[ See README.NeXT for information about this release, Term 1.0.5.a ]
Term. version 1.0.6
Copyright (c) 1992-1993 Michael O'Reilly
All Rights Reserved
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option)
any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--> Read the 'CHANGES' file as this will be more up to date than this
readme.
--> Please read this entire file if you have any problems.
Term is a program to implement a slip-like connection between 2 unix
machines. It isn't sl/ip. It runs entirely in use mode. It requires no
kernel support on either end, and no root access on either end. It is
built to run over a modem to connect a non-internet machine with an
internet machine. If this is your situation, and yo udon't have
slip/ppp then term is for you.
It is run at both ends, and does multiplexing, error correction, and
compression across the serial link between them. Designed to be as
efficient as possible, and have good response time, even over slow
modems. (I run it over a 2400 baud modem).
Note that it behaves the same from both ends. A user on either machine
can connect to the other.
The term program runs as a server. A unix-domain socket is opened and
bound to support communication between client processes and the
server.
See 'PROTOCOL.unix' for the protocol uses by clients.
See 'PROTOCOL.serial' for the protocol used across the serial link. ( Be
warned that they may be out of date. If in doubt, read the source :)
There are five clients currently written:
trsh
Runs a shell on the remote end. Like a normal login.
tupload <local file> <remote file>
Uploads a file. takes the name of the local file and the optional
arg is the name of the remote file.
txconn
Hangs around in the background waiting for X connections. re-directs
them to the local X server. Intended to be run on the remote machine.
tredir
Lets you alias a port on one system to another. I.e. 'redir 4000 23'
run on host 'a' means that anyone telneting to port 4000 on 'a',
will get a login prompt of machine 'b'.
By default the program assumes a 2400 baud modem. Run it as
'term -s9600' for a 9600 baud modem. Alternatively try
'setenv BAUDRATE 9600'. The baudrate determines how fast term will try
to send data to the modem. I.e. if BAUDRATE is 9600, it will only
attempt to send 960 bytes per second to the modem. Alternatively yet,
write a ~/.term/termrc file, following the format in TERMRC.
There is a ~/.term/termrc file so you can permanently set this stuff.
Look in the file TERMRC.
If either end gets five zeros (i.e "00000") it will exit. This means
to that finish a session you kill the linux end term, then run a
comm's program (xcomm or whatnot) and type '000000'. You should then
get a prompt back from the remote end. Doing something like 'echo
00000000 > /dev/ttys1' will do the job as well. :)
Rshing from the remote machine back to the linux one has a bug. When
you exit the linux shell, the connection doesn't close. You tell me
why. :( It is something to do wiith the pty handleing on linux.
----------------------------------------------------------
How to use txconn: (and term for that matter)
Login to your remote machine.
run
"term"
Break back to your linux prompt. I.e if you are running xcomm or
something similar then type control-A, x (to break back to xcomm
prompt). Then run term with stdin/stdout connected to the modem.
In xcomm I type
"$ term"
Alternatively you could exit your comms program altogether and run
"term < /dev/ttys1 > /dev/ttys1" from the shell prompt.
(assumeing that /dev/ttys1 is your modem port).
Makes certain your comms program ISN'T running if you
try the above, as it will fight with term if it is.
Then run 'trsh' from a shell prompt. (I generally run xcomm and term
on tty8, and then switch to tty7 to run trsh. You may find it handy to
have a entry in /etc/passwd looking like...
remote::0:0::/root:/usr/local/bin/trsh
as this then enables you to login to your remote machine by logging in
as 'remote').
This should give you (in about 2 seconds) a shell on your remote
machine. At this point the error correction/compression is on. You can
go to another tty to run another trsh giving you multiple shells etc.
None of the above needs X-windows to run.
------------------------------------------
To run txconn:
Make sure you are running X-windows. txconn will
assume you have x-windows running.
After running 'trsh', type
"txconn"
on the trsh. (i.e. run txconn on your remote machine).
It should exit immediately. (This is because it starts a process in the
background). Then if you are running tcsh, or csh..
"setenv DISPLAY name:9" for csh/tcsh )
otherwise, if you are running 'sh' , or 'ksh'.
"export DISPLAY=hostname:9"
Here, 'hostname' is the hostname of your REMOTE machine. (i.e. the
machine you ran txconn on. To make that very clear. The local machine
is the machine you are typeing on, the remote is the one at the other
end of the modem link. Run txconn on the remote machine. hostname is
set to be the name of your remote machine. DON'T use the hostname of
your local machine).
Then you can run any x-windows program on your remote machine, and it
should appear on your screen.
Things that can go wrong compiling..
1) The makefile breaks on the line 'ar rcs ....'
Read the makefile. Change the 'ar rcs ..' to be 'ar rc ..' and
uncomment the like with the $(RANLIB) ...
2) config.h gives a message about the OS being undefined.
config.h sets up a list of #define's baased on what OS you are
compiling on. Please (if you can) write support for your OS, and
mail me the patches so I can support it. If you can't mail me
with details of you machine, and I will see what I can do.
Things that can go wrong:
1) term giving message like
"(null): timed out at 60 trans 4"
This should be read as "A packet got no acknowledgement even tho it
has been waiting for 60/10th of a second, so it is being
re-transmitted for the 4th time."
These errors are normal. Line noise etc will cause packets to be
lost and retransmitting is the way they are recovered.
Times when it isn't normal:
a) Constantly re-transmitting i.e the last number just keeps
going up. This indicated one of
i) The remote term has died. Shouldn't happen.
ii) The line is not an 8 bit line.
You can check this by running the linecheck program.
Look up 'sevenbit' in TERMRC or term(1) if you have a
sevenbit line.
iii) Line noise has sent a XOFF character and your terminal
server has treated it is a quench signal. You
shouldn't be useing software flow control with term.
turn if off if you can. Look up the -f option in OPTIONS
or 'flowcontrol' in TERMRC or term(1).
iv) The remote term has 'blocked'. Term uses none blocking
I/O. Unfortuneatly there seems to be little consensus
on how to set it. What works on linux doesn't work on
ultrix and vice versa. :( You will have to fiddle with
the routines in lib.c (set_block and set_nonblock)
I have played with this some, and other ppl have
kindly guided my ways, so it shouldn't happen as often
now. In fact, this should not happen at all. If it
does, PLEASE mail me.
b) Any retransmitions on an error correcting modem.
Any of the above, and
v) The BAUDRATE is set too high. Too much data is being
buffered by the operating system. Alternatively
you could try increaseing the value of 'timeout' (see
TERMRC).
2) Term not doing anything. Everything hangs.
i) The non-blocking I/O is probly stuffed. Look in lib.c(or misc.c) at
routines set_block() and set_nonblock().
ii) I have stuffed up and left a bug in a released verion.
iii) The line is really dirty on it is eating one of the characters
term is useing. See linecheck below.
iv) Mail me with LOTS of details.
3) Term constantly giveing you the prompt from your remote machine.
You have run the remote term in the background. Don't do this.
4) Trsh hangs after you have typed a few keystrokes.
You have a dirty line. A terminal server or something like
that is eating some characters. Run linecheckline. See
term_setup.1 for more info. See TERMRC for more info. See
below for more info.
More known bugs:
When first run, term will make a directory called ~/.term. It will
very likely have dud permissions. just do chmod 700 ~/.term to fix it.
------------
USAGE OF linecheck.c
intially written by Michael O'Reilly
*seriously* bashed about by by quarters
hell, I wonder if diff would find more than 5 matching lines anymore...
jefftep@cs.utexas.edu
jeff grills
to make, type 'make linecheck'. This should produce a program called
'linecheck'
Without term running do the following. (i.e. on a bare serial line.
Nothing but your comms program is running.)
if you use a csh type shell (csh, or tcsh), then run /bin/sh before
you do the following
run remotely like: linecheck 2> remote.output
locally: linecheck < /dev/modem > /dev/modem 2> local.output
if it says something needs escaped, that means it didn't get through okay
this time. if you get an invalid packet printed, it means the packet wasn't
sent by the linecheck on the other side, and may either be line static,
or some very braindead terminal response to a (possibly series) of characters
to what was printed over the line. in this case, it's your responsibilty
to determine which, and escape the previously sent char if needed. There is
no way this program can identity a braindead terminal server from line static,
so this is the way it has to be.
if, for some reason, you get stuck out in lala land, and can't kill
the program, try typing "^jexit^j". That should kill it, and restore
your terminal.
It'll print "### sending char" and "### received valid". Don't worry if these
two number are out of sync. That's fine. Just worry, on either side, if you
get some "Invalid packet: " lines. Look at them closely, and see if it's line
static, or a real problem.
At the end, it'll print out a summary of what it thinks you should escape.
This just means these chars didn't get recieved correctly this time. Again,
if line static munched something, some of these may be valid.
To actually escape them, you have to put them into your termrc file.
So if it said to escape 0-31, then on the OTHER end from the one that
printed it, you add the line 'escape 0-31' to your ~/.term/termrc file.
Please note that the local.output file contains the characters that
should be escaped on the REMOTE end, and vice versa. See TERMRC and
term(1) for more on escapeing characters.
*** IF *** your terminal server generates extra responses for odd chars,
then you may not be told to escape something, but need to anyway. This will
be evident from a "Invalid packet: " on the local side, after attempting to
send a character. Again, it may be line static. You have to make the call.
if you're running it locally in a xterm, I suggest you turn on logging.
if you have problems with this program, and want me to look at it, mail me
*both* the local and remote output, and label them appropriately.
programmers notes:
hopefully, soon, I'll add the ability to skip chars to this program,
so you can test out the escapes you want.
maybe do a fork() and process the two sides independently, so it never hangs.
would cause minor quitting problems, but may be worth it.
Any problems, feel free to mail me. Any patches, bug fixes, etc are
VERY welcome.
Michael (oreillym@tartarus.uwa.edu.au);
If you are unfortunate enough to have a DECstation with an old Ultrix MIPS compiler, you may need to replace two of the distributed sources. If your compilation fails with errors regarding "auto initialization", then install the fixed sources. % mv select.c select.c.dist % mv upload.c upload.c.dist % cp select.c.mips select.c % cp upload.c.mips upload.c Ultrix requiring such changes may give you significant trouble if you try to run term from a socket as opposed to a tty. Also, rlogin for the link into such Ultrix appears to require character escaping which I can't track down. Information regarding any success getting term to run from a socket or from an rlogin under Ultrix with MIPS compiler would be appreciated, email hugh@mit.edu (Hugh Secker-Walker). Good luck.
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