From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED, MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 19289 invoked from network); 18 Sep 2023 22:32:04 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (2600:3c01:e000:146::1) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 18 Sep 2023 22:32:04 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 245D640282; Tue, 19 Sep 2023 08:31:56 +1000 (AEST) Received: from ewsoutbound.kpnmail.nl (unknown [195.121.94.170]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 181244027A for ; Tue, 19 Sep 2023 08:31:45 +1000 (AEST) X-KPN-MessageId: 1b82a8a7-5673-11ee-88e9-005056ab378f Received: from smtp.kpnmail.nl (unknown [10.31.155.39]) by ewsoutbound.so.kpn.org (Halon) with ESMTPS id 1b82a8a7-5673-11ee-88e9-005056ab378f; Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:31:27 +0200 (CEST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=planet.nl; s=planet01; h=to:date:message-id:subject:mime-version:content-type:from; bh=XoE9Fmrm7fMAK9OnHquiGfrcHfQspkSoP4h4s6jkN74=; b=yBj20WIWZLLB68JrK6FiOr73WEkr8v3vp0o4RDSnIKU2uoPsDOL4gj5nQCwGxluL1zfpDOKIfqmjq FBbEuoFa6ZQbvYD4o1U86L6GD0ML7Ehh1MDwoKXNb3+FSeJiitGlQpTb8QN3InS82O5VJqE5wgm3Q9 +hUnGciQFcV+bXCs= X-KPN-MID: 33|l7zxs6wPU6bN5tppLlpJfH4Pm92ePf/9SLQvvIIr1WdcyrbyztZvKeSvBF6Blep OlES5TLvJ8mFqpPoYAA+AlQ== X-KPN-VerifiedSender: Yes X-CMASSUN: 33|/O15Y/2MPherregAzo9oien0GPJvmWKgCvDu9eOFBTXZe3otfqXCvepTJF5WO6G JIpeBIHeQqEhY9bjksagZDA== X-Originating-IP: 77.172.38.96 Received: from mba1.fritz.box (77-172-38-96.fixed.kpn.net [77.172.38.96]) by smtp.kpnmail.nl (Halon) with ESMTPSA id 1e96dd42-5673-11ee-a7a3-005056ab7447; Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:31:33 +0200 (CEST) From: Paul Ruizendaal Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 11.5 \(3445.9.7\)) Message-Id: <81B4F221-C3EF-4543-84CD-78E52ABF0E67@planet.nl> Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:31:30 +0200 To: "tuhs@tuhs.org" X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3445.9.7) Message-ID-Hash: RLV4522ZQDCPJP3GCRMFXUWQHVQNWU65 X-Message-ID-Hash: RLV4522ZQDCPJP3GCRMFXUWQHVQNWU65 X-MailFrom: pnr@planet.nl X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] x/y/zmodem on Unix List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: Last december Matt brought up xmodem and recently I needed it for an = almost identical use case. Studied it a bit and in the context of Unix, = it is an interesting piece of software history. Although xmodem originated on CP/M in 1977, it seems to have arrived on = Unix soon thereafter. The first Unix implementation seems to have gone = by the name of =E2=80=9Crbsb=E2=80=9D and must have originated when V7 = was prevalent: it uses alarm() to simulate non-blocking I/O. Over the = course of the 80=E2=80=99s ymodem and zmodem were added and the package = became lrzsz; the source continued to have a very V7-ish feel to it at = least to the early 90=E2=80=99s. In the mid-90=E2=80=99s it was = converted to ansi-C and had some other modernization, but it looks like = it would still have run on SysIII (apart from the ansi).The last update = to the upstream source package appears to be from 1998, i.e. 25 years = ago. It is still packaged today for FreeBSD and major Linux distros. On Unix = it must be one the oldest code bases still in regular use, with the 1980 = source still recognizable in its current incarnation. Any other = contenders come to mind? I had always associated x/y/zmodem with CP/M and MSDOS, not so much with = Unix. Last December Clem already pointed out that it was popular for = file exchange in the Unix scene as well, along with several other = similar tools. Also, the ymodem approach to file metadata is very unix = oriented, suggesting it originated on Unix or at least that Unix users = were an important user demographic. Yet, I could find little trace of = x/y/zmodem in the TUHS Unix Tree. The search tool finds it in 2.11BSD, = in Minix 1.5 and 2.0 and in V10. Kermit is in those as well, and in = 4.3BSD and 4.4BSD on top. Maybe these programs were commonly pulled from a bulletin board and = hence not on distribution media. Not sure how that would be = bootstrapped, although the 2.11BSD files for x/y/zmodem include = =E2=80=9Cminirb.c=E2=80=9D, a 175 line implementation to receive files = using the ymodem protocol. It is possible that this was transferred as = plain text as a first step, or even retyped. Any recollections?