Transfers to Unisys OS2200 cpFTP server

[david.traxler]

My FTP server is a Unisys OS2200 cpFTP. OS 2200 uses a 36 bit word, consisting of four 9 bit bytes. There are several commands specific to cpFTP server to support 36 bit file transfers. One of these is the CFMT command. This sets a binary subtype in cpFTP for 9 bit byte to 8 bit byte conversion. This is a format specific to OS 2200 that converts eight 9-bit bytes into nine 8-bit bytes for transferring binary 36 bit word files. If you want to know how this works, the 9th (left-most) bit of each byte for eight bytes is placed into the byte.

I need to know how to send this command to the OS 2200 server from my PC. Normally I'd use "SITE CFMT" or "QUOTE SITE CFMT". I do not see any facility on FileZilla for sending post login commands.

Can you help me with this?

Dave Traxler
United Airlines

[boco]

Please refer to https://wiki.filezilla-project.org/Post_login_commands.

This type of advanced functionality is not exposed over the GUI.

[david.traxler]

Boco-

Thanks for your reply. I saw that post but had problems trying to implement it.

I have no idea where the "settings directory" for FileZilla is on my pc and I could not find a file named "sitemanager.xml" anywhere on my pc.

Another question. I noticed an IP address between <Host> and </Host>. Is there some way to use a Site name instead? I only need this command for binary transfers that 36 bit data. I'd like to create a site named "development" without the post logon command, and a site named "development-CFMT" with the command.

Can I just put that example (with changes for the command and host) into a new file named "sitemanager.xml" once I figure out what directory to put it in?

Thanks,
Dave Traxler

[boco]

I have no idea where the "settings directory" for FileZilla is on my pc and I could not find a file named "sitemanager.xml" anywhere on my pc.

The settings directory is usually ~/.config/filezilla, with the exception of Windows, where it is %APPDATA%\FileZilla. sitemanager.xml is inside.

I noticed an IP address between <Host> and </Host>. Is there some way to use a Site name instead?

You can also use domain names as Host. The example is just that - an example.

I only need this command for binary transfers that 36 bit data. I'd like to create a site named "development" without the post logon command, and a site named "development-CFMT" with the command.

Create both entries in the Site Manager before you close FileZilla and edit the XML.

Can I just put that example (with changes for the command and host) into a new file named "sitemanager.xml" once I figure out what directory to put it in?

There can be only one, and it exists as soon as you touch the Site Manager. The post-login modifications must be made in the sitemanager.xml inside the settings directory - otherwise they won't be picked up.

[david.traxler]

Thanks!

I'm using windows 7 Enterprise SP1 (64 bit) and FileZilla 3.7.1. So sorry I didn't mention this sooner.

I finally found sitemanager.xml. It was in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\FileZilla. AppData is a hidden directory on my system. So I needed to set "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" in Windows Explorer Tools->Folder options... View tab.

I created the two sites, development and development-CFMT.

I added the following to the end of the "development-CFMT" site's data:

<SyncBrowsing>0</SyncBrowsing>unidev-CFMT
<PostLoginCommands>
<Command>quote site CFMT</Command>
</PostLoginCommands>
</Server>
</Servers>
</FileZilla3>

Unfortunately, I cannot test it yet, as my new laptop (received from the company early December) does not have a DVD drive. I've ordered an external DVD drive for it. Once it arrives I'll let you know how well this works. The Unisys DVD is the only source of the CFMT data that I am aware of.

Background: We recently moved our systems behind firewalls. This has caused all sorts of problems with FTP. Most of which have been resolved. We need to use passive transfers, which windows command line ftp does not support. So that left FileZilla, which is loaded on the basic image for all new PCs.

Thank you again,
David Traxler
United Airlines

[boco]

FileZilla 3.7.1

Until you update, there will be no further support. We only support the latest version (3.30 for FileZilla at this time and 3.30.1 for FileZilla Pro).

[botg]

<Command>quote site CFMT</Command>

This will literally send "quote site CFMT" to the server. Are you sure that's what should be sent? quote usually is a client-side command the user enters in command-line clients to tell the client to send the stuff after it to the server.

[david.traxler]

Yes, the quote site CFMT does work. I have used it from other clients to this server.

Here is the log entry from FileZilla when I opened that site and FileZilla entered "quote site CFMT"

Command: site CFMT
Response: 200 Using C_FORMAT to transfer file (binary mode required).
Status: Connected


Dave Traxler
United Airlines

[boco]

"quote" or "literal" are usually only internal codes by some clients, for sending raw commands (as-is) to the server. The quote/literal string is not sent to the servers.

So, either FileZilla removes it already, or the server software creators considered it being such a common mistake that they built in a workaround to ignore the "quote" command string (but not the strings following it). You could also just send SITE CFMT and achieve the same result.

[david.traxler]

FileZilla is sending "site CFMT". I just took a look at my sitemanager.xml file. I've done some additional editing of the SITE parameters using the site manager function. Some where FileZilla removed the word "quote" from the command in the xml.

FileZilla does not get any errors from my server when it logs on and sends just the "site CFMT" command.

Thanks for your concern.

Dave Traxler
United Airlines

[david.traxler]

I am working on getting the latest FZ installed on my PC.

As stated back in my first post, the Unisys OS 2200 file system is a non-hierarchical file system. What I need is a file transfer mechanism that will let me specify the remote file name EXACTLY as it appears on the remote system. FZ is attempting to make it look like a windows/unix/Linux file name. The server on the Unisys side will do whatever file name validation is needed. Here is an example of what used to work, before the firewalls got in the way and forced us to use passive transfers. As I also stated the windows command line ftp does support passive transfers.

get tmpsrc 'uadjt*tmpsrc.'

and

put tmpsrc 'uadjt*tmpsrc.'

If FZ cannot do this, do you know of any other windows ftp clients that can?

Thanks again,
Dave Traxler

[botg]

What does the server reply to the first PWD command sent to it?

[david.traxler]

I have installed FileZilla release 3.30.0 on my PC. The OS is Windows 7 Enterprise SP1.

I am attempting to transfer a binary (8-bit bytes) file to a Unisys Dorado 8300 mainframe running OS 2200. OS 2200 uses a 36 bit word with 9-bit bytes. This is because 36/9 is 4.0 and 8/36 = 4.5. The "site CFMT" command sets the Unisys FTP server in a mode that will unpack the nine 8-bit byte network format into eight (two words) 9-bit byte host format. The source of the binary file is a software release DVD produced by Unisys. We just refreshed our hardware. The new hardware is behind firewalls. The requires that we use passive FTP to transfer the files. Unfortunately the Windows command line FTP does not support passive file transfers. FileZilla does support passive transfers. So I am attempting to use it to transfer these files to the Unisys mainframe. And FileZilla is pre-loaded on our company PCs.

I am still in need of assistance. Maybe discussing the Unisys OS2200 file system will show the differences between it and windows/unix/Linux hierarchical file systems, and present understanding of my problems. For more information, see chapter 3 of the PDF at http://public.support.unisys.com/2200/d ... 49-028.pdf

Remember, Unisys is the offspring of Univac. The first Univac computer, the 1101, was released in 1951. It probably predates everything you know about computers. If you are at all curious about the history of Univac/Unisys, see this site: https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php? ... 0&uid=1575. Or search Wikipedia for any of these names: "Univac", "Unisys", "OS 2200", "OS 1100", or "Exec 8".

The root of the problem is that Unisys is not a hierarchical file structure. A file is not part of a directory structure. A file name consists of a "qualifier" and a file name. They are separated by the '*' asterisk character. The file "UADJT*TESTFILE." has a qualifier of UADJT and a file name of TESTFILE. The end of the file name is delimited by a '.' dot. There are three types of files. "SDF" (standard data format), "PF" (program files), and binary files.

SDF files contain text. An example is a file containing the print generated during a program compile and link. A text image (record) contains a header word followed by the text. The header word defines the length of the image, the image time and character set: ASCII, Fieldata (a 6-bit character set), Kanji, etc...

Program files contain elements. This is much like a directory. It contains symbolic, relocatable (much like an object module), executable, and user defined "omnibus" elements. The table of contents of a program file is at the start of the file. Space is allocated between the TOC and the first element to allow for growth of the TOC. Elements names consist of the element name and a version name, separated by a slash. Example: "ZZCOPY/C"

A binary file contains user defined binary data. An example of this is a database file.

FTP is most easily used with program files. These are closest to the hierarchical structure that non-OS2200 ftp clients and servers expect.

My problem with FileZilla is that it attempts to convert whatever I enter as a file name of file name with element name as a hierarchical name. If there were a server type in Site Manager that said "accept whatever is entered, do not do any validation of the file name" this would be easy.

I am testing with the "Manual Transfer" dialog. I'll get more debug log as I do more testing.

How can I accomplish this? None of the current server types allow this.

Thanks for listening.
Dave Traxler
United Airlines

[botg]

Unfortunately there's nothing to be done here, this structure is simply incompatible with FileZilla.

I recommend to update to a more modern FTP server software that implements TVFS as specified in RFC 3659, abstracting away the peculiarities of your system using a standardized syntax for path and filenames.



Another thing, I noticed two protocol violations in the log:

The server is in violation of RFC 2389, its FEAT reply is malformed, too many leading spaces in the feature lines.

The server is also in violation of RFC 854 (which defines the NVT RFC 959) or RFC 2640. If it implements the latter, it violates it by sending non-UTF-8 encoded data. If it doesn't implement the latter, it violates RFC 854 by sending characters outside the 7-bit ASCII range without prior negotiation.

[david.traxler]

Thank you for you comments.

Unfortunately the provided by the hardware manufacturer. I cannot recommend any changes that need to be made to. Before the ftp server system was put behind firewalls we did not need to use passive transfers. The Windows command line FTP worked just fine for this transfer.

Thanks again. It seems as if FileZilla is not the solution to my problem. I will look for something else.

Dave Traxler
United Airlines