TIP(1)                     OpenBSD Reference Manual                     TIP(1)

NAME
     tip - connect to a remote system



SYNOPSIS
     tip [-nv] -speed system-name
     tip [-nv] -speed phone-number

DESCRIPTION
     tip establishes a full-duplex connection to another machine, giving the
     appearance of being logged in directly on the remote CPU.  It goes with-
     out saying that you must have a login on the machine (or equivalent) to
     which you wish to connect.

     The options are as follows:

     -v      Set verbose mode.

     -n      No escape (disable tilde).

     Typed characters are normally transmitted directly to the remote machine
     (which does the echoing as well).  A tilde (`~') appearing as the first
     character of a line is an escape signal; the following are recognized:

     ~^D or ~.
           Drop the connection and exit (you may still be logged in on the re-
           mote machine).

     ~c [name]
           Change directory to name (no argument implies change to your home
           directory).

     ~!    Escape to a shell (exiting the shell will return you to tip).

     ~>    Copy file from local to remote.  tip prompts for the name of a lo-
           cal file to transmit.

     ~<    Copy file from remote to local.  tip prompts first for the name of
           the file to be sent, then for a command to be executed on the re-
           mote machine.

     ~p from [to]
           Send a file to a remote UNIX host.  The put command causes the re-
           mote UNIX system to run the command string ``cat > 'to''', while
           tip sends it the ``from'' file.  If the ``to'' file isn't specified
           the ``from'' file name is used.  this command is actually a UNIX
           specific version of the ~> command.

     ~t from [to]
           Take a file from a remote UNIX host.  As in the put command the
           ``to'' file defaults to the ``from'' file name if it isn't speci-
           fied.  The remote host executes the command string ``cat
           'from';echo ^A'' to send the file to tip.

     ~|    Pipe the output from a remote command to a local UNIX process.  The
           command string sent to the local UNIX system is processed by the
           shell.

     ~$    Pipe the output from a local UNIX process to the remote host.  The
           command string sent to the local UNIX system is processed by the
           shell.

     ~C    Fork a child process on the local system to perform special proto-
           cols such as XMODEM.  The child program will be run with the fol-
           lowing somewhat unusual arrangement of file descriptors:
                     0 <-> local tty in
                     1 <-> local tty out
                     2 <-> local tty out
                     3 <-> remote tty in
                     4 <-> remote tty out

     ~#    Send a BREAK to the remote system.  For systems which don't support
           the necessary ioctl() call the break is simulated by a sequence of
           line speed changes and DEL characters.

     ~s    Set a variable (see the discussion below).

     ~^Z   Stop tip (only available with job control).

     ~^Y   Stop only the ``local side'' of tip (only available with job con-
           trol); the ``remote side'' of tip, the side that displays output
           from the remote host, is left running.

     ~?    Get a summary of the tilde escapes.

     tip uses the file /etc/remote to find how to reach a particular system
     and to find out how it should operate while talking to the system; refer
     to remote(5) for a full description.  Each system has a default baud rate
     with which to establish a connection.  If this value is not suitable, the
     baud rate to be used may be specified on the command line, e.g.  `tip
     -300 mds'.

     When tip establishes a connection it sends out a connection message to
     the remote system; the default value, if any, is defined in /etc/remote
     (see remote(5)).

     When tip prompts for an argument (e.g. during setup of a file transfer)
     the line typed may be edited with the standard erase and kill characters.
     A null line in response to a prompt, or an interrupt, will abort the dia-
     logue and return you to the remote machine.

     tip guards against multiple users connecting to a remote system by open-
     ing modems and terminal lines with exclusive access, and by honoring the
     locking protocol used by uucico(8).

     During file transfers tip provides a running count of the number of lines
     transferred.  When using the ~> and ~< commands, the ``eofread'' and
     ``eofwrite'' variables are used to recognize end-of-file when reading,
     and specify end-of-file when writing (see below).  File transfers normal-
     ly depend on tandem mode for flow control.  If the remote system does not
     support tandem mode, ``echocheck'' may be set to indicate tip should syn-
     chronize with the remote system on the echo of each transmitted charac-
     ter.

     When tip must dial a phone number to connect to a system it will print
     various messages indicating its actions.  tip supports the DEC DN Ns-11
     and Racal-Vadic 831 auto-call-units; the DEC DF02 and DF03, Ventel 212+,
     Racal-Vadic 3451, and Bizcomp 1031 and 1032 integral call unit/modems.

   VARIABLES
     tip maintains a set of variables which control its operation.  Some of
     these variables are read-only to normal users (root is allowed to change
     anything of interest).  Variables may be displayed and set through the
     `s' escape.  The syntax for variables is patterned after vi(1) and
     Mail(1).  Supplying ``all'' as an argument to the set command displays
     all variables readable by the user.  Alternatively, the user may request
     display of a particular variable by attaching a `?' to the end.  For ex-
     ample ``escape?'' displays the current escape character.

     Variables are numeric, string, character, or boolean values.  Boolean
     variables are set merely by specifying their name; they may be reset by
     prepending a `!' to the name.  Other variable types are set by concate-
     nating an `=' and the value.  The entire assignment must not have any
     blanks in it.  A single set command may be used to interrogate as well as
     set a number of variables.  Variables may be initialized at run time by
     placing set commands (without the `~s' prefix in a file .tiprc in one's
     home directory).  The -v option causes tip to display the sets as they
     are made.  Certain common variables have abbreviations.  The following is
     a list of common variables, their abbreviations, and their default val-
     ues:

     beautify      (bool) Discard unprintable characters when a session is be-
                   ing scripted; abbreviated be.

     baudrate      (num) The baud rate at which the connection was estab-
                   lished; abbreviated ba.

     dialtimeout   (num) When dialing a phone number, the time (in seconds) to
                   wait for a connection to be established; abbreviated dial.

     echocheck     (bool) Synchronize with the remote host during file trans-
                   fer by waiting for the echo of the last character transmit-
                   ted; default is off.

     eofread       (str) The set of characters which signify an end-of-trans-
                   mission during a ~< file transfer command; abbreviated
                   eofr.

     eofwrite      (str) The string sent to indicate end-of-transmission dur-
                   ing a ~> file transfer command; abbreviated eofw.

     eol           (str) The set of characters which indicate an end-of-line.
                   tip will recognize escape characters only after an end-of-
                   line.

     escape        (char) The command prefix (escape) character; abbreviated
                   es; default value is `~'.

     exceptions    (str) The set of characters which should not be discarded
                   due to the beautification switch; abbreviated ex; default
                   value is ``\t\n\f\b''.

     force         (char) The character used to force literal data transmis-
                   sion; abbreviated fo; default value is `^P'.

     framesize     (num) The amount of data (in bytes) to buffer between file
                   system writes when receiving files; abbreviated fr.

     host          (str) The name of the host to which you are connected; ab-
                   breviated ho.

     prompt        (char) The character which indicates an end-of-line on the
                   remote host; abbreviated pr; default value is `\n'. This
                   value is used to synchronize during data transfers.  The
                   count of lines transferred during a file transfer command
                   is based on receipt of this character.

     raise         (bool) Upper case mapping mode; abbreviated ra; default
                   value is off. When this mode is enabled, all lower case
                   letters will be mapped to upper case by tip for transmis-
                   sion to the remote machine.

     raisechar     (char) The input character used to toggle upper case map-
                   ping mode; abbreviated rc; default value is `^A'.

     record        (str) The name of the file in which a session script is

                   recorded; abbreviated rec; default value is ``tip.record''.

     script        (bool) Session scripting mode; abbreviated sc; default is
                   off. When script is true, tip will record everything trans-
                   mitted by the remote machine in the script record file
                   specified in record. If the beautify switch is on, only
                   printable ASCII characters will be included in the script
                   file (those characters between 040 and 0177).  The variable
                   exceptions is used to indicate characters which are an ex-
                   ception to the normal beautification rules.

     tabexpand     (bool) Expand tabs to spaces during file transfers; abbre-
                   viated tab; default value is false. Each tab is expanded to
                   8 spaces.

     verbose       (bool) Verbose mode; abbreviated verb; default is true.
                   When verbose mode is enabled, tip prints messages while di-
                   aling, shows the current number of lines transferred during
                   a file transfer operations, and more.

ENVIRONMENT
     tip uses the following environment variables:

     SHELL       (str) The name of the shell to use for the ~! command; de-
                 fault value is ``/bin/sh'', or taken from the environment.

     HOME        (str) The home directory to use for the ~c command; default
                 value is taken from the environment.

     HOST        Check for a default host if none specified.

     The variables ${REMOTE} and ${PHONES} are also exported.

FILES
     /etc/remote             global system descriptions
     /etc/phones             global phone number data base
     ${REMOTE}               private system descriptions
     ${PHONES}               private phone numbers
     ~/.tiprc                initialization file
     tip.record              record file
     /var/log/aculog         line access log
     /var/spool/lock/LCK..*  lock file to avoid conflicts with uucp

DIAGNOSTICS
     Diagnostics are, hopefully, self-explanatory.

SEE ALSO
     phones(5),  remote(5)

HISTORY
     The tip appeared command in 4.2BSD.

BUGS
     The full set of variables is undocumented and should, probably, be pared
     down.

OpenBSD 2.6                     April 18, 1994                               4