CYBER 170 KERMIT Author: Jim Knutson, University of Texas. Language: CDC FTN5 (Fortran 77) and COMPASS Assembler Version: 2.2 September 1984, Jim Knutson, University of Texas. 2.2.1 June 1985, Mark Miller, S. O. Lidie, Lehigh University. 2.2.2 July 1986, S. O. Lidie, Lehigh University. 3.0 October 1984, Joerg Hallbauer, Cal State University. 3.1 December 1984, Paul Wells, University of Washington. 3.2 February 1987, Steve Roseman, Lehigh University. 3.3 March 1987, Steve Roseman, Lehigh University. CYBER 170 Kermit Capabilities at a Glance: Local Operation No Remote Operation Yes Transfers text files Yes Transfers binary files Yes Wildcard Send Yes ^X/^Z interruption Yes (through micro) Filename collision avoidance Yes Can time out Yes 8th-bit prefixing Yes Repeat count prefixing Yes Alternate block checks No Terminal emulation No Communications settings No Transmit BREAK No Transaction logging Yes Session logging No Raw transmit No Sliding windows No Long packets Yes Act as server Yes Talk to server No Advanced server functions No Advanced commands for servers Limited Handle Attribute Packets No Command/Init files Yes Command Macros No 1. Cyber File Systems The features of the Cyber's file system that are of greatest interest to Kermit users are storage class, file structure, file specifications and character sets. Cyber Storage Classes The NOS operating system uses the concept of local and permanent file storage. This means that files that are to be kept around after a job is finished must be moved to permanent storage first. Jobs that wish to use a file from per- manent storage must copy or attach it to local storage before using it. To send a file from the Cyber, you may GET/ATTACH the file before entering Ker- mit, or have Kermit access the file itself. If you request that Kermit send a file which is not found as a local file, it will attempt to find a matching permanent file. You may restrict Kermit to local or permanent files by prefix- ing the file name with L: or P:, respectively. After receiving a file on the Cyber do not forget to SAVE/REPLACE/DEFINE the file to make it permanent. The DIRECTORY command and REMOTE DIRECTORY server command allow the user to display the names of available local or permanent files. Cyber File Structure Many Cyber files use internal structure information. Cyber Kermit supports two file types: Z-type (line image, unit record) called TEXT, and any other ar- bitrary file whose data is transferred 8 bits at a time (7.5 bytes per 60-bit word), called BINARY. Other internal file structures, such as other Cyber Record Manager record types, are not supported by Cyber Kermit. Cyber File Specification A NOS file name consists of from one to seven alphanumeric characters. Special characters are not allowed in the file name. File names beginning with ZZ or SCR should be avoided, since these are commonly used scratch file names. Cyber Kermit allows a group of files to be specified in a single file specification by including the special "wildcard" characters, "*" and "?". A "*" matches any string of characters, including no characters at all; a "?" matches any single character. Any number of "*" and "?" may appear in a wildcard specification. To complement the selection criteria, suffix a "-" to the wildcard specification. Here are some examples: *BUG All files ending in BUG. *DOG* All file names containing DOG. F* All files whose names start with F. F?X* All files whose names start with F and contain X in the third posi- tion, followed by zero or more characters. FRED- All files except FRED. Wildcard notation is most commonly used to instruct Kermit to send, or display a directory of, a group of files. Its usage is similar to capabilities on many other computer systems. Cyber Character Sets Until the recent NOS/VE operating system, the character set used by most Cyber systems was a six bit DISPLAY CODE character set. The six bit character sets supported by Cyber Kermit are the 63 and 64 character sets. These character sets differ in the use of the COLON and PERCENT SIGN characters. There are also several ASCII character sets in use on NOS. One set, called 6/12 or simply ASCII, uses 6-bit DISPLAY CODE characters with certain charac- ters set aside as flags to indicate lower case or control characters. Another ASCII character set is the 8/12 or ASCII8 character set. This stores ASCII characters as 8 bits in a 12-bit byte. The exception to this is that an EOL (End-Of-Line) is indicated by the usual CDC convention of at least twelve bits of 0 (0000B) in the low order bits of the word. NUL characters are represented as 4000B to prevent interpretation as an EOL sequence. Cyber Kermit will normally automatically recognize the character set when send- ing a TEXT file, and will do the appropriate conversions. The first buffer full (approx 1000 characters) from the disk file is examined and the file is recognized to be 8/12 ASCII if the top 4 bits of each byte are zero; 6/12 ASCII if the first 2 characters in any CM word are lower case; display code other- wise. Received TEXT files are normally converted to 6/12 ASCII. The SET TEXT-MODE command allows the user to request specific conversion modes of DIS- PLAY, 6/12-ASCII, or 8/12-ASCII, or set AUTO conversion as described above. 2. Program Operation Cyber Kermit's prompt is "Kermit-170>". It must be run interactively and has no parameters. Commands can be typed in like this: /kermit Cyber-170/NOS KERMIT Ver 3.2.0 (87/01/16) Kermit-170>send dog* [the files are sent] Kermit-170>status [performance statistics are printed] Kermit-170>receive [files are received] Kermit-170>exit / Cyber Kermit provides an initialization file capability. It will look for a file named KERMINI in the user's local files, and then in the permanent file catalog. If found, Kermit will take commands from this file before requesting commands from the user. Cyber Kermit mimics the DEC-20 style command parser in that a question mark followed by a carriage return may be placed anywhere on the command line (except for the SEND and DIR commands). This will display the options avail- able at that point. Unfortunately, the entire command will have to be retyped afterwards. Command keywords may be abbreviated to their shortest unique combination. This comes in very handy since Cyber Kermit does not support command completion. Cyber Kermit may only be run as a remote Kermit. This Kermit is "smart" and hence need not be closely watched during a transfer since it will timeout in a deadlock situation. A Cyber filename is restricted to 7 alphanumeric characters. When a file is be- ing sent to the Cyber, Kermit will take up to 3 characters of the extension (part following a period) of the micro's file name, plus as much as possible from the first part of the file name. This will lessen the conflicts when transferring a group of files with the same name but different extensions. If a file under that name already exists, an "error packet" stating so will be sent back to the micro and Cyber Kermit will abort the entire transfer. If you are having trouble transferring files with Kermit, it may be due to the parity. Cyber Kermit has no way of determining the parity of the connection and does not affect it in any way. If you are having problems getting the first packet to transfer, then this is probably the problem. If necessary, enter a ! TRMDEF command from within Kermit to set the Cyber front-end's parity to match that of your micro (eg. ! TRMDEF,PA=N for no parity, ! TRMDEF,PA=E for even.) 3. Cyber Kermit Commands The following is a list of Cyber Kermit commands and their descriptions. ! command Execute a NOS command and then return to Kermit. Note that a single space must follow the ! character. Cyber Kermit will supply a con- trol statement terminator if needed. DIRECTORY [filename] Displays the names of the files local to the user's job, or the names of files in the user's permanent file catalog; filename may be a wildcard filename. If the command is specified with no parameters or the L: parameter, all local files are listed. If the P: parameter is used, all per- manent files are listed. To list a single local file or subset of local files, the user may specify a file name or wildcard file name. To list a single or sub- set of permanent files, the user may precede the file name or wildcard file name by P: [The above syntax is also applicable to the REMOTE DIRECTORY server command.] EXIT, QUIT Exit from Kermit-170. You may also stop Kermit-170 in the midst of a transfer or during server operations by aborting your local Kermit with a CTRL-C. Connect to the Cyber Kermit (don't forget to first FINISH if you were using the Cyber Kermit in server mode) and then EXIT. HELP [topic] Give Help. There's a general help text, plus separate help texts for each Kermit-170 command. HELP ? lists the available topics. PUSH Exit to NOS command level, saving the current Kermit environment. The environment will be restored when Kermit is reentered. RECEIVE Receive a file or group of files from the other host. If the name in the header packet is not a legal Cyber file name, the first 7 legal characters will be used. If the file already exits as a local file, Kermit will abort the transfer. If an error occurs during transfer, the local file being received will be deleted to allow the transfer to be retried. After entering the RECEIVE command, you should escape back to your local Kermit and give the SEND command. SEND filename or L:filename or P:filename Send one or more files to the local (micro) Kermit; filename may be a wildcard filename. The name of each file is passed to the other Ker- mit in a file header packet, so that the file can be stored there with the same name. You should escape back to your local Kermit and give the RECEIVE command. If you don't do this fast enough the "send-init" packet may arrive prematurely. To prevent this, use SET DELAY or hit the RETURN key on your microcomputer if it does not timeout. If you use the first form of this command and no local file(s) match your request, your permanent file catalog is searched for matching file(s). If you prefix the filename with L:, only your local files are searched; if P:, only your permanent file catalog is searched. (Note that for a permanent file transfer, any local file which has the same name as a permanent file being sent, is deleted.) SERVER Act as a server for another Kermit. Whatever options were previously SET will be used. The server may be shut down from the local Kermit by using the BYE or FINISH commands. Generally, you should use the FINISH command if you were transferring a file to the Cyber so that you may then connect and make the file permanent. The BYE or LOGOUT command causes the remote Kermit to logout and thus should be used when receiving a file from the Cyber and there is no real reason to re-connect. The following server features are currently supported in Kermit-170: GET, SEND, FINISH, BYE, REM DIR SET keyword value Establish system-dependent parameters. You can examine their values with the SHOW command. Numeric values may be decimal, octal (postfixed with a B), or hexadecimal (postfixed by an H). The fol- lowing may be SET: DEBUG option Show packet traffic explicitly. Options are: ALL Set all debug options (PACKETS and STATES). LOG-FILE filename Log states and packets to the specified file. The default log-file is named KERMLOG. OFF Don't log debugging information (this is the default). If debugging was in effect, turn it off and close the log file. PACKETS Log each incoming and outgoing packet (lengthy). STATES Log Kermit state transitions and packet numbers (brief). DELAY decimal-number Sets the number of seconds to wait before sending the first packet. This gives you time to "escape" back and issue a RECEIVE command. The default is 2 seconds. DUPLEX keyword Changes the method of echoing characters when being prompted for commands. The choices are FULL and HALF. FULL means the Cyber will echo the characters you type. HALF means the local system echoes them. FULL is the default, and is used by most hosts. FILE-MODE ftype Declares the file mode to be used while processing Cyber disk files. Allowable values for ftype are TEXT and BINARY. TEXT means that the file contains text in either 8/12 ASCII, 6/12 AS- CII, or Display Code (See SET TEXT-MODE command). BINARY means that file contains binary data, packed 7.5 8-bit bytes per 60-bit word. The default is TEXT. INIT-RETRY decimal-number Set the maximum number of retries allowed for the initial connec- tion before giving up. Default is 15. RECEIVE parameter value These commands allow you to specify to the other Kermit what the packets it sends should look like, or to inform this Kermit what to expect. Value may be specified as a decimal number, an octal number (B suffix), or a hexadecimal number (H suffix). Character values are specified as the numeric equivalent of the ASCII character. END-OF-LINE value The octal value of the ASCII character which will be used as a line terminator for packets by the other system. Carriage return (15B) is the default. PACKET-LENGTH value Maximum packet length the other system may send, a decimal number, between 20 and 1000, 94 by default. Size used is the minimum of this parameter and the SEND PACKET-LENGTH of the other Kermit. PAD-CHARACTER value Character to use for padding. Default is NUL. PAD-LENGTH value Set the number of padding characters to send before a packet. Default is no padding. QUOTE-CHARACTER value The printable character to use for quoting of control charac- ters. Default is # (43B). There should be no reason to change this. SYNC-CHARACTER value The control character that marks the beginning of the packet. Normally SOH (Control-A, ASCII 1). There should be no reason to change this. TIME-OUT value The number of seconds the other Kermit should wait for a packet before asking for retransmission. Default is 10 seconds. RETRY decimal-number Sets the maximum number of retries allowed for a particular packet before giving up. Default is 10. SEND parameter value These commands allow you to specify how outgoing packets should look, in case the other Kermit has non-standard requirements. END-OF-LINE value The octal value of the ASCII character to be used as a line terminator for packets, if one is required by the other sys- tem. Carriage return (15B) by default. PACKET-LENGTH value Maximum packet length to send, decimal number, between 20 and 1000, 94 by default. Size used is the minimum of this parameter and the RECEIVE PACKET-LENGTH of the other Kermit. PAD-CHARACTER value Character to use for padding. Default is NUL. PAD-LENGTH value Set the number of padding characters to send before a packet. Default is no padding. QUOTE-CHARACTER value The printable character to use for quoting of control charac- ters. The default is # (43B). There should be no reason to change this. SYNC-CHARACTER value The control character that marks the beginning of the packet. Normally SOH (Control-A, ASCII 1). There should be no reason to change this. TIME-OUT value How many seconds to wait for a packet before trying again. Default is 10 seconds. TEXT-MODE ctype Sets the character set of TEXT files. Allowable values for ctype are: AUTO, DISPLAY, 6/12-ASCII, and 8/12 ASCII. The default is AUTO, which tells Cyber Kermit to attempt to auto-recognize files on send, and write 6/12 ASCII files on receive. SHOW Display current SET parameters, version of Kermit-170, and other in- formation. STATUS Give statistics about the most recent file transfer. TAKE filename or L:filename or P:filename Take Kermit commands from a file. Kermit will first look in the user's local files; if not found it will then look in the permanent file catalog. You may restrict the search by prefixing the filename with "P:" or "L:". (See the SEND command above.) When an logical end-of-record is encountered on the TAKE file, Kermit will revert to accepting commands from the terminal. TAKE commands cannot be nested; a TAKE command read from a file will begin reading commands from the new file, but at it's end will not revert to the first file. Index ! 0 Control-C 1 Debugging 1 DIR 0 DIRECTORY 0 Duplex 1 EXIT 1 File Type 1 Help 0, 1 KERMINI 0 Kermit Initialization 0 Parity 0 PUSH 1 QUIT 1 RECEIVE 1 Receive Files 1 Retry 1 SEND 1 SERVER 1 SET 1 SHOW 1 STATUS 1 TAKE 1 Text Mode 1 Wildcard 0 Table of Contents 1. Cyber File Systems 0 2. Program Operation 0 3. Cyber Kermit Commands 0 Index 3