TIP(1)
NAME
tip, cu − connect to a remote system
USAGE
tip [ −v ] [ −speed ] system-name
tip [ −v ] [ −speed ] phone-number
cu phone-number [ −t ] [ −s speed ] [ -a acu ] [ −l line ] [ −# ]
DESCRIPTION
Tip and cu establish a full-duplex connection to another machine giving the appearance of being logged in directly on the remote CPU. You must always have a log-in (or equivalent) on the remote machine, if you are to use these commands. The preferred interface is tip. The cu interface is included for those people attached to the “call UNIX” command of version 7. This manual page describes only tip.
Typed command characters are normally transmitted directly to the remote machine (which does the echoing as well). A tilde (~) appearing as the first character of a line is an escape signal. Valid commands are listed below.
Tip uses the file /etc/remote to determine how to reach a particular system and how it should operate while talking to the system. Refer to remote (5) for a full description. Each system has a default baud rate with which to establish a connection. If this value is not suitable, the baud rate to be used may be specified on the command line, e.g., tip −300 mds.
When tip establishes a connection it sends out a connection message to the remote system. The default value, if any, is defined in /etc/remote.
When tip prompts for an argument (e.g., during set-up of a file transfer), you may type a line, using the standard erase and kill characters to do any editing necessary. A null line or an interrupt aborts your dialogue with the remote machine.
Tip guards against multiple users connecting to a remote system by opening modems and terminal lines with exclusive access, and by honoring the locking protocol used by uucp (1).
During file transfers tip provides a running count of the number of lines transferred. When using the ~> and ~< commands, the eofread and eofwrite variables are used to recognize end-of-file when reading, and specify end-of-file when writing (see below). File transfers normally depend on tandem mode for flow control. If the remote system does not support tandem mode, set echocheck to ensure that tip synchronizes with the remote system on the echo of each transmitted character.
When tip must dial a phone number to connect to a system, it prints various messages indicating its actions. Tip supports the Ventel 212+ and Racal-Vadic 3451 modems.
Supplying all as an argument to the set command displays all variables readable by you. Alternatively, you may request display of a particular variable by attaching a question mark (?) to the end. For example escape? displays the current escape character.
COMMANDS
~↑D~. Drop the connection and exit (you may still be logged in on the remote machine).
~c [name] Change directory to name. No argument implies changing to your home directory.
~! Escape to a Shell. This command is also used to return to tip from the Shell.
~> Copy a file from local to remote. Prompt for the name of a local file to transmit.
~< Copy a file from remote to local. Prompt first for the name of the file to be sent, then for a command to be executed on the remote machine.
~p from [ to ] Send a file to a remote UNIX host. Cause the remote UNIX system to run the cat > ‘to’ command string, while tip sends it the from file. If the to file is not specified, the from filename is used. This command is actually a UNIX-specific version of the ~> command.
~t from [ to ] Take a file from a remote UNIX host. The to file defaults to the from filename if it is not specified. The remote host executes the cat ’from’;echo ^A command string to send the file to tip.
~| Pipe the output from a remote command to a local UNIX process. The command string sent to the local UNIX system is processed by the Shell.
~# Send a BREAK to the remote system. For systems that do not support the necessary ioctl call, simulate a break with a sequence of line speed changes and DEL characters.
~s Set a variable (see VARIABLES below).
~? Get a summary of the tilde escapes.
VARIABLES
Tip maintains a set of variables that control its operation. Some of these variable are read-only to normal users (root is allowed to change anything of interest). Variables may be displayed and set through the ~s command. The syntax for variables is patterned after vi (1) and mail (1).
Variables are numeric (num), string (str), character (char), or Boolean (bool) values. You set a Boolean variable by merely specifying its name. Reset it by prepending an exclamation point (!) to the name. To set other variable types, concatenate an equal sign (=) and the appropriate value. The entire assignment must not have any blanks in it. A single set command may be used to interrogate as well as set a number of variables. Variables may be initialized at run time by placing set commands (without the ~s prefix in a file .tiprc in your home directory).
Note: The full set of variables is not documented here. However, the ones provided below are the most commonly used.
be (bool) Beautify. Discard unprintable characters when a session is being scripted.
ba (num) Baud rate. The baud rate at which the connection was established.
dial (num) Dial time-out. When dialing a phone number, the time (in seconds) to wait for a connection to be established.
echocheck (bool) Synchronize with the remote host during file transfer by waiting for the echo of the last character transmitted; the default is off.
eofr (str) Eofread. The set of characters that signify an end-of-tranmission during a ~< file transfer command.
eofw (str) Eofwrite. The string sent to indicate end-of-transmission during a ~> file transfer command.
eol (str) The set of characters that indicate an end-of-line. Escape characters are recognized only after an end-of-line.
es (char) Escape. The command prefix (escape) character; the default value is a tilde (~).
ex (str) Exceptions. The set of characters that should not be discarded when passed through the beautification command (be). The default value is \t\n\f\b.
fo (char) Force. The character used to force literal data transmission. The default value is a CONTROL-P, or ↑P.
fr (num) Frame size. The amount of data (in bytes) to buffer between file system writes when receiving files.
ho (str) Host. The name of the host to which you are connected.
pr (char) Prompt. The character that indicates and end-of-line on the remote host. The default value is a \n. This value is used to synchronize data transfers. The count of lines transferred during a file transfer command is based on recipt of this character.
ra (bool) Uppercase mapping mode; the default value is off. When this mode is enabled, map all lowercase letters to uppercase for transmission to the remote machine.
rc (char) Raisechar. The input character used to toggle uppercase mapping mode; the default value is a CONTROL-A, or ↑A.
rec (str) Record. The name of the file in which a session script is recorded; the default value is tip.record.
sc (bool) Session scripting mode; the default is off. When sc is true, record everything transmitted by the remote machine in the script record file specified in record. If the be mode is enabled, only printable ASCII characters are included in the script file (those characters between 040 and 0177). The ex variable is used to indicate characters that are an exception to the normal beautification rules.
tab (bool) Tab expand. Expand tabs to spaces during file transfers; the default value is false. Each tab is expanded to 8 spaces.
verb (bool) Verbose mode; the default is true. If enabled, print messages while dialing, show the current number of lines transferred during file transfer operations, and generally provide complete processing information.
SHELL (str) The name of the Shell to use for the ~! command; the default value is either /bin/sh or one taken from the environment.
HOME
(str) The home directory to use for the ~c command; the default value is taken from the environment.
OPTIONS
−v Display the sets of variables as they are made.
−speed Specify a baud rate equal to speed to override the system’s default baud rate.
CAUTIONS
Tip must be run on the same node as the associated modem.
A network that wants more than one tip node must make /etc/remote a link to ‘node_data/remote.
FILES
/etc/remoteglobal system descriptions
/etc/phonesglobal phone number database
${REMOTE}private system descriptions
${PHONES}private phone numbers
~/.tiprcinitialization file
/usr/spool/uucp/LCK..*lock file to avoid conflicts with uucp
DIAGNOSTICS
Diagnostics are self-explanatory.