Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!usc!samsung!aplcen!haven!adm!news From: sysnmc@magic706.chron.com (Matt Cohen) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: tip Message-ID: <22504@adm.BRL.MIL> Date: 18 Feb 90 08:39:24 GMT Sender: news@adm.BRL.MIL Lines: 40 In UNIX-WIZARDS Digest V9#067, jerry waldorf writes: > I want to transfer compressed files from a vax to a sun >using tip. I can connect up to the vax and ~t filename with >text files. That is I can download ascii files. But when I download > .Z files the whole thing gets hosed. The problem, I believe, is that tip is simply doing a "cat file" on the remote system and then putting whatever comes back into a file. The unprintable characters are garbaging up the output and tip is not getting anything remotely like your file. There are two solutions. The first is to use some other file transfer program that has a binary mode. Good examples are kermit or better yet, xmodem/ymodem/zmodem. These are available at your favorite comp.sources.unix archive or I can send you a copy. The second option is to use uuencode, which encodes binary using only printable ASCII. You get tip to uuencode the file on the remote system and decode it on the local one. While in tip, type "~|". Tip will respond with "~Local command?". Assuming the file is called myfile, ~Local command? uudecode List command for remote system? uuencode myfile myfile Using tip this way is signifigantly slower, since uuencoded files are 35% larger. Also, tip has no error detection/correction apart from any automatically provided by your modem, so if you get line hits during transmission part of your file will be garbaged. If you suspect line noise, you can try getting the file twice and doing a diff. Good luck! Matt Cohen UUCP: ...!uunet!chron!sysnmc Dept. of Info. & Tech. Resources AT&T: +1 713 220 7023 The Houston Chronicle FAX : +1 713 220 7722 801 Texas Avenue, Houston, TX 77002 "The opinions above are most likely "Houston's Leading Information Source" those of my employer."