schiltz@magic.crp.capsogeti.fr (Jean Pierre Schiltz) (08/03/88)
I know this question has been asked before, but I did not see the answer. I am looking for software to communicate via mail between a Sun/Unix 4.2 and a VAX/VMS. I am looking for a solution available for non-academic sites. Please *mail* me the answers (as usual). Thanks in advance. -- Jean-Pierre Schiltz - Cap Sogeti Innovation - Centre de Recherche de Paris 118 rue de Tocqueville - 75017 Paris - FRANCE - +33 (1) 46 22 60 27 schiltz@crp.capsogeti.fr ...uunet!mcvax!inria!csinn!schiltz
schiltz@magic.crp.capsogeti.fr (Jean Pierre Schiltz) (08/17/88)
Some time ago, I was asking for something to exchange mail between VMS and Unix. I thank everybody who replied. Here is a short summary. I hope it will be understandable, and that I will not have inserted too much mistakes on technical topics (let us not speak about my english, right ? :-) ). The first reply I got was : ================================================================= << From: grymoire!barnett@steinmetz.UUCP (Bruce G. Barnett) Four ways to send mail sun <=> VMS (or more?) 1. Purchase X.400 from Sun and DEC. (Expensive) 2. Purchase an Ultrix machine with DecNET option as a gateway 3. Purchase Sun's DECNET package and get a public domain program that does DECNET mail. This package can send, but the receiver can't reply. 4. Get TCP/IP/SMTP on a VMS machine. Some packages are cheaper that others. We use Exelan and Wollongong for TCP/IP. There is a public domain package from CarneigyMellon that does TCP/IP. Called UTEK ( I think). There is also UREP which is available from bitnet that I think does SMTP on a VMS machine. we have Ultrix with a decnet optionm and use FTP over DECNET. We send USENET news thru decnet to another GE-Ultrix site. Sun's support TCP/IP using SLIP (serial line IP), but this is a. public domain b. Not available for SunOS 4.0 yet. Guy or Bill Nowicki (nowicki@sun.com) should be able to. Bruce G. Barnett <barnett@ge-crd.ARPA> <barnett@steinmetz.UUCP> uunet!steinmetz!barnett >> =================================================================== None of these solutions did fit, since the VMS system is 400 km from the Unix system (a long way for an Ethernet cable) ! I wanted to communicate over X.25 through an external PAD and asynchronous lines. I did not investigate the SLIP solution. Maybe I should have ? Then I received the following suggestion : =================================================================== << From: guy@Sun.COM (Guy Harris) Might it be possible to run e.g. IP over X.25? I have heard that X.25 is cheaper than dial-up async in Europe. Of course, this requires 1) that the VAX and the Sun be able to connect to an X.25 network and 2) that some support for IP-over-X.25 be provided on both systems; we have some level of IP-over-X.25 support on our machines, but I don't know about VMS or any TCP/IP implementations for VMS. You could also run UUCP over X.25, assuming you have support for it in your UUCP; the standard SunOS one doesn't, but I think Sun Consulting in Germany offers it. I can't speak for any VMS UUCPs. >> ================================================================= But this did not give me the IP support over X.25 ! I received then the following proposal : ================================================================= << From jensen@gt-eedsp.UUCP Fri Aug 5 05:24:23 1988 If you have SUNLINK software (sunlink-dni), I would be happy to mail you a copy of a UNIX-->VMS (notice the one-way arrow) mail program I wrote that a lot of people are using (dnamail from the rice archive). P. Allen Jensen >> ================================================================= and this was the missing piece. Unfortunately, I do not have SunLink, and do not want to buy it at the moment. I also received the following information, about which I would be happy to know more : ================================================================= << From pavlov%hscfvax@harvard.harvard.edu Fri Aug 5 13:47:59 1988 It is not well-documented (and I can't send you any, because I do not use a VMS system), but VMS mail can be initialized to send/receive network mail. >> ================================================================= Who could help ? Finally, here are the two solutions that worked : one could be used as an intermediate gateway between uucp and mail, because Clemens Schrimpe kindly let me send mail through his computer system (tmpmbx). ================================================================= << From: csch@tmpmbx.UUCP (Clemens Schrimpe) (...) We have one, based on X.25 ! (between Unix-X.25 (e.g. Sunlink X.25) and DEC-PSI) We wrote a DEC-PSI compatible mailer which works fine at our site for both incoming and outgoing calls! Interest ? It's definitely NOT bound to any X.25 software (but our own :-) ! But there are certain things, which must be supported by the X.25 Software: - ability to have control over packetboundaries (packetsequences) - transparency (at least lower 7-bits) I doubt, that an external PAD will support packet-control ! PSI-Mail is packet-oriented; e.g. it sends the subject of a mail as ONE PACKET. It does not have a 'Subject:' prepended and is not terminated by a '\n' ore something like this - it's JUST the n'th Packet after opening the connection! VMS mail is, what Unix mail was 5 years ago. It *normally* doesn't know about "routing", "domains" and other fancy stuff. Thus the PSI-Protocol is a little sensation, since it provides mail-facility to unknown destinations. I've never seen any external PAD being capable of what you need for running PSI-Mail ... but I'm wondering: You say, you have SUNs running over there? So - why don't you use SunLink X.25, it costs about $ 2500,- and will need NO EXTRA HARDWARE - it's pure software and will allow you to port my PSI-Mail gateway ... :-) 'tmpmbx' is a taiwanese IBM-AT (10Mhz, 4 MB Ram, 160MB-HD, etc.) running SCO Xenix 2.2.x ... all the X.25 stuff is our own development, since we sell UNIX-related communications hard- and software. NET-X25 is our X.25 product for PC-based Unixes ! Clemens Schrimpe UUCP: csch@tmpmbx.UUCP {pyramid,unido,altger}!tmpmbx!csch BITNET: csch@db0tui6.BITNET csch@tub.BITNET PHONE: +49-30-332 40 15 TELEX: (066)+186672 net d PSI: PSI%026245300043106::CSCH X.25: 026245300043106 login: chat Password: talkmaster >> ================================================================= What is new with this system is that it works fine in both directions, and not only Unix --> VMS. But it is based on SunLink, so it is not yet what I wanted. I do not know Clemens Schrimpe, and the above should not be considered as advertisement for his company. But he has been very helpful so I have good reasons to insert all these informations in the current message. I think his software is of interest for some people in netland. The other solution is a direct link, not very sophisticated, but convenient for what I wanted to do. It is operational here at the moment (under beta-test :-) ), and is based on kermit. ================================================================= << From: steve@txsil.UUCP (Steve McConnel) we've been using a hacked together setup from the University of Indiana for some time. It currently uses Kermit for actual file transport, but that could probably be replaced by your favorite file transfer program. I don't think any of the source code depends on any Unix license, if that's what you meant by nonacademic sites. Using sendmail, it works pretty well from the Unix side, but only almost works from the VMS side. By this I mean that Unix users can send email to VMS users without any more effort than normal, and can reply to messages naturally. VMS users have to be a lot smarter about what they're doing because all the mail gets sent to a single VMS account. A process on Unix periodically logs into VMS over a tty line, sends any mail which has queued up, and retrieves any mail which has arrived. I can send you more details if you're interested. Stephen McConnel PHONE: 214-709-2400 (x2328) Summer Institute of Linguistics 7500 W. Camp Wisdom Road UUCP network: steve@txsil.UUCP Dallas, TX 75236 ...!{convex|mcomp|pollux|smu|utafll}!txsil!steve >> ================================================================= So long, everybody. Of course, les opinions ci-dessus n'engagent que Jean-Pierre Schiltz et en aucun cas la socie'te' Cap Sogeti Innovation ni le groupe Cap Gemini Sogeti. -- Jean-Pierre Schiltz - Cap Sogeti Innovation - Centre de Recherche de Paris 118 rue de Tocqueville - 75017 Paris - FRANCE - +33 (1) 46 22 60 27 schiltz@crp.capsogeti.fr ...uunet!mcvax!inria!csinn!schiltz
darin@nova.laic.uucp (Darin Johnson) (08/20/88)
In article <397@magic.crp.capsogeti.fr>, schiltz@magic.crp.capsogeti.fr (Jean Pierre Schiltz) writes: > Some time ago, I was asking for something to exchange mail between VMS and > Unix. I thank everybody who replied. Here is a short summary. > > Four ways to send mail sun <=> VMS (or more?) > > 3. Purchase Sun's DECNET package and get a public domain program > that does DECNET mail. This package can send, but > the receiver can't reply. Actually, I have written a program that goes both ways easily. A major source of confusion though, is that I happened to call it DNAMAIL, which is the same name as the above program written by P. Jensen(?) (which also is similar to D. Johnson - all purely coincidence...) There are a few minor bugs (and could use some enhancement since it is about a year old), requires modifying sendmail.cf, but is pretty simple to use once set up. For example, from the Suns, I send mail to myself from my .forward file as darin@cosmos. On the vax, I send mail via NOVA::"darin" (or NOVA::"x!y!z..."). This is probably the most inexpensive route to go, since it only requires purchasing Sunlink/DNI (which is worth it in itself). The source to this was posted to comp.sources.misc, and should be in the Sun archives at rice.edu. If you can't get ahold of it there, then send me mail and I will send a copy. Darin Johnson (...pyramid.arpa!leadsv!laic!darin) (...ucbvax!sun!sunncal!leadsv!laic!darin) "All aboard the DOOMED express!"