
          
                                                                           
 
 
                         Kermit-11 under IAS
                  Original Author - Bruce C. Wright
              Updated for version 3.2 - Frank R. Borger
 
 
          This document describes some of the features and restrictions  of
          Kermit  running  under the IAS operating system.  The IAS version
          of Kermit is a modification of the RSX-11 version of Kermit,  but
          because  of  differences  in the operating systems not all of the
          features of RSX Kermit are currently available under IAS Kermit.
 
                          Supported features
 
          IAS Kermit supports most of the features of RSX Kermit:
 
          1.  File transfers
 
          2.  Remote and local commands
 
          3.  Spawning installed tasks
 
          4.  Dial-out lines
 
          5.  Help facility
 
          Some of these features involve procedures not required under RSX,
          because of the restrictions placed by the timesharing executive:
 
          1.  Dial-out lines must not be interactive terminals.   That  is,
              if  you are going to use a line as a dial- out line, you must
              not allocate it to PDS or SCI.
 
          2.  Spawning installed tasks is currently done via a SPWN$ direc-
              tive  rather  than  via  RUN$T.  Therefore, anyone wanting to
              spawn installed tasks must have the PR.RTC (real-time) privi-
              lege.   A workaround is to exit from Kermit, run the program,
              and then run Kermit again.  Kermit will first try to  run  an
              installed  task named $$$xxx, where xxx is the system command
              requested;  if that fails, Kermit will  try  to  run  an  in-
              stalled task named ...xxx.
 
          3.  Wild-card file operations are  supported  (for  example,  DIR
              *.DAT,  DEL  *.TSK,  SEND *.MAC).  Under RSX, Kermit uses RMS
              version 2 to do wild-card operations;  this is STILL not ava-
              ilable  under IAS, so there are the following restrictions on
              file operations:
 
              1.  Wild-cards must be specified for the entire field or  not
                  at all.  For example, TEST.* is OK but TEST*.* is not.
 
              2.  When either the file-name or the file-type specified as a
                  wild-card,  the file version number is also taken to be a
                  wild-card.

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              3.  Wild-card operations  are  not  allowed  on  directories.
                  Therefore,  [*,*]*.DAT is not a legal wild-card operation
                  in Kermit-IAS.  It is legal to use explicit  directories,
                  such as [200,200]*.DAT.
 
              4.  RMS Version 2 supports transparent DECNET remote file op-
                  erations,  while RMS Version 1 does not.  Therefore, Ker-
                  mit-IAS does not support DECNET file transfers.
 
              5.  Renaming files within Kermit is not supported.
 
 
          4.  Kermit under IAS currently reads packets one character  at  a
              time, and so can use up a fair amount of the CPU if it is re-
              ceiving files.  If it is sending packets  (sending  files  or
              remote command responses), or if it is reading commands rath-
              er than its file transfer packets, it will use long I/O oper-
              ations and will not put an excessive burden on the system.
 
                   Installation and Required Files
 
          Kermit is built as a multi-user task, with a task name of ...KER.
          The task is not linked to RMSRES, since this made the task images
          almost useless to other users, unless you happened  to  have  the
          correct version of RMSRES, (a highly unlikely case.)
 
                   Summary of Changes done at MRH.
 
 
          1.  All modules of KERMIT have been put into a library for faster
              task linking.
 
          2.  The code has been modified to differentiate between IAS  ver-
              sion  3.2,  (MAC knows about saving and restoring the current
              psect,) and version 3.1, (MAC doesn't know about it.)
 
          3.  The connect code has been modified to  conditionalize  out  a
              lot of the RT11/RSTS code.
 
          4.  Kermit orginially did its connect  I/O  one  character  at  a
              time.   This  was a real system hog and did not work reliably
              above 300 baud.  An alternate method is enabled  by  defining
              the  symbol  "fasias".   In this mode the connect code does a
              read with buffer size equal to .25  seconds  worth  of  char-
              acters,  along with a slightly longer mark time.  If the read
              is successful, the mark time is cancled.  If  the  mark  time
              occurs, the read is cancelled and any characters that are wa-
              iting are read.  NOTE that this mode requires you to have bu-
              ilt  your  TT  handler  to use RSX11M style IO.KIL.  (Set the
              symbol D$$KIL = 0 in your params.mac file.) This method works
              nicely  at  1200 baud with little system loading, but has not
              been tested beyond that.

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          5.  Our institution has a command munger/flying install task that
              attempts  to handle tasks that aren't installed.  In our case
              it is ...MAS.  Any SYSTEM command that doesn't suceed in run-
              ning  ...XXX,  will  pass the command to ...MAS.  The name of
              the catchall task is defined in K11MAC.MAC as mungna.
 
          6.  Our version of task builder on 3.2 has a bug in that it  does
              not set up the vector extension pointer ($VEXT at location 10
              of your task's address space.) If this is true for your  sys-
              tem, define the symbol tkbbug in K11MAC.MAC.
 
          7.  On our version 3.1 system, there was a bug in the RMS library
              with  the  module INIDM.  This was fixed by disassembling the
              INIDM module from a later version of RMS  and  expicitly  in-
              cluding it in the ODL file.
 
          We have both version 3.1 and 3.2 IAS systems, so I have  included
          versions  for  both systems.  The basic package as presented here
          is built and assembled for version 3.2.  I have  included  a  mac
          and  a tkb command file, an odl file and a task image for version
          3.1.
 
          If you wish to do a full-blown rebuild of kermit, you must:
 
          o Edit K11MAC.MAC to set conditionals properly.
          o Re-assemble all files using K11IASASM or K11I31ASM.
          o Re-create the library using L11IASLBR
          o Re-link using K11IASTKB or K11I31TKB.
 
          Also included in this distribution are two  tasks  DUP  and  MOD.
          They  are  both  just the connect code portion of kermit, but are
          dedicated to specific lines on our  system,  (one  connecting  to
          another  PDP system via hardwire, the other connecting to a Hayes
          type MODem for dialing out.)
 
          Happy KERMITing.
