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8 As of: C-Kermit 9.0.300, 30 June 2011
9 This page last updated: Tue Jun 28 08:54:30 2011 (New York USA Time)
11 IF YOU ARE READING A PLAIN-TEXT version of this document, it is a
12 plain-text dump of a Web page. You can visit the original (and
13 possibly more up-to-date) Web page here:
15 [11]http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html
17 This document contains platform-independent C-Kermit hints and tips.
18 Also see the platform-specific C-Kermit hints and tips document for
19 your platform, for example:
21 [12]http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckubwr.html
23 for Unix. This document also applies to [13]Kermit 95 for Windows,
24 which is based on C-Kermit.
26 [ [14]C-Kermit ] [ [15]TUTORIAL ]
31 1. [17]INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
32 2. [18]THE C-KERMIT COMMAND PARSER
33 3. [19]MULTIPLE SESSIONS
34 4. [20]NETWORK CONNECTIONS
35 5. [21]MODEMS AND DIALING
36 6. [22]DIALING HINTS AND TIPS
37 7. [23]TERMINAL SERVERS
38 8. [24]TERMINAL EMULATION
41 11. [27]SCRIPT PROGRAMMING
45 [ [28]Top ] [ [29]Contents ] [ [30]Next ]
47 Source-level patches for C-Kermit 8.0.211:
51 1. INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
53 [ [31]Top ] [ [32]Contents ] [ [33]Next ]
55 These are not necessarily exhaustive lists.
59 C-Kermit 6.0 was released 6 September 1996 and is completely documented
60 in [34]Using C-Kermit, 2nd Edition. The following incompatible changes
61 were made in C-Kermit 6.0:
63 * Unless you tell C-Kermit otherwise, if a serial or network
64 connection seems to be open, and you attempt to EXIT or to open a
65 new connection, C-Kermit warns you that an active connection
66 appears to be open and asks you if you really want to close it. If
67 you do not want these warnings, add SET EXIT WARNING OFF to your
68 customization file or script, or give this command at the prompt.
69 * The default for SET { SEND, RECEIVE } PATHNAMES was changed from ON
70 to OFF, to prevent unexpected creation of directories and
71 depositing of incoming files in places you might not know to look.
72 * The default for SET FILE INCOMPLETE was changed from DISCARD to
73 KEEP to allow for file transfer recovery.
74 * The default file-transfer block-check is now 3, rather than 1. If
75 the other Kermit does not support this, the two will drop back to
76 type 1 automatically unless the other Kermit fails to follow the
77 protocol specification.
78 * The default flow-control is now "auto" ("do the right thing for
79 each type of connection"), not Xon/Xoff.
80 * Backslash (\) is no longer a command continuation character. Only -
81 (hyphen, dash) may be used for this in C-Kermit 6.0 and later.
82 * Negative INPUT timeout now results in infinite wait, rather than 1
87 C-Kermit 7.0 was released 1 January 2000. Its new features are
88 documented in the C-Kermit 7.0 Supplement,
89 [35]http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckermit2.html. The following
90 incompatible changes were made in C-Kermit 7.0:
91 * The "multiline GET" command is gone. Now use either of the
92 following forms instead:
93 get remote-name local-name
94 get /as-name:local-name remote-name
96 If either name contains spaces, enclose it in braces (or, in
97 C-Kermit 8.0, doublequotes).
98 * To include multiple file specifications in a GET command, you must
99 now use MGET rather than GET:
100 mget file1 file2 file3 ...
102 * C-Kermit 7.0 and later use FAST Kermit protocol settings by
103 default. This includes "unprefixing" of certain control characters.
104 Because of this, file transfers that worked with previous releases
105 might not work in the new release especially against a
106 non-Kermit-Project Kermit protocol implementation (but it is more
107 likely that they will work, and much faster). If a transfer fails,
108 you'll get a context-sensitive hint suggesting possible causes and
109 cures. Usually SET PREFIXING ALL does the trick.
110 * By default C-Kermit 7.0 and later send files in text or binary mode
111 by looking at each file to see which is the appropriate mode. To
112 restore the previous behavior, put SET TRANSFER MODE MANUAL and the
113 desired SET FILE TYPE (TEXT or BINARY) in your C-Kermit
115 * The RESEND and REGET commands automatically switch to binary mode;
116 previously if RESEND or REGET were attempted when FILE TYPE was
117 TEXT, these commands would fail immediately, with a message telling
118 you they work only when the FILE TYPE is BINARY. Now they simply do
120 * SET PREFIXING CAUTIOUS and MINIMAL now both prefix linefeed (10 and
121 138) in case rlogin, ssh, or cu are "in the middle", since
122 otherwise <LF>~ might appear in Kermit packets, and this would
123 cause rlogin, ssh, or cu to disconnect, suspend,escape back, or
124 otherwise wreck the file transfer. Xon and Xoff are now always
125 prefixed too, even when Xon/Xoff flow control is not in effect,
126 since unprefixing them has proven dangerous on TCP/IP connections.
127 * In UNIX, VMS, Windows, and OS/2, the DIRECTORY command is built
128 into C-Kermit itself rather than implemented by running an external
129 command or program. The built-in command might not behave the way
130 the platform-specific external one did, but many options are
131 available for customization. Of course the underlying
132 platform-specific command can still be accessed with "!", "@", or
133 "RUN" wherever the installation does not forbid. In UNIX, the "ls"
134 command can be accessed directly as "ls" in C-Kermit.
135 * SEND ? prints a list of switches rather than a list of filenames.
136 If you want to see a list of filenames, use a (system-dependent)
137 construction such as SEND ./? (for UNIX, Windows, or OS/2), SEND
139 * In UNIX, OS-9, and Kermit 95, the wildcard characters in previous
140 versions were * and ?. In C-Kermit 7.0 they are *, ?, [, ], {, and
141 }, with dash used inside []'s to denote ranges and comma used
142 inside {} to separate list elements. If you need to include any of
143 these characters literally in a filename, precede each one with
145 * SET QUIET { ON, OFF } is now on the command stack, just like SET
146 INPUT CASE, SET COUNT, SET MACRO ERROR, etc, as described on p.458
147 of [36]Using C-Kermit, 2nd Edition. This allows any macro or
148 command file to SET QUIET ON or OFF without worrying about saving
149 and restoring the global QUIET value. For example, this lets you
150 write a script that tries SET LINE on lots of devices until it
151 finds one free without spewing out loads of error messages, and
152 also without disturbing the global QUIET setting, whatever it was.
153 * Because of the new "." operator (which introduces assignments),
154 macros whose names begin with "." can not be invoked "by name".
155 However, they still can be invoked with DO or \fexecute().
156 * The syntax of the EVALUATE command has changed. To restore the
157 previous syntax, use SET EVALUATE OLD.
158 * The \v(directory) variable now includes the trailing directory
159 separator; in previous releases it did not. This is to allow
160 constructions such as:
163 to work across platforms that might have different directory
164 notation, such as UNIX, Windows, and VMS.
165 * Prior to C-Kermit 7.0, the FLOW-CONTROL setting was global and
166 sticky. In C-Kermit 7.0, there is an array of default flow-control
167 values for each kind of connection, that are applied automatically
168 at SET LINE/PORT/HOST time. Thus a SET FLOW command given before
169 SET LINE/PORT/HOST is likely to be undone. Therefore SET FLOW can
170 be guaranteed to have the desired effect only if given after the
171 SET LINE/PORT/HOST command.
172 * Character-set translation works differently in the TRANSMIT command
173 when (a) the file character-set is not the same as the local end of
174 the terminal character-set, or (b) when the terminal character-set
179 The following incompatible changes were made in C-Kermit 8.0:
180 * C-Kermit now accepts doublequotes in most contexts where you
181 previously had to use braces to group multiple words into a single
182 field, or to force inclusion of leading or trailing blanks. This
183 might cause problems in contexts where you wanted the doublequote
184 characters to be taken literally. Consult [37]Section 5 of the
185 [38]C-Kermit 8.0 Update Notes for further information.
186 * Using the SET HOST command to make HTTP connections is no longer
187 supported. Instead, use the new [39]HTTP OPEN command.
191 The [40]\fsplit() function is incredibly handy, it can do almost
192 anything, up to and including parsing a LISP program (the underlying
193 code is the basis of the [41]S-Expression interpreter). But did you
194 ever try to use it to parse (say) a Tab-Separated-List (TSV file) or
195 Comma-Separated-List (CSV)? It works as expected as long as the data
196 contains only 7-bit characters. But if your data contains (say) Spanish
197 or German or Russian text written in an 8-bit character set such as ISO
198 8859-1, every 8-bit character (any value 128-255) is treated as a break
199 character. This is fixed in C-Kermit 9.0 by treating all 8-bit bytes as
200 "include" characters rather than break characters, a total reversal of
201 past behavior. I don't think it will affect anyone though, because if
202 this had happened to anyone, I would have heard about it!
204 Since most standard 8-bit character sets have control characters in
205 positions 128-160, it might have made sense to keep 128-160 in the
206 break set, but with the proliferation of Microsoft Windows code pages,
207 there is no telling which 8-bit character is likely to be some kind of
208 text, e.g. "smart quotes" or East European or Turkish accented letters.
210 2. THE C-KERMIT COMMAND PARSER
212 [ [42]Top ] [ [43]Contents ] [ [44]Next ] [ [45]Previous ]
214 Various command-related limits are shown in the following table, in
215 which the sample values are for a "large memory model" build of
216 C-Kermit, typical for modern platforms (Linux, Solaris, AIX, VMS, etc).
217 You can see the values for your version of Kermit by giving the SHOW
218 FEATURES command. The maximum length for a Kermit command (CMDBL) also
219 determines the maximum length for a macro definition, since DEFINE is
220 itself a command. The maximum length for a variable name is between 256
221 and 4096 characters, depending on the platform; for array declarations
222 and references, that includes the subscript.
226 Number of characters in a command CMDBL 32763 ckucmd.h
227 Number of chars in a field of a command ATMBL 10238 ckucmd.h
228 Nesting level for command files MAXTAKE 54 ckuusr.h
229 Nesting level for macros MACLEVEL 128 ckuusr.h
230 Nesting level for FOR / WHILE loops FORDEPTH 32 ckuusr.h
231 Number of macros MAC_MAX 16384 ckuusr.h
232 Size of INPUT buffer INPBUFSIZ 4096 ckuusr.h
233 Maximum files to match a wildcard MAXWLD 102400 ckcdeb.h
234 Filespecs in MSEND command MSENDMAX 1024 ckuusr.h
235 Length for GOTO target label LBLSIZ 50 ckuusr.h
236 \fexecute() recursion depth limit CMDDEP 64 ckucmd.h
238 If you need to define a macro that is longer than CMDBL, you can break
239 the macro up into sub-macros or rewrite the macro as a command file. In
240 a pinch you can also redefine CMDBL and recompile C-Kermit. All of
241 these numbers represent tradeoffs: the bigger the number, the more
242 "powerful" Kermit in the corresponding area, but also the bigger the
243 program image and possibly disk footprint, and the longer it takes to
246 In the interactive command parser:
248 * EMACS- or VI-style command line editing is not supported.
249 * Editing keys are hardwired (Ctrl-U, Ctrl-W, etc).
251 If you interrupt C-Kermit before it has issued its first prompt, it
252 will exit. This means that you cannot interrupt execution of the
253 initialization file, or of an "application file" (file whose name is
254 given as the first command-line argument), or of an alternative
255 initialization file ("-y filename"), and get to the prompt. There is,
256 however, one exception to this rule: you *can* interrupt commands --
257 including TAKE commands -- given in the '-C "command list"'
258 command-line argument and -- if there were no action commands among the
259 command-line arguments -- you will be returned to the C-Kermit prompt.
260 So, for example, if you want to start C-Kermit in such a way that it
261 executes a command file before issuing its first prompt, and you also
262 want to be able to interrupt the command file and get to the prompt,
263 include a TAKE command for the desired command in the -C argument, for
266 kermit -C "take dial.scr"
268 At the command prompt, if you use the backslash (\) prefix to enter a
269 control character, space, or question mark into a command literally,
270 the backslash disappears and is replaced by the quoted character. If it
271 was a control character, it is shown as a circumflex (^). This allows
272 editing (backspace, delete, Ctrl-W) to work correctly even for control
275 Priot to C-Kermit 8.0, the only way to include a comma literally in a
276 macro definition -- as opposed to having it separate commands within
277 the definition -- is to enter its ASCII value (44) in backslash
280 DEFINE ROWS RUN MODE CO80\{44}\%1
282 In C-Kermit 8.0 you can use constructions like this:
284 DEFINE ROWS RUN MODE "CO80,\%1"
286 If you quote special characters in a filename (e.g. in the SEND
287 command), filename completion may seem to work incorrectly. For
288 example, if you have a file whose name is a*b (the name really contains
289 an asterisk), and you type "send a\\*<ESC>", the "b" does not appear,
290 nor will Ctrl-R redisplay the completed name correctly. But internally
291 the file name is recognized anyway.
293 Question-mark help does not work during execution of an ASKQ command.
294 The question marks are simply accepted as text.
296 In OUTPUT commands only, \B sends a BREAK signal, \L sends a Long BREAK
297 signal, and \N sends a NUL (ASCII 0). BREAK and Long BREAK are special
298 signals, not characters, and NUL is a character that normally cannot be
299 included in a C string, since it is the C string terminator. If you
300 really want to output a backslash followed by a B, an L, or an N (as is
301 needed to configure certain modems, etc), double the backslash, e.g.
302 "output \\B". In C-Kermit 7.0 or later, you can disarm and re-arm the
303 special OUTPUT-command escapes (\B, \L, and \N) with SET OUTPUT
304 SPECIAL-ESCAPES { OFF, ON }.
306 When using the command-line processor ("kermit -l /dev/tty00 -b 19200",
307 etc), note that in some cases the order of the command-line options
308 makes a difference, contrary to the expectation that order of
309 command-line options should not matter. For example, the -b option must
310 be given after the -l option if it is to affect the device specified in
315 [ [46]Top ] [ [47]Contents ] [ [48]Next ] [ [49]Previous ]
317 C-Kermit 7.0 and earlier do not support multiple sessions. When you SET
318 LINE (or SET PORT, same thing) to a new device, or SET HOST to a new
319 host, the previous SET LINE device or network host connection is
320 closed, resulting in hangup of the modem or termination of the network
321 connection. In windowing environments like HP-VUE, NeXTSTEP, Windows,
322 OS/2, etc, you can run separate copies of Kermit in different windows
323 to achieve multiple sessions.
325 To achieve multiple sessions through a single serial port (e.g. when
326 dialing up), you can install SLIP or PPP on your computer and then use
327 C-Kermit's TCP/IP support over the SLIP or PPP connection, assuming you
328 also have TCP/IP networking installed on your computer.
330 C-Kermit 8.0 has the same restriction on SET LINE and SET HOST
331 sessions: only one regular session (dialout, Telnet, etc) can be open
332 at a time. However, version 8.0 adds two new kinds of sessions: FTP and
333 HTTP; one or both of these can be open at the same as a regular
336 4. NETWORK CONNECTIONS
338 [ [50]Top ] [ [51]Contents ] [ [52]Next ] [ [53]Previous ]
342 The Unix C-Kermit 8.0.206 FTP client had the following bugs at the time
343 most of the 8.0.206 binaries were built for the C-Kermit 8.0 CDROM:
345 1. FTP MGET fails when directory segments contain wildcards, as in
346 "ftp mget */data/*.dat". Work around by doing a separate MGET for
347 each source directory.
348 2. FTP MGET can fail or produce random side effects if you have a
349 TMPDIR or CK_TMP environment variable definition in effect, or a
350 SET TEMP-DIRECTORY value, longer than 7 characters. Work around by
351 giving a SET TEMP-DIRECTORY command with a short value, such as
354 These two bugs are fixed in the source code that is included on the
355 CDROM, and also in Kermit 95 2.1.1. You can tell if a C-Kermit 8.0.206
356 binary has these fixes by typing SHOW VERSION; if it says "FTP Client,
357 8.0.200, 24 Oct 2002" it has the fixes; if the edit number is less that
358 200, it doesn't, in which case can build a new binary from the source
359 code (or contact us and we'll try to get get one for you).
361 Making TCP/IP Connections Can Take a Long Time
363 The most frequently asked question in many newsgroups is "Why does it
364 take such a long time to make a Telnet connection to (or from) my
365 (e.g.) Linux PC?" (this applies to Kermit as well as to regular Telnet
368 1. Most Telnet servers perform reverse DNS lookups on the client for
369 security and/or logging reasons. If the Telnet client's host cannot
370 be found by the server's local DNS server, the DNS request goes out
371 to the Internet at large, and this can take quite some time. The
372 solution to this problem is to make sure that both client and host
373 are registered in DNS.
374 2. C-Kermit itself performs reverse DNS lookups unless you tell it not
375 to. This is to allow C-Kermit to let you know which host it is
376 actually connected to in case you have made a connection to a "host
377 pool" (multihomed host). You can disable C-Kermit's reverse DNS
378 lookup with SET TCP REVERSE-DNS-LOOKUP OFF.
379 3. C-Kermit 7.0 and later strictly enforce Telnet protocol rules. One
380 such rule is that certain negotiations must be responded to. If
381 C-Kermit sends a such a negotiation and the host does not respond,
382 C-Kermit waits a long time for the reply (in case the network is
383 congested or the host is slow), but eventually will time out. To
384 eliminate the waits (and therefore risk possible protocol
385 mismatches -- or worse -- between Telnet client and server), tell
386 C-Kermit to SET TELNET WAIT OFF (or include the /NOWAIT switch with
391 In multiuser operating systems such as UNIX and VMS, TCP/IP Rlogin
392 connections are available only to privileged users, since "login" is a
393 privileged socket. Assuming you are allowed to use it in the first
394 place, it is likely to behave differently depending on what type of
395 host you are rlogging in to, due to technical reasons having to do with
396 conflicting interpretations of RFC793 (Out-Of-Band Data) and Rlogin
397 (RFC1122)... "Specifically, the TCP urgent pointer in BSD points to the
398 byte after the urgent data byte, and an RFC-compliant TCP urgent
399 pointer points to the urgent data byte. As a result, if an application
400 sends urgent data from a BSD-compatible implementation to an
401 [54]RFC-1122 compatible implementation then the receiver will read the
402 wrong urgent data byte (it will read the byte located after the correct
403 byte in the data stream as the urgent data byte)." Rlogin requires the
404 use of OOB data while Telnet does not. Therefore, it is possible for
405 Telnet to work between all systems while BSD and System V TCP/IP
406 implementations are almost always a bad mix.
410 On a TCP/IP TELNET connection, you should normally have PARITY set to
411 NONE and (except in VMS C-Kermit) FLOW-CONTROL also set to NONE. If
412 file transfer does not work with these settings (for example, because
413 the remote TELNET server only gives a 7-bit data path), use SET PARITY
414 SPACE. Do not use SET PARITY MARK, EVEN, or ODD on a TELNET connection
415 -- it interferes with TELNET protocol.
417 If echoing does not work right after connecting to a network host or
418 after dialing through a TCP/IP modem server, it probably means that the
419 TELNET server on the far end of the connection is executing the TELNET
420 protocol incorrectly. After initially connecting and discovering
421 incorrect echoing (characters are echoed twice, or not at all), escape
422 back, give the appropriate SET DUPLEX command (FULL or HALF), and then
423 CONNECT again. For a consistently misbehaving connection, you can
424 automate this process in a macro or TAKE file.
426 TELNET sessions are treated just like serial communications sessions as
427 far as "terminal bytesize" and "command bytesize" are concerned. If you
428 need to view and/or enter 8-bit characters during a TELNET session, you
429 must tell C-Kermit to SET TERMINAL BYTESIZE 8, SET COMMAND BYTESIZE 8,
432 If you SET TELNET DEBUG ON prior to making a connection, protocol
433 negotiations will be displayed on your screen. You can also capture
434 them in the debug log (along with everything else) and then extract
435 them easily, since all Telnet negotiations lines begin with (uppercase)
438 5. MODEMS AND DIALING
440 [ [55]Top ] [ [56]Contents ] [ [57]Next ] [ [58]Previous ]
442 External modems are recommended because:
444 * They don't need any special drivers.
445 * They are less likely to interfere with normal operation of your
447 * You can use the lights and speaker to troubleshoot dialing.
448 * You can share them among all types of computers.
449 * You can easily turn them off and on when power-cycling seems
451 * They are more likely to have manuals.
453 Modems can be used by C-Kermit only when they are visible as or through
454 a regular serial port device. Certain modems can not be used in this
455 normal way on many kinds of computers: Winmodems, RPI modems,
456 Controllerless modems, the IBM Mwave, etc; all of these require special
457 drivers that perform some, most, or all of the modem's functions in
458 software. Such drivers are generally NOT available in UNIX or other
459 non-Windows (or non-OS/2, in the case of the Mwave) platforms.
461 In order to dial a modem, C-Kermit must know its repertoire of commands
462 and responses. Each modem make and model is likely to have a different
463 repertoire. Since Kermit has no way of knowhing which kind of modem
464 will be dialed, normally you have to tell it with a SET MODEM TYPE
467 set modem type usrobotics
472 In the early days, there was a wide variety of modems and command
473 languages. Nowadays, almost every modem uses the Hayes AT command set
474 (but with some differences in the details) and its startup
475 configuration includes error correction, data compression, and hardware
476 (RTS/CTS) flow control. As long as C-Kermit is capable of hardware flow
477 control (as it is on many, but not all, the platforms where it runs,
478 since some operating systems don't support it), the modem can be dailed
479 immediately, without lengthy configuration dialogs, and in fact this is
480 what SET MODEM TYPE GENERIC-HIGH-SPEED does. In C-Kermit 8.0,
481 GENERIC-HIGH-SPEED has become the default modem type, so now it is
482 usually possible to SET LINE, SET SPEED, and DIAL without having to
483 identify your modem. If this doesn't work, of course, then you might
484 have to fall back to the tradiational method: Give a SET MODEM TYPE for
485 a specific modem first, then SET LINE, SET SPEED, and DIAL.
487 An important change in C-Kermit 6.0 is that when you give a SET MODEM
488 TYPE command to tell Kermit what kind of modem you have, Kermit also
489 sets a number of other modem-related parameters automatically from its
490 internal modem database. Thus, the order in which you give
491 modem-related commands is significant, whereas in prior releases they
492 could be given in any order.
494 In particular, MODEM SPEED-MATCHING is set according to whether the
495 modem is known to be capable of speed buffering. SET MODEM TYPE
496 HAYES-2400 automatically turns SPEED-MATCHING ON, because when the
497 Hayes 2400 reports a particular speed in its CONNECT message, that
498 means its interface speed has changed to that speed, and C-Kermit's
499 must change accordingly if it is to continue communicating. This might
500 cause some confusion if you use "set modem type hayes" for dialing a
501 more advanced type of modem.
503 The new default for flow control is "auto", meaning "do the right thing
504 for each type of connection". So (for example) if your version of
505 C-Kermit supports SET FLOW RTS/CTS and your modem also supports
506 RTS/CTS, then Kermit automatically sets its flow control to RTS/CTS and
507 set modem's flow control to RTS/CTS too before attempting to use the
510 For these reasons, don't assume that "set modem type hayes" should be
511 used for all modems that uses the Hayes AT command set. "set modem type
512 hayes" really does mean Hayes 1200 or 2400, which in turn means no
513 hardware flow control, and no speed buffering. This choice will rarely
514 work with a modern high-speed modem.
516 6. DIALING HINTS AND TIPS
518 [ [59]Top ] [ [60]Contents ] [ [61]Next ] [ [62]Previous ]
520 If you have a high-speed, error-correcting, data-compressing,
521 speed-buffering modem, you should fix the modem's interface speed as
522 high as possible, preferably (at least) four times higher than its
523 maximum connection (modulation) speed to allow compression to work at
524 full advantage. In this type of setup, you must also have an effective
525 means of flow control enabled between C-Kermit and the modem,
526 preferably hardware (RTS/CTS) flow control. On platforms that do not
527 support hardware flow control, it is usually possible to select
528 software flow control (Xon/Xoff), and C-Kermit will do its best to set
529 the modem for local Xon/Xoff flow control too (but then, of course,
530 Ctrl-S and Ctrl-Q characters can not be transmitted on the connection).
532 If you are having trouble dialing your modem, SET DIAL DISPLAY ON to
533 watch the dialing interactions between C-Kermit and your modem. Consult
534 Chapters 3-4 of [63]Using C-Kermit (2nd Ed) for modem-dialing
535 troubleshooting instructions. The following sections offer some
536 addtional hints and tips.
540 If you want to dial a number that starts with #, you'll need to quote
541 the "#" character (as \# or \{35}), since it is also a comment
544 C-Kermit>dial #98765421-1-212-5551212 ; Looks like a comment
545 ?You must specify a number to dial
546 C-Kermit>dial \#98765421-1-212-5551212 ; Works OK
547 C-Kermit>dial =#98765421-1-212-5551212 ; This works too
549 When using a dialing directory, remember what happens if a name is not
552 C-Kermit>dial xyzcorp
553 Lookup: "xyzcorp" - not found - dialing as given
555 This normally does no harm, but some modems might behave strangely when
556 given dial strings that contain certain letters. For example, a certain
557 German modem treats any dial string that contains the letter "s" as a
558 command to fetch a number from its internal list, and replies OK to the
559 ATD command, which is normally not a valid response except for partial
560 dialing. To avoid this situation, use:
565 6.2. The Carrier Signal
567 Remember: In many C-Kermit implementations (depending on the underlying
568 operating system -- mostly Windows, OS/2, and System-V-based UNIX
569 versions, and in C-Kermit 7.0, also VMS), you can't CONNECT to a modem
570 and type the modem's dialing command (like "ATDT7654321") manually,
571 unless you first tell C-Kermit to:
573 SET CARRIER-WATCH OFF
575 This is because (in these implementations), the CONNECT command
576 requires the modem's Carrier Detect (CD) signal to be on, but the CD
577 signal doesn't come on until after dialing is complete. This
578 requirement is what allows C-Kermit to pop back to its prompt
579 automatically when the connection is hung up. See the description of
580 SET CARRIER-WATCH in "Using C-Kermit".
582 Similarly, if your dialed connection drops when CARRIER-WATCH is set to
583 AUTO or ON, you can't CONNECT back to the (now disconnected) screen to
584 see what might have happened unless you first SET CARRIER-WATCH OFF.
585 But sometimes not even SET CARRIER-WATCH OFF will help in this
586 situation: certain platforms (for example Unixware 2.1), once carrier
587 drops, won't let the application do i/o with the device any more. In
588 that case, if you want to use the device again, you have to CLOSE it
589 and OPEN it again. Or you can have Kermit do this for you automatically
590 by telling it to SET CLOSE-ON-DISCONNECT ON.
592 6.3. Dialing and Flow Control
594 Don't SET FLOW RTS/CTS if your modem is turned off, or if it is not
595 presenting the CTS signal. Otherwise, the serial device driver can get
596 stuck waiting for this signal to appear.
598 Most modern modems support RTS/CTS (if they support any hardware flow
599 control at all), but some computers use different RS-232 circuits for
600 the same purposes, e.g. DTR and CD, or DTR and CTS. In such cases, you
601 might be able to make your computer work with your modem by
602 appropriately cross-wiring the circuits in the cable connector, for
603 example the computer's DTR to the modem's RTS, and modem's CD to the
604 computer's CTS. HOWEVER, C-Kermit does not know you have done this. So
605 if you have (say) SET FLOW DTR/CD, C-Kermit will make no attempt to
606 tell the modem to use RTS/CTS. You probably did this yourself when you
607 configured the modem.
609 6.4. The Dial Timeout
611 If it takes your call longer to be completed than the timeout interval
612 that C-Kermit calculates, you can use the SET DIAL TIMEOUT command to
613 override C-Kermit's value. But beware: the modem has its own timeout
614 for completing the call. If it is a Hayes-like modem, C-Kermit adjusts
615 the modem's value too by setting register S7. But the maximum value for
616 S7 might be smaller than the time you need! In that case, C-Kermit sets
617 S7 to 0, 255, or other (modem-specific) value to signify "no timeout".
618 If Kermit attempts to set register S7 to a value higher than your
619 modem's maximum, the modem will say "ERROR" and you will get a "Failure
620 to initialize modem" error. In that case, use SET DIAL TIMEOUT to
621 override C-Kermit's calculation of the timeout value with the highest
622 value that is legal for your modem, e.g. 60.
624 6.5. Escape Sequence Guard Time
626 A "TIES" (Time-Independent Escape Sequence) modem does not require any
627 guard time around its escape sequence. The following text:
631 if sent through a TIES modem, for example because you were uploading
632 this file through it, could pop the modem back into command mode and
633 make it hang up the connection. Later versions of the Telebit T1600 and
634 T3000 (version LA3.01E firmware and later), and all WorldBlazers, use
637 Although the probability of "+++" appearing in a Kermit packet is
638 markedly lower than with most other protocols (see the [64]File
639 Transfer section below), it can still happen under certain
640 circumstances. It can also happen when using C-Kermit's TRANSMIT
641 command. If you are using a Telebit TIES modem, you can change the
642 modem's escape sequence to an otherwise little-used control character
643 such as Ctrl-_ (Control-Underscore):
647 A sequence of three consecutive Ctrl-_ characters will not appear in a
648 Kermit packet unless you go to extraordinary lengths to defeat more
649 than a few of Kermit's built-in safety mechanisms. And if you do this,
650 then you should also turn off the modem's escape-sequence recognition
655 But when escape sequence recognition is turned off, "modem hangup"
656 (<pause>+++<pause>ATH0<CR>) will not work, so you should also SET MODEM
657 HANGUP RS232-SIGNAL (rather then MODEM-COMMAND).
659 6.6. Adaptive Dialing
661 Some modems have a feature called adaptive dialing. When they are told
662 to dial a number using Tone dialing, they check to make sure that
663 dialtone has gone away after dialing the first digit. If it has not,
664 the modem assumes the phone line does not accept Tone dialing and so
665 switches to Pulse. When dialing out from a PBX, there is almost always
666 a secondary dialtone. Typically you take the phone off-hook, get the
667 PBX dialtone, dial "9" to get an outside line, and then get the phone
668 company's dialtone. In a situation like this, you need to tell the
669 modem to expect the secondary dialtone. On Hayes and compatible modems,
670 this is done by putting a "W" in the dial string at the appropriate
671 place. For example, to dial 9 for an outside line, and then 7654321,
674 SET PBX-OUTSIDE-PREFIX 9W
676 (replace "9" with whatever your PBX's outside-line prefix is).
680 Some phone companies are eliminating the busy signal. Instead, they
681 issue a voice message such as "press 1 to automatically redial until
682 the number answers, or...". Obviously this is a disaster for modem
683 calls. If your service has this feature, there's nothing Kermit can do
684 about it. Your modem will respond with NO CARRIER (after a long time)
685 rather than BUSY (immediately), and Kermit will declare the call a
686 failure, rather than trying to redial the same number.
690 There are two ways to hang up a modem: by turning off the serial port's
691 DTR signal (SET MODEM HANGUP-METHOD RS232-SIGNAL) or sending the modem
692 its escape sequence followed by its hangup command (SET MODEM
693 HANGUP-METHOD MODEM-COMMAND). If one doesn't work, try the other. If
694 the automatic hangup performed at the beginning of a DIAL command
695 causes trouble, then SET DIAL HANGUP OFF.
697 The HANGUP command has no effect when C-Kermit is in remote mode. This
698 is on purpose. If C-Kermit could hang up its own controlling terminal,
699 this would (a) most likely leave behind zombie processes, and (b) pose
702 If you DIAL a modem, disconnect, then SET HOST or TELNET, and then
703 HANGUP, Kermit sends the modem's hangup command, such as "+++ATHO".
704 There is no good way to avoid this, because this case can't reliably be
705 distinguished from the case in which the user does SET HOST
706 terminal-server, SET MODEM TYPE name, DIAL. In both cases we have a
707 valid modem type selected and we have a network connection. If you want
708 to DIAL and then later make a regular network connection, you will have
709 to SET MODEM TYPE NONE or SET DIAL HANGUP OFF to avoid this phenomenon.
713 [ [65]Top ] [ [66]Contents ] [ [67]Next ] [ [68]Previous ]
715 Watch out for terminal server's escape character -- usually a control
716 character such as Ctrl-Circumflex (Ctrl-^). Don't unprefix it in
719 Ciscos -- must often be told to "terminal download"... Cisco ASM models
720 don't have hardware flow control in both directions.
722 Many terminal servers only give you a 7-bit connection, so if you can't
723 make it 8-bit, tell Kermit to "set parity space".
725 The following story, regarding trouble transferring 8-bit files through
726 a reverse terminal server, was contributed by an Annex terminal server
729 Using C-Kermit on an HP 9000 712/80 running the HP-UX 10.0 operating
730 system. The HP was connected to a Xylogics Annex MICRO-ELS-UX R7.1 8
731 port terminal server via ethernet. On the second port of the
732 terminal server is an AT&T Paradyne 3810 modem, which is connected
733 to a telephone line. There is a program which runs on the HP to
734 establish a Telnet connection between a serial line on the Annex and
735 a character special file on the HP (/dev file). This is an Annex
736 specific program called rtelnet (reverse telnet) and is provided
737 with the terminal server software. The rtelnet utility runs on top
738 of the pseudo-terminal facility provided by UNIX. It creates
739 host-originiated connections to devices attached ot Annex serial
740 ports. There are several command line arguments to be specified with
741 this program: the IP address of the terminal server, the number of
742 the port to attach to, and the name of the pseudo-device to create.
743 In addition to these there are options to tell rtelnet how to
744 operate on the connect: -b requests negotiation for Telnet binary
745 mode, -d turns on socket-leve debugging, -f enables "connect on the
746 fly" mode, -r removes the device-name if it already exists, etc. The
747 most important of these to be specified when using 8 data bits and
748 no parity, as we found out, was the -t option. This creates a
749 transparent TCP connection to the terminal server. Again, what we
750 assumed to be happening was that the rtelnet program encountered a
751 character sequence special to itself and then "eating" those kermit
752 packets. I think this is all of the information I can give you on
753 the configuration, short of the values associated with the port on
756 How to DIAL from a TCP/IP reverse terminal server (modem server):
758 1. (only if necessary) SET TELNET ECHO REMOTE
759 2. SET HOST terminal-server-ip-name-or-address [ port ]
760 3. SET MODEM TYPE modem-type
761 4. (only if necessary) SET DIAL HANGUP OFF
762 5. (for troubleshooting) SET DIAL DISPLAY ON
765 The order is important: SET HOST before SET MODEM TYPE. Since this is a
766 Telnet connection, serial-port related commands such as SET SPEED, SET
767 STOP-BITS, HANGUP (when MODEM HANGUP-METHOD is RS232), etc, have no
768 effect. However, in C-Kermit 8.0, if the modem server supports
769 [69]RFC-2217 Telnet Com-Port Control protocol, these commands do indeed
770 take effect at the server's serial port.
772 8. TERMINAL EMULATION
774 [ [70]Top ] [ [71]Contents ] [ [72]Next ] [ [73]Previous ]
776 Except for the Windows, OS/2, and Macintosh versions, C-Kermit does not
777 emulate any kind of terminal. Rather, it acts as a "semitransparent
778 pipe", passing the characters you type during a CONNECT session to the
779 remote host, and sending the characters received from the remote host
780 to your screen. Whatever is controlling your keyboard and screen
781 provides the specific terminal emulation: a real terminal, a PC running
782 a terminal emulator, etc, or (in the case of a self-contained
783 workstation) your console driver, a terminal window, xterm, etc.
785 Kermit is semitrantsparent rather than fully transparent in the
788 * During a TELNET ("set host") session, C-Kermit itself executes the
789 TELNET protocol and performs TELNET negotiations. (But it does not
790 perform TN3270 protocol or any other type of 3270 terminal
792 * If you have changed your keyboard mapping using SET KEY, C-Kermit
793 replaces the characters you type with the characters or strings
795 * If you SET your TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET to anything but TRANSPARENT,
796 C-Kermit translates your keystrokes (after applying any SET KEY
797 definitions) before transmitting them, and translates received
798 characters before showing them on your screen.
799 * If your remote and/or local TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET is an ISO 646
800 7-bit national character set, such as German, French, Italian,
801 Swedish, etc, or Short KOI used for Cyrillic, C-Kermit's CONNECT
802 command automatically skips over ANSI escape sequences to avoid
803 translating their characters. Only ANSI/ISO standard
804 (VT100/200/300-like) 7-bit escape sequence formats are supported
805 for this purpose, no proprietary schemes like H-P, Televideo,
807 * If your version of C-Kermit includes SET TERMINAL APC command, then
808 C-Kermit's CONNECT command will handle APC escape sequences if
809 TERMINAL APC is not set to OFF (which is the default).
811 You can make C-Kermit fully transparent by starting it with the -0
812 (dash zero) command-line option.
814 If you are running C-Kermit under a console driver, or in a terminal
815 window, that emulates the VT100, and use C-Kermit to log in to a VMS
816 system, the console driver or terminal window (not Kermit) is supposed
817 to reply to the "what are you?" query (ESC Z) from the VAX. If it
818 doesn't, and you can't make it do so, then you can (a) live with the
819 "unknown terminal" problem; (b) tell VMS to SET TERMINAL/DEVICE=VT100;
820 (c) program a key using SET KEY to send the appropriate sequence and
821 then punch the key at the right time; or (d) use the VMSLOGIN macro
822 that is defined in CKERMIT.INI to do this for you automatically.
824 SET SESSION-LOG { TEXT, BINARY }, which is effective in UNIX and AOS/VS
825 but not other C-Kermit versions, removes CR, DEL, NUL, XON, and XOFF
826 characters (Using C-Kermit neglects to mention that XON and XOFF are
827 removed). The TEXT-mode setting is ineffective during SCRIPT command
828 execution, as well as on X.25 connections.
832 [ [74]Top ] [ [75]Contents ] [ [76]Next ] [ [77]Previous ]
834 Except in the terminal-emulating versions, C-Kermit's key mapping
835 facilities are limited to normal "ASCII" keys, and cannot be used with
836 function keys, arrow keys, arcane key combinations, etc. Since C-Kermit
837 runs on such a wide variety of hardware platforms (including, for
838 example, more than 360 different UNIX platforms), it is not possible
839 for C-Kermit to support every conceivable keyboard under every release
840 of every UNIX (or VMS, or ...) product on every different kind of
841 computer possibly under all manner of different console drivers, even
842 if it had the means to do so.
844 In technical terms, C-Kermit uses the read() function to read
845 keystrokes, and read() returns a single byte (value 0 through 255).
846 C-Kermit's SET KEY function applies to these single-byte codes.
847 "Extended function" keys, such as F-keys, arrow keys, etc, usually
848 return either a 2-byte "scan code" or else a character string (such as
849 an escape sequence like "<ESC> O p"). In both cases, C-Kermit has no
850 way to tell the difference between such multibyte key values, and the
851 corresponding series of single-byte key values. This could only be done
852 by accessing the keyboard at a much lower level in a highly
853 platform-dependent manner, probably requiring tens of thousands of
854 lines of code to support even a sampling of the most popular
855 workstation / OS combinations.
857 However, most workstation console drivers (terminal emulation windows,
858 etc) include their own key-mapping facility. For example in AIX, the
859 AIXterm program (in whose window you would run C-Kermit) allows
860 rebinding of the F1-F12 keys to arbitrary strings. The same is true of
861 Xterm and DECterm windows, etc. Consult the technical documentation for
862 your workstation or emulator. See sample Xterm (Xmodmap) mappings in
863 the [78]Unix C-Kermit Hints and Tips document.
865 The SET KEY command (except in Kermit 95) does not allow a key
866 definition to be (or contain) the NUL (\0) character.
870 [ [79]Top ] [ [80]Contents ] [ [81]Next ] [ [82]Previous ]
872 C-Kermit 7.0 is the first release of C-Kermit to use fast (rather than
873 robust and therefore slow) protocol defaults: long packets, sliding
874 windows, control-character unprefixing, and streaming where possible.
875 This makes most transfers (partner willing) dramatically faster "out of
876 the box" but might break some combinations that worked before. If
877 transfers with C-Kermit 7.0 or later fail where transfers worked with
878 earlier C-Kermit versions, try the following (one at a time, in this
881 1. SET PREFIXING ALL: Disables control-character unprefixing.
882 2. SET STREAMING OFF: Disables streaming.
883 3. CAUTIOUS: Selects medium but cautious protocol settings.
884 4. ROBUST: this command reverts to the most conservative protocol
887 Execution of multiple file transfers by C-Kermit from a command file
888 when in remote mode might exhibit long delays between each transfer. To
889 avoid this, just include the command "SET DELAY 0" in your command file
890 before any of the file-transfer commands.
892 File transfer failures can occur for all sorts of reasons, most of them
893 listed in Chapter 10 of [83]Using C-Kermit. The following sections
894 touch on some that aren't.
896 The [84]C-Kermit 7.0 Release Notes document SEND /COMMAND as taking an
897 argument, but it doesn't. Instead of SEND /COMMAND:{some command}, use:
899 SEND /COMMAND [ other switches such as /AS-NAME: ] command [ arguments... ]
903 Watch out for laptops and their assorted power-saver features; for
904 example, a built-in modem's "auto timeout delay" hanging up the
905 connection in the middle of a file transfer. Most modems, even if they
906 have this feature, do not have it enabled by default. But if you
907 experience otherwise inexplicable disconnections in the midst of your
908 Kermit sessions, check the modem manual for such things as "idle
909 timeout", "auto timeout", etc, and add the command to disable this
910 feature to Kermit's init string for this modem.
914 If uploading a large file to an NFS-mounted disk fails (or is painfully
915 slow), try uploading it to a local disk (e.g. /tmp on Unix) and then
916 copying to the NFS disk later.
920 If you are dialing out and find that downloads work but uploads don't,
921 try again with a lower serial-port speed. Case in point: dialing out on
922 a certain PC from Linux at 115200 bps using a USR Courier 56K
923 "V.Everything" external modem and RTS/CTS flow control. Downloads
924 worked flawlessly, uploads stopped dead after the first few packets
925 were sent. The modem lights showed constant retraining (ARQ light
926 blinks slowly), and the CTS light was off 95% of the time, allowing
927 nothing to get through. Reducing the serial port speed to 57600 bps
928 made the problems go away. Evidently the PC in question has a very fast
929 serial port, since dialing the same modem with a different PC at 115200
930 bps works without incident.
932 10.4. TCP/IP Connections
934 If you have trouble transferring files over a TCP/IP connection, tell
935 Kermit to SET PARITY SPACE and try again. If that doesn't work, also
936 try a shorter packet length or smaller window size (to compensate for
937 certain well-known broken Telnet servers), and/or SET RELIABLE OFF.
939 10.5. Multihop Connections
941 If you have a multihop connection, with the interior nodes in CONNECT
942 mode (Kermit, Telnet, Rlogin, or any other), you can expect (a) file
943 transfer to be slower, and (b) the connection to be less transparent
944 (to control characters, perhaps to the 8th bit) than a more direct
945 connection. C-Kermit 7.0 and later have a "-0" (dash-zero) command-line
946 option to make it 100% transparent in cases where it is to be used in
951 The recovery feature (RESEND command) that was added in version 5A(190)
952 works only for binary-mode transfers. In order for this feature to be
953 useful at all, the default for SET FILE INCOMPLETE was changed from
954 DISCARD to KEEP. Otherwise an interrupted transfer would leave no
955 partial file behind unless you had remembered to change the default.
956 But now you have to pay closer attention to Kermit's messages to know
957 whether a transfer succeeded or failed -- previously, if it failed, the
958 file would not show up on the receiving end at all; in 5A(190) and
959 later, you'll get a partial file which could easily be mistaken for the
960 complete file unless you change the default back to DISCARD or read the
961 screen messages, or keep a transaction log.
963 10.7. Filename Collisions
965 SET FILE COLLISION BACKUP is the default. This means:
967 * If you send the same file lots of times, there will be many backup
968 files. There is no automatic mechanism within Kermit to delete
969 them, no notion of a "version retention count", etc, but you can
970 use the PURGE command to clean them up.
971 * If a file arrives that has the same name as a directory, the file
972 transfer fails because Kermit will not rename a directory. Send the
973 file with another name, or use SET FILE COLLISION RENAME.
974 * If the directory lacks write permission, the file transfer fails
975 even if you have write access to the file that is being backed up;
976 in that case, switch to SET FILE COLLISION OVERWRITE or APPEND, or
977 send to a different directory.
979 SET FILE COLLISION UPDATE depends on the date/time stamp in the
980 attribute packet. However, this is recorded in local time, not
981 Universal Time (GMT), and there is no indication of time zone. The time
982 is expressed to the precision of 1 second, but some file systems do not
983 record with this precision -- for example, MS-DOS records the file
984 date/time only to the nearest 2 seconds. This might cause update
985 operations to send more files than necessary.
987 (This paragraph does NOT apply to UNIX, where, as of C-Kermit 7.0,
988 C-Kermit pipes incoming mail and print material directly the mail or
989 print program): When C-Kermit is receiving files from another Kermit
990 program that has been given the MAIL or REMOTE PRINT command, C-Kermit
991 follows the current filename collision action. This can be
992 disconcerting if the action was (for example) BACKUP, because the
993 existing file will be renamed, and the new file will be mailed (or
994 printed) and then deleted. Kermit cannot temporarily change to RENAME
995 because the file collision action occurs when the filename packet is
996 received, and the PRINT or MAIL disposition only comes later, in the
999 Watch out for SET FILE COLLISION RENAME, especially when used in
1000 conjunction with recovery. Recall that this option (which is NOT the
1001 default) renames the incoming file if a file already exists with the
1002 same name (the default is to rename the previously existing file, and
1003 store the incoming file with its own name). It is strongly recommended
1004 that you do not use SET FILE COLLISION RENAME if you ever intend to use
1005 the recovery feature:
1007 * When the file is first received by C-Kermit, its name is changed if
1008 another file already has the same name. When you RESEND the same
1009 file after a failure, C-Kermit will probably try to append the
1010 re-sent portion to the wrong file.
1011 * Assuming that you get RESEND to work with FILE COLLISION RENAME,
1012 C-Kermit, when receiving the remainder of the file during a RESEND
1013 operation, will report back the wrong name. Nothing can be done
1014 about this because the name is reported back before the receiving
1015 Kermit program finds out that it is a recovery operation.
1017 Also watch out for DISABLE DELETE, since this implicitly sets FILE
1018 COLLISION to RENAME. And note tht DELETE is DISABLEd automatically any
1019 time you Kermit is in local mode (i.e. it makes a connection). Also
1020 note that for purposes of DISABLE and ENABLE, "set host *" connections
1021 do not count as local mode even though, strictly speaking, they are.
1025 When referring to foreign MS-DOS, Windows, Atari ST, OS/2, or other
1026 file specifications that contain backslash characters in a C-Kermit
1027 command, you might have to double each backslash, for example:
1029 C-Kermit>get c:\\directory\\foo.txt
1031 This is because backslash is used in C-Kermit commands for introducing
1032 special character codes, variables, functions, etc.
1036 If attempting to cancel local-mode file reception at a very early stage
1037 (i.e. before data packets are exchanged) with X or Z does not work, use
1038 E or Ctrl-C instead, or wait until the first data packets are sent.
1040 If you cancel a transfer that is underway using X or Z, and a lot of
1041 window slots are in use, it might take a while for the cancellation to
1042 take effect, especially if you do this on the receiving end; that's
1043 because a lot of packets might already be on their way to you. In that
1044 case, just be patient and let Kermit "drain" them.
1046 If C-Kermit is sending a file, remote-mode packet-mode breakout (three
1047 consecutive Ctrl-C's by default) is not effective until after C-Kermit
1048 sends its first packet. If C-Kermit is receiving a file or is in server
1049 mode, it is effective right away. In the former case, the SET DELAY
1050 value determines the earliest time at which you can break out of packet
1053 10.10. Partner Peculiarities
1055 When one or both partners is on an SCO operating system such as OSR5,
1056 you might issue the command:
1060 to disable character-set conversion by the terminal driver. Similarly
1065 When using C-Kermit to transfer files with the HP48SX calculator, you
1066 must SET FLOW NONE. The HP48SX does not support flow control, and
1067 evidently also becomes confused if you attempt to use it. You might
1068 also need to use SET SEND PAUSE 100 (or other number). For greater
1069 detail about transferring files the the HP-48, see:
1071 [85]http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/hp48.html
1073 Some communication programs have errors in their implementation of
1074 Kermit attribute packets. If you get an error message from your
1075 communication program like "Attribute error", tell C-Kermit to SET
1076 ATTRIBUTES OFF. Better yet, switch to a real Kermit program.
1078 Some communication software claims to implement Kermit sliding windows,
1079 but does so incorrectly. If sliding window transfers fail, set
1080 C-Kermit's window size to the smallest one that works, for example, SET
1083 For lots more detail about how to cope with defective Kermit partners,
1086 * [86]Coping with Faulty Kermit Implementations (C-Kermit 7.0 and
1088 * [87]Coping with Broken Kermit Partners (C-Kermit 8.0 and later).
1090 The UNIX version of C-Kermit discards carriage returns when receiving
1091 files in text mode. Thus, "bare" carriage returns (sometimes used to
1092 achieve overstriking) are lost.
1094 11. SCRIPT PROGRAMMING
1096 [ [88]Top ] [ [89]Contents ] [ [90]Previous ]
1098 11.1. Comments Versus the SCRIPT Command
1100 Remember that ";" and "#" introduce comments when (a) they are the
1101 first character on the line, or (b) they are preceded by at least one
1102 blank or tab within a line. Thus constructions like:
1107 must be coded using backslash notation to keep the data from being
1110 INPUT 5 \59 ; 59 is the decimal ASCII code for ";"
1111 SCRIPT ~0 \35--#--# ; 43 is the decimal ASCII code for "#"
1115 INPUT 5 \; ; Just quote the semicolon
1116 SCRIPT ~0 \#--#--# ; Just quote the "#"
1118 11.2. Alphabetic Case and the INPUT Command
1120 INPUT and MINPUT caseless string comparisons do not work for non-ASCII
1121 (international) characters. Workaround: SET INPUT CASE OBSERVE. Even
1122 then, the "lexically less than" and "lexically greater than" operations
1123 (IF LLT, IF LGT) probably won't work as expected. The same is true for
1124 the case-conversion functions \Flower() and \Fupper(). C-Kermit does
1125 not know the collating sequence for different character sets and
1126 languages. (On the other hand, it might work depending on such items as
1127 how Kermit was linked, whether your operating supports "locales", etc)
1129 11.3. NUL (0) Characters in C-Kermit Commands
1131 You can't include a NUL character (\0) in C-Kermit command text without
1132 terminating the character string in which it appears. For example:
1134 echo In these brackets [\0] is a NUL
1136 will echo "In these brackets [". This applies to ECHO, INPUT, OUTPUT,
1137 and all other commands (but you can represent NUL by "\N" in an OUTPUT
1138 string). This is because C-language strings are terminated internally
1139 by the NUL character, and it allows all of C-Kermit's string comparison
1140 and manipulation functions to work in the normal "C" way.
1158 INPUT operations discard and ignore NUL characters that arrive from the
1159 communication device, meaning that they do not figure into matching
1160 operations (e.g. A<NUL>B matches AB); they are not deposited in the
1161 INPUT buffer (\v(input)); and they are not counted in \v(incount), with
1164 1. An arriving NUL character restarts the INPUT SILENCE timer.
1165 2. An arriving NUL character terminates the INPUT command with the
1166 SUCCESS condition if the INPUT command was given an empty search
1167 string. In this case \v(incount) is set to 1.
1169 Also, the \v(inchar) variable is null (completely empty) if the last
1170 INPUT character was NUL. That is, there is no way to tell only by
1171 looking at \v(inchar) the difference between a NUL that was INPUT and
1172 no INPUT at all. If the INPUT command succeeded but \v(inchar) is
1173 empty, then a NUL character was input. Also, \v(incount) will be set to
1176 Here's a sample script fragment to read characters, possibly including
1177 NUL, from the communication connection and write them to a file:
1180 input 1 ; read one byte
1181 if fail break ; timed out or connection closed
1182 fwrite /char \%c \v(inchar) ; record the byte
1185 This works because when \v(inchar) is NUL, that's equivalent to FWRITE
1186 /CHAR having no text argument at all, in which case it writes a NUL
1189 \v(incount) and \v(inchar) are NOT affected by the CLEAR command.
1191 11.4. \ffiles() and \fnextfile() Peculiarities
1193 The following script program:
1195 for \%i 1 \ffiles(oofa.*) 1 {
1199 did not work as expected in C-Kermit 6.0 and earlier but does work in
1200 C-Kermit 7.0 and later.
1202 11.5. Commands That Have Only Local Effect
1204 Certain settings are local to each command level, meaning that
1205 subordinate command levels (macros or command files) can change them
1206 without affecting their values at higher command levels. When a new
1207 command level is invoked, the value is inherited from the previous
1208 level. These settings are:
1218 This arrangement allows CASE, TIMEOUT, and ERROR settings, which are
1219 used to control automatic exit from a command file or macro upon error,
1220 to be automatically restored when the command file or macro exits.
1222 The COUNT variable follows this rule too, which permits nested SET
1223 COUNT / IF COUNT loops, as in this example in which the inner loop
1224 counts down from the current COUNT value of the outer loop (try it):
1226 DEFINE INNER WHILE COUNT { WRITE SCREEN { Inner:}, SHOW COUNT }
1228 WHILE COUNT { WRITE SCREEN Outer:, SHOW COUNT, DO INNER }
1230 Keep in mind that an inferior command level cannot manipulate the COUNT
1231 value held by a higher level. For example:
1233 DEFINE OOFA SHOW COUNT, IF COUNT GOTO LOOP
1239 results in an infinite loop; the COUNT value remains at 5 because it is
1240 never decremented at the same level at which it was set.
1242 11.6. Literal Braces in Function Calls
1244 Since braces are used in function calls to indicate grouping, there is
1245 no way to pass literal braces to the function itself. Solution: Define
1246 a variable containing the string that has braces. Example:
1249 echo \fsubstring(\%a)
1252 If the string is to start with a leading brace and end with a closing
1253 brace, then double braces must appear around the string (which itself
1254 is enclosed in braces):
1256 define \%a {{{foo}}}
1257 echo \fsubstring(\%a)
1260 This also works for any other kind of string:
1262 define \%a {{ab{cd}}
1263 echo \fsubstring(\%a)
1266 11.7. Defining Variables on the C-Kermit Command Line
1268 To define variables on the C-Kermit command line, use the -C
1269 command-line option with one or more DEFINE or ASSIGN commands. Note
1270 that the C-Kermit command line must cope with the quoting rules of your
1273 kermit -C "define \\%a foo, define phonenumber 7654321"
1275 In this case we follow UNIX quoting rules by doubling the backslash.
1276 Once C-Kermit starts, the \%a and \m(phonenumber) variables are defined
1277 as indicated and can be used in the normal way.
1279 In DOS or Windows or OS/2 the command would be:
1281 kermit -C "define \%%a foo, define phonenumber 7654321"
1283 Here we need to double the percent sign rather than the backslash
1284 because of DOS shell quoting rules.
1286 11.8. Per-Character Echo Check with the OUTPUT Command
1288 Sometimes the OUTPUT command must be used to send commands or data to a
1289 device in "echoplex" mode, meaning that characters must be sent one at
1290 a time, and the next character can not be sent until the echo from the
1291 previous one has been received. For example, a certain PBX might have
1292 this characteristic. Let's say a Kermit script is used to program the
1293 PBX. If characters are sent too fast, they can be lost. It would seem
1296 SET OUTPUT PACING milliseconds
1298 could be used to take care of this, but the pacing interval is constant
1299 and must be set large enough to allow even the slowest echo to finish.
1300 If the script is large (an actual example is 14,000 lines long), this
1301 can cause it to take hours longer than it needs to.
1303 Here is a macro you can use to OUTPUT a string in an Echoplex
1309 for \%i 1 \flen(\%*) 1 {
1310 asg \%c \fsubstr(\%*,\%i,1)
1316 C-Kermit 7.0 or later is required.
1318 It sends one character at a time and then waits up to 2 seconds for the
1319 character to be echoed back, but continues to the next character as
1320 soon as the echo appears, so no time is wasted. You can add an IF FAIL
1321 clause after the INPUT in case you want to do something special about
1322 failure to detect an echo within the timeout period. Obviously you can
1323 also change the 2-second limit, and adjust the script in any other
1326 11.9. Scripted File Transfer
1328 Sometimes a user complains that when she makes a connection by hand,
1329 logs in, and transfers a file, there are no problems, but when she
1330 scripts the the exact same sequence, the file transfer always fails
1331 after a few packets. Here's a scenario where this can happen:
1333 1. Upon logging in to the remote computer, it sends a "What Are You?"
1335 2. When you log in interactively, your terminal emulator sends the
1336 response. This is invisible to you; you don't know it's happening.
1337 3. When you script the login, and begin a file transfer immediately
1338 upon logging in, the host still sends the "What Are You?" sequence.
1339 Kermit's INPUT ECHO setting is ON by default, so the escape
1340 sequence passes through to the terminal, and the terminal sends its
1341 response. But by this time Kermit has already started the file
1343 4. By default, the local Kermit program examines the keyboard for
1344 interruption characters between every packet. The "What Are You"
1345 response is sitting in the keyboard buffer. Eventually Kermit will
1346 read a character such as "c" that is a valid interruption
1347 character, and the file transfer stops with "User cancelled".
1349 The right way to handle this situation is to have your look for the
1350 "What Are You?" sequence and send the response itself, as described in
1351 Using C-Kermit, pp.429-431. Or you can work around it by telling the
1352 local Kermit to "set input echo off" and/or "set transfer interruption
1355 11.10. Hexadecimal arithmetic...
1357 C-Kermit can do both integer and floating-point arithmetic, in both
1358 ordinary algebraic notation and in Lisp S-Expression notation. All
1359 arithmetic operators and functions operate only on decimal numbers. It
1360 is possible, however, to write scripts that operate on hexadecimal
1361 numbers. This is done by converting them to decimal prior to any
1362 arithmetic operations, and then converting them back to hexadecimal for
1365 ; EVALUATE is a command that evaluates an arithmetic expression.
1366 ; See HELP EVALUATE for details. This is just for demonstration.
1367 ; Arithmetic expressions can be used in any context where a number
1368 ; can be used. Also, the special notation:
1370 ; .\%a ::= expression
1372 ; evaluations the expression and assigns the result to the variable.
1374 .\%a := fffe ; Set variable to hex value
1375 set eval old ; See HELP EVAL
1376 eval \fhex2n(\%a) ; Show value of variable
1377 eval \fhex2n(\%a) + 1 ; Show value of expression
1378 eval \fhex2n(\%a) + 2 ; Show value of expression
1379 .\%x ::= \fhex2n(\%a) + 1 ; Assign value of expression to variable
1380 echo \fn2hex(\%x) ; Display variable's value in hex
1381 .\%x ::= \fhex2n(\%a) + 2 : Ditto
1383 .\%x ::= \fhex2n(\%a) | \fhex2n(ffff) ; Similarly for logical OR
1385 .\%x ::= \fhex2n(\%a) & \fhex2n(ffff) ; and logical AND
1388 By the way, you might be tempted to use Kermit's \xnn notation to plug
1389 hex numbers into arithmetic expressions but this doesn't work. That
1390 notation is stricly for bytes (hex representation of character values),
1395 Escape sequences (or any strings that contain control characters) can't
1396 be used as labels, GOTO targets, or SWITCH cases.
1398 [ [91]Top ] [ [92]Contents ] [ [93]C-Kermit Home ] [ [94]C-Kermit 8.0
1399 Overview ] [ [95]Kermit Home ]
1400 __________________________________________________________________
1402 C-Kermit 8.0 Unix Hints and Tips / [96]The Kermit Project /
1403 [97]kermit@columbia.edu / 30 June 2011
1407 1. http://www.columbia.edu/
1408 2. mailto:kermit@columbia.edu
1409 3. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/index.html
1410 4. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95.html
1411 5. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckermit.html
1412 6. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckscripts.html
1413 7. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/current.html
1414 8. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/whatsnew.html
1415 9. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/faq.html
1416 10. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/support.html
1417 11. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html
1418 12. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckubwr.html
1419 13. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95.html
1420 14. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckermit.html
1421 15. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckututor.html
1422 16. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x0
1423 17. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x1
1424 18. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x2
1425 19. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x3
1426 20. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x4
1427 21. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x5
1428 22. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x6
1429 23. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x7
1430 24. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x8
1431 25. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x9
1432 26. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x10
1433 27. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x11
1434 28. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#top
1435 29. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#contents
1436 30. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x2
1437 31. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#top
1438 32. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#contents
1439 33. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x2
1440 34. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ck60manual.html
1441 35. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckermit2.html
1442 36. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ck60manual.html
1443 37. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckermit80.html#x5
1444 38. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckermit80.html
1445 39. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckermit80.html#x2.2
1446 40. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckermit80.html#x8.7.2
1447 41. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckermit80.html#x9
1448 42. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#top
1449 43. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#contents
1450 44. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x3
1451 45. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x1
1452 46. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#top
1453 47. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#contents
1454 48. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x4
1455 49. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x2
1456 50. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#top
1457 51. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#contents
1458 52. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x5
1459 53. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x3
1460 54. ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1122.txt
1461 55. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#top
1462 56. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#contents
1463 57. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x6
1464 58. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x4
1465 59. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#top
1466 60. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#contents
1467 61. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x7
1468 62. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x5
1469 63. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ck60manual.html
1470 64. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x10
1471 65. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#top
1472 66. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#contents
1473 67. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x8
1474 68. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x6
1475 69. ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2217.txt
1476 70. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#top
1477 71. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#contents
1478 72. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x9
1479 73. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x7
1480 74. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#top
1481 75. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#contents
1482 76. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x10
1483 77. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x8
1484 78. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckubwr.html
1485 79. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#top
1486 80. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#contents
1487 81. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x11
1488 82. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x9
1489 83. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ck60manual.html
1490 84. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckermi70.htm
1491 85. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/hp48.html
1492 86. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckermit70.html#x4.22
1493 87. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckermit80.html#x15
1494 88. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#top
1495 89. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#contents
1496 90. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#x10
1497 91. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#top
1498 92. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckcbwr.html#contents
1499 93. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckermit.html
1500 94. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ck80.html
1501 95. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/index.html
1502 96. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/index.html
1503 97. mailto:kermit@columbia.edu