Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ll-xn!oberon!pollux.usc.edu!papa
From: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Downloading Binaries
Message-ID: <5917@oberon.USC.EDU>
Date: 24 Dec 87 00:49:32 GMT
References: <6383@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: nobody@oberon.USC.EDU
Reply-To: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 63

In article <6383@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> spencer@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Randy Spencer) writes:
>In article <2158@umd5.umd.edu> louie@trantor.umd.edu (Louis A. Mamakos) writes:
>>I kermit binary files from a 4.3 BSD UNIX host to my amiga all the time.  On
>>the unix side, I put my kermit into server/binary mode with:
>>
>>	kermit -x -i
>>
>>and then I put the Amiga/VT100 kermit into binary mode.  I have yet had this
>>fail to work.

>Oh.... That may be the hook that I have been missing all these years...
>I read the Kermit Protocol Manual and it says that the sending kermit
>will send a packet that says:
>
>"I know about the following protocol specifics:"
>   and then go on to list things like compression, packet-length, and BINARY.
>
>The receiving Kermit will then send back a packet that says:
>
>"Of those specifics I can only handle the following:"
>   and then will list the ones it knows, which should include BINARY if it
>     can do binary.  There is no reason for it not to switch to binary mode
>       if it has been told to...
>
>Tony Sumerall (sp?):
>
>    This is an important part of Kermit compatibility, if you Kermit doesn't
>automatically switch than that explains almost every failure that I have
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>ever experienced with VT100.  I just Ass_U_Me'd that it was switching.
>Lesson is, Set Your Kermit to BINARY when downloading files from here.

Randy, you misunderstood the Kermit manual.  The information that is sent out
includes whether the kermit supports 8 and 7 bit lines, and quoting (that is,
encoding BINARY files on 7-bit lines).  NO packet is sent out with the 
information about the TYPE (TEXT or BINARY) of the file(s) being sent.  It is
up to the user to set it up appropriately AT BOTH ENDS.  When sending binary
files, let's say between C-Kermit on a VAX and VT100 or A-Talk Plus on the
Amiga one has to type:

C-Kermit>set file type binary
C-Kermit>send  file

on the VAX

and then invoke the Binary Receive on VT100 or A-Talk Plus; and:

C-kermit>set file type text (or ascii, I forgot)
C-Kermit> send file

on the VAX

and then invoke the Text Receive on VT100 or A-Talk Plus.

This has ALWAYS been the case for EVERY kermit. VT100, as A-Talk Plus, does
it right.  For more "in-depth" info, look in Frank Da Cruz's book, Kermit:
A File Transfer Protocol", published by DEC press.

The problem in many cases is due to the fact that the default state of the
file type is text not binary.

-- Marco Papa
   Felsina Software
   (ex C-Kermit developer -- see Acknowledgement in Frank's book)