Kermit for Intel ISIS
This version of Kermit was created by Bill Boyd, Hughes Aircraft
Company, Fullerton, CA, from a version (MDS) received from Columbia
University via the DSSO department of Intel. It incorporates
some enhancements inspired by the Kermit version from Leigh
Instruments (MD2) as well as a number of other enhancements.
The ISIS Kermit provides dumb terminal emulation and file transfer
for Intel Series II, Series III and Series IV computers running the
ISIS operating system. It has the basic Kermit features and some
additional ones.
This version of ISIS Kermit differs in several ways from the earlier
(MDS) version:
(1) It has the following additional commands: SET (with
operands BAUD-RATE, DEBUGGING, DISK, DUPLEX, ESCAPE,
PARITY, PORT, PROMPT, RETRY, TAKE-ECHO, and WARNING),
SHOW, TAKE, HELP, and server control commands CWD,
GET, FINISH, LOGOUT, and BYE.
(2) Its CONNECT escape protocol now matches other Kermit usage.
The default escape character is still Ctl-D, but it can
be altered at run-time or by changing one value in the
source program. Supported escape controls are B (send
break signal), C (close connection), ? (help), and a
second escape character.
(3) SEND, RECEIVE, and GET can accept an alternate file name.
The ability to send multiple files with one command
has been removed.
(4) RECEIVE and GET will optionally rename an incoming file
if the name is already in use.
(5) Disk drive specifiers are stripped from file names sent
to a remote Kermit. The default drive specification
is prefixed to local file names which do not already
have one.
(6) It can respond to Ctl-X and Ctl-Z in order to interrupt
transfers.
(7) It has a better transfer progress audit message.
(8) It supports nine baud rates from 110 through 19200.
(9) It will respond to packet type "E" (error message).
To the extent that I understand the definitions, the following
describes the capabilities of the new version if ISIS-Kermit. An
asterisk (*) marks items which are changed in this version.
ISIS-Kermit Capabilities at a glance:
Local operation:
Remote operation:
Transfers text files:
Transfers binary files:
Wild card send:
^X/^Y interruption
Filename collision avoidance
Can time out:
8th-bit prefixing:
Repeat count prefixing:
Alternate block checks:
Terminal emulation:
Communication settings:
Transmit BREAK:
IBM communication:
Transaction logging:
Session logging:
Raw transmit:
Act as server:
Talk to server:
Advanced commands for servers:
Local file management:
Handle file attributes:
Command/init files:
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes *
Yes *
No
No
No
No
No
(Some) *
Yes *
No
No
No
No
No
Yes *
(CWD only) *
No
No
Yes *
The command set is described below. Any command or keyword may be
abbreviated to as few letters as is needed to uniquely specify the
item. Command keywords can be entered in any combination of upper
or lower case characters.
KERMIT [baud rate [port]]
Initiates Kermit operation. Supported baud rates range from 110
through 19200, depending on workstation model. Supported
communications ports are 1 and 2. At higher baud rates there is a
possibility that characters will be lost, particularly in CONNECT
mode when data is being transfered in both directions at once. This
problem seems most evident with a Series IV, which is especially
likely to lose characters when scrolling the screen, i.e. immediately
after receiving a carriage return character.
If file :F0:KERMIT.INI exists, Kermit will read commands from this
file upon starting. See the description of the TAKE command below.
BYE
Causes Kermit to shut down and log out the remote server and return to
ISIS.
CONNECT
Establish a terminal connection to the remote system. Get back to
ISIS-Kermit by typing the escape character followed by the letter C.
The escape character is Control-D by default. When you type the
escape character, several single-character commands are possible:
C
Close the connection and return to ISIS-Kermit
B
Send a BREAK signal
?
List all the possible single-character arguments
^D (or whatever you have set the escape character to be):
Typing the escape character twice sends one copy of
it to the connected host.
CWD [remote-directory]
If no directory is specified, CWD causes the remote Kermit server to
change to the default directory. If a directory is specified, you
will be prompted for a password and the server will attempt to change
to the specified directory. If access is not granted, the server will
provide a message to that effect.
During password entry the password characters will not be echoed to
the screen. The "rubout" key can be used to backspace over characters
typed in error. Control-Y will reset password input and allow it to
be restarted.
To perform a "LOCAL CWD," use the SET DISK command.
FINISH
Causes Kermit to shut down the remote server without logging it out.
GET filename [localfile]
Request that a file be sent by a remote Kermit in server mode.
HELP [command [subcommand]]
Display help about Kermit commands. If requested without an operand,
HELP displays a list of available topics.
LOGOUT
Causes Kermit to shut down and log out the remote server.
RECEIVE [localfile]
Receive files from remote Kermit.
SEND filename [remotefile]
Sends files to remote Kermit.
SET option [operand]
Controls the setting of several options. The options are BAUD-RATE,
DEBUGGING, DISK, DUPLEX, ESCAPE, PARITY, PORT, PROMPT, RETRY,
TAKE-ECHO, and WARNING.
SET BAUD-RATE rate
Sets the communication baud rate. Legal values for "rate" are 110,
150, 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, and 19200. Note that not all
of these rates are supported by every Intel workstation.
SET DEBUGGING ON/OFF
Controls the display of debugging information. "SET DEBUGGING ON"
will cause various status information to be displayed while Kermit
is executing.
SET DISK [:Fn:]
SET DISK [n]
Controls the default ISIS disk drive. The default disk drive will be
prefixed to any ISIS file name which does not already start with a drive
specification. The letter "n" above must be a digit (i.e., between 0
and 9). If the disk specification is omitted, there will be no default
disk specification.
SET DUPLEX FULL/HALF
Controls the display at the local system of characters entered during
CONNECT mode. Use FULL when the remote system echoes the characters
you type. Use HALF to get the local Kermit to echo them. Half duplex
is also called "local echo".
SET ESCAPE [octal-number]
Changes the "escape" character, which is used to control Kermit during
connect mode. If an octal value is not entered on the command line,
you will be prompted for the new escape character, which you enter
literally.
SET PARITY NONE/MARK/SPACE/EVEN/ODD
Changes the parity of data sent to the remote Kermit. Note that since
this Kermit does not support 8th-bit prefixing, any parity value other
than NONE will cause binary files to be transmitted incorrectly.
SET PORT port#
Changes the I/O port.
Permitted values for "port#" are 1 and 2.
SET PROMPT [prompt-string]
Changes the Kermit command prompt. The prompt string is limited to 20
characters. If no prompt string is entered, the prompt will be reset to
the original value, "ISIS-Kermit>".
SET RETRY n
Changes the number of times that Kermit will retry packet
transmission before giving up. Permitted values for "n" are 1
through 255.
SET TAKE-ECHO ON/OFF
Controls the echoing of "TAKE" file commands to the terminal. "SET
TAKE-ECHO ON" will cause commands read from the "TAKE" file to be
echoed to the terminal.
SET WARNING ON/OFF
Controls the handling of local file name conflicts. "SET WARNING ON"
will cause a warning message to be issued when an incoming file has
the same name as an existing local file. Kermit will then rename the
incoming file. "SET WARNING OFF" will cause Kermit to overwrite the
existing file.
SHOW
Display the settings of the SET options.
TAKE filename
Causes Kermit to begin reading commands from the specified file.
When the end of the file is reached, Kermit will resume reading
commands from the terminal. If Kermit encounters a "TAKE" command
in a "TAKE" file, it will close the current "TAKE" file and begin
reading the new "TAKE" file. In particular, it will NOT resume
reading from the original "TAKE" file when the new file is
exhausted.
TAKE file command lines may contain comments delimited by a
semicolon (";"). However, a semicolon which occurs after the
first position of a command line will only serve as a comment
delimiter if it is preceded by one or more blanks.
There is no facility for continuing TAKE file commands.