Date: Fri, 25 Nov 1994  16:05  EST
From: "John F. Chandler" <JCHBN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: Kermit-370 4.3.1 Beta Test

All the variants of Kermit-370 are now available for testing in release 4.3.1: CICS, CMS, MUSIC, and TSO (and its related sub-variant for ROSCOE). The list of updates is different for the different variants, but all of them have a generic feature that is new and exciting: it's the first level of support for restarting interrupted Kermit transfers.

This first level works only for binary transfers, and it requires that you have a similarly upgraded Kermit at the other end, but it's a lot better than nothing. In principle, any interrupted binary file transfer (even a non-Kermit one) can be restarted with this facility, and the resulting file will be identical to what would have been received in a single transfer.

The CMS and CICS variants have a new feature of setting the date/time stamp for a received file to match that of the original. The MUSIC variant has newly-added support for long userids and file names, and it now allows arbitrary MUSIC commands to be executed from within Kermit. Further, there is a new all-in-one installation procedure for MUSIC, now included in ikmker.ins in the Kermit distribution.

The updates are described in a little more detail in the respective BWR files, and are contained in the NUP files (ik*ker.nup). Follow the instructions in the appropriate ik*ker.ins for installing a test version.

The new features are applied to the 4.3.0 source code using the appropriate update program. The new files are available via anonymous ftp from kermit.columbia.edu, directory kermit/b, text mode, and also from KERMSRV@CUVMA on BITNET (EARN (CREN) ):

           
 System      Updates       Documentation
  VM/CMS      ikcker.nup    ikcker.bwr
  MVS/TSO     iktker.nup    iktker.bwr
  CICS        ikxker.nup    ikxker.bwr
  MUSIC       ikmker.nup    ikmker.bwr

Please send test reports by e-mail to kermit@columbia.edu.