[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] PC <-> SUN data transfers

dmaster@cbnewsc.att.com (D. R. Wojciechowski) (04/16/91)

I posted the following message:

>I have a '386 Clone at home with a 1.44Meg floppy drive and a
>SUN SPARCstation IPC at work with a 1.44Meg floppy also.  Of
>course I would like to transfer data between the two machines
>at times, and using floppies would be much faster than my 1200
>baud modem.  So the question:  Does anyone know of software for
>either end that will allow me to write disks on one machine and
>read them on the other?  Please send me or post any ideas (free,
>share, or commercial) that you may have.

These are the summarized responces:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have some free software that will let you read DOS floppies on a
SPARCstation.  It doesn't handle wildcards at all, but it gets the job
done.  I have thought about adding a perl front-end onto to work like
a regular dos copy, but I probably never will....

Anyway, I will be happy to send it to you if you want.

bob
-- 
Bob Robison	- Southwest Research Institute, Electromagnetics Div.
brobison@swri.edu
{sun!texsun, gatech!petro, uunet!cs.utexas.edu}!swrinde!dfsun1!robison
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: <ihlpm!cbnewsc!att!wpi.WPI.EDU!kevdavis>

Sun sells a commercial software package PC-NFS.  This will allow you to network
your PC to your sun..

Kevin Davis
kevdavis@wpi.wpi.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: <ihlpm!cbnewsc!att!cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu!uunet.uu.net!applix!scotte>

I run AT&T System V.4 on my 486.  This allows me to write floppies
that my IPC can read.

:-)

-scott
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: <ihlpm!cbnewsc!att!lance.esd.sgi.com!lpw>

How about PC-NFS?  Seems that a low-end ethernet
network card for the PC shouldn't be too much.
Let me know what you find out - I may be in the
same situation soon.  /L.

-=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=-
Lance P. Welsh		Silicon Graphics, Inc.
lpw@sgi.com		PO Box 7311
wk: (415) 335-1860	2011 North Shoreline Blvd.
hm: (415) 326-3870	Mountain View, CA  94039-7311
-=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: <ihlpm!cbnewsc!att!willow.cray.com!rice>

There's a package called mtools that runs on the Sun.  Works just great.
Unfortunately, the McGill archive server appears to be down right now, so I
can't offer the name of an anonymous ftp site.  (You can do this yourself:
rsh to quiche.cs.mcgill.ca, login as "archie," and type "prog mtools").

The readme file is appended to this message.

If you're interested, I can also provide a script that runs on the Sun,
figures out how to pack files onto diskettes, and generates the appropriate
mkdfs and mcopy commands to write them.

-- 
Jonathan C. Rice    | Internet: rice@cray.com
Cray Research, Inc. | UUCP:   uunet!cray!rice
655F Lone Oak Drive | (612) 683 - 5370       
Eagan, MN  55121    |                        

================================== cut here =================================
				MTOOLS
			version 1.6.2 - 5 Jul 89

This is a collection of MSDOS tools to allow you to read and write to
MSDOS formatted diskettes from a Unix based system.

The following MSDOS commands are emulated:

Mtool 		MSDOS
name		equivalent	Description
-----		----		-----------
mcopy		COPY		copy MSDOS files to/from Unix
mdel		DEL/ERASE	delete a MSDOS file
mdir		DIR		display a MSDOS directory
mkdfs		FORMAT		Format and build s DOS file system.
mmd		MD/MKDIR	make a MSDOS sub directory
mrd		RD/RMDIR	remove a MSDOS sub directory
mread		COPY		low level read (copy) a MSDOS file to Unix
mren		REN/RENAME	rename an existing MSDOS file
mtype		TYPE		display contents of a MSDOS file
mwrite		COPY		low level write (copy) a Unix file to MSDOS
*		CD		change working directory

	* by use of the environmental variable MCWD

The formats of IBM PC floppy disk drives are:

   bytes per  sectors per  tracks    number    total     disk   introduced
    sector      track     per side  of sides  capacity   size    in MSDOS
     512         8          40        1        160k      5.25      1.0
     512         9          40        1        180k      5.25      1.1
     512         8          40        2        320k      5.25      2.0
     512         9          40        2        360k      5.25      2.0
     512        15          80        2        1.2M      5.25      3.0
     512         9          80        2        720k      3.5       3.1
     512        18          80        2        1.4M      3.5       3.2


Find UNIX device(s) capable of reading one or more of these formats
and edit "devices.c" to add them to the driver switch,  you may
add the same device more than once if it supports multiple formats
and needs "ioctls" to be set to the right physical parameters.

The disk geometry can be kept in the environment for unusual cases,
init.c will pass "NCYL", "NSECT" and "NTRACK" to the disk parameter
setting routine (if any).  This should be documented in an "mtools"
manual page giving an overview of the whole package,  this file is a 
start.

The manuals are very terse...  it's assumed that the reader is already
familiar with MSDOS.

The use of the environmental variable MCWD to keep track of the current
working directory is a little awkward, especially since there is no
'change directory' command.  Bourne shell users will have to type two
commands to initially set their working directory, ie:

	MCWD=/TMP
	export MCWD

Wildcards are only applied to filenames and not to directory names.  For
example '/usr/local/*.c' is appropriate, but '/usr/l*/main.c' is not.

I really wanted to avoid the use of a 'text' mode and a 'data' mode when
transferring files, but I couldn't find a better way.  It gets rather
confusing and it's quite possible to mess up a file if you apply the
text mode when it is not appropriate (ie:  to a COM or EXE file).
Likewise, if you forget to apply the text mode (to a Unix text file)
then if the file is used under MSDOS, it will be missing carriage
returns.  However, if you aren't going to use the files on your Unix
system (you just intend to hold the files and then transfer them back to
MSDOS later) then you shouldn't use the text mode during either mread or
mwrite.  This is because, the text mode is only useful if the files are
gonna be used under Unix.

The implementation of the Mcopy command is somewhat clumbsy since the
MSDOS drive designation "A:" is used.  Mcopy is really a front-end to
the low level Mread and Mwrite commands.

There are is a shell archives called "Unixpc.shar" that contain files
specific to the AT&T Unix PC 7300/3b1.

Emmet P. Gray				US Army, HQ III Corps & Fort Hood
...!uunet!uiucuxc!fthood!egray		Attn: AFZF-DE-ENV
					Directorate of Engineering & Housing
					Environmental Management Office
					Fort Hood, TX 76544-5057

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: <ihlpm!cbnewsc!att!vipunen.hut.fi!rowhi>

 I have been using TAR to do the link between Sony NEWS and my 386 clone.
Tar is NOT very secure way to transfer data but sometimes it works,sometimes
it doesn't.I'm not sure about these commands (== I can't remember them),but
try this at SUN :

     tar cvf /dev/rfh0a  tree_to_transfer

And PC :

     tar tf a:
     tar xvf a: 

 That /dev/rfh0a is Sony's code for floppy drive.

 You can find TAR from some ftp site.I got mine from garbo.uwasa.fi 
(tar4dos.zoo)

AND PLEASE...No hate mail for my if this doesn't work.

   Rowhi@niksula.hut.fi
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: <ihlpm!cbnewsc!att!uunet.UU.NET!tharr!sweh>

I have access to a Sun Sparc1+ with a floppy drive attached as well.
As far as I know if you insert your disk and then 'mount /pcfs' this will
mount the floppy as a file system which understands PC disks.  
I have tried this for 720k disks, the only problem being the standard
CRLF->CR mapping on ASCII files

To remove your disk type 'eject'

Of course, I think you need to be 'root' to do the mount

Hope this helps


-- 
    			     Stephen Harris
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: <ihlpm!cbnewsc!att!Menudo.UH.EDU!st12a>

I have a mostly finished program that will let a sun4 read/write
ibm disks.  I say mostly finished because I got it to the operational
point and have procrastinated making it pretty like I had intended.

However, it is quite sreviceable and I can send it to you if you wish.
(with accompanying standard disclaimers, of course :-)

richard~
st12a@menudo.uh.edu
richard@stat.tamu.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: <ihlpm!cbnewsc!att!kalessin.Jpl.Nasa.Gov!sam>

SunOs software to read pc formated disks is available. The author
is apparently:

Vladimir Lanin
lanin@csd2.nyu.edu

I've heard it`s available from titan.rice.edu

I've also heard that it doesn't work under 4.1.1...

-- 
Sam Sirlin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory         sam@kalessin.jpl.nasa.gov
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: <ihlpm!cbnewsc!att!Eng.Sun.COM!kirk>

Get DOSWindows from Sun.  That will allow you to use the floppy in DOS
format.

Kirk
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: <ihlpm!cbnewsc!att!cs.rit.edu!ajl3578>

Look at the archives of comp.sources.unix. There is the source code that lets
you use the Sun's drive to read/write/format/dir msdos disk. Hope this helps.

						Anthony Leccese

P.S.
One such place to find this(in case you don't know), is to anonymous ftp
uunet.uu.net. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dan Wojciechowski
dmaster@ihlpm.att.com