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- ""
- HELP
-
- This info goes with KERMIT version 1.99 or later, as of April 24, 1987.
-
- KERMIT is a file-transfer protocol for use over an asynchronous serial
- telecommunications lines. Files are broken up into "packets", adding
- checksums and other control information to ensure, with high likelihood,
- error-free and complete transmission.
-
- KERMIT-RTE is implemented for HP-1000 systems running RTE-6/VM or RTE-A.
- The following commands may be entered in upper- or lower-case:
- Bye Connect Exit Finish Get Help Quit REceive
- RUn SET SENd SERver SHow STatus Transfer
- Note: the minimum allowable abbreviation is shown in UPPER-CASE.
-
- Info about a given command's parameters, if any, is available via a "?" --
- "SET ?" gives you a list of settable parameters. Info about the commands
- themselves is available via "HELP <command>" where you replace "<command>"
- with one of the commands shown above. If you need even more help, consult
- the KERMIT user's manual.
- ""
- CONNECT
-
- CONNECT [<lu#>]
-
- The CONNECT command puts KERMIT into a terminal-emulator state, connecting
- your terminal to either the <lu#> in this command, if given, or to the LU#
- given in a previous SET LINE command. Anything you type will be sent to
- the other "remote" computer; anything it sends back will be displayed on
- your terminal. WARNING: If you are NOT connected via a "D" mux (currently
- only under RTE-A), TYPE SLOWLY! You may otherwise lose keystrokes.
-
- When you are typing to KERMIT-RTE, it will prompt you with "KERMIT-RTE>"
- unless you have changed the prompt (see SET PROMPT for info). When you
- CONNECT to another machine, you will see information about how to ESCAPE
- back to KERMIT-RTE, and then you will be typing as if you were on a terminal
- directly connected to the other machine. When you need to return to KERMIT-
- RTE (to give it a command or to exit), you will need to type the ESCAPE info
- as shown in the message you got when you did the CONNECT (see SET ESCAPE for
- more info). You will then get a message about having returned to the local
- machine and KERMIT-RTE.
- ""
- EXIT
- ""
- QUIT
-
- EXIT or QUIT causes this KERMIT to shut itself down in an orderly way (as
- opposed to crashing!), closing debugging files if opened, and restoring
- various things to their original state before KERMIT was run.
-
- If you are running KERMIT-RTE as a server, you must use the FINISH, BYE, or
- LOGOFF commands from your local machine rather than QUIT or EXIT.
- ""
- GET
- ""
- RECEIVE
-
- GET <file-descriptor> [<file-mask>]
- RECEIVE [<file-mask>]
-
- GET and RECEIVE tell this KERMIT to receive one or more files from the
- KERMIT running on the other computer, be it a PC or another mainframe.
-
- If the other KERMIT is a SERVER, you MUST use GET instead of RECEIVE; GET
- requires a file-descriptor which must be legal for the remote system, and
- may contain wild-cards if the remote KERMIT will accept them.
-
- The optional <file-mask> parameter allows you to rename the first received
- file to that mask, and remaining files using all but the file-name part of
- the mask. If the received files are put in FMGR space, their names will be
- subject to (possibly severe) editing, since FMGR allows only 6 characters.
- FILE-WARNING NOTE: If a received file's name conflicts with an existing file,
- the RECEIVE or GET will be aborted with a message unless file-warnings are
- off. If file-warnings are off, new files will overlay the first existing
- one with the same name. Do "HELP SET WARNING" if you need more information
- on this.
- ""
- SEND
-
- SEND <file-descriptor> [<first file-name>]
-
- "SEND <file-descriptor>" causes KERMIT-RTE to send the file(s) matching the
- file-descriptor to the other KERMIT whether or not it is a SERVER.
-
- "SEND <file-descriptor> <first file-name>" works as above starting with the
- given file-name (wild-cards are NOT allowed here!); this is used primarily
- to resume sending a set of files after some kind of interruption.
-
- Files' names are sent to the "other" KERMIT in a "packet" so that they will
- know what to receive. If the SEND command is issued to the remote KERMIT
- (you are CONNECTed) then you must escape back to the local KERMIT to give a
- RECEIVE command within 15 seconds or this packet may be lost. If this is
- not an appropriate delay, you may alter it using the SET DELAY command.
- ""
- RUN
-
- "[RUN] <program-name> [<run-string parameters>]" causes KERMIT to schedule
- the named program with wait, passing any run-string parameters as supplied.
- If the program so scheduled returns a non-zero first parameter or a string,
- they will be displayed at your terminal.
- ""
- SERVER
-
- This command causes KERMIT-RTE to act as a server, getting all further
- commands from another KERMIT in "packets". This command may only be used
- if this KERMIT-RTE is the "remote" KERMIT and the "local" KERMIT knows how
- to talk to a server (not all of them do!). Once this KERMIT becomes a
- server, you will be told to ESCAPE back to the local KERMIT.
-
- Once acting as a server, KERMIT-RTE may only be shut down by a local KERMIT
- command such as FINISH, BYE, or LOGOUT, as appropriate. FINISH will shut
- down KERMIT-RTE but not log-off the session. If you need to rename received
- files or direct them to a particular directory during a server receive, you
- may SET RMASK to accomplish this before starting the server -- see SET RMASK
- for further information.
-
- KERMIT-RTE is set up so that if the default communication parameters are
- already compatible with your PC, you can "[ru] kermit SERver".
- ""
- STATUS
-
- STATUS causes KERMIT-RTE to display retry- and overall packet-counts and
- timing information about the most recent file transfer, and retry- and
- overall packet-counts of all file transfers done during the current
- KERMIT-RTE session.
- ""
- TRANSFER
-
- Transfer <file-name> [NOecho]
-
- This causes all further commands to be obtained from the file-name given.
- If 'NO' or blanks appear after the file-name, commands obtained from the
- file will not be echoed at the console; anything else will cause those
- commands to be shown at your terminal as they are processed.
-
- Transfer-files may contain any legal command except the transfer command
- itself. If the transfer-file contains a blank line, control will return
- to your terminal for one command, and then return to the transfer-file.
- If you should inadvertently put a blank line in the transfer-file, you
- will have to enter SOMETHING at the KERMIT-RTE prompt; entering one or
- more commas will return you to the transfer-file. At the end of the file
- control automatically return to your terminal. NOTE: all commands which
- appear in a transfer-file after a SERVER command will not be processed!
- ""
- FINISH
- ""
- BYE
-
- BYE or FINISH
-
- FINISH causes the remote KERMIT to terminate but not log-off from the remote
- system when the remote KERMIT is acting as a server. It does not cause the
- local KERMIT to terminate.
-
- BYE causes the remote KERMIT to terminate AND log-off from the remote system
- when the remote KERMIT is acting as a server. It DOES cause KERMIT-RTE to
- terminate as if an EXIT or QUIT command was given.
-
- WARNING: You should NOT use the BYE command under any KERMIT if there is a
- permanent connection between the systems, and if some kind of "log-on" is
- usually performed on BOTH systems. If you do use the BYE command in such
- a situation, one system's log-off messages could act like a log-on attempt
- to the other system, and since that is bound to fail, the resulting message
- will be like a log-on attempt to the first system, resulting in a chain-
- reaction which has been known to seriously degrade system performance.
- ""
- SHOW
- ""
- <
-
- SHOW
- SET <param> <value>
-
- SET and SHOW allow you to set or see system-dependent characteristics.
-
- SHOW causes KERMIT-RTE to display the values of the SET parameters, and
- various other information.
-
- SET commands require one of the following <parameter-names>:
- BInary BQuote Check DEBug DELay Escape Ibm Line
- PACket PARity PRompt Quote REPeat RETry RMask Sync
- Warning
- NOTE: The minimum allowable abbreviation is shown in UPPER-CASE.
-
- SET commands also require a value which is dependent on which parameters
- is being set. If a parameter requires a numeric value, you may enter it
- in decimal, octal (post-fixed with a 'B'), hexadecimal (post-fixed with
- an 'H'), or as a single literal character (post-fixed with a '"').
-
- For more information on the settable parameters and the type of allowable
- values they require, do "help set <parameter-name>" from the above list;
- to get help on set debug, for example, you would type "help set debug".
- ""
- BINARY
-
- SET BINARY ON or OFF
-
- As of version 1.97, KERMIT-RTE can transfer non-ASCII files to compatible
- KERMITs if you SET BINARY ON.
-
- "Normal" (non-binary) transfers convert the logical END-OF-RECORD in a file
- to a <CR> <LF> sequence which all KERMITs know how to use. If this sequence
- appears as part of the normal data in a file, the destination KERMIT will
- start a new record at that point and drop both characters. Once you have
- SET BINARY ON, KERMIT-RTE will transfer all data as it appears in the file
- and ignore the "special" significance of CR/LF within the file. Further,
- the file's record-structure is ignored; the file operates as if it's records
- are all 256 bytes long. For this reason you should GET or RECEIVE (or SET
- RMASK) using a FULL FILE DESCRIPTION, including the type, size, and record-
- length. Otherwise the file will default to type-4, 24 blocks, record-length
- of 0.
-
- NOTE: if the communications line requires parity other than NONE, and if you
- have disabled binary-quoting (see SET BQUOTE), transfers of binary files
- will not be allowed.
- ""
- BQUOTE
-
- SET BQUOTE <value>
-
- If you need to send non-text data to another KERMIT using a communications
- line with parity other than NONE, KERMIT-RTE can do "8th-bit prefixing" if
- the other KERMIT agrees to do it also. What this means is that if KERMIT is
- about to send a character which has it's 8th bit set, KERMIT will send a
- special character (the "BQUOTE") before it (which tells the other KERMIT to
- set the 8th bit on the next character it receives). The setting of the 8th
- bit would otherwise be lost due to the parity setting.
-
- With this command you may set the BQUOTE to something other than the usual
- "&" (46 octal). The value you enter is the character-code of the character
- you would like to use (which must match what the other KERMIT expects); it
- must be in the range of 33-62 or 96-126 (all numbers decimal) and it must be
- different than the QUOTE (for control codes) and the REPEAT (use for repeat-
- count processing). You may enter this number in decimal, octal (nnnB),
- hexadecimal (nnH), or as the literal character followed by a quote (").
-
- You should not have to change this for most KERMITs. Setting the BQUOTE to
- 32 decimal (ASCII blank) turns 8th-bit prefixing off; this interacts with
- the communications-line parity and may prevent binary-file transfers.
- ""
- CHECK
-
- SET CHECK <checksum type>
-
- This command allows you to request alternate checksum bytes within packets:
- "SET CHECK 1" builds 1-byte (arithmetic) checksums <default>
- "SET CHECK 2" builds 2-byte (arithmetic) checksums
- "SET CHECK 3" builds 3-byte (CCITT-CRC) checksums
-
- By setting CHECK to 2 or 3, KERMIT's error-detecting capability increases,
- but only if the other KERMIT can also do it! If it can't do 2- or 3-byte
- checksums, don't worry, because all KERMITs already know to do the 1-byte
- checksum.
- ""
- DEBUG
-
- SET DEBUG <keyword>
-
- In the event that you experience some problem with KERMIT-RTE's operations,
- you may arrange for KERMIT-RTE to perform some self-diagnosis. Before you
- can debug any of KERMIT-RTE's operations, you must first setup it's debug
- logging file via "SET DEBUG FILE <file-name>", which will create the given
- file if it doesn't already exist. NOTE - if the debug logging file already
- exists, it will be overlaid! You may then "SET DEBUG <type>" as shown in
- the following to obtain:
- STATES - shows packet numbers/types and internal state as
- A Abort transmission B Break transmission C Transfer complete
- D Data E Error F File header
- R Receive initiate S Send initiate T Timeout
- Z End of file
- PACKETS - shows the actual data in incoming and outgoing KERMIT packets.
- You will need to consult the KERMIT protocol manual in order
- to get a description of these
- ALL - a combination of STATES and PACKETS
- OFF - turns off debugging
- ""
- DELAY
-
- SET DELAY <value>
-
- This sets the time in seconds which the KERMIT-RTE will delay before it
- sends the first packet of a file. It starts out at 15 seconds and you may
- change to anything from 1 to 30 seconds, to give yourself time to escape
- back to the local KERMIT to give a RECEIVE command. This command will not
- be allowed if this KERMIT is the local one.
-
- SET DELAY 25 sets the send-delay to 25 seconds.
- ""
- PROMPT
-
- SET PROMPT [<up to 20 non-blank characters>]
-
- When you are trying to work with a copy of KERMIT-RTE at both ends of a link,
- you may have some difficulty in determining whether a command-line prompt is
- for the "local" KERMIT or for a "remote" KERMIT. To resolve this problem,
- you may change the command-line prompt that KERMIT-RTE uses to any sequence
- of up to 20 non-blank characters (a blank terminates the prompt-string);
- KERMIT-RTE will shift the string to all upper-case. If no prompt-string is
- given, the original command-prompt will be restored.
- ""
- IBM
-
- SET IBM ON or OFF
-
- You may "SET IBM ON" or "SET IBM OFF" only if the local KERMIT is talking
- to a remote KERMIT requiring IBM mode (half-duplex). If IBM mode is ON,
- KERMIT will wait until it has received a DC1 (XON, or ^Q) character before
- it transmits anything. Further, IBM ON causes KERMIT-RTE to locally echo
- keystrokes during CONNECT mode.
- ""
- LINE
-
- SET LINE <lu>
-
- This tells KERMIT-RTE which logical unit number (<lu>) is to be used for
- communications to a remote computer. The LU# must be legal for your session,
- and should be a 12792B/C or 12040B/C/D multiplexer port hooked to the desired
- remote computer or modem.
-
- KERMIT-RTE starts up in "remote-host" mode, which means it expects that
- you are running from a PC and will transfer files on "LU 1". By setting
- the line to some other LU, you are putting KERMIT-RTE into "local-host"
- mode. Some commands work in one mode and not the other, or they operate
- differently depending on the KERMIT's mode. You can switch from local-
- host mode back to remote-host mode by SETting LINE to your terminal LU.
- ""
- PACKET
-
- SET PACKET <size>
-
- This is used to change the packet size from it's default 94 bytes to any
- size from 31 to 94 bytes. If the connection is very good, you may get
- slightly better thruput with a packet size of 94 bytes. For noisy lines,
- you may be able to avoid (costly) retries by reducing the packet size
- ""
- PARITY
-
- SET PARITY NONE/ODD/EVEN/MARK/SPACE
-
- As of version 1.97, you may set the parity of KERMIT's remote line. When
- the system boots up, a port's parity is set by the system manager to suit
- the needs of most users. If you need to communicate with a remote system
- which uses some other parity, you may change it (before you CONNECT) to be
- compatible with the other system. KERMIT will restore the original parity
- when you SET LINE to some other LU or exit out of KERMIT.
-
- WARNING -- use this command with extreme caution! If the parity you set is
- different from what the other system actually does use, you may still be
- able to talk through CONNECT, but file-transfers will be impossible, and it
- will be difficult to determine why!
-
- NOTE -- KERMIT-RTE supports "binary quoting" for the transfer of some non-
- printable data over lines where parity is not NONE (do H BQuote for info).
- ""
- WARNING
-
- SET WARNING OFF or ON
-
- You may "SET WARNING OFF" to allow received file(s) to overlay existing
- file(s) with the same name.
-
- You may "SET WARNING ON" to restore KERMIT-RTE's starting condition, in
- which a file-reception which would overlay an existing file will be aborted
- and you will get an error message telling you about it.
- ""
- RETRY
-
- SET RETRY <number of retries/packet> [Initial]
-
- If KERMIT encounters an error in receiving or sending a packet to the other
- computer, it will retry sending that packet. It will keep on retrying the
- packet transfer operation until the retry-limit is reached. The retry-
- counter is reset each time a packet is successfully transferred so that an
- intermittently noisy line can be tolerated.
-
- KERMIT-RTE starts with a retry-limit of 5; with this command you may change
- it to any value from 5 to 30. If you can't transfer a packet trying 30
- times, you probably never will.
-
- If you include the (I)nitial qualifier (only the first character is used),
- you will adjust the retry-limit used on initiation of a connection. The
- default setting for the initial retry-limit is 15; you may increase it to
- 30, as above.
- ""
- RMASK
-
- SET RMASK <file-mask>
-
- Since server-receives won't allow you to specify any receive-mask info,
- this command, given before the server command, will do it for you. The
- file mask may specifications for directory, subdirectory, type-extension,
- file-type, file-size, security-code, record-length, and so on, but wild-
- card characters may not be used. NO CHECKING IS PERFORMED as to the
- validity of the file-mask when it is entered, only when it is used. If the
- file-mask parameter is not given, a previously-defined file-mask (if any)
- will be cleared; otherwise, any subsequent server-receives will function
- exactly like a RECEIVE command with the same file-mask. Do "HELP RECEIVE"
- for more information.
- ""
- QUOTE
-
- SET QUOTE <value>
-
- The quote character is the character that the local KERMIT sends to prefix
- control-characters which may occur in the files to be transferred. The
- normal quote character is "#" (43 octal), and there should be no reason to
- change this. If the remote KERMIT requires some other quote character,
- enter it's NUMERIC VALUE (character-code) as "SET QUOTE <value>", entering
- the value in decimal, octal (nnnB), hexadecimal (nnH), or as a literal
- character followed by a quote character ("). The character-code for this
- alternate quote character must be in the range of 33 to 126 (decimal), and
- it must not conflict with the BQUOTE character (for 8th-bit flagging) or the
- REPEAT character (for repeat-count processing).
- ""
- REPEAT
-
- SET REPEAT <value>
-
- The repeat character is the character that the local KERMIT sends to prefix
- a repeat-count character. If both KERMITs agree to do it (with the same
- character), data can be compressed if 4 or more identical characters need
- to be sent consecutively.
-
- This command allows you to set KERMIT-RTE's repeat character to match the
- one that the other KERMIT is using. The usual repeat-character is a "~"
- (tilde, decimal 126, or octal 176), and most KERMITs which know how to do
- this will use it. If the KERMIT you want to talk with uses some other
- character to prefix repeat-counts, you may enter it's character code here
- in decimal, octal (nnnB), hexadecimal (nnH), or as a literal character if
- entered followed by a quote character ("). It must not be the same as
- either the QUOTE character (for control-codes) or the BQUOTE character (for
- 8th-bit processing). The value you enter must be in the range of 33-62 or
- 96-126.
- ""
- SYNC
-
- SET SYNC <value>
-
- The sync character is the character the local KERMIT expects to receive as
- the first character of any from the other KERMIT. Control-A is the default
- sync for most KERMITs and there should be no reason to change it. If the
- other KERMIT uses some other SOH, you must "SET SOH <value>", where <value>
- is the character-code (a number) of the SOH character to be used; it must be
- from 1 to 31 and must not conflict with the EOL or IBM-prompt characters.
-
- The character-code may be entered in decimal, octal (nnnB), hexadecimal (nnH),
- or as a literal followed by a quote character (").
- ""
- ESCAPE
-
- SET ESCAPE <value>
-
- The escape character is the character that you enter to "escape" back to the
- local KERMIT after CONNECTing to another machine. The normal escape for
- KERMIT-RTE is control-] (35 octal) and probably doesn't need to be changed.
- If this character is commonly used by the other machine for some reason, you
- may change by "SET ESCAPE <value>", where <value> is the character-code (a
- number) of the escape character to be used, which must range from 1 to 31
- (decimal). The actual value may be entered in decimal, octal (nnnB), hexa-
- decimal (nnH), or as a literal followed by a quote character (").
-
- The escape character is always a control-code of some kind. It tells the
- KERMIT terminal emulator to look for the next character as a KERMIT command
- (rather than sending it to the remote computer). If the default escape
- character (control-], abbreviated as ^]) is in effect, then
-
- ^]^] will actually send one ^] to the remote computer
- ^]C will "Close" the CONNECTion (return to local)
- ^]Q will Quit debug logging, if active
- ^]R will Resume debug logging, if previously active
-
- Note that there are no spaces between the escape and the command character.
-