tcl3270 Manual Page

Contents

Name
Synopsis
Description
Options
Character Sets
NVT (ANSI) Mode
Toggles
Commands
File Transfer
Nested Scripts
Passthru
Resources
See Also
Copyrights
Version

Name

tcl3270 - IBM host access tool

Synopsis

tcl3270 [script] [options] [host] [-- script-arg...]

Description

tcl3270 opens a telnet connection to an IBM host, then allows a tcl script to control the host login session. It is derived from x3270(1), an X-windows IBM 3270 emulator. It implements RFCs 2355 (TN3270E), 1576 (TN3270) and 1646 (LU name selection), and supports IND$FILE file transfer.

The full syntax for host is:

[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.

A specific 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.

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

tcl3270 understands the following options:
-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.
-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 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
30
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 3278-4.

-mono
Forces 3278 emulation.
-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.)
-set toggle
Sets the initial value of toggle to true. The list of toggle names is under TOGGLES below.
-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.process_id.
-tracefile file
Specifies a file to save data stream and event traces into, overriding the default of /tmp/x3trc.process_id.
-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 will be unlimited. If specified, the trace file cannot already exist, and the (silently enforced) minimum size is 64 Kbytes. The value of size can have a K or M suffix, indicating kilobytes or megabytes respectively.
-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

The -charset option or the "tcl3270.charset" resource controls the EBCDIC host character set used by tcl3270. Available sets include:

Charset Name
Code Page
Display Character Sets
apl
37
3270cg-1a
belgian
500
3270cg-1a 3270-cg1 iso8859-1
bracket
37
3270cg-1a 3270-cg1 iso8859-1
brazilian
275
3270cg-1a 3270-cg1 iso8859-1
finnish
278
3270cg-1a 3270-cg1 iso8859-1
french
297
3270cg-1a 3270-cg1 iso8859-1
german
273
3270cg-1a 3270-cg1 iso8859-1
icelandic
871
3270cg-1a 3270-cg1 iso8859-1
iso-hebrew
424
iso8859-8
iso-turkish
1026
iso8859-9
italian
280
3270cg-1a 3270-cg1 iso8859-1
norwegian
277
3270cg-1a 3270-cg1 iso8859-1
russian
880
koi8-r
solvenian
870
iso8859-2
thai
838
iso8859-11 tis620.2529-0
uk
285
3270cg-1a 3270-cg1 iso8859-1
us-intl
37
3270cg-1a 3270-cg1 iso8859-1

The default character set is bracket, which is useful for common IBM hosts which use EBCDIC codes 0xAD and 0xBD for the `[' and `]' characters, respectively.

NVT (ANSI) Mode

Some hosts use an ASCII front-end to do initial login negotiation, then later switch to 3270 mode. tcl3270 will emulate an ANSI X.64 terminal until the host places it in 3270 mode (telnet BINARY and SEND EOR modes, or TN3270E mode negotiation).

If the host later negotiates to stop functioning in 3270 mode, tcl3270 will return to ANSI 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

tcl3270 has a number of configurable modes which may be selected by the -set and -clear options.
monoCase
If set, tcl3270 operates in uppercase-only mode.
blankFill
If set, tcl3270 behaves in some un-3270-like 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 ANSI terminal emulator automatically assumes a NEWLINE character when it reaches the end of a line.

The names of the toggles for use with the -set and -clear options are as follows:

Option Name
Monocase monoCase
Blank Fill blankFill
Track Cursor cursorPos
Trace Data Stream dsTrace
Trace Events eventTrace
Save Screen(s) in File screenTrace
Wraparound lineWrap

These names are also used as the first parameter to the Toggle action.

Commands

tcl3270 supports the following additional tcl commands:

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

Ascii return entire screen contents in ASCII
Ascii length return screen contents at cursor in ASCII
Ascii row col length return screen contents in ASCII
Ascii row col rows cols return screen region in ASCII
AsciiField return current field in ASCII
*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
FieldExit clear to end of field and skip to next (5250 emulation)
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 ASCII 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
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 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

File Transfer

The Transfer command implements IND$FILE file transfer. This command requires that the IND$FILE program be installed on the IBM host, and that the 3270 cursor be located in a field that will accept a TSO or VM/CMS command.

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. The options are:

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

The option details are as follows.

Direction
send (the default) 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) or vm.
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.
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. 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.
Blksize
Specifies the block size for files created on the host. (TSO hosts only.)
Allocation
Specifies the units for the TSO host PrimarySpace and SecondarySpace options: tracks, cylinders or avblock.
PrimarySpace
Primary allocation for a file created on a TSO host. The units are given by the Allocation option.
SecondarySpace
Secondary allocation for a file created on a TSO host. The units are given by the Allocation option.

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
\f Clear*
\n Enter*
\pan PA(n)*
\pfnn PF(nn)*
\r Newline
\t Tab
\T BackTab

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

tcl3270 supports the Sun telnet-passthru service provided by the in.telnet-gw server. This allows outbound telnet connections through a firewall machine. When a p: is prepended to a hostname, tcl3270 acts much like the itelnet(1) command. It contacts the machine named internet-gateway at the port defined in /etc/services as telnet-passthru (which defaults to 3514). It then passes the requested hostname and port to the in.telnet-gw server.

Resources

Certain tcl3270 options can be configured via resources. Resources are defined by -xrm options. The definitions are similar to X11 resources, and use a similar syntax. The resources available in tcl3270 are:

Resource Default Option Purpose
blankFill False -set blankFill Blank Fill mode
charset bracket -charset EBCDIC character set
charset.foo     Definition of character set foo
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
ftCommand ind$file   Host file transfer command
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) -mono 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
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 -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 some type of 3278.

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

x3270(1), s3270(1), c3270(1), telnet(1), tn3270(1)
Data Stream Programmer's Reference, IBM GA23-0059
Character Set Reference, IBM GA27-3831
RFC 1576, TN3270 Current Practices
RFC 1646, TN3270 Extensions for LUname and Printer Selection
RFC 2355, TN3270 Enhancements

Copyrights

Modifications Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 by Paul Mattes.
Original X11 Port Copyright © 1990 by Jeff Sparkes.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation.
Copyright © 1989 by Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta, GA 30332.
All Rights Reserved. GTRC hereby grants public use of this software. Derivative works based on this software must incorporate this copyright notice.
5250 Emulation Code Copyright © Minolta (Schweiz) AG, Beat Rubischon.

Version

tcl3270 3.2.19
This HTML document and the accompanying troff document were generated with a set of write-only m4 macros and the powerful vi editor.
Last modified 01 May 2002.