This is a slightly lobotomized kermit. The help command, the
script facility, and the automatic dial support have been re-
moved. The ? and ESC commands still work, so there is still rea-
sonable built-in help. The only V7 kermit feature that does not
work is the ability to see whether there are input characters
waiting. This means that you will not be able to ask for status
during a file transfer (though this is not critical, because ker-
mit prints a dot every so often and other special characters
whenever there is an error or timeout). Start kermit, and then
type the following to open a 2400 baud session, for example:
(It is more convenient if you put these commands in .kermrc in
your home directory, so that they get done automatically whenever
you run kermit.) This will connect you to the modem or whatever
on the serial port. Now log into the other system. When you
want to transfer files, run kermit on the other system. To it,
type This puts its kermit into a sort of slave mode where it ex-
pects commands from the kermit running on your MINIX system. Now
come back to the command level on MINIX kermit, by typing the es-
cape character followed by c. (Kermit will tell you the current
escape character when you do the connect command.) At this point
you can issue various commands. Your kermit will coordinate
things with kermit on the other machine so that you only have to
type commands at one end. Common commands are
Filenames can include wildcards. By default, kermit works in a
system-independent, text mode. (In effect it assumes that the
whole world is MS-DOS and converts end of line and file names ac-
cordingly.) To send binary files, you will want to type on both
ends before starting any transfers. This disables CR LF to new-
line conversion. If both of your systems are some flavor of
UNIX, you might as well put this in .kermrc on both ends and run
in binary mode all the time. Also, if both systems are UNIX it
is recommended that you use on both ends. This causes it to keep
file names unchanged, rather than mapping to legal MS-DOS names.
Here is a typical .kermrc for use on
On the other end of the line, for example, the host at your local
computer center to which you want to transfer files, a typical
profile might be:
Kermit has many other options and features. For a pleasant and
highly readable description of it, see the following book:
Title: Kermit: A File Transfer Protocol
Author: Frank da Cruz
Publisher: Digital Press
Date: 1987
ISBN: 0-932376-88
For information about recent kermit developments, versions for
other systems, and so forth, please contact:
Christine M. Gianone
Manager, Kermit Development and Distribution
University Center for Computing Activities
Columbia University
612 West 115th Street
New York, N.Y. 10025
Over 400 versions of kermit are available, so it is likely there
is one for any computer your system might want to talk to. Co-
lumbia University also publishes a newsletter about kermit that
can be requested from the above address.