NAME

tip − connect to a remote system

SYNOPSIS

tip [ −v ] [ −speed ] system-name

DESCRIPTION

Tip establishes a full-duplex connection to another machine, giving the appearance of being logged in directly on the remote cpu.  It goes without saying that you must have a login on the machine (or equivalent) to which you wish to connect. 

When the −v option is used, tip displays set commands as they are performed.  See the discussion on Variables later on. 

Typed 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; the following are recognized:

~^D or ~.Drop the connection and exit (you may still be logged in on the remote machine). 

~c [name]Change directory to name (no argument implies change to your home directory). 

~!Escape to a shell (exiting the shell will return you to tip).

~>Copy file from local to remote. 

~<Copy file from remote to local. 

~p from [to]
Send a file to a remote UNIX host.  The put command causes the remote UNIX system to run the command string “cat > ’to, while tip sends it the “from” file.  If the “to” file isn’t specified the “from” file name is used. This command is actually a UNIX specific version of the “~>” command.

~t from [to]
Take a file from a remote UNIX host.  As in the put command the “to” file defaults to the “from” file name if it isn’t specified.  The remote host executes the command string “cat ’from’;echo ^A” 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 which don’t support the necessary ioctl(2) call the break is simulated by a sequence of line speed changes and DEL characters.

~sSet a variable (see the discussion below). 

~^ZStop tip (only available with job control). 

~?Get a summary of the tilde escapes

Copying files requires some cooperation on the part of the remote host.  When a ~> or ~< escape is used to send a file, tip will prompt for a file name (to be transmitted or received) and a command which will be sent to the remote system, in case the file is being transferred from the remote system.  The default end of transmission string for transferring a file from the local system to the remote is specified in the remote(5) file, but may be changed by the set command.  While tip is transferring a file the number of lines transferred will be continuously displayed on the screen.  A file transfer may be aborted with an interrupt.  An example of the dialogue used to transfer files is given below. 

% tip mds
[connected]
<<Assume we are talking to another UNIX system>>
login: ken
Password:
% cat > foo.c
~> Filename: foo.c
32 lines transferred in 1 minute 3 seconds
%
% ~< Filename: reply.c
List command for remote host: cat reply.c
65 lines transferred in 2 minutes
%
<<Or, equivalently>>
% ~p foo.c
<<actually echo’s as ~[put] foo.c>>
32 lines transferred in 1 minute 3 seconds
%
% ~t reply.c
<<actually echo’s as ~[take] reply.c>>
65 lines transferred in 2 minutes
%
<<To print a remote file locally>>
% ~|Local command: pr -h foo.c | lpr
List command for remote host: cat foo.c
% ~^D
[EOT]
<<Back on the local system>>
%

The remote(5) file contains the definitions for all remote systems known by tip; refer to the remote manual page for a full description. In particular, each system-name 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, for example, “tip -300 mds”.

When tip establishes a connection it sends out a connection message to the remote system.  The default value for this string may be found in the remote file. 

At any time that tip prompts for an argument (for example, during set-up of a file transfer) the line typed may be edited with the standard erase and kill characters.  A null line in response to a prompt, or an interrupt, will abort the dialogue and return you to the remote machine. 

When tip attempts to connect to a remote system, it opens the associated device with an exclusive-open ioctl(2) call.  Thus only one user at a time may access a device. This is to prevent multiple processes from sampling the terminal line.  In addition, tip honors the locking protocol used by uucp(1).

AUTO-CALL UNITS

Tip may be used to dial up remote systems using a number of auto-call unit’s (ACU’s).  When the remote system description contains the “du” attribute, tip will use the call-unit (“cu”), ACU type (“at”), and phone numbers (“pn”) supplied.  Normally tip will print out the verbose messages as it dials.  See remote(5) for details of the remote host specification.

Depending on the type of auto-dialer being used to establish a connection the remote host may have garbage characters sent to it upon connection.  The user should never assume that the first characters typed to the foreign host are the first ones presented to it.  The recommended practice is to immediately type a “kill” character upon establishing a connection (most UNIX systems support “@” as the initial kill character). 

Tip currently supports DEC’s DN-11 interface with Bell 801 or Vadic 821 callers, DEC’s DF02-AC and DF03-AC, Bizcomp’s 1031 and 1022 intelligent modems, and Ventel’s autodialer modems. 

REMOTE HOST DESCRIPTIONS

Descriptions of remote hosts are normally located in the system-wide file /etc/remote. However, a user may maintain personal description files (and phone numbers) by defining and exporting the shell variable REMOTE.  The remote file must be readable by tip, but a secondary file describing phone numbers may be maintained readable only by the user.  This secondary phone number file defaults to /etc/phones, unless the shell variable PHONES is defined and exported.  As described in remote(5), the phones file is read when the host description’s phone number(s) capability is an “@”.  The phone number file contains lines of the form:

system-name    phone-number

Each phone number found for a system is tried until either a connection is established, or an end of file is reached.  Phone numbers are constructed from "0123456789-=∗", where the “=” and “∗” are used to indicate a second dial tone should be waited for (ACU dependent).

VARIABLES

Tip maintains a set of variables which are used in normal operation.  Some of these variables are read-only to normal users (root is allowed to change anything of interest).  Variables may be displayed and set through the “s” escape.  The syntax for variables is patterned after the vi(1) editor and the mail(1) system.  Supplying “all” as an argument to the set command displays all variables readable by the user.  Alternatively, the user may request display of a particular variable by attaching a “?” to the end.  For example “escape?” would display the current escape character.

Variables are numeric, string, character, or boolean values.  Boolean variables are set merely by specifying their name.  They may be reset by prepending a “!” to the name.  Other variable types are set by appending an “=” and the 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 one’s home directory).  tip displays the sets as they are made if the −v option was specified on the tip command line. 

Finally, the variable names must either be completely specified or an abbreviation may be given.  The following list details those variables known to tip, their abbreviations (surrounded by brackets), and their default values. Those variables initialized from the remote file are marked with a “∗”.  A mode is given for each variable; capitalization indicates the read or write capability is given only to the super-user.

NameTypeModeDefaultDescription
[be]autifyboolrwtruediscard unprintables
when scripting
[ba]udratenumrW∗connection baud rate
[dial]timeoutnumrW60timeout (seconds) when
establishing connection
[eofr]eadstrrw∗char’s signifying EOT
from the remote host
[eofw]ritestrrw∗string sent for EOT
[eol]   strrw∗char’s signifying an end of line
[es]capecharrw‘~’command prefix character
[ex]ceptionsstrrw"\t\n\f\b"char’s not discarded
due to beautification
[fo]rce  charrw‘^P’forces transparency on next char
[fr]amesizenumrw∗size of buffering between
writes on reception
[ho]st  strr∗name of host connected to
[lock]  strRWs.d.lock file for ACU logging
[log]   strRWs.d.ACU log file
[phones]strrs.d.file for hidden phone numbers
[pr]omptcharrW‘\n’end of line indicator set by host
[ra]ise  boolrwfalseupper case mapping switch
[r]aise[c]harcharrw‘^A’interactive toggle for raise
[rec]ordstrrw"tip.record"name of script output file
[remote]strrs.d.system description file
[sc]riptboolrwfalsesession scripting switch
[tab]expandboolrwfalseexpand tabs during file transfers
[verb]oseboolrwtruemake noise during file transfers
[SHELL]  strrw"/bin/sh"name of shell for ~! escape
[HOME]  strrw""home directory for ~c escape

NOTE: 1. s.d. indicates the default value is system dependent; normally these values are lock=/tmp/aculock, log=/usr/adm/aculog, phones=/etc/phones, and remote=/etc/remote. 

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The following variables are read from the environment:

REMOTEThe location of the remote file. 

PHONESThe location of the file containing private phone numbers. 

HOSTA default host to connect to. 

HOMEOne’s log-in directory (for chdirs). 

SHELLThe shell to fork on a ~! escape. 

FILES

~/.tiprcVariable initialization file. 

/usr/spool/uucp/LCK..∗Lock file to avoid conflicts with uucp.  Terminated with port name. 

DIAGNOSTICS

unrecognizable host name
The phone number file is malformed.

missing phone number
A line in the phone number file is incomplete; or the remote host description indicates the host should be called, but no phone number is specified.

bizcomp out of sync
When using a BIZCOMP ACU the dialer must be “synced” up before tip will attempt to place a call.  Try running tip again. 

missing device spec
The remote host description entry is missing a device specification.

timedout at eol n
During a file transfer tip has lost contact with the remote system while waiting for a synchronizing echo.

timeout error
Same as above.

Other diagnostics are, hopefully, self explanatory. 

SEE ALSO

remote(5)

Sun System Release 0.3  —  4 April 1983