Chaosnet Tools

gw — Gateway incoming TCP connections to Chaosnet.

Usage: gw port contact host

Listen to TCP port, and forward the connection to the contact service at host. WARNING this may be dangerous since some Chaosnet servers may not be hardened against malicious attacks.

There is a unit file chaosnet-gateway.service for systemd; make sure to update WorkingDirectory. Edit the gateway.sh script to your liking.

mlftp — File transfer using the MLDEV protocol.

Usage: mlftp -r|w host ITS-file local-file

To read a file from ITS, use -r; to write, use -w. ITS-file uses the conventional free-form syntax. The device, directory, and second file name are all optional. They default to DSK, .TEMP., and >, respectively.

Since ITS file names can contain characters that confuse a typial Unix shell, it's best to put -- before it and surround it with quotes. For example:

mlftp -w its -- "-READ- -THIS-" readme.txt

qsend — Send a message.

Usage: qsend user@host [ sender@host [ time ]]

Sends a message to user at *host. The message body is taken from standard input. Optionally, the sender can be specified; the defaults are taken from the USER environment variable and the output of hostname. The time of the message can also be specified, or else the current time will be used.

rtape — Server for RTAPE remote tape protocol.

Usage: rtape [-adqrv]

rtape is a Unix program that implements a server for the RTAPE protocol, which provides remote access to a tape drive.

This program was implemented primarily by reading and testing against the ITS DUMP tape backup program, which can optionally use RTAPE. The Unix rtape server from MIT/Symbolics was used as a secondary reference.

Tape data format

When a client connects, it must specify which tape drive to use. This server uses the drive name to open a file. Data read from or written to this file will be stored in the SIMH tape image format.

Options

  -a  Allow slashes in mount drive name.
  -d  Run as daemon.
  -q  Quiet operation - no logging, just errors.
  -r  Only allow read-only mounts.
  -v  Verbose operation - detailed logging.

The -a option is dangerous. The default is to not allow slashes, to avoid people poking around the host by sending a drive name like /etc/password or ../foobar.

The default is to allow writing tapes, but -r is available for cautious people.

Example

For example, if the rtape server is running on the host 177001, the ITS DUMP backup program can mount a remote tape like this:

*dump^K
DUMP  .448

_remote
TAPE SERVER HOST=177001
DRIVE=backup.tap
READ ONLY? n
REMOTE TAPE UNWOND
_

senver — Server for SEND protocol.

Usage: senver

Accepts messages from the network. Delivery is handled by a subprocess; the program in the environment variable QSEND is run. The recipient user is passed as its first argument, and the Chaosnet source host as the second argument. The message content is passed to stdin. If QSEND is not set, the default is to run qsend-inoming. The user must either set QSEND, or ensure qsend-incoming is on the PATH.

shutdown — Request to shut down Chaosnet host.

Usage: shutdown host [data]

Send a request to host to shut itself down. Optional data can be sent which the host may interpret as information about how to shut down.