Question:  If I have a file on my Grex directory under /u/mcpoz/*.*, how can
I download that to my pc?  I have tried with my send/receive commands and am
now very confused.  Do I conduct this directly using the Send command?  The
Receive command?  ??   Thanks

19 responses total.

Assuming you're connected over a dial-up line, try 

sz filename

at the prompt on Grex, where filename is the name of the file to download.
Right after that, start a ZModem receive with your communications software.

... with some comm software, starting a zmodem send on Grex will automatically
start a zmodem receive on your PC without your having to intervene.

Similarly, use     sx filename    and then start an xmodem file receive, or
use     sb filename    and start a ymodem-batch file receive, depending on
what your emulator supports.

Over a network login you're likely to have to use either kermit or ftp.  In
general, make sure you're set to binary transfers with either of these.  (With
kermit you have to set *both* ends to binary.)

Binary? I've had no trouble using kermit or ftp in text mode to transfer
text files. What's the basis for the choice, again? 

I think text mode fixes the line breaks to work with different systems, while
binary transferrs the file as is.  If you use text mode with a text file, it
will be much more readable, but if you use text mode with a binary file, well,
let's just say that your binary file will come through pretty useless.

Right.  Rane, I've encountered enough questions of the "hey - what happened
to the ZIP file I downloaded??????" type that I tend to tell people to use
binary.  If you're sure that the file you're downloading is text, by all means
use text mode.  But a lot people are clueless about what that difference
means.

This is strange, I never saw response #1,2 or #3.  Today, response #4 showed
up and I went back and found the earlier ones.  ?   ? 

Thanks for the tips.  I'll get busy trying them!

Well, the !sz filename worked fine.  How would I put a pc file into my Grex
directory?  !rz filename?  (I'll wait on your reply just so I don't gum up
the grexworks)
Thanks

You're right.  !rz filename.  People were saying a while ago that it's better
for Grex to upload on a 2400bps line than on a 9600bps line, since it doesn't
pound Grex as hard.  I'm not sure what the current thinking on that is.

This response has been erased.

thanks

Boy, I am having trouble lately.  Can't figure it out or solve it by trial
and error.  My symptoms are:

    In any highlighted command box, If I type a response, I get the box and
    the command repeated immediately to the right of the curser.  As I type
    each character, it is added to the repeat image after the cursor.   

    In Pine, the same thing happens.  Additionally, while typing an e-mail,
    as the word-wrap feature "wraps" it inserts the first word or two from
    the line.  This inserted word can not be edited out.  If I try to arrow
    or space, it just jumps over these characters.  I can not send mail now.

    I can not erase any entry on the command line.  I found out by trial and
    error that I can use ^w to take out a whole word, but I used to be able
    to simply backspace.  I tried to "change my erase key" in menu, but no
    luck.

Any ideas?  This happens in two softwares, COMit, and BitCom.  I recently 
changed computers, and previously used COMit with no problems.  Before I 
was accessing the software from DOS and now I am accessing from Windows.  

WELL!  I got almost everything straightened out by trial and error.  For some
reason, the BitCom software could not be configured to work correctly.  The
COMit works ok except for one aggravating problem.      

When I am in Pine, and I use the "Y" command to print a file, it "prints" it
on my screen.  I have gone into set-up and tried all the suggested variations
and I get either the same result or some indication that it could not read
the command.  Is there any suggestion on how to get my printer to print out
a copy of an e-mail letter?  The printer works fine in all other applications,
including the "print highlighted text" and other commands.      

Thanks again.

You have to *remove* any printer specification from the setup file. In
the version of pine used on Grex, that means choosing "attached-to-ansi"
(option 1) in the Printer submenu of the Setup option. I forget if I
did that, actually: what I know does work is to edit .pinerc so that
the printer specification is

# Your printer selection
printer=                   

...well - it works for me, on several machines with pine.

Rane's right, sort of.  Chances are you've already got things set up as he
suggests.  However, not all communications software supports that kind of
printing.  You may just have software that doesn't support it.

I've had it fail, or screw up. On a Mac IIci with Telnet, printing to a
Laserwriter, it always works. On a Mac SE with Versaterm, printing to a
Deskwriter 540, its OK unless the message is long (several pine windows),
when it doesn't print them all unless I do some special tricks. So I agree
- it can be idiosyncratic. 

Will the same commands mentioned above also work while telnetting?
if not, what might? (also to double-check, what is the filename for my
mailbox)
Bob

This response has been erased.

I'll give it a try, thanks.
but to add to this..how would i use the info once I j\have it? could it just
be opened as a text file?

Your incoming mailbox is indeed a text file.  The basic structure will be a
series of messages, each starting with a line beginning "From " (note the
space, & there are some other relevant  points about it).  This line and the
ones which follow are headers, some of which are under the senders' control
& some of which are automatically generated.  Eventually you get an empty
line, and then the message body, which is normally just text.  (It is possible
to get binary stuff in there, but in theory it should be encoded somehow. 
If you have attachments which include binary files they probably are encoded
by mime or uuencode or something, so they appear as text in
possibly-not-especially-understandable form.)  At the end of the message there
should be another empty line before the next "From " line.

Two other comments about downloading your incoming mailbox.  You can use
kermit, ftp, zmodem, or whatever to download it - but these aren't likely to
use whatever locking prevents sendmail from adding to the file during this
process.  So you might wind up with a partial message at the end of the thing.
Also, sending it from Grex doesn't remove it from /var/spool/mail, so unless
you do something to delete your messages, you're going to keep downloading
the same ones over & over, & your file transfers will get longer & longer.

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