!START-OF-VAXNET.HLP ! ! VAXNET - VAX Hosted Virtual Terminal Handler and File Transfer ! Program for Communication with Remote VAX/VMS, ! PDP10/DECsystem-10, or PDP11xx/(RSX11M/V3.1 with FORTRAN ! IV Plus) ! !Authors: Roger Lipsett, John Thompson Intermetrics ! !Date: 22 May 1979 !Edited: 27 July 1979 To reflect changes for REV 1.54 ! !Modules: ! !VAX HOST: VAXNET.FOR, GETSEND.FOR, SETPRN.MAR ! !REMOTE CPU's ! !VAX: SNDRCVVAX.FOR ! !PDP10: SNDRCV.F10, SPLUTL.MAC ! !PDP10 at Carnegie Mellon University: SNDRCVCMU.FOR,SPLUTL.MAC ! !PDP11: SNDRCV11M.FTN,TECIN.FTN ! !Program Generation: ! !BOOTSTRAP: It is possible to downline load any or all of VAXNET sources ! using TECO on a remote VAX or PDP10 and the TECOINPUT command ! on the host VAX. On a PDP11 one must first type in a short ! program, TECIN.FTN, F4P and TKB it, RUN it and use the TECO ! INPUT command as on the -10 or VAX. See the TECOINPUT command ! for further information. ! !VAXNET LOGIN UNDER SYSTEM MANAGER'S ACCOUNT ! ON FOR VAXNET ! HOST FOR GETSEND ! VAX: MAC SETPRN ! LINK VAXNET,GETSEND,SETPRN ! COPY VAXNET.EXE [SYSEXE]* ! SET DEF [SYSEXE] ! SET PROT=(SY:RWE,OW:RWE,GR:RE,WO:RE) VAXNET.EXE ! RUN INSTALL ! VAXNET /PRIV=(PHY_IO,ALTPRI,PSWAPM) ! Or, for later updates, VAXNET/REPLACE. ! (CTRL Z) ! VAXNET will perform the equivalent of the following command ! for the remote VAXNET port: ! SET TERM TTnn: /LOW/TAB/NOECHO/REM/PASS/SCOPE/WIDTH=132/- ! NOWRAP/SPEED=300 or 1200 ! At the termination of VAXNET, the terminal characteristics ! will be restored to /ECHO/INTERACTIVE/WRAP/WIDTH=80. ! ! DZ11 port TTnn should be dedicated to the modem which is used for ! dialing up to the remote CPU, but it can be used for dial-up ! when VAXNET is not in use. ! !REMOTE CPU's: ! !PDP10: COMPIL SNDRCV.FOR ! Unnecessary, as the LOAD will compile it. ! COMPIL SPLUTL.MAC ! Unnecessary, as the LOAD will compile it. ! LOAD SNDRCV,SPLUTL ! SAVE SNDRCV ! !VAX: FOR SNDRCVVAX ! LINK SNDRCVVAX ! !PDP11: F4P SNDRCV11M=SNDRCV11M ! TKB SNDRCV11M/-CP=SNDRCV11M ! F4P TECIN=TECIN ! TKB TECIN/-CP=TECIN ! ! When you RUN SNDRCV11M, it must have its PRIORITY set high enough ! to insure that the WTQIO will always get all the characters that ! come into the PDP11 terminal port. A priority of /PRI=51 will ! usually work. Thus, RUN SNDRCV11M /PRI=51 ! The TECIN program also requires adequate priority. ! N.B. You must be privileged to run tasks in this way. ! VAXNET is a virtual terminal handler hosted on the VAX that contains protocol and procedures for transferring ASCII files to or from remote CPU's from or to the VAX via an asynchronous modem connection. A procedure for transmitting binary files in which the data is in industry compatible mode on the -10 has also been invented, and an implementation of -10 to VAX transfer of AN/UYK-20 SYSGEN files can be used as a template for development of procedures for transferring other types of binary files between other systems. Print the DB0:[SYSHLP]VAXNET.HLP file for installation procedures. For more information see the topics below. *INTRODUCTION VAXNET has two parts: a virtual terminal handler and a command driven communications protocol. The virtual terminal handler is designed to make the terminal that VAXNET runs from seem like it is directly connected to the remote CPU. The terminal that VAXNET runs from is called the local VAXNET terminal. The DZ11 port that VAXNET uses to talk to the modem is called the remote VAXNET port or the VAXNET output port. The modem connects over the telephone network to the remote CPU dialup terminal port. The VAXNET user switches back and forth between the virtual terminal handler and the communications protocol using the procedures and commands described below. Before one of the protocol initiating commands is issued, it is necessary for the user to RUN the appropriate "slave" program (SNDRCVVAX, SNDRCV, or SNDRCV11M) on the remote CPU. The "slave" program provides the protocol on the remote CPU. There are several things to remember about the virtual terminal part of VAXNET. One is that all prompts from remote CPU's occur about one second after typing carriage return. Thus when you expect a prompt for PPN # or PASSWORD during LOGIN, the prompt may seem a little slow. *** DO WAIT FOR EACH PROMPT AND DON'T TYPE AHEAD *** In general,the VAX terminal handler reads only input lines from remote CPU's which are CR terminated, and hence a timed out read is necessary to handle the non-terminated prompt. The VAX terminal handler is used to echo your typed input. So when you type a LOGIN [123,456] command, a -10 will also echo it. Occasionally, the virtual terminal part of VAXNET will generate extra line feeds. Should this occur, type a CTRL C followed by a C and CR to clear the DZ11 remote port typeahead buffer and resynchronize. There are some peculiarities about default terminal characteristics that you will be able to change once you get logged in to the remote CPU. These settings are given below following the general discussion. Another restriction is that only carriage return and escape can always be sent by typing them directly. (N.B. The VAX will echo the escape as $.) It is safest to send other control characters using the CTRL C interrupt mechanism described below, although many control characters to a -10 such as CTRL T, CTRL S, CTRL Q can be sent easily if the -10 is not sending characters. It is possible to use the virtual terminal handler part of VAXNET to run programs like TECO and other editors on -10's and VAX's, albeit one must strictly adhere to not typing ahead and always waiting for prompts. It is generally quite difficult to run the debuggers. Finally, make certain that the local terminal you use to run VAXNET on is at least as fast as the modem you use to communicate with the remote CPU. If the local terminal is too slow, the typeahead buffer for the remote VAXNET port will get filled faster than VAXNET can service it because of the delay in writing to the slow local terminal. Although it is quite possible to clear this typeahead buffer by typing CTRL C followed by C and CR, it is not pleasant to work in this mode. *CONTROL_CHARACTERS To send control characters CTRL C is first typed followed on the next line by the upper or lower case alpha(s) that you wish to send. Sending two CNTRL C's to a -10 or VAX would be done as follows: ^C CC Unfortunately, one cannot use this mechanism to send CTRL C's to RSX11M to get back to MCR level. Thus there is no easy way to abort typeout from say a PIP TI:=FILENAME.FOR command. To abort the SNDRCV11M program, one does type CNTRL C, and then after the abort message types C. The sequence would look like ^C MESSAGE ABOUT ABORTING C Whenever one uses the ^C method that does not interrupt SNDRCV, any sequence of characters longer than 2 is expected to be a command. A CTRL C followed by another CTRL C will trap back to the VAX command interpreter. (This is not the proper way to terminate VAXNET. Instead, use the STOP command.) *PROTOCOL_COMMANDS Before each of the protocol initiating commands, except for STOP, is issued, it is necessary for the user to RUN the appropriate "slave" program (SNDRCVVAX, SNDRCV, or SNDRCV11M) on the remote CPU. The "slave" program provides the protocol on the remote CPU. To begin a command, CTRL C is first typed followed on the next line by one of the following commands: GETA or GETA[SCII] - get an ASCII text file from the -10 GETL or GETL[ISTING] - get a FORTRAN carriage control formatted ASCII listing file from -10 GETS or GETS[YSGEN] - get a ANS/UYK-20 SYSGEN file from -10 SENDA or SENDA[SCII] - send an ASCII text file to the -10 STOP - stop the VAXNET program and close down properly TECO or TECO[INPUT] - use TECO on -10 or VAX to downline load source text for SNDRCV, etc without using protocol. On the PDP11, since RSX11M does not allow disabling echo, one must use a short 19 line program called TECIN to write the input from the TECO command into a prenamed file SR.FTN. Commands can be abbreviated or written out or partly written out. The TECOINPUT command requires some more explanation. First start TECO. On a -10 the command MAKE FILE.F10 will get you into TECO and create the file FILE.F10. On a VAX the command should be MCR TEC EWFILE.FOR$$ On RSX11M use RUN TECIN. At this point the VAXNET command TECO should be given. ^C TECO NAME OF THE VAX FILE? you usually type SNDRCVxxx.yyy The TECO procedure will format and send the VAX file to the file open on the remote CPU. There will be no checksumming. When the file ends on the VAX, the remote file is closed and the remote program (TECO or TECIN) stops. VAXNET is now in virtual terminal mode again. Remember, the TECIN program will have named the file SR.FTN and you will probably want to rename it. *EXAMPLE A sample terminal session with VAXNET is included here with comments: $SHO TERM TTnn: !Check if anyone is using the port to the remote CPU !If OWNER=SELF, you can use it $MC VAXNET !This will run the installed VAXNET program INTERMETRICS VAX VIRTUAL TERMINAL HANDLER - VAXNET - (REV x.yz) NAME OF VAXNET DZ11 OUTPUT PORT (e.g. _TTB7:)? you type say TTB7 TTB7 RCHANIN NOT ASSIGNED !This means either someone else has the !modem or the modem should be turned off !then on a few times to clear TTB7. $MC VAXNET !Try again INTERMETRICS VAX VIRTUAL TERMINAL HANDLER - VAXNET - (REV x.yz) NAME OF VAXNET DZ11 OUTPUT PORT (e.g. _TTB7:)? you type TTB7 SET TERMINAL CHARACTERISTICS. ALWAYS WAIT FOR PROMPTS. TYPE CTRL C FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER C TO STOP EXTRA BLANK LINES. !The above messages are given as reminders. !Now dial up a -10 from the modem connected to TTB7 !Wait about 15 seconds after seeing carrier go on in the modem !and get the -10's attention by sending a CTRL C. ^C C FOO-603-18 hh:mm:ss TTYnn system xx !-10 sends these Please LOGIN or ATTACH !messages .LOGIN [123,456] !You type this LOGIN [123,456] !-10 echoes this !-10 may echo this on top of your line JOB # etc TTYnn !-10 sends this Password:ABCDEFG !You type password, VAX echoes, -10 doesn't nnnn dd-mmm-yy day !-10 sends some date info No mail !and may or may not send some mail .TT NO ECHO !You type TT NO ECHO !-10 echoes .TT NO BLANKS !You type .TT NO FILL !You type .TT NO CRLF !You type .TT TABS !You type .TT LC !You type - This finishes setting characteristics on -10 .RUN DSKD:SNDRCV[132,1617] !Start up the -10 program that communicates !with the VAX ^C !Now give the appropriate VAXNET command GETS !We want a SYSGEN file here WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE -10 FILE? SOFTIM.ABS !We answer with file name NAME OF THE VAX FILE? SOFTIM.ABS !Again answer file name !Either the -10 or the VAX !filespec, or both, may be !fully qualified. RECORDS 1 THROUGH 10 SUCCESSFULLY TRANSFERRED. !Progress report RECORDS 11 THROUGH 20 SUCCESSFULLY TRANSFERRED. !More progress ... ... RECORDS 221 THROUGH 227 SUCCESSFULLY TRANSFERRED. !Last part FILE TRANSMISSION COMPLETE, 28976 BYTES TRANSFERRED. STOP !FORTRAN STOP message from -10 END OF EXECUTION !Message from -10 .K/F !LOGOUT from -10 ^C STOP !Want to shut down VAXNET $LO !LOGOUT from VAX *CANCEL_FILE VAX or -10 ---------- Should it be desired to cancel the file transmission process, this is accomplished by doing a CTRL C operation to get out of transmission mode. Then you will be in virtual terminal handler mode and can send two CTRL C's to abort the SNDRCV process on the remote CPU. You can now restart the transmission process or do whatever else is appropriate. PDP11 RSX11M ------------ Type CTRL C, and then after the abort message, type C. *SPECIAL_CHARACTERS ARPANET PROBLEMS ---------------- Using the SENDA command from VAXNET via an intermediary TIP will give difficulty with text containing @ symbols. The simple solution is to change all @ symbols to some other little used character like the back slash symbol \. Do this prior to running VAXNET using TECO. Once transmitted, the files with \ can be changed back to @ on the remote CPU using TECO and the command . An alternative procedure is to change the TIP command symbol using the TIP command @I octal # e.g. @I 134 makes \ the new TIP command symbol PDP11 RSX11M/V3.1 TABS ---------------------- Tabs get sent to RSX11M/V3.1 without difficulty. However, there is no way to get the terminal driver to send tabs to the outside world. The SNDRCV11M.FTN program therefore converts all tabs to back slash before sending them out. At the VAX host use TECO on any received files to change the \'s to tab. e.g. . *WARNING During SEND or GET commands transmission errors may occur. Should this occur during "handshaking", VAXNET will drop back to virtual terminal level and give a message. If the errors occur during file transmission, the resulting error recovery may or may not go into a loop. Looping will be obvious with many "...RETRYING" messages. When this happens, CTRL C and stop SNDRCV as described above. If normal transmission resumes, the destination file may be corrupted in certain circumstances. We hope to fix this problem soon. Meanwhile, conservative practice is to discard a file which had such transmission problems and to retransmit the file to its destination. Almost all looping errors are caused by improper terminal settings on the remote CPU such as tabs or lower case being converted to blanks and upper case, respectively. Sometimes the looping errors are caused by a really bad modem or phone connection. In practice we typically send thousands and thousands of lines of code using 1200 and 300 baud modems with only occasional errors. *SUMMARY To Start VAXNET on VAX $MC VAXNET Remember One Second Delay for Prompts from Remote CPU's To Send Control Characters To Send Commands ^C ^C Character Command Name Minimum Command Abbreviation GETASCII GETA GETLISTING GETL GETSYSGEN GETS SENDASCII SENDA STOP STOP TECOINPUT TECO PDP10 SUMMARY ------------- To Start Complementary PDP10 Program RUN DSKD:SNDRCV[132,1617] PDP10 TTY Settings TT NO ECHO TT NO BLANKS TT NO CRLF TT NO FILL TT TABS TT LC VAX SUMMARY ------------ Before dialing up get the SYSTEM MANAGER at the remote VAX to set the dial up port to NOECHO. e.g. SET TERM TTxx /NOECHO/PERM To Start Complementary Remote VAX Program RUN SNDRCVVAX Once logged on do the following TT settings VAX TT Settings SET TERM TT /NOWRAP/WIDTH=132/TAB/NOBROADCAST/LOWERCASE PDP11 RSX11M/V3.1 SUMMARY _________________________ After logging on to the PDP11 get the SYSTEM MANAGER to alter the basic priority of your task to guarantee adequate QIO response. e.g. ALT TT7 /PRI=51. should do Alternatively get the SYSTEM MANAGER to install SNDRCV with adequate priority. e.g. INS SNDRCV /PRI=51. Then you can RUN SNDRCV without losing input characters. PDP11 RSX11M/V3.1 Terminal Settings SET /CRT=TI: SET /BUF=TI:200. SET /LOWER=TI: ! !END OF VAXNET.HLP