Subject: Announcing term118
From: "Bill C. Riemers" <[email-masked]>
Date: 22 Jun 1994 19:32:19 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce

Announcing the release of term118

WHAT IS IT?

  "term" is a program written by Michael O'Reilly which simmulates many
  SLIP like features through an ordinary user's account.  At this time
  Michael is quite busy and doesn't have time to work on "term" or to 
  answer your questions, so please direct questions to me: 

    [email-masked] (Bill C. Riemers)

  I'm currently running my mail handler on this account as well so if you
  don't want an automatic reply, use a subject starting with the word "private".

  For SCO unix specific questions, try asking:

    [email-masked] (Tim Pusher)

WHERE IS IT?

  "term118" will be available at:

    physics.purdue.edu:/pub/bcr/term/term118.tar.gz
    sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/apps/comm/term/term/term118.tar.gz  

  Also, you can find any patches to this version people send me at:

    physics.purdue.edu:/pub/bcr/term/patches

  Feel free to mirror these directories on other sites.

WHERE CAN I FIND TERM BINARIES AND APPLICATION SOURCES?

  You can find lots of stuff for old style term support at:
    sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/apps/comm/termstuff/
    sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/apps/comm/term/term/extra/

  Since the new-style term support, does require patches to source codes
  in many cases, I have been putting new style binaries at:

    bohr.physics.purdue.edu:/pub/bcr/term/extra

  - If I need to hack the source code for "shared" support, I'll also upload
  the patch.

  - If you are using shared mode, you may need to set "TERMSHARE" to your
  shared directory for these to work.

NOTE ABOUT ALPHA VERSIONS:

  Alpha versions are made, public, but if you mirror or copy these to other
  sites, please also copy the README.alpha in the same directory.  I don't
  garentee that future term versions will in any way support ALPHA versions,
  so you should only use these versions for testing purposes.

FIXES WITH "term118"

  There are a number of new features with "term118", but first the important
  fixes:

   - "tupload" transmittion speeds has been slow since term109.  Finially
     I found out how to restore this back to normal.

   - A number of patches have been supplied for "trsh" that hopefull fixes
     the problems that have been present since term115.

   - CPU usage has been very high since term115.  Finially this has been
     restored to normal.

   - Probably all term versions have been calculating transmittion speeds
     slightly low.  So if you have a 2400bps modem, or are using a seven
     bit line, you can use new "termrc" options to get higher transmittion
     speeds.  
 
   - Several of the new termnet features didn't work with term117, and have
     been fixed.

WHAT'S NEW WITH "term118"?
   - Version # is now passed, so if you use an old version of "term" on one
     end, term can try to adjust, or warn you that a new feature won't work.

   - Term will now use _POSIX_SAVED_IDS in share mode, so special patches
     aren't needed to use programs like "ftp" in shared mode.

   - The hostname "remotehost" will be recognized by networking programs 
     compiled with new-style term support.

   - There is a "retrain on" termrc option, so if you think your transmittion
     speeds are too slow, you can tell term to adjust the window size and
     timeout values for you.  (In most cases you can still do better with
     manual tunning, but this is less work.)

   - The new programs "trdate" and "trdated" can be used by root to set your
     systems clock.

   - "trsh" will now pass the "TERM" environmental variable for you.

What is expected for term119?

   - Probably some fixes to term118.
   - "udp" support?  I know I keep promising this...   Maybe one of these
     releases it will become a reality.  (I'm not writting this, but I'm
     just waiting for the person who is.)
   - Shared library support.  I see there is already an ALPHA version of
     term on sunsite.unc.edu with shared library support.  So the main thing
     needed is carefull testing befor I'm willing to subject this to a beta
     release.
   - Unfortunately I accidently deleted the tdownload patch that was mailed
     to me.  So this is on hold until I get another copy.

CHANGE LOG:

1.17 - 1.18 ([email-masked])
 - Fixed "aix"'s Makefile definition.
 - Fixed a serious problem with "trsh".
 - Extensively cleaned up the include files, and eliminated seteuid and
   references to USE_SETGID
 - Modified build_args() and term_rcmd() to pass terminal type.
 - Changed BUFF_INC_SIZE to 2048 from 1024.  This seems to speedup tupload.
 - Changed TR: to ETA: in upload.c
 o Applied patches:
    DYNIX/PTX support   BOONE BARRY EDWARD <[email-masked]>
    NetBSD patches      Stephen J. Roznows <[email-masked]>

 o Added the following termrc options:
    "login on/off"      default "on"    replaces -DLOGIN_SHELL
    "delay #"           default 20000   reduces CPU usage
    "stopbits #"        default 2       allows correct computation of
                                        transmittion speed
    "nonblock on/off"   default on      allows users to deactivate
                                        non-blocking IO
    "retrain on/off"    default off     Tells term to try to adjust timeout
                                        and window size values.  Takes about    
                                        50k-100k to reach optimal values.
  o Added the following files:
    putenv.c            Only need if your system libraries doesn't have it.
    term_getopt.c       Always used so options are parsed the same for all OS's.
    trdate.c            Allows trdate and trdate (thanks to Kevin Lentin) to 
                        pass remote system time.

 o Rewrote:
    read_rc()           Its now easier to add new options, and inline comments
                        always work.  
    term_getsockname()          Now uses C_GETSOCKNAME
    term_gethostbyname()        Now uses C_GETHOSTNAME

 o Fixed:
    C_GETSOCKNAME       Didn't work with term117
    C_GETPEERNAME       Didn't work with term117
    shared versions     If you have _POSIX_SAVED_IDS, term will be much more
                        secure now.

 o Added define options:
    TERM_NFS_DIR        for those using term directorys on NFS mounted
                        directories.
    N_PACKETS           adjust if you need window sizes greater than 16.

 o Added features:
    Environmental variable passing      Modified: C_EXEC and C_PTYEXEC
    Version # passing.                  Pre-term117o versions are assumed
                                        to be term108.
    "remotehost"                        Short for the other machine's name.
                                        i.e. "telnet remotehost"

       Have fun,

                  Bill ([email-masked])
 
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