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DOS Server also includes a set of utilities, AIX2DOS and DOS2AIX, that
convert DOS Version 3.3 and AIX text files to the respective operating
system format.
James Logan said:
# Interactive markets a product called PC-Interface. It works in conjuction
with a ms-dos package called DOS Bridge. This package "provides a transparent
integration of the DOS and Unix systems". Has anyone used this package?
It sounds like it provides all the features of NFS and rlogin rolled into
one package. Is this true?
Yes. I used it back in '85. Very nice package
back then, it must have improved quite a bit in the past 4 years.
It allowed a DOS user to connect to a server daemon on one or more UNIX
host. Each host was assigned its own virtual drive under DOS.
On the UNIX side, the server that was forked by the daemon
would change to your home directory initially, so you wouldn't start writing
all over the root partition. All regular DOS commands worked as usual.
It came with a few DOS commands that imitated "ls" and "chmod" too.
The only thing it was lacking at the time was the ability
to run a UNIX command from DOS. Maybe they have added that, I don't
know. It would have been nice to have been able to use a command,
like "unix" that ran its arguments as a command.
Commands like: C:\> unix mailx would have been useful. I
don't think it would have been that difficult to implement.
It does work over the serial line as well. You get
a DOS terminal window so you can dial up the host and login as usual, then
you invoke an executable, hit a function key on the PC, and you're connected
as you would be using TCP/IP, although much slower.
Bruce A. McIntyre wrote:
I have used PC-Interface with UNIX, NCR Tower, Unisys,
and Arix machines. It does provide logical disks on the unix host for the
PC machine, and can even re-direct printer output, but dos not provide
any other access for the PC to the UNIX host. However, the unix machine
can put files in, or read files from the "logical drive" of the PC, which
is nothing more than a login directory for the PC. IBM resells a
version of this for AIX called DOS SERVICES or something like that.
XENIX-NET from SCO provides similar services as well, and I have used that
for XENIX. Both of these also provide somewhat brain damaged terminal
emulators, but in fact, PC-FACET supports PC-INTERFACE to allow full windowed
terminal emulation etc.
Both are valuable products, and do what they claim quite well,
however,
neither provides what you would expect from a full version of NFS.
Daniel A. Graifer wrote:
We are using PC-Interface extensively here with our Prime
EXL hosts. It provides the following services to an MS-DOS PC over
either any of a large list of ethernet controllers or the com1/2: ports:
Connections to multiple unix hosts simultaneously.
Each connected host's unix files system
appears as as DOS drive letter. Non-DOS acceptable filenames are mapped
to unique DOS names with funny chars. At the beginning of the
connection, the current directory is set to the user's home directory.
It then changes with the dos CD command according to MS DOS rules.
DOS file attributes (ie readonly and modification time) are correctly mapped.
There is a DOS command "on" with syntax like "on [systemname or drive-
letter] unixcommand" which will run unix task(s) either synchronously or
asynchronously. (ie it recognizes a terminating ampersand) and which accepts
input and output redirection. This works well, and we use it heavily.
Example, we login via a batch file contain a line like:
on
sysname 'date %T' |time >nul:
which sets the time clock on the DOS machine to match the unix system's.
There is a printer command which allows you to redirect separately
LPT1:, LPT2:, LPT3: into any unix command. The default is set
by the host, usually "lp", but we've used things like "tee -a logfile |lp
-dPagePrinter -oLANDSCAPE" very successfully. This especially useful
when using Postscript printers with DOS programs that don't support Postscript...just
have a printer interface option to preface the print
job with a simple postscript lineprinter program.
There is a slightly braindamaged
vt100 terminal emulator program that works over either the ethernet or
the serial ports. Once you have connected to a system, you can pop
back and forth between a unix login session and DOS with a function key.
We found it useful to buy SuperKey, a DOS keyboard Macro program, and use
it to remap function keys etc used with this program.
All in, we find it a very useful package.
The version we have (2.8.7) is very painless and reliable. The "on"
command is especially useful within
batch files. We have DOS users running things on the unix hosts
all the time without even knowing that's what's happening.
P.S. You may be curious to know that it use UDP/IP, not TCP for the
ethernet communication. I believe there are efficiency reasons for
doing this, but I'm no expert.
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