tcl3270 Manual Page

Contents

Name
Synopsis
Description
Options
Character Sets
NVT Mode
Toggles
Commands
File Transfer
The PrintText Action
Nested Scripts
Passthru
Proxy
Resources
See Also
Copyrights
Version

Name

Synopsis

Description

[prefix:]...[LUname@]hostname[:port]

Prepending a P: onto hostname causes the connection to go through the telnet-passthru service rather than directly to the host. See PASSTHRU below.

Prepending an S: onto hostname removes the "extended data stream" option reported to the host. See -tn below for further information.

Prepending an N: onto hostname turns off TN3270E support for the session.

Prepending an L: onto hostname causes tcl3270 to first create an SSL tunnel to the host, and then create a TN3270 session inside the tunnel. (This function is supported only if tcl3270 was built with SSL/TLS support). Note that TLS-encrypted sessions using the TELNET START-TLS option are negotiated with the host automatically; for these sessions the L: prefix should not be used.

Prepending a B: onto hostname changes the interaction of scripts and the host BIND-IMAGE message. Without B:, tcl3270 will unlock the keyboard as soon as a BIND-IMAGE is received. With B:, it will wait for a Write command that explicitly unlocks the keyboard.

A specific Logical Unit (LU) name to use may be specified by prepending it to the hostname with an `@'. Multiple LU names to try can be separated by commas. An empty LU can be placed in the list with an extra comma. (Note that the LU name is used for different purposes by different kinds of hosts. For example, CICS uses the LU name as the Terminal ID.)

The hostname may optionally be placed inside square-bracket characters `[' and `]'. This will prevent any colon `:' characters in the hostname from being interpreted as indicating option prefixes or port numbers. This allows numeric IPv6 addresses to be used as hostnames.

On systems that support the forkpty library call, the hostname may be replaced with -e and a command string. This will cause tcl3270 to connect to a local child process, such as a shell.

The port to connect to defaults to telnet. This can be overridden with the -port option, or by appending a port to the hostname with a colon `:'. (For compatability with previous versions of tcl3270 and with tn3270(1), the port may also be specified as a second, separate argument.)

Options

-accepthostname spec

Specifies a particular hostname to accept when validating the name presented in the host's SSL certificate, instead of comparing to the name or address used to make the connection. spec can either be any, which disables name validation, DNS:hostname, which matches a particular DNS hostname, or IP:address, which matches a particular numeric IPv4 or IPv6 address.

-cadir directory

Specifies a directory containing CA (root) certificates to use when verifying a certificate provided by the host.

-cafile filename

Specifies a PEM-format file containing CA (root) certificates to use when verifying a certificate provided by the host.

-certfile filename

Specifies a file containing a certificate to provide to the host, if requested. The default file type is PEM.

-certfiletype type

Specifies the type of the certificate file specified by -certfile. Type can be pem or asn1.

-chainfile filename

Specifies a certificate chain file in PEM format, containing a certificate to provide to the host if requested, as well as one or more intermediate certificates and the CA certificate used to sign that certificate. If -chainfile is specified, it overrides -certfile.

-charset name

Specifies an EBCDIC host character set. See CHARACTER SETS below.

-clear toggle

Sets the initial value of toggle to false. The list of toggle names is under TOGGLES below.

-devname name

Specifies a device name (workstation ID) for RFC 4777 support.

-keyfile filename

Specifies a file containing the private key for the certificate file (specified via -certfile or -chainfile). The default file type is PEM.

-keyfiletype type

Specifies the type of the private key file specified by -keyfile. Type can be pem or asn1.

-keypasswd type:value

Specifies the password for the private key file, if it is encrypted. The argument can be file:filename, specifying that the password is in a file, or string:string, specifying the password on the command-line directly. If the private key file is encrypted and no -keypasswd option is given, secure connections will not be allowed.

-km name

Specifies the local encoding method for multi-byte text. name is an encoding name recognized by the ICU library. (Supported only when tcl3270 is compiled with DBCS support, and necessary only when tcl3270 cannot figure it out from the locale.)

-loginmacro Action(arg...) ...

Specifies a macro to run at login time.

-model name

The model of 3270 display to be emulated. The model name is in two parts, either of which may be omitted:

The first part is the base model, which is either 3278 or 3279. 3278 specifies a monochrome (green on black) 3270 display; 3279 specifies a color 3270 display.

The second part is the model number, which specifies the number of rows and columns. Model 4 is the default.

Model Number	Columns	Rows
2	80	24
3	80	32
4	80	43
5	132	27

Note: Technically, there is no such 3270 display as a 3279-4 or 3279-5, but most hosts seem to work with them anyway.

The default model is 3279-4.

-nvt

Start in NVT mode instead of waiting for the host to send data, and make the default terminal type xterm.

-oversize colsxrows

Makes the screen larger than the default for the chosen model number. This option has effect only in combination with extended data stream support (controlled by the "tcl3270.extended" resource), and only if the host supports the Query Reply structured field. The number of columns multiplied by the number of rows must not exceed 16383 (3fff hex), the limit of 14-bit 3270 buffer addressing.

-port n

Specifies a different TCP port to connect to. n can be a name from /etc/services like telnet, or a number. This option changes the default port number used for all connections. (The positional parameter affects only the initial connection.)

-proxy type:host[:port]

Causes tcl3270 to connect via the specified proxy, instead of using a direct connection. The host can be an IP address or hostname. The optional port can be a number or a service name. For a list of supported proxy types, see PROXY below.

-selfsignedok

When verifying a host SSL certificate, allow it to be self-signed.

-set toggle

Sets the initial value of toggle to true. The list of toggle names is under TOGGLES below. The -p option of x3270if causes it to use this socket, instead of pipes specified by environment variables.

-tn name

Specifies the terminal name to be transmitted over the telnet connection. The default name is IBM-model_name-E, for example, IBM-3278-4-E.

Some hosts are confused by the -E suffix on the terminal name, and will ignore the extra screen area on models 3, 4 and 5. Prepending an s: on the hostname, or setting the "tcl3270.extended" resource to "false", removes the -E from the terminal name when connecting to such hosts.

The name can also be specified with the "tcl3270.termName" resource.

-trace

Turns on data stream and event tracing at startup. The default trace file name is /tmp/x3trc.

-tracefile file

Specifies a file to save data stream and event traces into. If the name starts with `>>', data will be appended to the file.

-tracefilesize size

Places a limit on the size of a trace file. If this option is not specified, or is specified as 0 or none, the trace file size will be unlimited. The minimum size is 64 Kbytes. The value of size can have a K or M suffix, indicating kilobytes or megabytes respectively. When the trace file reaches the size limit, it will be renamed with a `-' appended and a new file started.

-user name

Specifies the user name for RFC 4777 support.

-v

Display the version and build options for tcl3270 and exit.

-verifycert

For SSL or SSL/TLS connections, verify the host certificate, and do not allow the connection to complete unless it can be validated.

-xrm "tcl3270.resource: value"

Sets the value of the named resource to value. Resources control less common tcl3270 options, and are defined under RESOURCES below.

--

Terminates the list of tcl3270 options. Whatever follows will be available to the script in the $argv tcl variable.

Character Sets

Charset Name	Host Code Page	Character Set
belgian	500	iso8859-1
belgian-euro	1148	iso8859-15
bracket	037	iso8859-1
brazilian	275	iso8859-1
chinese-gb18030	1388	iso8859-1 + iso10646-1
cp1047	1047	iso8859-1
cp870	870	iso8859-2
finnish	278	iso8859-1
finnish-euro	1143	iso8859-15
french	297	iso8859-1
french-euro	1147	iso8859-15
german	273	iso8859-1
german-euro	1141	iso8859-15
greek	423	iso8859-7
hebrew	424	iso8859-8
icelandic	871	iso8859-1
icelandic-euro	1149	iso8859-15
italian	280	iso8859-1
italian-euro	1144	iso8859-15
japanese-kana	930	jisx0201.1976-0 + jisx0208.1983-0
japanese-latin	939	jisx0201.1976-0 + jisx0208.1983-0
norwegian	277	iso8859-1
norwegian-euro	1142	iso8859-15
russian	880	koi8-r
simplified-chinese	935	iso8859-1 + gb2312.1980-0
slovenian	870	iso8859-2
spanish	284	iso8859-1
spanish-euro	1145	iso8859-15
thai	1160	iso8859-11 tis620.2529-0
traditional-chinese	937	iso8859-1 + Big5-0
turkish	1026	iso8859-9
uk	285	iso8859-1
uk-euro	1146	iso8859-15
us-euro	1140	iso8859-15
us-intl	037	iso8859-1

The default character set is bracket, which is useful for common U.S. IBM hosts which use EBCDIC codes AD and BD for the `[' and `]' characters, respectively.

Note that any of the host code pages listed above can be specified by adding cp to the host code page, e.g., cp037 for host code page 037. Also note that the code pages available for a given version of tcl3270 are displayed by the -v command-line option.

NVT Mode

If the host later negotiates to stop functioning in 3270 mode, tcl3270 will return to NVT emulation.

In NVT mode, tcl3270 supports both character-at-a-time mode and line mode operation. You may select the mode with a menu option. When in line mode, the special characters and operational characteristics are defined by resources:

Mode/Character	Resource	Default
Translate CR to NL	tcl3270.icrnl	true
Translate NL to CR	tcl3270.inlcr	false
Erase previous character	tcl3270.erase	^?
Erase entire line	tcl3270.kill	^U
Erase previous word	tcl3270.werase	^W
Redisplay line	tcl3270.rprnt	^R
Ignore special meaning of next character	tcl3270.lnext	^V
Interrupt	tcl3270.intr	^C
Quit	tcl3270.quit	^\
End of file	tcl3270.eof	^D

Toggles

blankFill

If set, tcl3270 modifies interactive 3270 behavior in two ways. First, when a character is typed into a field, all nulls in the field to the left of that character are changed to blanks. This eliminates a common 3270 data-entry surprise. Second, in insert mode, trailing blanks in a field are treated like nulls, eliminating the annoying `lock-up' that often occurs when inserting into an field with (apparent) space at the end.

lineWrap

If set, the NVT terminal emulator automatically assumes a NEWLINE character when it reaches the end of a line.

trace

Turns on data stream and event tracing at start-up. Network traffic (both a hexadecimal representation and its interpretation) is logged to the file . The directory for the trace file can be changed with the "tcl3270.traceDir" resource. Script commands are also traced.

screenTrace

Turns on screen tracing at start-up. Each time the screen changes, its contents are appended to the file .

aidWait

Changes the behavior of actions that send an AID to the host (Enter, Clear, PA and PF). When set, these actions no longer block until the host unlocks the keyboard. It is up to the script to poll the prompt for the unlocked state, or to use the Wait(Unlock) action to wait for the unlock.

Commands

Actions marked with an asterisk (*) may block, sending data to the host and possibly waiting for a response.

Ascii	return entire screen contents as text
Ascii length	return screen contents at cursor as text
Ascii row col length	return screen contents as text
Ascii row col rows cols	return screen region as text
AsciiField	return current field as text
*Attn	attention key
BackSpace	move cursor left (or send ASCII BS)
BackTab	tab to start of previous input field
CircumNot	input "^" in NVT mode, or "¬" in 3270 mode
*Clear	clear screen
Cols	report screen size
*Connect host	connect to host
*CursorSelect	Cursor Select AID
Delete	delete character under cursor (or send ASCII DEL)
DeleteField	delete the entire field
DeleteWord	delete the current or previous word
*Disconnect	disconnect from host
Down	move cursor down
Dup	duplicate field
Ebcdic	return entire screen contents in EBCDIC
Ebcdic length	return screen contents at cursor in EBCDIC
Ebcdic row col length	return screen contents in EBCDIC
Ebcdic row col rows cols	return screen region in EBCDIC
EbcdicField	return current field in EBCDIC
*Enter	Enter AID (or send ASCII CR)
Erase	erase previous character (or send ASCII BS)
EraseEOF	erase to end of current field
EraseInput	erase all input fields
FieldEnd	move cursor to end of field
FieldMark	mark field
HexString hex_digits	insert control-character string
Home	move cursor to first input field
Insert	set insert mode
*Interrupt	send TELNET IP to host
Key keysym	insert key keysym
Key 0xxx	insert key with character code xx
Left	move cursor left
Left2	move cursor left 2 positions
MonoCase	toggle uppercase-only mode
MoveCursor row col	move cursor to (row,col)
Newline	move cursor to first field on next line (or send ASCII LF)
NextWord	move cursor to next word
*PA n	Program Attention AID (n from 1 to 3)
*PF n	Program Function AID (n from 1 to 24)
PreviousWord	move cursor to previous word
Quit	exit tcl3270
Redraw	redraw window
Reset	reset locked keyboard
Right	move cursor right
Right2	move cursor right 2 positions
ReadBuffer Ascii	dump screen buffer as text
ReadBuffer Ebcdic	dump screen buffer in EBCDIC
Rows	report screen size
Snap	same as Snap Save
Snap Ascii	report saved screen data (see Ascii)
Snap Cols	report saved screen size
Snap Ebcdic	report saved screen data (see Ebcdic)
Snap ReadBuffer	report saved screen data (see ReadBuffer)
Snap Rows	report saved screen size
Snap Save	save screen image
Snap Status	report saved connection status
*Snap Wait [timeout] Output	wait for host output and save screen image
Status	report connection status
*String string	insert string (simple macro facility)
*SysReq	System Request AID
Tab	move cursor to next input field
set|clear]>Toggle option[	toggle an option
ToggleInsert	toggle insert mode
ToggleReverse	toggle reverse-input mode
*Transfer option=value...'	file transfer
Up	move cursor up
*Wait [timeout] 3270mode	wait for 3270 mode
*Wait [timeout] Disconnect	wait for host to disconnect
*Wait [timeout] InputField	wait for valid input field
*Wait [timeout] NVTMode	wait for NVT mode
*Wait [timeout] Output	wait for more host output

Note that certain parameters to tcl3270 actions (such as the names of files and keymaps) are subject to substitutions:

The character ~ at the beginning of a string is replaced with the user's home directory. A ~ character followed by a username is replaced with that user's home directory.

Environment variables are substituted using the Unix shell convention of $name or ${name}.

Two special pseudo-environment variables are supported. ${TIMESTAMP} is replaced with a microsecond-resolution timestamp; ${UNIQUE} is replaced with a string guaranteed to make a unique filename (the process ID optionally followed by a dash and a string of digits). ${UNIQUE} is used to form trace file names.

File Transfer

Because of the complexity and number of options for file transfer, the parameters to the Transfer command take the unique form of option=value, and can appear in any order. Note that if the value contains spaces (such as a VM/CMS file name), then the entire parameter must be quoted, e.g., "HostFile=xxx foo a". The options are:

Option	Required?	Default	Other Values
Direction	No	receive	send
HostFile	Yes
LocalFile	Yes
Host	No	tso	vm, cics
Mode	No	ascii	binary
Cr	No	remove	add, keep
Remap	No	yes	no
Exist	No	keep	replace, append
Recfm	No		fixed, variable, undefined
Lrecl	No
Blksize	No
Allocation	No		tracks, cylinders, avblock
PrimarySpace	Sometimes
SecondarySpace	No
Avblock	Sometimes
BufferSize	No	4096

The option details are as follows.

Direction

send to send a file to the host, receive to receive a file from the host.

HostFile

The name of the file on the host.

LocalFile

The name of the file on the local workstation.

Host

The type of host (which dictates the form of the IND$FILE command): tso (the default), vm or cics.

Mode

Use ascii (the default) for a text file, which will be translated between EBCDIC and ASCII as necessary. Use binary for non-text files.

Cr

Controls how Newline characters are handled when transferring Mode=ascii files. remove (the default) strips Newline characters in local files before transferring them to the host. add adds Newline characters to each host file record before transferring it to the local workstation. keep preserves Newline characters when transferring a local file to the host.

Remap

Controls text translation for Mode=ascii files. The value yes (the default) causes tcl3270 to remap the text to ensure maximum compatibility between the workstation's character set and encoding and the host's EBCDIC code page. The value no causes tcl3270 to pass the text to or from the host as-is, leaving all translation to the IND$FILE program on the host.

Exist

Controls what happens when the destination file already exists. keep (the default) preserves the file, causing the Transfer command to fail. replace overwrites the destination file with the source file. append appends the source file to the destination file.

Recfm

Controls the record format of files created on the host. (TSO and VM hosts only.) fixed creates a file with fixed-length records. variable creates a file with variable-length records. undefined creates a file with undefined-length records (TSO hosts only). The Lrecl option controls the record length or maximum record length for Recfm=fixed and Recfm=variable files, respectively.

Lrecl

Specifies the record length (or maximum record length) for files created on the host. (TSO and VM hosts only.)

Blksize

Specifies the block size for files created on the host. (TSO and VM hosts only.)

Allocation

Specifies the units for the PrimarySpace and SecondarySpace options: tracks, cylinders or avblock. (TSO hosts only.)

PrimarySpace

Primary allocation for a file. The units are given by the Allocation option. Required when the Allocation is specified as something other than default. (TSO hosts only.)

SecondarySpace

Secondary allocation for a file. The units are given by the Allocation option. (TSO hosts only.)

Avblock

Average block size, required when Allocation specifies avblock. (TSO hosts only.)

BufferSize

Buffer size for DFT-mode transfers. Can range from 256 to 32768. Larger values give better performance, but some hosts may not be able to support them.

There are also resources that control the default values for each of the file transfer parameters. These resources have the same names as the Transfer keywords, but with ft prepended. E.g., the default for the Mode keyword is the tcl3270.ftMode resource.

The PrintText Action

Multiple arguments can include keywords to control the output of PrintText:

file filename

Save the output in a file.

html

Save the output as HTML. This option implies file.

rtf

Save the output as RichText. This option implies file. The font defaults to Courier New and the point size defaults to 8. These can be overridden by the printTextFont and printTextSize resources, respectively.

string

Return the output as a string. This can only be used from scripts.

modi

Render modified fields in italics.

caption text

Add the specified text as a caption above the output. Within text, the special sequence %T% will be replaced with a timestamp.

command command

Directs the output to a command. This allows one or more of the other keywords to be specified, while still sending the output to the printer.

Nested Scripts

The String Command

The simplest method for nested scripts is provided via the String command. The arguments to String are one or more double-quoted strings which are inserted directly as if typed. The C backslash conventions are honored as follows. (Entries marked * mean that after sending the AID code to the host, tcl3270 will wait for the host to unlock the keyboard before further processing the string.)

\b	Left
\exxxx	EBCDIC character in hex
\f	Clear*
\n	Enter*
\pan	PA(n)*
\pfnn	PF(nn)*
\r	Newline
\t	Tab
\T	BackTab
\uxxxx	Unicode character in hex
\xxxxx	Unicode character in hex

Note that the numeric values for the \e, \u and \x sequences can be abbreviated to 2 digits. Note also that EBCDIC codes greater than 255 and some Unicode character codes represent DBCS characters, which will work only if tcl3270 is built with DBCS support and the host allows DBCS input in the current field.

Note: The strings are in ASCII and converted to EBCDIC, so beware of inserting control codes.

There is also an alternate form of the String command, HexString, which is used to enter non-printing data. The argument to HexString is a string of hexadecimal digits, two per character. A leading 0x or 0X is optional. In 3270 mode, the hexadecimal data represent EBCDIC characters, which are entered into the current field. In NVT mode, the hexadecimal data represent ASCII characters, which are sent directly to the host.

Passthru

Proxy

type:host[:port]

The special types socks4a and socks5d can also be used to force the proxy server to do the hostname resolution for the SOCKS protocol.

Resources

Resource	Default	Option	Purpose
blankFill	False	-set blankFill	Blank Fill mode
charset	bracket	-charset	EBCDIC character set
dbcsCgcsgid			Override DBCS CGCSGID
dsTrace	False	-trace	Data stream tracing
eof	^D		NVT-mode EOF character
erase	^H		NVT-mode erase character
extended	True		Use 3270 extended data stream
eventTrace	False	-trace	Event tracing
icrnl	False		Map CR to NL on NVT-mode input
inlcr	False		Map NL to CR in NVT-mode input
intr	^C		NVT-mode interrupt character
kill	^U		NVT-mode kill character
lineWrap	False	-set lineWrap	NVT line wrap mode
lnext	^V		NVT-mode lnext character
m3279	(note 1)	-model	3279 (color) emulation
monoCase	False	-set monoCase	Mono-case mode
numericLock	False		Lock keyboard for numeric field error
oerrLock	False		Lock keyboard for input error
oversize		-oversize	Oversize screen dimensions
port	telnet	-port	Non-default TCP port
quit	^\		NVT-mode quit character
rprnt	^R		NVT-mode reprint character
sbcsCgcsgid			Override SBCS CGCSGID
secure	False		Disable "dangerous" options
termName	(note 2)	-tn	TELNET terminal type string
traceDir	/tmp		Directory for trace files
traceFile	(note 3)	-tracefile	File for trace output
werase	^W		NVT-mode word-erase character

Note 1: m3279 defaults to False. It can be forced to True with the proper -model option.

Note 2: The default terminal type string is constructed from the model number, color emulation, and extended data stream modes. E.g., a model 2 with color emulation and the extended data stream option would be sent as IBM-3279-2-E. Note also that when TN3270E mode is used, the terminal type is always sent as 3278, but this does not affect color capabilities.

Note 3: The default trace file is x3trc.pid in the directory specified by the traceDir resource.

If more than one -xrm option is given for the same resource, the last one on the command line is used.

See Also

Copyrights

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

*

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

*

Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

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Neither the names of Paul Mattes, Don Russell, Dick Altenbern, Jeff Sparkes, GTRC nor the names of their contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY PAUL MATTES, DON RUSSELL, DICK ALTENBERN, JEFF SPARKES AND GTRC "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL PAUL MATTES, DON RUSSELL, DICK ALTENBERN, JEFF SPARKES OR GTRC BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

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