tip(1c)tip(1c)Name
tip, cu - connect to a remote system
Syntax
tip [-v] [-speed] system-name
tip [-v] [-speed] phone-number
cu phone-number [-t] [-s speed] [-a acu] [-l line] [-#]
Description
The and commands establish a full-duplex connection to another system,
giving the appearance of being logged in directly on the remote cpu.
Modems must be present on your system and configured into the file in
order for and to work. See for information on how to set up the
modems.
You must have an account on the system (or equivalent) into which you
wish to log in. The preferred interface is The interface is included
for those people attached to the ``call UNIX'' command of version 7.
This manual page describes only
Options
-# Uses specified speed (#) as baud rate.
-l Uses specified terminal line.
-v Displays all variable settings.
Typed characters are normally transmitted directly to the remote sys‐
tem, which does the echoing as well. A tilde (~') appearing as the
first character of a line is an escape signal. The tilde escapes are:
CTRL/D~.
Drop the connection and exit (you may still be logged in on the
remote machine).
c [name]
Change directory to name (no argument causes a change to your home
directory).
! Escape to a shell (exiting the shell returns you to ).
> Copy file from local to remote. The command prompts for the name of
a local file to transmit.
< Copy file from remote to local. The command prompts first for the
name of the file to be sent, then for a command to be executed on
the remote system.
p from [ to ]
Send a file to a remote UNIX host. The put command causes the
remote UNIX system to run the command string: cat > to, while sends
it the from file. If the to file is not specified the from file
name is used. This command is actually a UNIX specific version of
the ~> command.
t 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 specified. The
remote host executes the command string cat 'from';echo ^A to send
the file to
| 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.
# Send a BREAK to the remote system. For systems which don't support
the necessary call the break is simulated by a sequence of line
speed changes and DEL characters.
s Sets a variable. See the discussion below.
v Displays sets as they are made.
CTRL/Z
Stop (only available with job control).
? Displays a summary of the tilde escapes
The utility uses the file to find how to reach a particular system and
to find out how it should operate while talking to the system. Refer
to 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, for example,
tip -300 mds.
When establishes a connection it sends out a connection message to the
remote system; the default value, if any, is defined in
When prompts for an argument (for example, 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 dialogue and return you to the remote system.
The command guards against multiple users connecting to a remote system
by opening modems and terminal lines with exclusive access, and by hon‐
oring the locking protocol used by
During file transfers 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 normally
depend on tandem mode for flow control. If the remote system does not
support tandem mode, echocheck may be set to indicate should synchro‐
nize with the remote system on the echo of each transmitted character.
When must dial a phone number to connect to a system it will print var‐
ious messages indicating its actions. The command supports two methods
of dialing modems. Tailored subroutines built into support the DIGITAL
DN-11, DF02, DF03, DF112, DF124, and DF224 modems, the Racal-Vadic 831
auto-call modem, the Ventel 212+ modem, Racal-Vadic 3451 modem, and the
Bizcomp 1031 and 1032 integral call unit/modems.
A generic dialer interface provides an alternative method to tailored
subroutines for each type of modem. The generic method uses entries
similar to to provide with the information needed to activate some
modem and place a call. The file used by the generic dialer is and the
format of entries in this file are described in
Note that the generic dialer interface is used whenever the AT field
from an entry of matches the name field of an entry of If no match is
found, then the tailored subroutine list is searched and will be used
if that modem is supported there.
When using a DIGITAL DF112 modem, disable the ``Interface Test Mode
Indicate'' option (set switchpack2, switch 6 to the OFF position)..
VARIABLES The command 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 and 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
example 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 to display the sets as
they are made. Certain common variables have abbreviations. The fol‐
lowing is a list of common variables, their abbreviations, and their
default values.
beautify
(bool) Discard unprintable characters when a session is being
scripted; abbreviated be.
baudrate
(num) The baud rate at which the connection was established;
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 transfer by
waiting for the echo of the last character transmitted; default
is off.
eofread
(str) The set of characters which signify an end-of-transmission
during a ~< file transfer command; abbreviated eofr.
eofwrite
(str) The string sent to indicate end-of-transmission during a
~> file transfer command; abbreviated eofw.
eol
(str) The set of characters which indicate an end-of-line. The
command 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 transmission;
abbreviated fo; default value is ^P.
framesize
(num) The amount of data (in bytes) to buffer between file sys‐
tem writes when receiving files; abbreviated fr.
host
(str) The name of the host to which you are connected; abbrevi‐
ated ho.
prompt
(char) The character which indicates an end-of-line on the
remote host; abbreviated pr; default value is 0 This value is
used to synchronize during what 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 for transmission to the remote system.
raisechar
(char) The input character used to toggle upper case mapping
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, will record everything transmitted by the
remote system 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 exception to the normal beautification rules.
tabexpand
(bool) Expand tabs to spaces during file transfers; abbreviated
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, prints messages while dialing, shows
the current number of lines transferred during a file transfer
operations, and more.
SHELL
(str) The name of the shell to use for the ~! command; default
value is /bin/sh.
HOME
(str) The home directory to use for the ~c command; default
value is taken from the environment.
Diagnostics
Diagnostics are self-explanatory.
Files
/etc/remote global system descriptions
/etc/phones global phone number data base
/etc/acucap shared autodial modem database
${REMOTE} private system descriptions
${PHONES} private phone numbers
~/.tiprc initialization file.
/usr/spool/uucp/LCK..* lock file to avoid conflicts with uucp
See Alsoacucap(5), phones(5), remote(5), uucpsetup(8)tip(1c)
