topic Re: Kermit on Integrity in Operating System - OpenVMS

Kermit on Integrity

Homer Shoemaker — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:45:07 GMT

I'd like to install kermit on my new itanium servers. (r2660 v8.3) But I don't have a c compiler. From what I can tell at the columbia.edu kermit site, I need a c compiler to build it from the text files that they offer.

Do I understand correctly? Or are there other options for getting kermit on this platform?

Problem I'm trying to solve:
We use Reflection 2 for terminal emulations. The transfer protocol we've been using is the WRQ/Reflection protocol. That protocol requires an executable on the host. Well, we don't really want to buy a new version of Reflections for our new servers. And our old servers are Alphas with v 7.1. (Too old to convert the executable via the AlphaServer systems Environment Software Translator AEST - I think).

But... we can still transfer files using Reflections 2 if we use kermit. If we can get kermit on the new hosts.

We'd like to continue using Reflections also because we've got many Reflections Basic (.rbs)scripts, that get transfer data from the host and then do stuff and then pass the data along to windows computers (mainly). The modifications would be simple since the protocols are just two different objects, either of which can be applied to the same transfer method. (Does that make sense? This is getting wordy.)

Thanks.

Re: Kermit on Integrity

Homer Shoemaker — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:12:53 GMT

I just found the binaries. Thanks for reading. I'll let you know if it works for me.

Re: Kermit on Integrity

Steven Schweda — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:36:28 GMT

For cheap (but inconvenient) access to HP
compilers on various (but not all) system
types, consider:

http://www.testdrive.hp.com/
http://www.testdrive.hp.com/current.shtml

Re: Kermit

C-Kermit releases have been pretty sparse
lately, and it's been a while since I looked
at the stuff, but I was told (more than a
year ago) that the next pre-release kit,
"Dev.28", will include some changes I
suggested. In the meanwhile, if you seek the
latest and most wonderful Kermit kit, you can
fetch the latest kit (8.0.212) from Columbia:

http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckdaily.html

and then, for a good time, smoosh in the
replacement files from my server:

http://antinode.info/ftp/kermit/2007-02-01/

As you can tell from the dates, it's all
pretty old, but complaints are always
welcome. The changed stuff should be
IA64-aware, but I can't recall if it's all
ODS5-proof. (Only one way to find out...)

Re: Kermit on Integrity

Homer Shoemaker — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:00:03 GMT

Thanks, Steven.

I did try to create an account on the testdrive system. I even received an email with a username and password. But it won't let me log in. I sent two emails asking them to reset the password but I haven't heard back from them yet.

I did find the binary file. (8.0.211) I was able to get that and an ini file from the columbia site. I installed them and setup kermit as a foreign command. And it works!

So, as much fun as it would be to recompile and "smoosh", I guess I'm going to have to put that off.

Remember, all I really need kermit to do is to send and receive files to and from my OpenVMS systems and a windows server... from within several Reflections Basic scripts. The script changes were minimal. Two extra lines per transfer session, one to start kermit, one to exit, and I needed to modify the send or receive commands in between.

All in all, a success. Thanks for responding. I'm the only VMS guy in our company, so it's tough to bounce ideas off a colleague locally. Just the fact that there are people like yourself willing to respond is an encouragement. (And sometimes a lifesaver!)

Re: Kermit on Integrity

Steven Schweda — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:19:55 GMT

> So, as much fun as it would be [...]

Lazy bum.

Looking back through the e-mail archive, it
seems that the reason I did any of this stuff
was to add large-file support. I also seem
to have gotten the internal FTP client to
work (minimally), which could be useful for
anyone seeking a scriptable FTP client. I
see no sign, however, that I added any code
to deal with the highly unpleasant behavior
of a TCPIP FTP server and ODS5 extended file
names. (I'll just wait for complaints from
the users. (Gasp.))

So, just you wait until you try to move that
2.2GB file through your serial line, and see
what happens. _Then_ you'll be sorry.

> [...] But it won't let me log in. [...]

Hmmm. You might try your username and
password on one of the UNIX TestDrive
systems. They might have put you on the
wrong side of the fence. Long ago, I got
some fairly useful help from e-mail to the
TestDrive folks, but that was back when they
still had Alphas (even with Tru64), so it
could all be different (worse) now.

Re: Kermit on Integrity

Homer Shoemaker — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:05:33 GMT

Just thought I'd follow up and let anyone who's reading this know, that the testdrive folks did reply to my email and I was able to login early yesterday.

Thanks for your help, Steven.

Homer