.
IBM's TELNET server provides limited functionality for emulating an OS/2 full
screen session on a VT100 or ANSI Telnet terminal. Due to the limitations of
the ASCII character set not all keyboard keystrokes may be replicated across
the Telnet session. The OS/2 VIO programming interface used in the design of
text applications does not map well to character based terminal devices.
Therefore you will notice slow performance. The optimal terminal emulation to
use from C-Kermit is ANSI. You can use C-Kermit's SET TERMINAL TYPE ANSI
command, or its SET TELNET TERMINAL-TYPE ANSI command.
If you run a PM application (such as "help") while TELNETed to your OS/2
system, your session will hang because control will have been transferred to
the real keyboard, mouse, and screen. Similarly, if you manage to invoke the
OS/2 critical error handler during a character-mode application (for example,
"dir a:" when there is no diskette in the A: drive). To avoid this place
AUTOFAIL=YES into your CONFIG.SYS file.
You can run C-Kermit in a remote TCP/IP session and tell OS/2 C-Kermit to SET
LINE to a serial device and call up a third computer. Thus OS/2 C-Kermit can
be used as a modem server in the TCP/IP environment.
However, at present you cannot transfer files between your local Kermit program
and OS/2 C-Kermit when TELNET'd to OS/2 due to restrictions in the OS/2 TELNET
server.
It is also possible to get an OS/2 CMD session on a serial connection when
dialing into your OS/2 system if you are running a product such as OS2YOU, but
C-Kermit file transfer does not yet work in this environment either.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.12. Using Kermit software instead of Lap-Link ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Lap-Link software is typically used to synchronize the versions of files found
on two separate computers by transfering files across either a direct serial
port or parallel port connection.
C-Kermit and MS-DOS Kermit are well designed for this task. The SET FILE
COLLISION UPDATE command may be used to instruct C-Kermit to only transfer
files that are new or have changed.
The XSEND command allows entire directory trees to be sent from one system to
another.
In addition, C-Kermit's SET FILE TYPE LABELED and SET FILE LABEL {ARCHIVE,
EXTENDED, HIDDEN, READ-ONLY, and SYSTEM} commands can be used to specify which
file attributes including extended attributes should be transfered. This is
particularly useful when backing up changes to an OS/2 desktop from one system
to another.
With the use of a Parallel Port NDIS driver, C-Kermit can use its network
support to take advantage of high speed parallel port connections. (Savant
Software, Inc. sells parallel port drivers for OS/2 and DOS: floyd@savant.com,
or P.O. Box 201015, Austin, TX 78720-1015.) Just add either the TCP/IP or
NETBIOS protocol stacks to the Parallel Port MAC in IBM LAPS or IBM MPTS. Then
tell C-Kermit to SET NETWORK TCP/IP or NETBIOS depending on which you want to
use. Standard Lap-Link cables are supported.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. OS/2 C-Kermit Utilities ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Starting with edit 191, OS/2 C-Kermit comes with two utilities:
OS/2 C-Kermit PM Clipboard Server
IBM Telnet Replacements
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.1. OS/2 C-Kermit PM Clipboard Server ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Since C-Kermit is not a PM application its ability to access the PM Clipboard
is extremely limited. In fact, according to IBM documentation, it shouldn't be
possible at all. However, C-Kermit by itself since release 190 has given users
the ability to copy data into the PM Clipboard for use by other applications.
It also was able to retrieve data from the PM Clipboard whenever the data was
placed there by an application using a type of shared memory known as GETABLE
shared memory.
As of release 191, C-Kermit ships with a utility program, "ckoclip.exe", which
is stored in the C-Kermit UTIL subdirectory. This PM Application when active
acts as an agent for all active C-Kermit sessions enabling C-Kermit to copy and
paste text data to and from the clipboard with full compatibility with other
OS/2 PM applications (eg. TWCP and ManyClip). Now the \KPaste kverb can paste
text data copied to the clipboard from all PM and Win-OS2 applications and the
\KMarkCopyClip kverb will paste text into a ManyClip Clipboard.
It is recommended that users place a shadow of the OS/2 C-Kermit PM Clipboard
Server program object into their Startup folder (located within the OS/2 System
folder.) By doing this a single copy of the Server will be started each time
OS/2 is loaded. When not in use, the server uses zero CPU time and its memory
will be paged to the swapfile.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.2. IBM Telnet Replacements ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
When navigating the World Wide Web using IBM WebExplorer you may often come
across Web links which require the use of a Telnet client. Unfortunately, IBM
WebExplorer does not allow you to configure it to use a Telnet client other
than IBM TelnetPM. This is because IBM WebExplorer must provide information to
the Telnet client via the command line. Therefore, it uses the command line
format provided by IBM Telnet and IBM TelnetPM.
However, if you wish to use C-Kermit as your Telnet client during your travels
along the World Wide Web all is not lost. As of edit 191, C-Kermit ships with
a utility known as the IBM Telnet Replacement. This utility can be found in
the C-Kermit UTIL directory under the name "ckotel.exe". "ckotel.exe" provides
a command line interface that is identical to that provided by IBM Telnet and
IBM TelnetPM. It converts the command line options into a command string that
is then passed to C-Kermit.
To install the IBM Telnet Replacement utility the following steps must be
taken:
1. Copy "ckotel.exe" to the C-Kermit directory using the name "telnet.exe".
From the C-Kermit UTIL directory:
COPY CKOTEL.EXE ..\TELNET.EXE
2. Copy "ckotel.exe" to the C-Kermit directory using the name
"telnetpm.exe". From the C-Kermit UTIL directory:
COPY CKOTEL.EXE ..\TELNETPM.EXE
3. Edit the SET PATH = statement in the "config.sys" file and make sure that
the C-Kermit directory appears before the TCPIP\BIN directory.
Now whenever a program attempts the start IBM Telnet, C-Kermit will be started
instead. This includes the any Telnet program objects that you may have
defined for specific hosts.
To remove this option, simply delete the "telnet.exe" and "telnetpm.exe" files
from your C-Kermit directory.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. OS/2 Hints and Tips ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
OS/2 is a complex operating system. Hints and tips are provided to make your
use of C-Kermit on OS/2 more enjoyable and productive.
C-Kermit and the OS/2 Work Place Shell
Serial Port Performance
OS/2 Devices, Files, and Shells
Running C-Kermit in the Background
Applications that Freeze
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.1. C-Kermit and the OS/2 Work Place Shell ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
You can use the Program page in the Settings notebook of the C-Kermit program
object to enter parameters that will affect the way the program starts.
C-Kermit does not normally need parameters when it is opened. You can add
C-Kermit to the pop-up menu for a folder object (e.g. the Desktop) so you can
start that program by selecting the choice on the pop-up menu. However, when
you start C-Kermit, OS/2 sends any parameters to the program. OS/2 considers
the name of a folder a parameter, so OS/2 sends the folder name to the program
when you select a program-name choice from the pop-up menu. C-Kermit cannot
accept a folder name as a parameter. If you try to start C-Kermit from the
pop-up menu of a folder and the program does not start or displays an error
message, you can stop the name of the folder from being sent to the program by
doing the following:
1. Display the pop-up menu for the C-Kermit program object that was
referenced when you added the C-Kermit to the pop-up menu. For example,
you might have dragged the "OS/2 C-Kermit (32-bit)" object from the
C-Kermit folder to the Menu page of the Settings notebook for the Desktop
folder. If so, display the pop-up menu for "OS/2 C-Kermit (32-bit)" in
the C-Kermit folder.
2. Select Open.
3. Select Settings.
4. Select the Program tab.
5. Type the following in the Parameters field:
%
6. Close the Settings notebook.
If you have updated the Dialing Directory or Services Directory to include
entries for each of the various systems you connect to you can further
automate the process of connecting by creating Program Objects for each
services directory or dialing directory entry. To create the new object:
1. Display the pop-up menu for the "OS/2 C-Kermit (32-bit)" object in the
C-Kermit folder.
2. Select Copy
3. Edit the New name field to be the name of the service (e.g. xyzcorp.com).
4. Press Copy
5. Display the pop-up menu for the object you just created.
6. Select Settings
7. Type the appropriate string in the Parameters field. For a Services
Directory entry type:
-C "access <service_name> [Password:], connect" %
For a Dialing Directory entry type:
-C "dial <dialing_name>, connect" %
When double clicking on a Services Directory object you would first be
prompted for the appropriate password prior to C-Kermit's connecting to the
designated service.
The Work Place Shell provides special parameters which may be passed to
filenames to C-Kermit. These parameters are replaced with the filename at
startup. They are used for drag and drop operations or file associations.
%* Inserts the drive letter, path, and file name of a program into the
parameter list
%**P Insert drive and path information without the last backslash (\).
%**D Insert drive with ':' or UNC name.
%**N Insert file name without extension.
%**F Insert file name with extension.
%**E Insert extension without leading dot. In HPFS, the extension always
comes after the last dot.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.2. Serial Port Performance ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
C-Kermit's performance on serial connections - and the performance of any other
OS/2 communication software program - can be improved significantly by using a
16550AFN communications port controller (UART) rather than an 8250, 16450,
16550 (no A), or other unbuffered UART. Unbuffered UARTs interrupt the CPU
once per character, whereas a buffered UART interrupts every 8-14 (or more)
characters. Measurements during C-Kermit file transfer on an otherwise
unloaded i486/50 EISA system under OS/2 2.0 show approximately 10%-25% CPU
usage with a buffered UART and 75%-100% using an unbuffered one. And of
course, as with all other OS/2 applications (and OS/2 itself), a faster CPU and
more memory also help.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.3. OS/2 Devices, Files, and Shells ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
If you refer to a disk drive that is not ready, or to a file on such a disk
drive, the OS/2 critical error handler might pop up and require action from the
keyboard. This occurs during execution of commands by inferior processes, such
as DIRECTORY, REMOTE DIRECTORY, DELETE, REMOTE DELETE, etc. It should not
occur in file transfer operations. The "hard error box" will put a halt to
unattended, scripted operations, and it stops the operation of the OS/2
C-Kermit server if there is no human in attendance. To work around: add the
line " AUTOFAIL =YES" to CONFIG.SYS and reboot. This eliminates the hard error
box, but it applies system-wide, not just to C-Kermit. (The equivalent of
AUTOFAIL =YES can be set on a per-process basis and C-Kermit does so for itself
but it can't do this for any inferior processes started by it.)
If the PUSH command, and related commands, do not work for you, check the
definition of your OS/2 COMSPEC environment variable, i.e. make sure it
contains the fully-specified pathname of a valid OS/2 executable shell program
(such as C:\OS2\CMD.EXE), and/or the named program is in your OS/2 PATH .
C-Kermit works with JP Software's 4OS2.EXE and any other replacement Command
Shell. The directory containing the shell must be located in the PATH in order
for the replacement shell to be called correctly.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.4. Running C-Kermit in the Background ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
When Kermit is performing a long file transfer or lengthy script-based
operation, you can have Kermit proceed with its work in the background while
you work on something else in the foreground.
Out of the box, OS/2 is tuned to favor foreground applications, which is fine
if the background applications will not be performing time-critical operations
or be expected to perform consistent screen updates. But Kermit does both, and
so we need a way to tell OS/2 to let it run at a reasonable speed even while we
do other work in the foreground.
There are two settings in the CONFIG.SYS file which affect how OS/2 determines
the priority of applications which are competing for CPU time and File I/O
Services:
PRIORITY The default value is DYNAMIC, which gives a priority boost to all
foreground applications. This effectively reduces the priority of
all background applications. If you want your applications to have
equal access to the CPU regardless of the foreground/ background
status, set the value to ABSOLUTE.
PRIORITY_DISK_IO The default value, YES, gives the foreground process priority
service. If your foreground process is performing a significant
amount of disk access (such as a database search, compile, a long
directory listing, or printing to the spooler) this will have a
severe impact on your background file transfers. Try setting this
this value to NO.
Other settings that also affect the performance of OS/2 are:
MAXWAIT How long a process may starve before it gets a priority boost to
allow it to gain access to the CPU. The standard value is 3 seconds
which is probably adequate for most users.
THREADS How many threads may be created on a the system. The default value
is 256. The larger the number of threads the greater the overhead.
However, lowering this number might result in fewer programs being
able to run simultaneously. OS/2 applications, such as C-Kermit,
that need to do many things at once (e.g. watch the keyboard and
port and the mouse) use several threads. C-Kermit uses anywhere
from two to eight threads depending on its current operating mode.
You can count the number of threads active in the system at a
particular time by using PSTAT . Pipe the output of PSTAT to a file
and count the number of lines in the "Process and Thread
Information" section. Do it under a heavy load to determine how
many threads you really need.
TIMESLICE The minimum and maximum amounts of time that a thread may have
access to the CPU before yielding it to another thread. IBM
recommends a maximum value of 125 milliseconds when using
communications software (see OS/2 Command Reference) . Suggested
setting is "32,125".
SWAPPATH The location and original size of your swapfile (SWAPPER.DAT). It
is strongly recommended that you move your swapfile, if you have
multiple drives or partitions, to the root directory of the
most-used partition on the least-used drive. Then increase the
initial size value to 4096 larger than you have ever seen the
swapfile grow to. After making this change to your CONFIG.SYS file,
shutdown and reboot. If you have moved the SWAPPER.DAT file to a
new drive or directory, delete the file SWAPPER.DAT from the
\OS2\SYSTEM directory on your boot drive. Next, if you placed the
swapfile on a FAT partition, boot DOS and execute a Disk Optimizer
such as Norton's Speedisk.exe. Optimize the disk so that the
swapfile is the first file on the partition and is contiguous.
Disk caching is extremely important and can have a dramatic affect on the
performance of your computer. Disk caches in OS/2 are allocated separately
for each type of file system: FAT , HPFS , and CDFS . When configuring your
cache do not set the cache size to be high if you have a small amount of RAM
(less than 16MB). Be sure to turn on Lazy Writes.
If you never run DOS or Windows programs, set PROTECTONLY =YES. This will
give OS/2 640k more physical memory to use for your OS/2 applications.
For additional information on all of the above topics read the OS/2 Command
Reference in the Information folder on your OS/2 Desktop.
Further information on tuning OS/2 can be found in:
"Stupid OS/2 Tricks" from Internet: m-woo@uiuc.edu
OS/2 WARP FAQ from Timothy Sipples, tsipple@vnet.ibm.com
These files and more are available from most OS/2 ftp sites, BBS, and online
services under a variety of names.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.5. Applications that Freeze ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
There have been isolated reports of C-Kermit "freezing" on some systems. This
problem is not confined to C-Kermit, and has also been observed with a variety
of other communications software packages:
The most likely cause for freezing would be an interrupt conflict. Make
sure your serial ports, CD ROM drive / controller and/or SCSI adapter,
Soundblaster, ISA card, network adapter, etc, are all using different and
unique IRQs.
One user reported that the problem disappeared when he moved his serial
communication board farther away from his SCSI adapter board. This might
have reduced electromagnetic interference, or altered the priority of the
adapters. Sometimes, simply reseating the card can help.
Another user (different system) made the problem go away by rebooting the
PC, which had been up for many weeks.
The problem might be caused by a poorly built or configured system: noisy
bus, spurious interrupts, buggy internal modems, or buggy serial port
driver software. For example, one user who noted that Kermit froze
whenever he told it to SET PORT COM2 also discovered that the same thing
would happen if he issued a MODE COM2 command at the CMD prompt, even
when this is done immediately after starting the system.
Finally, mysterious problems like this are often cleared up by installing
patches (CSDs) or new releases of the software involved (e.g. TCP/IP or
other DLLs, serial drivers, OS/2 itself, etc).
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. Modems and Dialing ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
First, a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) and its answer:
Q: How can I make Kermit keep redialing until the connection is made?
A: Just use the XDIAL macro, defined in the standard CKERMIT.INI file.
Example:
C-Kermit> xdial 7654321
XDIAL is just like the DIAL command, except it automatically redials
every 30 seconds until the connection is made or until it is
interrupted. You can interrupt it from the keyboard by typing Ctrl-C
(you might have to type two or three of them).
The list of modem types supported by C-Kermit is obtained by typing:
C-Kermit> set modem ?
at the C-Kermit> prompt. If you have a high-speed, error-correcting,
data-compressing modem, you should generally use the following settings:
set speed 57600 ; Or 38400, the highest supported by Kermit and the modem
set dial speed-matching off ; Use speed buffering.
set dial error-correction on ; Enable error correction.
set dial compression on ; Enable data compression.
set flow rts/cts ; Use hardware flow control.
Always use hardware flow control if it is available (some operating systems do
not support it). If it is not, use Xon/Xoff ("software") flow control between
your computer and the modem, which means you must tell C-Kermit to "set flow
xon/xoff" and you must configure your modem for this too.
If you have a modem that is not directly supported by C-Kermit, you can define
a new modem type for it. For example, suppose you have a Practical
Peripherals PM14400FXMT V.32bis/V.42/V.42bis/MNP modem and you want to take
full advantage of its features. You can dial with this modem, taking
advantage of the support for Hayes-like modems that is already built into
C-Kermit, but substituting an initialization string particular to the PP14400:
set modem hayes ; Use Hayes-like dialog
set line <whatever> ; Select the device your modem is on
set speed 57600 ; Use high interface speed
set dial speed-matching off ; Lock the interface speed
set flow rts/cts ; Use hardware flow control
set dial init ATQ0S2=43N1S37=11&&Q5S36=7S46=2S82=128\13
where:
Q0 Result codes enabled
S2=43 Escape character is "+"
N1 Enable modulation negotiation
S37=11 Enable V.32.bis
&K3 Enable RTS/CTS
&Q5 Enable error correction
S36=7 and compression with
S46=2 automatic speed buffering
S82=128 Pass BREAK signals through
This can be turned into a dialing macro, PPDIAL, which you can use in place of
the DIAL command:
define PPDIAL -
set modem hayes, -
set port 1, - ; Change this appropriately
set speed 57600, -
set dial speed-matching off, -
set dial init ATQ0S2=43N1S37=11&K3&Q5S36=7S46=2S82=128\13, -
dial \%1, -
if success set flow rts/cts, - ; (If your C-Kermit version supports it)
else end 1
If you put this definition into your CKERMOD.INI file, then it will always be
available for you to use, for example:
C-Kermit> ppdial 7654321
And you can also use REDIAL in the normal way.
See your modem manual for details about initialization strings. Most modern
modems should be set up as in the example above but, naturally, the specific
modem commands differ.
Here are some sample modem initialization strings that should obtain settings
equivalent to those made for the PP14400, for various other types of
high-speed, error-correcting, data-compressing modems that are not
specifically supported by Kermit's DIAL command. The maximum speed is shown
after the modem name. These are offered in a form suitable for use in the SET
DIAL INIT-STRING command (modem-command backslashes doubled, \13 at the end
for carriage return), but with no guarantees - see your modem manual for
explanations of the commands and for further details. Each of these
initialization strings attempts to:
Start modulation negotation at V.32bis (14400bps), enabling fallback.
Fix the interface speed at 57600 or 38400 bps.
Enable error correction and compression, enabling fallback.
Allow BREAK signals to be passed through transparently.
AT&T DataPort 14400, 57600 bps:
AT Q0 X6 &C1 &D2 &Q0 S84=0 \\Q3 %B14400 S41=1 S78=0 \\N7 %C1 \\K5\13
Boca 14.4 Faxmodem, 57600 bps:
AT Q0W1&D2X4 S95=47 F10 S37=11 N1 &K3 S82=128 &Q5 S36=7 S46=138 \\N3
S48=7\13
Hayes Ultra 144, 38400 bps:
AT Q0W1X4 S87=28 &D2 S95=46 S37=11 N1 &K1 &K3 &Q5 S36=7 S38=1 S46=2
S48=7\13
Multitech MT1432, 57600 bps:
AT Q0 &Q1 X4 $SB57600 $MB14400 &E4 %E1 &E1 &E15 $BA0\13
Practical Peripherals 14400FXMT, 57600 bps:
AT Q0 W1 S95=47 &D2 X4 S2=43 N1 S37=11 &K3 &Q5 S36=7 S46=2 S82=128\13
USR Sportster or Courier, 57600 bps:
AT Q0 &S0 X4 &A3 &D2 &B1 &H1 &R2 &N0 &K1 &M4 &Y3\13
Zoom Telephonics 14400, 57600 bps:
AT Q0 W1 &D2 S95=47 X4 S37=11 &K3 S82=128 &Q5 S36=7 S46=138 S38=1\13
Zyxel U-1496E, 57600 bps:
AT Q0 L1 S11=55 S0=0 V1 E1 &D2 X5 &N0 N1 &H3 &Y1 &K4\13
CAUTION: Reportedly, these strings might be too long for some modems. If
that is the case with yours, you can do one of the following:
Shorten the string by removing spaces and/or commands that are not
necessary because they correspond to your modem's normal settings.
Change your dialing macro to simply OUTPUT these commands in small groups
before issuing the DIAL command.
NOTE: You can find copies of the strings in the sample CKERMOD.INI file that
is distributed with C-Kermit 5A(191) or later.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.1. Dialing Hints and Tips ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Remember: You can't CONNECT to a modem and type the modem's dialing command
(like "ATDT7654321") manually, unless you first tell C-Kermit to:
SET CARRIER OFF
This is because the CONNECT command requires the modem's Carrier Detect (CD)
signal to be on, but the CD signal doesn't come on until after dialing is
complete. This requirement is what allows C-Kermit to pop back to its prompt
automatically when the connection is hung up. See the description of SET
CARRIER in Using C-Kermit.
Similarly, if your dialed connection drops when CARRIER is set to AUTO or ON,
you can't CONNECT back to the (now disconnected) screen to see what might have
happened unless you first SET CARRIER OFF.
Automatic redialing: The XDIAL macro, defined in the standard CKERMIT.INI file
for version 5A(191), is like the DIAL command, but keeps redialing every thirty
seconds until it gets an answer, or until you interrupt it by typing Ctrl-C
(several Ctrl-C's might be needed).
define keep_on_dialing dial \%1, while failure { sleep 30, redial }
Don't SET FLOW RTS/CTS if your modem is turned off, or if it is not presenting
the CTS signal. Otherwise, the serial device driver might get stuck waiting
for this signal to appear. When dialing, it is better to give the SET FLOW
RTS/CTS command after the DIAL command than before it.
Here are a few points to clarify the purpose of SET DIAL SPEED-MATCHING:
1. This command does not do anything at all to the modem. Rather, it is
used to inform C-Kermit about the modem's configuration: whether the
modem's interface speed is "fixed", or it changes its interface speed
when a connection is made. In the latter case, C-Kermit changes its own
speed in response to the speed given in the modem's CONNECT message. By
default, SPEED-MATCHING is OFF, so Kermit does not attempt to change its
speed. If your modem changes its interface speed to match the negotiated
connection speed, you must SET DIAL SPEED-MATCHING ON.
2. When DIAL SPEED-MATCHING is ON:
a. Your modem must be configured to report its *interface* speed in the
CONNECT message, rather than the connection (modulation) speed.
b. Your computer (and C-Kermit) must support all connection speeds that
might be reported by your modem. SET SPEED ? will give you a list
of the speeds that your version of C-Kermit knows about.
3. If conditions (a) and (b) cannot be satisfied, then you must:
a. Configure your modem to lock its interface speed
b. Tell C-Kermit to SET DIAL SPEED-MATCHING OFF
If you have a high-speed, error-correcting, data-compressing, speed-buffering
modem, you should always SET DIAL SPEED-MATCHING OFF, and you should fix the
modem's interface speed as high as possible, preferably four times higher than
its maximum connection (modulation) speed to allow compression to work at full
advantage. In this type of setup, you must also have an effective means of
flow control enabled between C-Kermit and the modem, preferably hardware
(RTS/CTS) flow control.
C-Kermit knows about a large number of modems, depending on how it was built
(type "set modem ?" and "show features" for further info). This knowledge is
imbedded in the SET MODEM and DIAL commands. If you are having trouble
dialing your modem, SET DIAL DISPLAY ON to watch the dialing interactions
between C-Kermit and your modem. Consult pages 65-66 of Using C-Kermit for
modem-dialing troubleshooting instructions.
If it takes your call longer to be completed than the timeout interval that
C-Kermit calculates, you can use the SET DIAL TIMEOUT command to override
C-Kermit's value. But beware: the modem has its own timeout for completing
the call. If it is a Hayes-like modem, C-Kermit adjusts the modem's value too
by setting register S7. But the maximum value for S7 might be smaller than
the time you need! In that case, C-Kermit sets S7 to 0, 255, or other
(modem-specific) value to signify "no timeout".
WARNING: Certain modems might have a maximum dial timeout shorter than what
Kermit expects it to be. If Kermit attempts to set register S7 to a value
higher than your modem's maximum, the modem will say "ERROR" and you will get
a "Failure to initialize modem" error. In that case, use SET DIAL TIMEOUT to
override C-Kermit's calculation of the timeout value with the highest value
that is legal for your modem, e.g. 60.
How to DIAL from a TCP/IP reverse terminal server (modem server):
1. (only if neccessary) SET TELNET ECHO REMOTE
2. SET HOST <terminal-server-ip-name-or-address> [ <port> ]
3. SET MODEM <modem-type>
4. (only if necessary) SET DIAL HANGUP OFF
5. DIAL <phone-number>
The order is important.
Although various modem-dialing strings are configurable, the DIAL MODEM-HANGUP
string is not. For Hayes and Hayes-like modems it is ATQ0H0; the Q0 is to
ensure that a result code is produced. In case the Q0 interferes with your
normal setup (for example, if you keep your modems set to Q2), and dropping
the connection does not restore the normal connection, you can define Kermit's
ON_EXIT macro to send the appropriate modem configuration commands when Kermit
exits, for example:
define on_exit if > \v(local) 0 output ATQ2\13
The SET DIAL KERMIT-SPOOF command works only for Telebit and US Robotics modem
types; it is OFF by default. You may wish to experiment with large packets
(1K or greater) and various window sizes with spoofing disabled in the modem.
In most situations the transfer rates achieved by Kermit with sliding windows
and long packets are better than with protocol spoofing turned on. Also,
attribute (A) packets are not passed by current Telebit modems with spoofing
enabled so if they are desired spoofing must be turned off.
If C-Kermit's dialing methods are insufficient for your purposes, you can
write a C-Kermit script program to do the dialing. Or you can use (or write)
another program to accomplish the dialing, and then run C-Kermit "underneath"
your dialing program by giving it the open file descriptor:
kermit -l n -m unknown
where n is the numeric file descriptor.
Note: When you give a SET DIAL DIRECTORY command, C-Kermit keeps your dial
directory file open until you give another SET DIAL DIRECTORY command, or
until you EXIT. So, for example, you can't edit the dialing directory while
you have it open. If you want to edit the dialing directory from within
Kermit, you can close it by giving a SET DIAL DIRECTORY command with no file
name. Then you can open it again with SET DIAL DIRECTORY filename.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.2. Hayes and Compatible Modems ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
C-Kermit should work correctly with Hayes and other modems that use the AT
command set. These include Hayes 1200, Hayes 2400, and Hayes 9600 bps modems,
compatibles, as well as Telebit and HST modems. See the next section for
Telebit information. C-Kermit sends AT commands to the modem and then reads
the modem's response. The software is designed to work whether the modem is
configured to echo its commands (E1) or not (E0), and whether it replies with
numeric (V0) or word (V1) result codes. C-Kermit does not change the echoing
state or result code mode of the modem. However, C-Kermit issues the Q0
command to the modem to ensure that it does produce result codes. C-Kermit
assumes the modem's Command Line Terminator (S3) is 13 (carriage return). If
it isn't, C-Kermit's dialog with the modem probably won't work correctly.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.3. Telebit Modems ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
There are numerous Telebit modem models, with differing capabilities and
features. C-Kermit tries to support them all in a model-independent way. To
use a Telebit modem, any model, SET MODEM as follows:
TELEBIT
Dial and attempt to connect using the highest protocol appropriate to the
interface speed between the computer and the modem, and fall back
automatically to the highest protocol and speed supported by the answering
modem. For example, if your interface speed is 19200 bps and you have a
PEP-capable Telebit, it will start in PEP mode, fall back to one of the
2400-bps standards, then one of the 1200 bps standards, etc, depending on
its configuration (see your Telebit manual).
PEP-TELEBIT
Dial in PEP mode, and connect only if the remote modem answers in PEP
mode. Does not work with Telebit models that do not support PEP. See
Table III.
V32-TELEBIT
Dial in V.32 mode (9600 bps), fall back from there. Works only with
Telebit models that support V.32; see Table III. NOTE: V.32 calls are
supposed to work no matter what your interface speed is, but it has been
observed that when calling certain non-Telebit V.32 modems, the connection
is not made successfully unless C-Kermit's interface speed to the Telebit
is 9600.
V42-TELEBIT
Enable V.42 error correction, allowing fallback to MNP, and from there to
direct (no error correction). NOTE: Fallback to MNP from V.42 is allowed
even if DIAL MNP-ENABLE is OFF. Works only with Telebit models supporting
V.42 error control. See Table III.
SLOW-TELEBIT
Dial at 2400 bps (V.22bis), fall back from there.
Before attempting to use Telebits at high speeds, there is one problem you
should be aware of: Most Telebit models do not "autobaud" at speeds higher
than 19200 or 38400. If you want to make a high-speed call on such a modem,
you must access it first at a lower speed, then give it a command to change to
a higher speed, and then change Kermit's speed to match. For example, on the
Telebit T3000:
C-Kermit> set speed 19200
C-Kermit> connect
AT (make sure it can read you)
OK (it can)
ATS51=7 (change it to 57600 bps)
OK (it says OK, then changes its speed)
Alt-x (escape back to Kermit)
C-Kermit> set speed 57600 (set Kermit to agree)
Of course, you can automate this process using a script program. Or if you
always want to dial out at 57600, you can save this setting in the modem, and
then it will always use this speed (and won't autobaud any more).
Telebit modems come in many models that differ not only as to features but
also which commands control which features. The features, commands, and
acceptable S-register values (and their meanings) can vary not only among
models, but even among different ROM versions on the same model. Rather than
have dozens of separate SET MODEM TELEBIT-xxx commands, C-Kermit queries the
modem for its model number with an ATI command, and then adjusts its modem
commands accordingly. Responses to the ATI command are shown in Table I.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table I: Telebit Modem ATI Command Responses
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATI Model Numbers Examples
--- ------------- --------
123 Telebit in "total Hayes-1200" emulation mode
960 Telebit in Conventional Command (Hayes) mode
961 RA12C IBM PC internal original Trailblazer
962 RA12E External original Trailblazer, DCA Fastlink,
or Racal-Milgo RM1822
963 RM12C Rackmount original Trailblazer
964 T18PC IBM PC internal Trailblazer-Plus (TB+)
965 T18SA, T2SAA, T2SAS External TB+, T1600, T2000, T3000, WB, and later
or Ven-Tel Pathfinder EC18K (see below)
966 T18RMM Rackmount TB+
967 T2MC IBM PS/2 internal TB+
968 T1000 External T1000
969 ? QBlazer
971 T25SA External T2500 or T1500 (see below)
972 T25RM Rackmount T2500
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Certain incompatible models show the same response to ATI. The ATI3 command
is used to differentiate among them, as shown in Table II.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Table II: Telebit Modem ATI3 Command Responses
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ATI If ATI3 Response
Response Contains Telebit Model Is
-------- --------------- ----------------
965 "T1600" T1600
965 "T3000" T3000
965 "World" WorldBlazer
965 "Version B" TrailBlazer-Plus or T2000 external version 1
965 "TBSA" TrailBlazer-Plus or T2000 external version 2
965 "TBRM" TrailBlazer-Plus or T2000 rackmount version 2
965 "DC" Ven-Tel Pathfinder EC18K (= TB+ version 1)
971 "T1500" T1500
971 (anything else) T2500
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The features of the various models and the commands used by Kermit to control
them are shown in Table III. The commands in the PEP column are used to force
PEP and allow compression (SET MODEM PEP-TELEBIT). The commands in the V.32
column are used with SET MODEM V32-TELEBIT. The commands in the V.42 column
are used with SET MODEM V42-TELEBIT. The commands in the MNP column are used
if SET DIAL MNP-ENABLE is ON and the modem type is TELEBIT, PEP-TELEBIT, or
V32-TELEBIT, SLOW-TELEBIT, but not V42-TELEBIT; if SET MNP-ENABLE is OFF, the
S-registers in the MNP column are set to 0. The Pass BREAK column shows the
commands used to ensure that the modem passes the BREAK signal through (rather
than treating it as an "escape-to-command-mode" signal).
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Table III. Telebit Modem Features and Commands
-----+-------------------+-----+------+------+-----------+---------
| | | | | |Kermit
Model| PEP |V.32 | V.42 |MNP |Pass BREAK | Spoof
-----+-------------------+-----+------+------+-----------+---------
TB |S50=255 S110=1 | No | No |S95=2 | S54=3 |PEP only
TB+ |S50=255 S110=1 | No | ** |S95=2 | S54=3 |PEP only
T2000|S50=255 S110=1 | No | ** |S95=2 | S54=3 |PEP only
T1000|S50=255 S110=1 | No | No |S95=2 | S54=3 |PEP only
T2500|S50=255 S110=1 |S50=6| No |S95=2 | S54=3 |PEP only
T1500| No |S50=6| ** |S95=2 | S54=3 |PEP,V.32
-----+-------------------+-----+------+------+-----------+---------
T1600| No |S50=6|S180=2|S180=3|S61=0 S63=0|PEP,V.32
T3000| No |S50=6|S180=2|S180=3|S61=0 S63=0|PEP,V.32
QB | No |S50=6|S180=2|S180=3|S61=0 S63=0|No
WB |S50=255S190=1S191=7|S50=6|S180=2|S180=3|S61=0 S63=0|PEP,V.32
-----+-------------------+-----+------+------+-----------+---------
** For V.42 error control: "S50=0 S95=2 S97=1 S98=3 S106=1".
All models but the QBlazer support Kermit spoof (but see below).
Group I (old command set):
TB = Original TrailBlazer (PEP, MNP, V.22bis, V.22, Bell 212A, 103)
TB+ = TrailBlazer-Plus = TrailBlazer + V.42 (but only in new ROMs)
T1000 = TrailBlazer-Plus, speed <= 9600, no PEP compression
T2000 = TrailBlazer-Plus + SDLC (not used by Kermit, so same as TB+)
T2500 = TrailBlazer-Plus + V.32 (9600 bps)
T1500 = T2500 minus PEP
Group II (new command set):
T1600 = V.32, MNP, V.22bis, V.22, V.23, Bell 212A & 103
QB = QBlazer = T1600 without Kermit spoof and minus some other options
T3000 = T1600 + V.32bis (14400 bps)
WorldBlazer = T3000 + PEP + LZ and V.42bis compression +76800 +115200 bps
C-Kermit does not attempt to control whether the modem changes its interface
speed to match the connection speed -- that is up to you; you can configure
the modem any way you prefer (using S51 or, to some extent on new-style modems
S180 and S181), but make sure that the modem's configuration agrees with
C-Kermit's DIAL SPEED-MATCHING setting. When DIAL SPEED-MATCHING is ON (the
default), C-Kermit changes its interface speed automatically according to the
speed reported in the modem's CONNECT message; when it is OFF, C-Kermit does
not change speed.
Most Telebit modems do not autobaud at speeds above 9600 or 19200 bps unless
specially configured to do so, and even then most (maybe all) models will not
autobaud at all at 57600 bps. Thus, to make a high-speed modem call with a
Telebit, follow these steps:
set modem telebit
set port com1 ; or whatever
set speed 19200
connect
Now type AT and carriage return to make sure you get an OK result. Then type:
ats51=7
and then carriage return. This changes the Telebit's interface speed to 57600
(use ats51=6 if your modem's or computer's top speed is 38400). Now escape
back to Kermit and give these commands:
set speed 57600 ; or 38400
set dial speed-matching off
set dial mnp on
and now you can place a high-speed, error-correcting, data-compressing call.
The DIAL KERMIT-SPOOF command is only effective for the Telebit models that
supply a Kermit spoof, that is, all but the QBlazer. If the Telebit model is
TrailBlazer, TrailBlazer-Plus, T1000, T2000, or T2500, PEP mode is forced even
if your SET MODEM command specified a Telebit modem type other than
PEP-TELEBIT, because the Kermit spoof only works in PEP mode on those models.
On the other models supporting the Kermit spoof, it works on both PEP
connections and V.32 MNP (but not V.42) connections. Thus, you might also
have to SET MODEM MNP-ENABLE ON in order to get the Kermit Spoof to work on
these newer models when making a V.32 connection.
SHOW DIAL does not show the complete initialization string for Telebit modems.
Telebit modems are initialized in several steps, and the initialization
command depends upon your current communication parameters, which model of
Telebit modem you have (which C-Kermit learns during the modem initialization
process), and other factors. If you use the SET DIAL INIT-STRING command to
change the initialization string, this disables the multistep process and uses
only the string that you have specified.
If you want to use the built-in multi-step process, but you also want to
override one or more of the settings that are done in this process, or add
additional settings, you can use SET DIAL DIAL-COMMAND to add commands to the
dial string (which is normally ATD%s\13), for example "SET DIAL DIAL-COMMAND
AT&C1&D2S181=1DT%s\13".
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.4. Dialing and Flow Control ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
If you have SET FLOW to any of the hardware options supported by your version
of C-Kermit, such as RTS/CTS, and if C-Kermit knows how to set the flow control
on your modem, it will do this as part of the DIAL command.
Caution: If C-Kermit's FLOW-CONTROL setting is Xon/Xoff or other type of
software flow control, C-Kermit will not attempt to change your modem's flow
control setting, since software flow control is most commonly used end-to-end.
One way to engage Xon/Xoff flow control directly between C-Kermit and the local
modem is to change your modem's DIAL INIT-STRING to do it.
Hardware flow control options are presently handled only for Telebit modems. On
other modem types, you can set the flow control outside of Kermit, or change
Kermit's DIAL INIT-STRING.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.5. TIES Modems ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A "TIES" (Time-Independent Escape Sequence) modem does not require any guard
time around its escape sequence. The following text:
+++ATH0
if sent through a TIES modem, for example because you were uploading this file
through it, could pop the modem back into command mode and make it hang up the
connection. Newer versions of the Telebit T1600 and T3000 (version LA3.01E
firmware and later), and all WorldBlazers, use TIES.
Although the probability of "+++" appearing in a Kermit packet is markedly
lower than with most other protocols (see the File Transfer section below), it
can still happen under certain circumstances. It can also happen when using
C-Kermit's TRANSMIT command. If you are using a Telebit TIES modem, you can
change the modem's escape sequence to an otherwise little-used control
character such as Ctrl-_ (Control-Underscore):
AT S2=31
A sequence of three consecutive Ctrl-_ characters will not appear in a Kermit
packet unless you go to extraordinary lengths to defeat more than a few of
Kermit's built-in safety mechanisms. And if you do this, then you should also
turn off the modem's escape-sequence recognition altogether:
AT S48=0 S2=255
But when escape sequence recognition is turned off, "modem hangup"
(<pause>+++<pause>ATH0<CR>) will not work, so you should also be sure to SET
DIAL MODEM-HANGUP OFF.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. OS/2 C-Kermit Wish List ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Items marked with (*) require conversion of C-Kermit from a VIO to a PM
application.
OS/2-style graphical user interface (*).
True, rather than simulated, double-width, double-height lines (*).
True, rather than simulated, underline and blink attributes (*).
Tektronix and other graphics terminal emulations (*).
Ability to execute VX-REXX programs (*).
LK250/LK450 keyboard support.
MS-DOS Kermit compatible keyboard scan codes.
Improved VT-220 emulation, including character set designation and
invocation via ISO 4873 and 2022 rules.
Support for non-IBM-compatible TCP/IP packages (e.g. Novell LWOS/2).
Ability to run in remote mode on both serial (OS2YOU) and network
(TELNET) connections.
3270 terminal emulation
APPC/CPI-C Network support
A realistic DEC VTxxx font (*)
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9. Further Information ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Additional information is available from a variety of sources:
Kermit News News and articles about Kermit software and protocol are published
periodically in our journal, Kermit News. Subscriptions are free of
charge. To subscribe, send your complete postal address by email to
knews@columbia.edu, or contact Columbia University.
USENET Newsgroups The Kermit Development Group maintains an active presence in
the USENET community. As of this writing there are two newsgroups
dedicated to Kermit software and protocol:
comp.protocols.kermit.announce (moderated)
comp.protocols.kermit.misc (unmoderated)
The following OS/2-specific groups are also visited periodically:
comp.os.os2.announce
comp.os.os2.apps
comp.os.os2.misc
comp.os.os2.networking.tcp-ip
World Wide Web The Kermit Development Group maintains an active Home Page on
the World Wide Web which to provide up-to-date product information.
You may access the Kermit Home Page at URL
http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ with IBM OS/2 WARP's WebExplorer via
the Internet Access Kit (SLIP or PPP) , or via a LAN Client or
TCP/IP 2.0 connection, or any other Web browser.
Electronic Mail You may send inquiries by e-mail to the Internet address
kermit@columbia.edu.
FTP Kermit communication software for hundreds of different platforms is
available via Internet anonymous FTP from kermit.columbia.edu in the
/kermit directory hierarchy. The latest distribution of OS/2
C-Kermit is found in the /kermit/archives directory with a file name
ckoxxx.zip, where xxx is the current edit number, such as
cko191.zip. Transfer it in binary mode, unzip it, then install it.
If you obtain Kermit software in this way, please also purchase the
appropriate documentation.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 10. Technical Support ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Technical support for Kermit software is available from Columbia University on
a best-effort basis. Our tech support resources are limited, so please do your
best to help out by following these steps:
1. First look for the answer to your question in the book Using C-Kermit.
Most questions of a general nature are answered there. Use the index,
table of contents, command reference, and glossary for help in locating
the appropriate material. If you do not have the book, please purchase
it. Please do not request tech support from Columbia University without
having first consulted this book.
2. Look in CKERMIT.INF (this file), which contains lots of OS/2-specific
information, supplemental to what is in Using C-Kermit. Use the VIEW
program (or C-Kermit's UPDATES command) to access this file, which is
fully indexed and searchable.
3. If you are using Kermit software within a company or institution that
recommends and supports it, contact your local support staff for help.
4. If you have USENET access, look in or post your question to the
appropriate newsgroup, such as comp.protocols.kermit or comp.os.os2.apps.
Questions answered in this type of forum serve a broad audience rather
than just one person.
5. If you have FTP access, retrieve the Kermit "FAQ" (Frequently Asked
Questions file) via anonymous FTP to kermit.columbia.edu, file
kermit/faq.txt.
6. If you still need help, you may send an inquiry by e-mail to
kermit@columbia.edu.
7. If you still need help and you don't have email access to us, then, you
may contact us directly by phone, fax, or post.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 11. Contact Information ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Contact information:
Kermit Development and Distribution
Columbia University Academic Information Systems
612 West 115th Street
New York, NY 10025 USA
Telephone: (USA) +1 212 854-3703 (business) or -5126 (tech support)
Fax: +1 212 663-8202 or +1 212 662-6442
Email: kermit@columbia.edu
Web: http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/
Telephone hours are 9:00am to 4:00pm United States Eastern Time, Monday
through Friday; closed Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Using MS-DOS Kermit, by Christine M. Gianone, Digital Press (1992), 1-55558-082-3.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Kermit, A File Transfer Protocol, by Frank da Cruz, Digital Press (1987), ISBN