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- AATAPE.HLP June 1991
-
- COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY KERMIT DISTRIBUTION
-
-
- The complete Kermit is divided into five reels of 9-track magnetic tape, Tapes
- A through E. Tape A contains Kermit versions for the more popular PCs
- (MS-DOS, CP/M, Apple II, Commodore 64, etc), Tape B for the more popular
- workstations, minis, and mainframes (DEC operating systems, IBM mainframes,
- UNIX, etc), Tape C for less popular PCs, Tape D for less popular minis and
- mainframes, and Tape E for online documentation plus utilitity programs
- (including programs for reading tapes). See the file AAFILES.HLP for an
- explanation of where the files are and what they're called.
-
- All tapes are 9-track, 1600 bpi, odd parity, 2400-foot half-inch reels.
- Blocksize is marked on the external label, and will be between 2K and 10K
- depending upon various factors.
-
- Your tape is in one of the following formats, as you requested. The format
- should be clearly marked on the external label.
-
- ANSI -- ANSI standard label, volume label KERMIT, ASCII encoding, format D,
- variable length records. Readable by most computer systems, should be
- readable by all since it's a national standard format. On VAX/VMS, readable
- with the DCL COPY command. The ANSI tape format is described in detail below.
-
- OS -- IBM OS standard label, volume label KERMIT, EBCDIC encoding, format
- VB, variable length records. Format described in detail below. First file
- on OS tapes is a 370 assembly program to read OS tapes under CMS.
- For MVS, use JCL.
-
- TAR -- Unix Tar format, 10K blocksize. This format is used by Unix computers
- only.
-
- All formats contain only "printable" files -- program source, binaries in
- "hex" or other printably-encoded format along with conversion programs,
- documentation, etc.
-
- Each Kermit distribution tape, A-E, comes with a directory listing showing
- names of all the files that are on it, in the order in which they appear on
- the tape. In addition, the file AAFILES.HLP lists the files and gives a
- fuller explanation of the naming conventions, and some information about the
- various Kermit implementations.
-
- ANSI and OS are the two formats most commonly used for exchanging information
- on tape between unlike systems. These formats are now described in some
- detail; in case you don't have a utility handy to read your ANSI or OS tape,
- the following information should be sufficient to allow a programmer to write a
- procedure to get the information from the tape.
-
- - ANSI LABELED TAPES -
-
- All systems are supposed to be able to read ANSI labeled tapes, which,
- according to ANSI standard X3.27-1978: "Magnetic Tape Labels and File
- Structure for Information Exchange", should be the universal medium for
- exchange between mainframe computers. Our tape is written on any of several
- types of computers, including a VAX with Unix (using an ANSI tape-writing
- utility) or a VAX with VMS (using the COPY command), and conform to the ANSI
- standard, level 3. The tape is written as follows:
-
- Tracks: 9
- Density: 1600 bits per inch
- Parity: Odd
- Character Encoding: ASCII (ANSI X3.4-1968)
- Block Length: 8192 (unless indicated otherwise on external label)
-
- ANSI labels (each label is an 80-byte record, encoded in ASCII):
-
- Each label begins with a 4-character identifier, like VOL1, HDR1, EOV1, etc.
- - Volume label (VOL1): Volume name is KERMIT, in character positions 5-10.
- The volume label appears only at the beginning of the tape.
- - File Header 1 (HDR1): File name is in character positions 5-21.
- - File Header 2 (HDR2): Record Format (F, D, or S) in 5 (it's always "D"),
- Block length in 6-10, ASCII numeric, leading 0's.
- Record length in 11-15, ditto.
- After HDR1 and HDR2 comes a single tape mark (tm) then the contents of the
- file, terminated by another tm. The (HDR1, HDR2, tm, file data, tm) sequence
- is repeated for each file. At the end of file, there may be EOF1 and EOF2
- labels followed by a tm; if present, they may be ignored.
-
- - At the end of tape may be EOV1 and EOV2 labels to indicate end of volume.
- There is a double tape mark at the end of the tape.
-
- Record Format: "D" -- variable length records with a 4-digit ASCII length field
- at the beginning of each record (the length includes the length field
- itself), line terminators stripped, and no record crossing a block boundary.
- The record may be padded at the end with 0 to 3 circumflex characters,
- which are NOT included in the length field. A null record ("blank line")
- is indicated by "0004" followed immediately by the length field of the
- next line. "F" (fixed length record) format, although simpler to read, is
- not used because the Kermit distribution will not fit on a 2400-foot
- fixed-block tape because of the space wasted by padding each record with
- blanks. Only printable files (text, program source, text formatter source,
- or hex) are included on this tape.
-
- Record Length: Variable, max 800 (no lines of text in Kermit distribution
- files are more than 800 characters long; very few are longer than 200).
-
- Block length: Since 8192 is longer than the normal block length on some
- systems, you may need special procedures to read the tape. For instance, on
- VAX/VMS, you must "MOUNT/BLOCK=8192/DENSITY=1600 MTA0: KERMIT" (not /FOREIGN).
-
- DEC PDP-11s may have trouble with these tapes. RT-11 doesn't support them.
- In RSTS, MOUNT MM0:/FOR=ANS KERMIT (or ASSIGN MM0:.ANSI), and use PIP to read.
- In RSX, MOU MM0:/OV=ID and use PIP to read. In both RSTS and RSX, you may
- have to extend PIP's buffer size:
- RSTS: $ def/com/sys pip lb:[1,2]pip.sav/lin=8228, $ pip sy:=mm0:k11???.*
- RSX: >rem ...pip, >ins $pip/inc=50000, >pip sy:=mm0:k11*.*
- Decode K11*.HEX files on RSTS with K11HEX.FTN or K11HEX.B2S, not K11HEX.BAS.
-
- - OS STANDARD LABELED TAPES -
-
- The tape is written on either a SUN 4/280 running Unix, using a local utility,
- or an IBM 370-Series machine running VM/CMS, using MOVEFILE. The tape may be
- read on IBM OS or MVS systems using normal JCL procedures. The tape may be
- read on CMS using the program provided as the first file on the tape.
-
- The tape is written as follows:
-
- Tracks: 9
- Density: 1600 bits per inch
- Parity: Odd
-
- Character Encoding: EBCDIC
-
- Labels (each label is an 80-byte record, encoded in EBCDIC):
- Each label begins with a 4-character identifier, like VOL1, HDR1, EOV1, etc.
- Volume label (VOL1): Volume name is KERMIT, in character positions 5-10.
- The volume label appears only at the beginning of the tape.
- File Header 1 (HDR1): File name is in character positions 5-21.
- File Header 2 (HDR2): Record Format in 5 (it's always "V"),
- Block length in 6-10, printable EBCDIC digits,
- filled to 5 columns with leading zeroes.
- Record length in 11-15, printable EBCDIC digits,
- filled with leading zeroes.
- Blocking attribute in 39 (always "B").
- After HDR1 and HDR2 comes a single tape mark (tm) then the contents
- of the file, terminated by another tm. Finally, there are EOF1 and
- EOF2 labels, also terminated by a tm. The (HDR1, HDR2, tm, file
- data, tm, EOF1, EOF2, tm) sequence is repeated for each file.
-
- At the end of the tape there is a double tape mark.
-
- Block Format: "B" -- Each block begins with a 4-byte length field (the
- length includes the block length field) which is the actual length
- of the block. The length field is encoded as two binary bytes (high
- order byte first) followed by two zero bytes. Following the length
- are as many records as will fit in the block; no record spans
- multiple blocks.
-
- Record Format: "V" -- variable length records with a 4-byte length field
- at the beginning of each record (the length includes the length
- field itself), line terminators stripped, and no record crossing a
- block boundary. The length field is encoded the same was as the
- block length field, above. "F" (fixed length record) format,
- although simpler to read, is not used because the Kermit
- distribution will not fit on a 2400-foot fixed-block tape because of
- the space wasted by padding each record with blanks.
-
- Record Length: Variable, maximum 800 bytes. (No lines of text or program
- source in the Kermit distribution are more than 800 characters long,
- indeed very few are more than 200. All of the Kermit-370 files are 80
- bytes long.)
-
- Block Length: Maximum of 8192 bytes.
-
- Only printable files (text, program source, text formatter source, or hex) are
- included on this tape.
-
- JCL FOR READING AN OS-FORMAT KERMIT TAPE ON AN IBM MAINFRAME:
-
- Use this template for the JCL. It must be replicated for each tape file
- to be read:
-
- // EXEC PGM=IEBGENER
- //SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=A
- //SYSIN DD DUMMY
- //SYSUT1 DD DSN=tapefilename,
- // UNIT=tapeunit,VOL=SER=tapevol,DISP=SHR,
- // LABEL=(filenum,SL,,IN)
- //SYSUT2 DD DSN=diskfilename,
- // UNIT=diskunit,VOL=SER=diskvol,DISP=(NEW,CATLG),
- // SPACE=(TRK,(20,20),RLSE)
-
- where:
-
- "tapefilename" is the name of the data set on the tape
- "tapeunit" is the installation's unit name for a tape drive
- "tapevol" is the volume serial number of the tape
- "filenum" is the sequence number of the data set on the tape
-
- "diskfilename" is the name the data set is to be on disk
- "diskunit" is the installation's unit name for disk drives
- "diskvol" is the volume serial number of the disk, if needed
-
- For example, if the file IKTKER.INS (TSO Kermit installation instructions) is
- the 176th file on tape B, which (like all Kermit tapes) has the volume label
- KERMIT, the following JCL would read this file (you still have to fill in the
- tapeunit, diskunit, and diskvol parameters appropriate to your site):
-
- // EXEC PGM=IEBGENER
- //SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=A
- //SYSIN DD DUMMY
- //SYSUT1 DD DSN=IKTKER.INS,
- // UNIT=tapeunit,VOL=SER=KERMIT,DISP=SHR,
- // LABEL=(176,SL,,IN)
- //SYSUT2 DD DSN=IKTKER.INS,
- // UNIT=diskunit,VOL=SER=diskvol,DISP=(NEW,CATLG),
- // SPACE=(TRK,(20,20),RLSE)
-
- READING OS-FORMAT TAPES UNDER VM/CMS
-
- CMS does not come equipped with a utility to read groups of files from an
- OS-format tape. OS-format Kermit distribution tapes contain two such
- utilities as the first two files on the tape. Use CMS TAPE, FILEDEF, and
- MOVEFILE commands to read these files from the tape, then use them to read the
- other files automatically.
-
- Method 1: VM version 4 or later. Use the REXX Exec OSTAPE EXEC (the second
- file on your OS-format tape). This program can read groups of files
- selectively from the tape. Instructions for use are in comments at the top of
- the OSTAPE EXEC. OSTAPE EXEC was written by Bob Meizlik of Pan American World
- Airways, Rockleigh, NJ, USA, December 1990.
-
- To copy this program from tape to a CMS disk, issue the following commands:
-
- TAPE REW
- TAPE FSF
- FILEDEF INMOVE TAP1 (RECFM VB LRECL 800 BLOCK 8192)
- FILEDEF OUTMOVE DISK OSTAPE EXEC A (RECFM VB LRECL 100)
- MOVEFILE
-
- Then, to clear the FILEDEF's before you run the exec, say:
-
- FILEDEF * CLEAR
-
- Method 2: Any version of VM. Use the assembly language program SPROSC
- ASSEMBLE, provided as the first file on the OS format tapes, to read selected
- files from the tape. CMS style help is included at the beginning of the file.
-
- To copy this program from tape to a CMS disk, issue the following commands:
-
- TAPE REW
- TAPE FSF
- TAPE FSF
- FILEDEF INMOVE TAP1 (RECFM VB LRECL 80 BLOCK 8160)
- FILEDEF OUTMOVE DISK SPROSC ASSEMBLE A (RECFM VB LRECL 100)
- MOVEFILE
- COPYFILE SPROSC ASSEMBLE A (RECFM F LRECL 80)
-
- To generate this program enter the following CMS commands:
-
- ASSEMBLE SPROSC
- LOAD SPROSC
- GENMOD SPROSC
- NUCXLOAD SPROSC
-
- You should now have a runnable module called SPROSC. To install the files,
- the installation tape must be attached as 181, which might look something
- like the following (note that the method for mounting tapes is
- site-dependent):
-
- SMSG BATCH SETUP NOTAPE
- or
- SMSG BATCH SETUP VOL KERMCO NORING SECOND
-
- Once you have the tape attached as 181 or TAP1, the following is an example
- of correct syntax:
-
- SPROSC TAP1 = = (EOF 217 PREFIX IK
-
- This command will load all files with names beginning "IK" from among the
- next 217 files on tape 181. If the tape is ANSI, the files will be
- translated into EBCDIC. If the tape is not labeled, SPROSC will halt.
-
-
- [End of AATAPE.HLP]
-
-