C-Kermit 8.0 Beta.04 Announcement

C-Kermit 7.0 Beta.04 is available for testing:

  http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ck80.html

Changes since Beta.03 of 9 Sepember 2001:

Unix documentation:

A brand-new Unix man page (ckuker.nr) is included with Beta.04. Also on the Web at: http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckututor.html.

Unix installation instructions are now available as a Web page: http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ckuins.html.

Telnet:

SET TELOPT policies are now enforced on non-Telnet ports if the server begins Telnet negotiations.

SET TERMINAL IDLE-ACTION { TELNET-NOP, TELNET-AYT }.

Serial ports:

UUCP lockfile creation race condition fixed.

Dialout, modem signals, hangup, hardware flow control, etc, tested extensively on many platforms, numerous problems fixed.

SET STOP-BITS 2 can now be given without SET FLOW HARDWARE.

Major improvements in RFC 2217 Telnet Com-Port Control.

Improved ability to REDIAL a modem server port.

Improved hints when dialing fails.

Command-line options:

kermit -h now shows the command name in the usage usage string.

kermit -h now shows ALL command-line options.

kermit -s blah, where blah is a symlink, now works.

--noperms command-line option = SET ATTRIBUTE PERMISSIONS OFF.

HTTP and HTTPS URLs now supported on the command line.

An http command-line personality is now available.

General:

Initialization file streamlined to load faster, anachronisms removed.

Updated NEWS, INTRO, HELP text, SHOW commands. In particular, see SHOW COMM, HELP SET LINE, HELP WAIT.

Date/time arithmetic routines converted from floating-point to integer arithmetic (internally) for greater accuracy and portability.

Quoted strings containing commas no longer break macro execution.

Kermit file transfer improvements:

Dynamic timeouts are now much more aggressive.

New "hot keys" to turn debug.log on/off during file transfer.

Improved hints when transfer fails.

FTP improvements:

FTP CD orientation messages are now printed.

-R now accepted on the FTP command line to request Recursion.

-m allows Active or Passive mode to be chosen on the command line.

-dd on the FTP command line creates a timestamped debug.log.

FTP command-line security options filled in.

Improved automatic text/binary mode switching for MGET.

Removed spurious error messages that sometimes occur during MGET.

New or improved commands:

DIRECTORY, GREP, TYPE, HEAD, and TAIL now have a /OUTPUT:file option.

TYPE /NUMBER adds line numbers.

CAT = TYPE /NOPAGE; MORE = TYPE /PAGE.

GETOK ?-help fixed.

New variables:

\v(timestamp) (= "\v(ndate) \v(time)")

\v(hour) (hour of the day, 0-23)

New functions:

\funix2dospath() converts a UNIX path (/) to a DOS one (\).

\fdos2unixpath() converts a DOS (Windows, OS/2) path to a UNIX one.

\fkeywordval() parses name=value pair, allows macro keyword parameters.

Security:

We now make every attempt to not write passwords to the debug.log.

New Certificate Authority certificates file, includes the Kermit Project at Columbia University so you can access our IKSD securely.

Secure targets improved and better documented in Unix makefile.

Builds:

All Linux (libc and glibc) builds consolidated under "make linux".

HP-UX makefile targets now have consistent names.

New aix50 and aix51 targets added.

C-Kermit 8.0.200 Beta.04 has been built on nearly 100 different OS/hardware combinations so far. See the binaries list at the end of the web page; if you have a platform that does not have a Beta.04 binary listed, please try building it there and upload the result. For UNIX please use a name like:

  ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/incoming/cku200b04.xxx

where xxx follows the normal convention of makefile entry name, hardware, OS release:

  http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ck80.html#binlist

For VMS use:

  ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/incoming/ckv200b04-ppp-vmsvv-nnnnn.exe

where ppp is "axp" or "vax", vv is the VMS version (e.g. "73" for 7.3), and nnnnn is the network option ("nonet", "tgv43", "ucx50", etc), for example:

  ckv200b04-axp-vms71-ucx41.exe

For extra fun, use C-Kermit's built-in FTP or IKSD clients for uploading: New Kermits Upload Themselves!

I know I've said this before, but this time I really do expect this to be the final beta test before the 8.0 release, so please give it a workout. I think (hope) you'll find the serial-port functions much more solid; this was the major focus of Beta.04. The following tests should be done on as many platforms as possible:

• SET LINE / SET PORT gets the line and (in Unix) creates the lockfile.
• The lockfile works (prevents other kermit, cu, uucp, etc) from opening an already-open device.
• The expected range is available for SET SPEED, and the high speeds actually work.
• SHOW COMM lists modem signals correctly.
• Hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) can be selected and works right on platforms that support it.
• HANGUP works with both SET MODEM HANGUP-METHOD MODEM-COMMAND and RS232 (the latter should make DTR and possibly also RTS go off for half a second and then come back on again).
• Ditto for DIAL and REDIAL.
• Binary files (e.g. .zip, .gz) can be uploaded and downloaded, even on terrible modem connections (where the modems are constantly retraining).
• Kermit returns automatically to its prompt when the modem drops CD.

I ran all these tests on FreeBSD 3.3, NetBSD 1.4.1, OpenBSD 2.5, Debian Linux 2.1, Red Hat Linux 7.1, SCO XENIX 2.3.4, SCO OSR5.0.5, SCO Unixware 2.1.3, QNX 4.25, HP-UX 10.20, Solaris 2.6, Solaris 2.8, Tru64 Unix 4.0E, SunOS 4.1.3, NeXTSTEP 3.1, and VMS 7.1, at speeds ranging from 9600 to 115200 bps, on good, so-so, and awful connections, with RTS/CTS as well as Xon/Xoff flow control, with and without parity, and it all looked good. But the more platforms the better, since each one is different from all the others.

Thanks!

- Frank