dbeeman@schof.colorado.edu (David Beeman) (10/24/90)
I have some questions related to the use of serial ports on unix workstations which I'm hoping someone can answer. The machine in question is a DECStation 5000, although I suspect that the answers are probably generally applicable. (If others are interested, I'll post a summary of answers to the net.) There are a number of public domain programs of the x/y/zmodem variety which I'd like to use to transfer data from the workstation to a PC via the serial port. (This would be a direct connection to a laptop, not via a modem.) I'm guessing that the two serial ports on the machine correspond to /dev/tty00 and /dev/tty01. (Does anyone know if this is so for the DS 5000?) However, none of these programs seem to have any provision for specifying the terminal device for I/O. This makes me think that there is probably something which I need to set up outside of the program. The default terminal device appears to be /dev/tty, which I'm told is the pseudonym for the terminal window from which I'm running the file transfer program. How can I assign this to be one of the serial ports so that I can send data to a serial port instead of the screen? A related question is: If I wanted to run a terminal program on the PC and use it to login to the workstation via a serial port, how would I set things up on the workstation to allow this? (This would be another solution to the problem, as the PC would presumeably then be /dev/tty.) If anyone out there has successfully done this, I'd sure like to know some of the details. If I were to call up another computer from a PC at home by modem and then telnet to my workstation, does a file transfer program running on the workstation know how to get the file to the PC? If so, how does this come about? Any answers, partial answers, or hints pointing in the right direction (or to the appropriate man pages) would be most appreciated. Dave Beeman ----- dbeeman@dogstar.colorado.edu
davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr) (10/24/90)
First solution: the x/y/zmodem protocols are supported by a package
which is often called szrz.tar.Z on archives. You can redirect by
sz </dev/tty01 >&0
or some similar thing. Kermit is widely available, and the new windowing
version is about 95% the speed of zmodem (although there are other
advantages to zmodem).
Second solution (calling in from PC):
You have to enable the tty port for login, and I don't have any Ultrix
manuals here, so here's stab from memory. It may be the first character
in /etc/ttys which does this, or /etc/ttytab. There may be enable and
disable commands. Might even be in gettydefs. This cuts you down to 3-4
manual pages to read to get the details. It's also in the uucp section
of the manuals I believe, I think that's where I saw it while looking
for something else.
If you call in from PC and don't have a terminal program, try Kermit.
It's free, has good VT100 emulation (and others), and you can get it
lots of places.
--
bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen)
sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX
moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me