jon@chiron.UUCP (Jon L. Griffeth) (09/30/88)
Some time ago I posted an article asking how I might establish a mail gateway between UNIX and IBM's PROFS. I received several excellent responses. However, due to internal politics I am unable to utilize any of them (silly, yes?). Currently, the only feasible solution is to write my own. From what little I know concerning PROFS, it seems that a simple RJE link between UNIX and another PROFS node would be sufficient. I could then develop the programs to translate between the two file formats and handle address resolution. To investigate this further, I need to understand the theory of operation behind PROFS and its file formats. Ideally, I would prefer to locate the IBM documents describing this. Any help, however, would be GREATLY appreciated. I've tried going to an IBM Systems Engineer, but they're not being very helpful. I got the impression that they don't want to be bothered. Can anyone help me with this? Thanks very much, Jon jon@chiron.UUCP rochester!cci632!chiron!jon
ECULHAM@UALTAVM.BITNET (User name Unknwon) (09/30/88)
In article <162@chiron.UUCP>, jon@chiron.UUCP (Jon L. Griffeth) writes: > >Some time ago I posted an article asking how I might establish a mail >gateway between UNIX and IBM's PROFS. I received several excellent >responses. However, due to internal politics I am unable to utilize >any of them (silly, yes?). > >Currently, the only feasible solution is to write my own. From what >little I know concerning PROFS, it seems that a simple RJE link >between UNIX and another PROFS node would be sufficient. I could then >develop the programs to translate between the two file formats and >handle address resolution. > ... > ... Please think VERY carefully before building yet another adhoc gateway from VM to the rest of the world. Invariably, these gateways implement only part of the function, and wind up causing a lot of grief to the network. They are a LOT of work to write, and need to be continually upgraded. I am speaking from experience. I did what you are proposing, but for the Michigan Terminal System (MTS), not UNIX. I had no choice. You do. I advise you to examine all your reasons for not using the semi-standard approaches. They exist NOW. Yours will take 4 months to stabilize, assuming that you are a good programmer.
ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) (10/03/88)
Ask your systems engineer again. IBM makes such a product. It's called something like PROFS extended mail. You'll need a way to get your mail to be IBM host, but once you do, you can get it in and out of profs. One way is to get TCP/IP for your VM machine (another might be to run UREP on the UNIX machine). -Ron
jon@chiron.UUCP (Jon L. Griffeth) (10/04/88)
In article <162@chiron.UUCP>, jon@chiron.UUCP (Jon L. Griffeth) writes: > > Some time ago I posted an article asking how I might establish a mail > gateway between UNIX and IBM's PROFS. I received several excellent > responses. However, due to internal politics I am unable to utilize > any of them (silly, yes?). > A number of people have asked for the responses to my original posting. The following is a copy of the summary I posted to comp.mail.misc and comp.unix.questions: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Thanks for all the responses. To summarize: Apparently, IBM will be releasing an X.400 interface for PROFS in the near future (I don't know what "near" means). Since X.400 interfaces are available for UNIX systems (or so I've been told) and X.400 is an international standard, this probably makes the best solution. It has also be mentioned that IBM has a TCP/IP package that supports a PROFS to SMTP interface. This certainly looks promising for the near term. Finally, DEC's Mail Bus supports a PROFS gateway. Unfortunately, it runs only under VMS. However, since it also supports a UNIX mail gateway, mail could be routed through it. Needless to say, this would only be useful if you had a VMS system sitting around. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= One additional note, IBM only supports TCP/IP on their VM systems. To run the mail link you'll need PROFS Extended Mail as well as the TCP/IP package. P.S. This has nothing with the subject but I recently heard that IBM has announced NFS support for VM. Also, EDS is apparently providing NFS for MVS as well. Thought you might be interested. P.S.S. I'm still looking for responses to my latest posting. Thanks, Jon L. Griffeth jon@chiron.UUCP
ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) (10/04/88)
>One additional note, IBM only supports TCP/IP on their VM systems. To >run the mail link you'll need PROFS Extended Mail as well as the TCP/IP >package. That's OK, they only support PROFS on the VM system. The magic words to ask for are: 5798-FAL: TCP/IP for VM 5798-FBJ: PROFS Extended Mail > P.S. This has nothing with the subject but I recently heard that IBM > has announced NFS support for VM. Also, EDS is apparently providing > NFS for MVS as well. Thought you might be interested. NFS is available for 5798-FAL as of this month. You need to order Feature 4059. It's a server only implmentation (if you know VM you'll understand why). They also have X clients now in FAL. IBM has also announced TCP/IP for MVS. Essentially, this is a port of the VM product. (Product code 5685-061). X again is included, and NFS is an added cost feature. -Ron
dboyes@uoregon.uoregon.edu (David Boyes) (10/09/88)
In article <Oct.3.11.26.28.1988.5768@ron.rutgers.edu> ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) writes: >Ask your systems engineer again. IBM makes such a product. It's called >something like PROFS extended mail. You'll need a way to get your mail >to be IBM host, but once you do, you can get it in and out of profs. >One way is to get TCP/IP for your VM machine (another might be to >run UREP on the UNIX machine). >-Ron There are also exits for the Crosswell MAILER that allow translation of PROFS mail into the more ordinary RFC822 world. From that point, getting the stuff to the Unix box is easy. -- David Boyes | Internet: dboyes@drizzle.cs.uoregon.edu | (503) 686-4394 | BITNET: dboyes@uoregon | DECnet mail addresses -- just say no.