kermit

[Richard A. Thomas]

In article <914 at stracs.cs.strath.ac.uk> rk at cs.strath.ac.uk writes:
>
>In article <715 at btnix.UUCP> crouch at btnix.UUCP (Chris Rouch) writes:
>>
>>I'm trying to transfer binary files from a vax running unix to an IBM PC
>>lookalike using kermit (C-KERMIT 4.2(030) at the unix end, MSKERMIT 2.29 at the
>>IBM end).
>>
>
>I have never managed to transfer binary files successfully from Unix to
>MS-DOS via kermit.  I always uuencode the files on Unix, transfer the files
>as ascii, then uudecode on MS-DOS.  This always works.  Of course, it
>assumes that you have uudecode available on MS-DOS.  I do have such and
>will post it if requested.  I got it from the net myself some months ago.
>
>	Richard Kingslake

I have successfully transferred binary files between Unix and MS-DOS by
ensuring that the parity was properly set.  Since I am not certain that
some connection between my PC and the Unix machine or device won't remove the
8th bit, I always set parity even to guarantee ``8th bit quoting'' in
the Kermit transfer.  It is not enough (at least on our Ultrix system)
to have set parity even on Unix through just ``stty'' or the .login file.
The  .kermrc  file in your home directory should also set parity
even for C-Kermit on Unix.  And of course you also set parity even in
MS-DOS Kermit.

  I haven't tried all possible variations of parity settings and methods of
setting them, so perhaps I'm being overly cautious in forcing the transfer
to use ``8th bit quoting'' in binary file transfers.  But it works.
Our version of C-Kermit is 4C(057) 31 Jul 85 and I have transferred binary
files with MS-DOS Kermit versions 2.27 and 2.30.

                                             Richard Thomas
                                             Brookhaven National Laboratory