Tampa Network Operating System
TNOS
User Reference Manual
Phil Karn, KA9Q
Brian A. Lantz, KO4KS
This manual reflects release version 1.00 of TNOS as released to the public by KO4KS
1. The TNOS.EXE Program 17
1.1.2. -s <no_of_sockets> 17
1.1.3. -o <no_of_online_interactive_sessions> 17
1.1.4. -d </directory> 18
1.1.5. -v 18
1.1.6. -n 18
1.1.7. -e 18
1.1.8. -f <config_filename> 18
1.1.9. -x <XSWAP_pathname> 18
1.1.10. -g <foreground_color> 18
1.1.11. -k <background_color> 18
1.2. DOS environement variables. 19
1.2.2. MAILER 19
1.2.3. COMSPEC 19
1.2.4. TMP 19
1.2.5. USER 19
2. Console modes 20
3. Commands 22
3.2. ! 23
3.3. # 23
3.4. abort [<session #>] 23
3.5. arp 23
3.5.2. arp drop <hostid> ether | ax25 | netrom | arcnet | mac <iface> 23
3.5.3. arp flush 23
3.5.4. arp publish <hostid> ether | ax25 | netrom | arcnet | mac <ether_addr> | <ax25_addr> <iface> 24
3.6. asystat 24
3.7. attach <hw type> ... 25
3.7.2. attach asy 25
3.7.3. attach axip 25
3.7.4. attach arcnet 25
3.7.5. attach drsi 25
3.7.6. attach eagle 25
3.7.7. attach hapn 25
3.7.8. attach hs 25
3.7.9. attach kiss 25
3.7.10. attach netrom 26
3.7.11. attach packet 26
3.7.12. attach pc100 26
3.7.13. attach pi 26
3.7.14. attach scc 26
3.7.15. attach slfp 26
3.8. attended [off | on] 26
3.9. autoroute <yes|no> 26
3.10. ax25 <subcommand> 26
3.10.2. ax25 bcinterval [<seconds>] 27
3.10.3. ax25 blimit [<limit>] 27
3.10.4. ax25 bctext ["broadcast text"] 27
3.10.5. ax25 digipeat [<iface>] 27
3.10.6. ax25 filter <0 | 1 | 2 | 3> 27
3.10.7. ax25 flush 27
3.10.8. ax25 heard [<interface>] 27
3.10.9. ax25 hearddest [<interface>] 28
3.10.10. ax25 irtt [<milliseconds>] 28
3.10.11. ax25 kick <axcb> 28
3.10.12. ax25 maxframe [<count>] 28
3.10.13. ax25 mycall [<ax25_addr>] 28
3.10.14. ax25 paclen [<size>] 28
3.10.15. ax25 pthresh [<size>] 28
3.10.16. ax25 reset <axcb> 29
3.10.17. ax25 retry [<count>] 29
3.10.18. ax25 route 29
3.10.19. ax25 status [<axcb>] 29
3.10.20. ax25 t3 [<milliseconds>] 30
3.10.21. ax25 t4 [<seconds>] 30
3.10.22. ax25 timertype [l | e | o] 30
3.10.23. ax25 version [1 | 2] 30
3.10.24. ax25 window [<size>] 30
3.11. bbs 30
3.12. bootp <subcommand> 30
3.12.2. bootp stop 31
3.12.3. bootp dns [<ipaddr>] 31
3.12.4. bootp dyip [<iface> | <iface> <ipaddr1> <ipaddr2> | <iface> off] 31
3.12.5. bootp host [<hostaddr> <hardware type> <hardware addr> <ip addr> [boot file]] 31
3.12.6. bootp rmhost <ipaddr> 31
3.12.7. bootp homedir [<directory> | default] 31
3.12.8. bootp defaultfile [<bootfile> | default] 31
3.12.9. bootp logfile [<filename> | default] [on | off] 31
3.12.10. bootp logscreen [on | off] 31
3.13. bootpd 31
3.14. cd [<dirname>] 32
3.15. close [<session>] 32
3.16. cls 32
3.17. comm <interface> <text-string> 32
3.18. connect <iface> <ax25_addr> [<digipeater> ... ] 32
3.19. delete <filename> 33
3.20. detach <iface> 33
3.21. dialer <iface> [<file> [<seconds> [<pings> [<hostid>]]]] 33
3.21.2. send <string> [<milliseconds>] 33
3.21.3. speed <bps> 33
3.21.4. status <up | down> 33
3.21.5. wait <milliseconds> [<string> [speed]] 33
3.22. dir [<dirname>] 34
3.23. disconnect [<session>] 34
3.24. domain <subcommand> 34
3.24.2. domain cache <subcommand> 34
3.24.3. domain dropserver <hostid> 35
3.24.4. domain listservers 35
3.24.5. domain maxwait [<timeout>] 35
3.24.6. domain retry [<retries>] 35
3.24.7. domain suffix [<domain suffix> | none] 35
3.24.8. domain trace [on | off] 36
3.24.9. domain translate [off | on] 36
3.24.10. domain verbose [off | on] 36
3.25. drsistat 36
3.26. dump <hex-address | .> [decimal-range] 36
3.27. echo [accept | refuse] 36
3.28. eol [unix | standard] 37
3.29. escape [<char>] 37
3.30. etherstat 37
3.31. exit 37
3.32. finger <user@hostid> | <@hostid> 37
3.33. fkey [<number> [<string>]] 38
3.34. ftp <hostid> 38
3.35. ftype [ascii | binary | image | logical <size>] 39
3.36. help 39
3.37. hop <subcommands> 39
3.37.2. hop maxttl [<hops>] 39
3.37.3. hop maxwait [<seconds>] 39
3.37.4. hop queries [<count>] 39
3.37.5. hop trace [on | off] 39
3.38. hostname [<name>] 40
3.39. hs 40
3.40. icmp <subcommand> 40
3.40.2. icmp status 40
3.40.3. icmp trace [on | off] 40
3.41. ifconfig 40
3.41.2. ifconfig <iface> broadcast <addr> 41
3.41.3. ifconfig <iface> description ["description"] 41
3.41.4. ifconfig <iface> encapsulation <slip | ax25 | ether | encap | ppp> 41
3.41.5. ifconfig <iface> forward <iface-2> 41
3.41.6. ifconfig <iface> ipaddress <addr> 41
3.41.7. ifconfig <iface> linkaddress <hardware-dependant> 41
3.41.8. ifconfig <iface> mtu <param> 41
3.41.9. ifconfig <iface> netmask <address> 42
3.41.10. ifconfig <iface> rxbuf <size> 42
3.42. info 42
3.43. ip <subcommand> 42
3.43.2. ip address [<hostid>] 42
3.43.3. ip rtimer [<seconds>] 43
3.43.4. ip status 43
3.43.5. ip ttl [<hops>] 43
3.44. isat [on | off] 43
3.45. kick [<session>] 43
3.46. lock [password <"password string">] 43
3.47. log [stop | <filename>] 44
3.48. lzw [<subcommand>] 44
3.48.2. lzw bits <number> 44
3.49. mail 44
3.50. mbox [<subcommand>] 44
3.50.2. mbox expert <on|off> 44
3.50.3. mbox fwdinfo ["forward info"] 45
3.50.4. mbox haddress ["home-address"] 45
3.50.5. mbox jumpstart <on|off> 45
3.50.6. mbox kick 45
3.50.7. mbox maxmsg 45
3.50.9. mbox nrid <on|off> 45
3.50.10. mbox password <"password string"> 45
3.50.11. mbox qth ["qth info"] 46
3.50.13. mbox smtptoo <yes|no> 46
3.50.14. mbox status 46
3.50.15. mbox timer [<seconds>] 46
3.50.16. mbox tiptimeout 46
3.50.17. mbox trace [yes | no] 46
3.50.18. mbox utc <offset> 46
3.50.19. mbox zipcode zip 46
3.51. memory <subcommand> 47
3.51.2. memory efficient [yes | no] 47
3.51.3. memory freelist 47
3.51.4. memory ibufsize [<size>] 47
3.51.5. memory minheap [<number>] 47
3.51.6. memory nibufs [<number>] 47
3.51.7. memory sizes 48
3.51.8. memory status 48
3.51.9. memory thresh [<size>] 48
3.52. mkdir <dirname> 48
3.53. mode <iface> [vc | datagram] 48
3.54. more <file> [<searchstring>] 49
3.55. motd [<"message of the day">] 49
3.56. multitask [on | off] 49
3.57. netrom <subcommand> 49
3.57.2. netrom alias <alias> 50
3.57.3. netrom bcnodes <iface> 50
3.57.4. netrom call <call> 50
3.57.5. netrom connect <node> 50
3.57.6. netrom choketime [<milliseconds>] 50
3.57.7. netrom derate [on | off] 50
3.57.8. netrom interface <iface> <quality> 50
3.57.9. netrom irtt [<milliseconds>] 50
3.57.10. netrom kick <&nrcb> 50
3.57.11. netrom load [<filename>] 50
3.57.12. netrom minquality [<value>] 51
3.57.13. netrom nodefilter <subcommand> 51
3.57.14. netrom nodetimer [<seconds>] 51
3.57.15. netrom obsotimer [<seconds>] 51
3.57.16. netrom promiscious [off | on] 51
3.57.17. netrom qlimit [<bytes>] 51
3.57.18. netrom reset <&nrcb> 51
3.57.19. netrom retries [<value>] 51
3.57.20. netrom route <subcommand> 52
3.57.21. netrom status 52
3.57.22. netrom save [<filename>] 52
3.57.23. netrom timertype [exponential | linear] 52
3.57.24. netrom ttl [<hops>] 52
3.57.25. netrom user [<username>] 52
3.57.26. netrom verbose [off | on] 52
3.57.27. netrom window [<frames>] 52
3.58. nntp <subcommand> 53
3.58.2. nntp directory <directory> 53
3.58.3. nntp dropserver <nntpserver> 53
3.58.4. nntp groups <group> [<group> ...] 53
3.58.5. nntp kick <nntpserver> 53
3.58.6. nntp listservers 53
3.59. nntp quiet [yes | no] 53
3.60. nntp trace <level> 54
3.61. nrstat 54
3.62. param <iface> [<param> ...] 54
3.63. ping <hostid> [<length> [<milliseconds> [<incflag>]]] 55
3.64. pop <subcommand> 55
3.64.2. pop mailhost [<ipaddr>] 55
3.64.3. pop kick 55
3.64.4. pop timer [<seconds>] 56
3.64.5. pop userdata <name> <password> 56
3.65. popmail <subcommand> 56
3.65.2. popmail dropserver <host> 56
3.65.3. popmail kick <host> 56
3.65.4. popmail list 57
3.65.5. popmail quiet <yes|no> 57
3.65.6. popmail trace <level> 57
3.66. ppp <subcommands> 57
3.66.1. ppp <iface> 57
3.66.2. ppp <iface> lcp ... 57
3.66.3. ppp <iface> ipcp ... 59
3.66.4. ppp <iface> pap ... 60
3.66.5. ppp <iface> trace [<flags>] 60
3.67. ps 60
3.68. pwd [<dirname>] 61
3.69. rarp <subcommand> 61
3.70. record [off | <filename>] 61
3.71. remote [-p <port>] [-k <key>] [-a <kickaddr>] <hostid> exit | reset | kick 61
3.72. rename <oldfilename> <newfilename> 62
3.73. reset [<session>] 62
3.74. rip <subcommand> 62
3.74.2. rip add <hostid> <seconds> [<flags>] 62
3.74.3. rip drop <dest> 63
3.74.4. rip merge [on | off] 63
3.74.5. rip refuse <gateway> 63
3.74.6. rip request <gateway> 63
3.74.7. rip status 64
3.74.8. rip trace [0 | 1 | 2] 64
3.74.9. rip ttl <seconds> 64
3.75. rlogin host 64
3.76. rmdir <dirname> 64
3.77. route 64
3.77.2. route addprivate <dest hostid>[/bits] | default <iface> [<gateway hostid> [<metric>]] 66
3.77.3. route drop <dest hostid> 66
3.78. rspf <subcmd> 66
3.78.2. rspf mode [vc | datagram | none] 67
3.78.3. rspf rrhtimer [seconds] 67
3.78.4. rspf suspecttimer [seconds] 67
3.78.5. rspf timer [seconds] 67
3.79. sccstat 67
3.80. session [[<session>] [flowmode [on | off]]] 68
3.81. shell 68
3.82. skick #socket 68
3.83. smtp <subcommand> 68
3.83.2. smtp gateway [<hostid>] 69
3.83.3. smtp kick 69
3.83.4. smtp kill [<jobid>] 69
3.83.5. smtp list 69
3.83.6. smtp maxclients [<count>] 69
3.83.7. smtp mode [queue | route] 69
3.83.8. smtp mxlookup [yes | no] 69
3.83.9. smtp quiet [yes | no] 69
3.83.10. smtp timer [<seconds>] 69
3.83.11. smtp trace [<value>] 70
3.84. socket [[<socket #>] [flowmode [yes | no]]] 70
3.85. source <filename> 70
3.86. start ax25 | convers | discard | echo | finger | ftp | lpd | netrom | nntp | pop | pop2 | pop3 | remote | rip | smtp | telnet | tip | ttylink 70
3.87. status 70
3.88. stop ax25 | convers | discard | echo | finger | ftp | lpd | netrom | nntp | pop | pop2 | pop3 | remote | rip | smtp | telnet | tip | ttylink 71
3.89. tail <filename> 71
3.90. tcp <subcommand> 71
3.90.2. tcp kick <tcb_addr> 71
3.90.3. tcp mss [<size>] 71
3.90.4. tcp reset <tcb_addr> 72
3.90.5. tcp rtt <tcb_addr> <milliseconds> 72
3.90.6. tcp status [<tcb_addr>] 72
3.90.7. tcp syndata [yes | no] 72
3.90.8. tcp timertype [linear | exponential] 72
3.90.9. tcp trace [yes | no] 72
3.90.10. tcp window [<size>] 72
3.91. telnet <hostid> [<port>] 72
3.92. test 73
3.93. thirdparty [yes | no] 73
3.94. ttylink <hostid> [<port>] 73
3.95. tip <iface> 73
3.96. trace [<iface> [off | <btio> [<tracefile>]]] 73
3.97. udp status 74
3.98. upload [<filename>] 74
3.99. verbose [0 | 1 | 2 | 3] 74
3.100. watch 74
3.101. watchdog [on | off] 75
3.102. ? 75
4. Attach Commands 76
4.0.2. <ioaddr> 76
4.0.3. <vector> 76
4.0.4. <iface> 77
4.0.5. <mtu> 77
4.0.6. <speed> 77
4.1. attach 3c500 <ioaddr> <vector> arpa <iface> <qlen> <mtu> [<ip_addr>] 77
4.2. attach asy <ioaddr> <vector> ax25 | nrs | ppp | slip | raw <iface> <bufsize> <mtu> <speed> [<vf>] 77
4.2.2. nrs 78
4.2.3. ppp 78
4.2.4. slip 78
4.2.5. raw 78
4.2.6. <vf> 78
4.3. attach axip <iface> <mtu> <ip_addr> <callsign> 78
4.4. attach drsi <ioaddr> <vector> ax25 <iface> <bufsize> <mtu> <ch_a_speed> <ch_b_speed> 79
4.5. attach eagle <ioaddr> <vector> ax25 <iface> <bufsize> <mtu> <speed> 79
4.6. attach hapn <ioaddr> <vector> ax25 <iface> <bufsize> <mtu> csma | full 79
4.7. attach hs <ioaddr> <vector> ax25 <iface> <bufsize> <mtu> <keyup_delay> <p> 79
4.8. attach packet <intvec> <iface> <txqlen> <mtu> 80
4.9. attach pc100 <ioaddr> <vector> ax25 <iface> <bufsize> <speed> 80
4.10. attach scc <devices> init <addr> <spacing> <Aoff> <Boff> <Dataoff> <intack> <vec> [p | r]<clock> [<hdwe>] [<param>] 80
4.10.2. <addr> 80
4.10.3. <spacing> 80
4.10.4. <Aoff> 80
4.10.5. <Boff> 80
4.10.6. <Dataoff> 81
The offset from each channel's control register to its data register. 81
4.10.7. <intack> 81
4.10.8. <vec> 81
4.10.9. <clock> 81
4.10.10. <hdwe> 81
4.10.11. <param> 81
4.11. attach scc <chan> slip | kiss | nrs | ax25 <iface> <mtu> <speed> <bufsize> [<call>] 81
4.11.1. <chan> 81
4.11.2. slip | kiss | nrs | ax25 81
4.11.3. <speed> 82
4.12. Attach Examples 82
5. FTP Subcommands 84
5.2. flow [off|on] 84
5.3. get <remote file> [<local file>] 84
5.4. hash 84
5.5. ls [<file> | <directory> [<local file>]] 85
5.6. mget <file> [<file> ...] 85
5.7. mkdir <remote directory> 85
5.8. mput <file> [<file> ...] 85
5.9. put <local file> [<remote file>] 85
5.10. rmdir <remote directory> 85
5.11. type [a | i | l <bytesize>] 85
5.12. verbose [0 | 1 | 2 | 3] 86
6. Dialer Subcommands 87
6.0.2. send "string" 87
6.0.3. speed [ 9600 | 4800 | 2400 | 1200 | 300 ] 87
6.0.4. wait <milliseconds> [ "test string" ] [ speed ] 87
7. Installation 89
7.2. The /popusers File 92
7.3. The /net.rc File 92
7.4. The /domain.txt File 92
7.5. The /alias file. 93
7.6. The /spool/areas file. 94
7.7. The /spool/forward.bbs file. 95
7.8. The /spool/rewrite file. 95
8. Setting Bufsize, Paclen, Maxframe, MTU, MSS and Window 97
8.2. AX25 Parameters 97
8.2.2. Maxframe 97
8.3. IP and TCP Parameters 98
8.3.2. MSS 98
8.3.3. Window 98
8.4. Discussion 98
8.4.2. Setting paclen and bufsize 99
8.4.3. Setting Maxframe 100
8.4.4. Setting MTU 100
8.4.5. Setting MSS 101
8.4.6. Setting Window 101
8.5. Summary 102
1. The TNOS.EXE Program
The MS-DOS executable file TNOS.EXE (Further called Nos) provides Internet (TCP/IP), NET/ROM and AX.25 facilities. Because it has an internal multitasking operating system, Nos can act simultaneously as a client, a server and a packet switch for all three sets of protocols. That is, while a local user accesses remote services, the system can also provide those same services to remote users while also switching IP, NET/ROM and AX.25 packets and frames between other client and server nodes. The keyboard and display is used by the local operator to control both host and gateway level functions, for which a number of commands are provided.
tnos [-b] [-s <#sockets>] [-d </directory>] [-v] [<startup file>]
When Nos is executed without arguments, it attempts to open the file autoexec.nos in the root directory of the current drive. If it exists, it is read and executed as though its contents were typed on the console as commands. This feature is useful for attaching communication interfaces, configuring network addresses, and starting the various services. Eleven command-line options are accepted:
The -b option specifies the use of BIOS for console output; the default is to write directly to the video display buffer. Use this option if you are running under a windowing package and have trouble with output "bleeding through" on top of other windows.
The -s option specifies the size of the socket array to be allocated within Nos. This limits the number of network connections that may exist simultaneously; the default is 40.
The -o option specifies the size of the session array to be allocated within Nos. This limits the number of sessions that may exist simultaneously; the default is 10.
The -d option allows the user to specify a "root" directory for the configuration and spool files; it defaults to the root directory of the system.
The -v option allows the user to view command execution during the startup of Nos. It lets the commands read from autoexec.nos echo before they are executed. This is a nice help if Nos stops (hangs) during initialization. After all command line options, the name of a alternate startup file may be specified. This file is then opened and read instead of autoexec.nos.
The -n option inhibits having a separate session defined for tracing. Using this option makes trace output display on your screen no matter what session you are in.
The -e option enables EGA/VGA screen mode. This gives 43 or 50 lines (respectively) instead of the regular 25.
The -f option allows you to fully define which drives and directories are used for the TNOS files. The format of the config files is shown in the accompanying tnos.cfg file.
You can still use the -d option to set a new "root" directory for tnos.exe but it is only useful if used before the -f option. If you use -d then you can use the -f to move some files to non-standard directories by simply commenting out the files you don't want moved...
The -x option allows you to fully define which drives and directory is used to store XSPAWN swap files, if needed. XSPAWN is described later in this manual. If the -x option is not specified and disk swapping is needed, the swap file will be created in the current DOS directory.
The -g option allows you to specify the starting foreground color to be used for session screens. The default is white.
The -k option allows you to specify the starting background color to be used for session screens. The default is black.
The following DOS environement variables can be used to specify things to NOS.
The TZ variable should be set to the local timezone. Default is UTC. This is used on the timestamp in smtp.
The MAILER specifies what program should be started when the mail command is entered. Default is BM.EXE.
The COMSPEC specifies what command shell will be used to shell out of Nos. This is normaly set by MS-DOS startup to COMMAND.COM. Default is also COMMAND.COM.
The TMP variable is used to create a spot where temporary files are created. Without TMP being set the temp files are created in the root directory. A sample is "set TMP=C:\tmp\".
The USER variable is used by ftp and Rlogin to set the username for the rlogin daemon on the remote system. The default when not setting USER is guest. Guess you don't like it, but that's life. With ftp the user is suggested in the user name prompt. If a <cr> only is given the suggested name is used, otherwise the given name.
The console may be in one of two modes: command mode and converse mode. In command mode, the prompt net> is displayed and any of the commands described in the Commands chapter may be entered. In converse mode, keyboard input is processed according to the current session.
Sessions come in many types: Telnet, Ttylink, Rlogin, FTP, AX25, Finger, Command, NETROM, Ping, More, Dial, Dir, PPP PAP, Hopcheck and Tip. In a Telnet, Ttylink, AX25, NETROM, Rlogin, or Tip session, keyboard input is sent to the remote system and any output from the remote system is displayed on the console. In an FTP session, keyboard input is first examined to see if it is a known local command; if so it is executed locally. If not, it is "passed through" to the remote FTP server. (See the FTP Subcommands chapter). In a Ping session the user may test the path to a remote site, in a More session, the user may examine a local file. A Hopcheck session is used to trace the path taken by packets to reach a specified destination. A Finger session is used to peek at a remote system for its users (and what they are doing on some extended responses from UNIX systems). PPP PAP is used as a link setup like slip between two systems.
The keyboard also has cooked and raw states. In cooked state, input is line-at-a-time; the user may use the line editing characters ^U, ^R, ^B, ^W and backspace (or DEL) to erase the line, redisplay the line, redisplay the remainder of the previous line, erase last word and erase the last character, respectively. Hitting either return or line feed passes the complete line up to the application. The UP and DOWN arrows are used in the Command Session to recall previous commands (see the History command). In raw mode, each character is immediately passed to the application as it is typed. The keyboard is always in cooked state in command mode. It is also cooked in converse mode on an AX25, FTP or NET/ROM session. In a Telnet or Ttylink session it depends on whether the remote end has issued (and the local end has accepted) the Telnet WILL ECHO option. (See the echo command).
On the IBM-PC, the user may escape back to command mode by hitting the F10 key or the escape key. On other systems, the user must enter the escape character, which is by default control-] (hex 1d, ASCII GS). (Note that this is distinct from the ASCII character of the same name). The escape character can be changed (see the escape command). The F10 key can be redefined with the fkey command so the user is now warned to leave one escape possibility open for himself. Setting both F10 and escape to unreachable codes renders a system unescapable and the user hung in a session.
In the IBM PC version, each session (including the command "session") has its own screen. When a new session is created, the command display is saved and the screen is cleared. The screen is saved in Expanded memory (if it can) or in a Virtual memory temp file. When the command escape key (usually F10 or ^]) is hit, the current session screen is saved and the command screen is restored. When a session is resumed, its screen is restored exactly as it appeared when it was last current.
This section describes the commands recognized in command mode, or within a startup file such as autoexec.nos. These are given in the following notation:
command literal_parameter
command subcommand <parameter> command [<optional_parameter>] command a | b
Many commands take subcommands or parameters, which may be optional or required. In general, if a required subcommand or parameter is omitted, an error message will summarize the available subcommands or required parameters. (Giving a '?' in place of the subcommand will also generate the message. This is useful when the command word alone is a valid command.) If a command takes an optional value parameter, issuing the command without the parameter generally displays the current value of the variable. (Exceptions to this rule are noted in the individual command descriptions.)
Two or more parameters separated by vertical bar(s) denote a choice between the specified values. Optional parameters are shown enclosed in [brackets], and a parameter enclosed in <angle brackets> should be replaced with an actual value or string. For example, the notation <hostid> denotes an actual host or gateway, which may be specified in one of two ways: as a numeric IP address in dotted decimal notation (eg. 44.0.0.1.), or as a symbolic name listed in the file domain.txt,
All commands and many subcommands may be abbreviated. You only need type enough of a command's name to distinguish it from others that begin with the same series of letters. Parameters, however, must be typed in full. Certain FTP subcommands (eg. put, get, dir, etc) are recognized only in converse mode with the appropriate FTP session; they are not recognized in command mode. (See the FTP Subcommands chapter.)
Entering a carriage return (empty line) while in command mode puts you in converse mode with the current session. If there is no current session, Nos remains in command mode and reissues the net> prompt.
An alias for the shell command.
Commands starting with the hash mark (#) are ignored. This is mainly useful for comments in the autoexec.nos file.
Abort a FTP get, put or dir operation in progress. If issued without an argument, the current session is aborted. (This command works only on FTP sessions.) When receiving a file, abort simply resets the data connection; the next incoming data packet will generate a TCP RST (reset) response to clear the remote server. When sending a file, abort sends a premature end-of-file. Note that in both cases abort will leave a partial copy of the file on the destination machine, which must be removed manually if it is unwanted.
Display the Address Resolution Protocol table that maps IP addresses to their subnet (link) addresses on subnetworks capable of broadcasting. For each IP address entry the subnet type (eg. Ethernet, AX.25), subnet address and time to expiration is shown. If the link address is currently unknown, the number of IP datagrams awaiting resolution is also shown.
Add a permanent entry to the table. It will not time out as will an automatically created entry, but must be removed with the arp drop command.
Delete a permanent entry from the arp table.
Drop all automatically created entries in the ARP table; permanent entries are not affected.
This command is similar to the arp add command, but the system will also respond to any ARP request it sees on the network that seeks the specified address. (Use this feature with great care.)
Display statistics on attached asynchronous communications interfaces (8250 or 16550A), if any. The display for each port consists of three lines. The first line gives the port label and the configuration flags; these indicate whether the port is a 16550A chip, the trigger character if any, whether CTS flow control is enabled, whether RLSD (carrier detect) line control is enabled, and the speed in bits per second. (Receiving the trigger character causes the driver to signal upper layer software that data is ready; it is automatically set to the appropriate frame end character for SLIP, PPP and NRS lines.)
The second line of the status display shows receiver (RX) event counts: the total number of receive interrupts, received characters, receiver overruns (lost characters) and the receiver high water mark. The high water mark is the maximum number of characters ever read from the device during a single interrupt. This is useful for monitoring system interrupt latency margins as it shows how close the port hardware has come to overflowing due to the inability of the CPU to respond to a receiver interrupt in time. 8250 chips have no FIFO, so the high water mark cannot go higher than 2 before overruns occur. The 16550A chip, however, has a 16-byte receive FIFO which the software programs to interrupt the CPU when the FIFO is one-quarter full. The high water mark should typically be 4 or 5 when a 16550A is used; higher values indicate that the CPU has at least once been slow to respond to a receiver interrupt.
When the 16550A is used, a count of FIFO timeouts is also displayed on the RX status line. These are generated automatically by the 16550A when three character intervals go by with more than 0 but less than 4 characters in the FIFO. Since the characters that make up a SLIP or NRS frame are normally sent at full line speed, this count will usually be a lower bound on the number of frames received on the port, as only the last fragment of a frame generally results in a timeout (and then only when the frame is not a multiple of 4 bytes long.)
Finally, the software fifo overruns and high water mark are displayed. These indicate whether the <bufsize> parameter on the attach command needs to be adjusted (see the Attach Commands chapter). The third line shows transmit (TX) statistics, including a total count of transmit interrupts, transmitted characters, the length of the transmit queue in bytes, the number of status interrupts, and the number of THRE timeouts. The status interrupt count will be zero unless CTS flow control or RLSD line control has been enabled. The THRE timeout is a stopgap measure to catch lost transmit interrupts, which seem to happen when there is a lot of activity (ideally, this will be zero).
Configure and attach a hardware interface to the system. The details are highly interface dependent and dependent on configuration flags in the file config.h when the software is build. It can be that not all drivers listed below will be included in your copy of Nos. Detailed instructions for each driver are in the Attach Commands chapter. Drivers are available for the following hardware types:
Don't use this one anymore. Use the packet driver instead. This driver is obsolete and not supported anymore.
Standard PC asynchronous interface (com port) using the National 8250 or 16450 or 16550A chip or compatible equivalent.
A "wormhole" ax25 digipeater device.
A ARCnet driver via the PACKET driver.
N6TTO driver for the DRSI PCPA 8530 card.
WA3CVG/NG6Q driver for the Eagle Computer card (Zilog 8530).
KE3Z driver for the Hamilton Amateur Packet Network adapter board (Intel 8273).
Special "high speed" 8530 driver for the WA4DSY 56kb/s modem.
This enables a multiplexed tnc type to be used for second channel. It is used to connect a second port to an already attached asy interface. It will copy most of the params of it's parent port.
This is a psuedo interface to enable NET/ROM operations.
Driver for use with separate software "packet drivers" meeting the FTP Software, Inc, Software Packet Driver specification.
Driver for the PACCOMM PC-100 (Zilog 8530) card.
Dma driven 8530 scc board from VE3IFB.
PE1CHL driver for generic 8530 cards.
Serial Line Faming Protocol packet driver. An easy way to obtain a summary of the parameters required for a given device is to issue a partial attach command (eg. attach packet.) This produces a usage message giving the complete command format.
Displays or sets the global "I am present" flag in Nos. This flag is used in the welcome header by incoming ttylink connections.
Displays or sets the IP autorouting option. When set all AX25 IP packets are analysed and remembered.
These commands are for Ax25 interfaces.
The bc command enables broadcasts via interface interface.
The bcinterval displays or sets the time in seconds between bc broadcasts. On display both the interval and the countdown values are shown.
Display or set the AX25 retransmission backoff limit. Normally each successive AX25 retransmission is delayed by twice the value of the previous interval; this is called binary exponential backoff. When the backoff reaches the blimit setting it is held at that value, which defaults to 30. To prevent the possibility of "congestive collapse" on a loaded channel, blimit should be set at least as high as the number of stations sharing the channel. Note that this is applicable only on actual AX25 connections; UI frames will never be retransmitted by the AX25 layer.
The bctext command displays or sets the text to be send for broadcast messages send out every bcinterval seconds.
Display or set the digipeater enable flag for the given interface. If the axip interface is used this flag MUST be on , otherwise the digipeat function will not work at all.
The filter commands enables or disables the logging in the heard lists of source and destination ax25_addresses. This is a bitwise or function where the 01 value is for source stations and the 02 value for destination stations. When the bit is off , logging is enabled, when on disabeled.
Clear the AX.25 "heard" list (see ax25 heard).
Display the AX.25 "heard" list. For each interface that is configured to use AX.25, a list of all ax25_addresses heard through that interface is shown, along with a count of the number of packets heard from each station and the interval, in hr:min:sec format, since each station was last heard. The local station always appears first in the listing; the packet count actually reflects the number of packets transmitted. This entry is always present even if no packets have been sent. If interface is given, only the heard list for that interface is displayed. Note that logging of heard stations is controlled with the ax25 filter command.
Displays the destination list, i.e. the addressed to stations. Next to the time the last transmission to that station the time that station replied (if heard) is displayed. This gives a good reference to see if a station is reachable and responding.
Display or set the initial value of smoothed round trip time to be used when a new AX25 connection is created. The value is in milliseconds. The actual round trip time will be learned by measurement once the connection has been established.
Force a retransmission on the specified AX.25 control block. The control block address can be found with the ax25 status command.
Establish the maximum number of frames that will be allowed to remain unacknowledged at one time on new AX.25 connections. This number cannot be greater than 7. Without count it will display the current setting. Note that the maximum outstaning frame count only works with virtual connections. UI frames are not affected.
Display or set the default local AX.25 address. The standard format is used, (eg. KA9Q-0 or WB6RQN-5). This command must be given before any attach commands using AX.25 mode are given.
Limit the size of I-fields on new AX.25 connections. If IP datagrams or fragments larger than this are transmitted, they will be transparently fragmented at the AX.25 level, sent as a series of I frames, and reassembled back into a complete IP datagram or fragment at the other end of the link. To have any effect on IP datagrams, this parameter should be less than or equal to the MTU of the associated interface.
Display or set the poll threshold to be used for new AX.25 Version 2 connections. The poll threshold controls retransmission behavior as follows. If the oldest unacknowledged I-frame size is less than the poll threshold, it will be sent with the poll (P) bit set if a timeout occurs. If the oldest unacked I-frame size is equal to or greater than the threshold, then a RR or RNR frame, as appropriate, with the poll bit set will be sent if a timeout occurs. The idea behind the poll threshold is that the extra time needed to send a "small" I-frame instead of a supervisory frame when polling after a timeout is small, and since there's a good chance the I-frame will have to be sent anyway (i.e., if it were lost previously) then you might as well send it as the poll. But if the I-frame is large, send a supervisory (RR/RNR) poll instead to determine first if retransmitting the oldest unacknowledged Iframe is necessary; the timeout might have been caused by a lost acknowledgement. This is obviously a tradeoff, so experiment with the poll threshold setting. The default is 128 bytes, one half the default value of paclen.
Delete the AX.25 connection control block at the specified address.
Limit the number of successive unsuccessful retransmission attempts on new AX.25 connections. If this limit is exceeded, link re-establishment is attempted. If this fails retry times, then the connection is abandoned and all queued data is deleted.
Display the AX.25 routing table that specifies the digipeaters to be used in reaching a given station.
Add an entry to the AX.25 routing table. An automatic ax25 route add is executed if digipeaters are specified in an AX25 connect command, or if a connection is received from a remote station via digipeaters. Such automatic routing table entries won't override locally created entries, however.
Drop an entry for target from the AX.25 routing table.
Sets the mode to vc | datagram | interface for target. Interface is the default for that interface. Vc is a virtual circuit (ax25 connected mode) and datagram is unconnected mode, (AX25 UI frames).
Without an argument, display a one-line summary of each AX.25 control block. If the address of a particular control block is specified, the contents of that control block are dumped in more detail. Note that the send queue units are frames, while the receive queue units are bytes.
Display or set the AX.25 idle "keep alive" timer. Value is in milliseconds.
Display or set the AX.25 Link "redundancy" timer. Value is in seconds. When no exchange has been had during this time the link is reset and closed.
Sets or displays the type of timer used for retransmission and recovery: linear, exponential or original.
Display or set the version of the AX.25 protocol to attempt to use on new connections. The default is 1 (the version that does not use the poll/final bits).
Set the number of bytes that can be pending on an AX.25 receive queue beyond which I frames will be answered with RNR (Receiver Not Ready) responses. This presently applies only to suspended interactive AX.25 sessions, since incoming I-frames containing network (IP, NET/ROM) packets are always processed immediately and are not placed on the receive queue. However, when an AX.25 connection carries both interactive and network packet traffic, an RNR generated because of backlogged interactive traffic will also stop network packet traffic from being sent.
Enter the local bbs port (same as a telnet session to your own station). For the current commands set, see the accompaning file named "sumary".
This is a bootp server/client, included into Nos. It is picked up from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It is included into the sources of Nos but is not used nor tested by me. (PA0GRI) Its usability is fague but the discussions on tcp-group drove me to include this for possible use of reusable addresses.
Starts the bootp server.
Stops the bootp server.
Display or set the list of domain name servers for bootp.
Display or set the interface address range. The range is between ipaddr1 and ipaddr2, both in dot notation.
Display or activate a bootp process. Hardware type is netrom, ether, macappletalk or ax25. Hardware addr is the interface name. Ip addr must be in dot notation.
Delete ipaddr from the host table.
Display or set the directory where the bootp files reside. The default directory is bpfiles.
Display or set the file name of the bootp file. The default is boot.
Starts or stops the logging of bootp requests to filename or the default file name bootplog.
Enables or disables the logging of bootp to the screen.
This starts the server daemon for bootp.
Change the current working directory, and display the new setting. Without an argument, cd simply displays the current directory without change. The pwd command is an alias for cd.
Close the specified session; without an argument, close the current session. On an AX.25 session, this command initiates a disconnect. On a FTP or Telnet session, this command sends a FIN (i.e., initiates a close) on the session's TCP connection. This is an alternative to asking the remote server to initiate a close (QUIT to FTP, or the logout command appropriate for the remote system in the case of Telnet). When either FTP or Telnet sees the incoming half of a TCP connection close, it automatically responds by closing the outgoing half of the connection. Close is more graceful than the reset command, in that it is less likely to leave the remote TCP in a "half-open" state.
Clears the current session screen (command screen).
The comm command sends text-string via interface. This can be used to send straight text to an tnc still in TAPR command mode during Nos startup. Note that to preserve spaces tabs etc. to include the string between double quote characters. Aka: comm ax1 "start kiss"
Initiate a "vanilla" AX.25 session to the specified ax25_addr using the specified interface. Data sent on this session goes out in conventional AX.25 packets with no upper layer protocol. The de-facto presentation standard format is used, in that each packet holds one line of text, terminated by a carriage return. A single AX.25 connection may be used for terminal-toterminal, IP and NET/ROM traffic. The three types of data being automatically separated by their AX.25 Level 3 Protocol IDs.
Up to 7 optional digipeaters may be given; note that the word via is NOT needed. If digipeaters are specified, they are automatically added to the AX25 routing table as though the ax25 route add command had been given before issuing the connect command.
The filename is removed from the file system. Wildcards are permitted. Should work the same as MS-DOS's delete command.
Detach a previously attached interface from the system. All IP routing table entries referring to this interface are deleted, and forwarding references by any other interface to this interface are removed.
Setup an autodialer session for the interface. Whenever the interface is idle for the interval in <seconds>, the autodialer will ping the <hostid>. If there is no answer after <pings> attempts, the autodialer will execute the special commands contained in the <dialer-file>. If the interval in <seconds> is zero, a previous dialer command process will be removed. If the number of <pings> is zero, the <dialer-file> will be executed without pinging the <hostid>.
The file may have any valid name, and must be located in the configuration root directory (see the Installion section). The commands in the file are described in the Dialer Subcommands chapter. Commands in file are:
3.21.2. send <string> [<milliseconds>]
Sends string to the interface. If milliseconds is given, inter character timing is milliseconds milliseconds.
Displays or sets the current interface speed to bps baud.
3.21.5. wait <milliseconds> [<string> [speed]]
Wait the amount of milliseconds. If string is given, incoming characters from the interface are compared with string. If an compare is found and speed is the string speed, the next numbers read from the interface is the new baudrate used. This works like HAYES response CONNECT 9600. The wait command could habe been "wait 10000 CONNECT speed". This waits 10 seconds for the CONNECT response from the modem.
List the contents of the specified directory on the console. If no argument is given, the current directory is listed. Note that this command works by first listing the directory into a temporary file, and then creating a more session to display it. After this completes, the temporary file is deleted.
An alias for the close command (for the benefit of AX.25 users).
The domain commands control and show the working of the name to internet address mapping software. NOS currently only has a client with a simple file reading local server. A real server is needed to service the community for their growing needs.
Add a domain name server to the list of name servers. Note that, when this command is given in the autoexec.nos file the ip address command should given be before this command is used. (If not, Nos will not kow how to resolve the address, and an answer will never be recognized, or worse: just plain hangs the system.)
Following commands work on the domain cache. These are resource records (see RFC 1033/1034) held in memory.
Displays or sets the discard of expired resource records. Expired records have their timeout value decremented to zero. Normaly resource records get a default timeout value of 1800 seconds. After this time they are considered "old" and if referenced again the domain name resolver should be enquired again. When clean is off (the default), expired records will be retained; if no replacement can be obtained from another domain name server, these records will continue to be used. When clean is on, expired records will be removed from the file whenever any new record is added to the file.
This command shows the current content of the in memory cache for resource records.
Display or set the nominal maximum size of the local memory cache. The default is 20. (Note: The cache may be temporarily larger when waiting for new records to be written to the domain.txt file.)
Display or set the interval in seconds to wait for additional activity before updating the domain.txt file. The default is 300 seconds (5 minutes).
Remove a domain name server from the list of name servers. You are warned when you delete the last name server.
List the currently configured domain name servers, along with statistics on how many queries and replies have been exchanged with each one, response times, etc.
This sets a timeout value (1 to 255 seconds) to a query or domain name server. This is not set for a already defined server but will be used for a newly defined name server. Also the value is used for domain nslookups. Note that name servers can have (PC based) trouble finding records in an large database. The default is set to 30 seconds.
The retry value (number) limits the number of queries send out to remote domain name resolvers before giving up and telling you that host xyzzy.ampr.org does not exist. The total time lost with a query is retries *timeout* number of domain servers defined.
Display or specify the default domain name suffix to be appended to a host name when it contains no periods. For example, if the suffix is set to ampr.org. and the user enters telnet ka9q, the domain resolver will attempt to find ka9q.ampr.org.. If the host name being sought contains one or more periods, however, the default suffix is NOT applied if the last part of the name is less than 5 characters and contains only letters; e.g.,
telnet foo.ka9q will be turned into foo.ka9q.ampr.org..
Note that a trailing dot (.) is required for the suffix. If the suffix is the string none (without trailing period) the current suffix is cleared and forgotten.
Display or set the flag controlling the tracing of domain server requests and responses. Trace messages will be seen only if a domain name being sought is not found in the local cache file, domain.txt.
Display or set the flag that controls the translation of ip adress in dot notation into symbolic names. The translation process makes heavely use of reverse domain name lookups. Do not set this flag unless you have a good and fast connection to a domain name server or have a fast domain.txt handler and domain.txt contains all IN-ADDR.ARPA. records you ever wanted.
Display or set the flag controlling the return of a full name (true) or only the first name (dot delimiter) (false). This is for IP address to name translation only.
Shows the statistics for all configured drsi boards.
The dump command shows memory in hex and ascii. Hex-address is a 32 bit value for a PC split into page address and page offset. A splitting colon is not used nor accepted. If decimal-range is not given, 128 bytes are displayed. dump displayes memory starting at the end of a previous dump command.
Display or set the flag controlling client Telnet's response to a remote WILL ECHO offer. The Telnet presentation protocol specifies that in the absence of a negotiated agreement to the contrary, neither end echoes data received from the other. In this mode, a Telnet client session echoes keyboard input locally and nothing is actually sent until a carriage return is typed. Local line editing is also performed: backspace deletes the last character typed, while control-U deletes the entire line.
When communicating from keyboard to keyboard the standard local echo mode is used, so the setting of this parameter has no effect. However, many timesharing systems (eg. UNIX) prefer to do their own echoing of typed input. (This makes screen editors work right, among other things). Such systems send a Telnet WILL ECHO offer immediately upon receiving an incoming Telnet connection request. If echo accept is in effect, a client Telnet session will automatically return a DO ECHO response. In this mode, local echoing and editing is turned off and each key stroke is sent immediately (subject to the Nagle tinygram algorithm in TCP). While this mode is just fine across an Ethernet, it is clearly inefficient and painful across slow paths like packet radio channels. Specifying echo refuse causes an incoming WILL ECHO offer to be answered with a DONT ECHO; the client Telnet session remains in the local echo mode. Sessions already in the remote echo mode are unaffected. (Note: Berkeley Unix has a bug in that it will still echo input even after the client has refused the WILL ECHO offer. To get around this problem, enter the stty -echo command to the shell once you have logged in.)
Display or set Telnet's end-of-line behavior when in remote echo mode. In standard mode, each key is sent as-is. In unix mode, carriage returns are translated to line feeds. This command is not necessary with all UNIX systems; use it only when you find that a particular system responds to line feeds but not carriage returns. Only SunOS release 3.2 seems to exhibit this behavior; later releases are fixed.
Display or set the current command-mode escape character in hex. On the PC, the escape character is default ^]. The alternate escape key is F10 unless F10 is redefined with fkey.
Display 3-Com Ethernet controller statistics (if configured).
Exit the nos program and return to MS-DOS.
Issue a network finger request for user user at host hostid. This creates a client session which may be interrupted, resumed, reset, etc, just like a Telnet client session. If only @hostid is given, all users on that host are identified.
Fkey displays or sets values for the programmable keys on the PC keyboard. fkey alone gives a display of all remapable keys and their number. fkey number displays the current value for that key. fkey number string assigns string to that key. Control characters can be created by prefixing then with an ^ character. A cr is ^M. To insert an ^ in the string 2 ^'s next to each other are needed. Following is the map of keys and their number. F1 is function key 1. Sf1 is Shift function key 1. Cf1 is Control function key 1. Af1 is Alt function key 1. Etc. The right most row is the numeric keypad.
key number key number key number key number key number
f1 59 sf1 84 cf1 94 af1 104 pgup 73
f2 60 sf2 85 cf2 95 af2 105 pgdn 81
f3 61 sf3 86 cf3 96 af3 106 home 71
f4 62 sf4 87 cf4 97 af4 107 end 79
f5 63 sf5 88 cf5 98 af5 108 arup 72
f6 64 sf6 89 cf6 99 af6 109 ardn 80
f7 65 sf7 90 cf7 100 af7 110 ar l 75
f8 66 sf8 91 cf8 101 af8 111 ar r 77
f9 67 sf9 92 cf9 102 af9 112 ins 82
f10 68 sf10 93 cf10 103 af10 113 del 83
f11 133 sf11 135 cf11 137 af11