pcserver(1M)

NAME

pcserver — Basic Serial and HP AdvanceLink server

SYNOPSIS

pcserver [-n] [-l [log_file]] [-v]

DESCRIPTION

pcserver is the hostside server program for Basic Serial and AdvanceLink, and is started and terminated by an application program running on a PC.

pcserver supports both the Basic Serial and the AdvanceLink protocols.

Basic Serial offers a library of routines that support a variety of services between a PC and a serially connected host computer, including file transfers and remote interprocess communications.

AdvanceLink is a terminal emulation program that also supports file transfers between a PC and host system over various physical connections.

Options

The following options are recognized by pcserver:

-l [logfile]: This option is now obsolete, but is retained for compatibility with earlier versions of software. Logging is now controlled by the presence or absence of the server.pro file as described in NOTES, below. Enables packet logging and records pcserver messages to a specified log file (for debugging). If logfile is not specified, the file s-log is used in the default logging directory, as defined in the server.pro file. pcserver looks for a local version of server.pro in the user's home directory. If none is found, it will look for a system-wide version as /var/adm/server.pro or /usr/adm/server.pro. If the logfile exists, logging is appended to it. If the file does not exist, logging is disabled.
-n: Informs pcserver that a "netmode" for data encryption should be used during special operations (for example, a netmode is needed to mask device control characters when a PAD is being used). The details of the netmode are then negotiated between the pcserver and the PC application. For a more comprehensive discussion on netmode, see Using Basic Serial Connection Files.
-v: Causes pcserver to print its version number to standard output and quit.

pcserver is designed to be invoked by a PC application program rather than from the command line. In order for the connection to be correctly established, the PC and host port must be properly configured.

If you are using pcserver to manage a session between a PC and a hostside application (via Basic Serial), you may need to use a Basic Serial connection file to actually log in to your account. Establishing connections using Basic Serial connection files is a sensitive operation. Before attempting to use them, you should read the manual Using Basic Serial Connection Files.

If you are using pcserver to transfer files between a PC and a host machine via Advancelink, use the following AdvanceLink commands:

&HOSTCOPY "pcserver" &TERMINATOR "$"

If your prompt does not end with $, replace the $ in the terminator command with the last character in your normal prompt.

To permanently configure AdvanceLink for the HP-UX version of pcserver, refer to the Using AdvanceLink manual for more information.

NOTES

Packet logging is controlled by the presence or absence of the file server.pro

pcserver looks for a local version of server.pro in the user's home directory. If none is found, it will look for a system-wide version as /var/adm/server.pro or /usr/adm/server.pro.

If no logging file is found in these directories, logging is not performed. A commented example of a server.pro may be found in /usr/newconfig/var/adm/server.pro.ex or /usr/adm/server.pro.ex. To make use of this file, copy it to the active file name, server.pro, in one of the previously mentioned directory locations. If your screen displays a Command not found message when you choose START TRANSFER from AdvLink, either pcserver has not yet been installed on your HP-UX system, or it has been installed in a directory that is not part of your current path.

HP-UX treats files containing binary or ASCII data identically. Therefore it is up to the user to specify the desired file type when using pcserver to transfer files with Advancelink. The difference between the two is that during ASCII transfers, pcserver maps HP-UX line-feed characters to the MS-DOS carriage-return/line-feed pair. This produces incorrect results when transferring a binary file as an ASCII file.

Also, older versions of AdvanceLink show totally inaccurate estimates for file transfer times. This does not interfere with the actual transfer.

If the PC is reset while a transfer is taking place, it may temporarily appear to be a "dead" terminal port. This is no cause for alarm; left to its own devices, pcserver will restore the port in a short time. In the worst case, it could take six timeout periods (6×20 = 120 seconds). For faster response, press the Break key a few times to terminate pcserver immediately.

FILES

/usr/bin/pcserver: the executable program
/var/adm/server.pro: system-wide logging profile
/usr/adm/server.pro: system-wide logging profile
$HOME/server.pro: local logging profile
/usr/newconfig/var/adm/server.pro.ex: commented inactive example of server.pro
/usr/adm/server.pro.ex: commented inactive example of server.pro

pcserver(1M)

Technical documentation

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