Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

• Question:
  What is the meaning of the output of the following messages after the FTP/TELNET client or FTP/TELNET server has been loaded?

  BLS0340 UNRESOLVED EXTERNAL REFERENCES
  BLS0342 ### 'YS6GSBN ........................
  BLS0342 ### 'YS6SOCE .........................
  BLS0342 ### 'YS6CLOS .........................
  BLS0342 ### 'YS6SHTD .........................
  BLS0342 ### 'YS6ERRO .........................
  

  Answer:
  The programs were started either with START-PROG ...... without PROG-MODE=*ANY or the Socket subsystem SOC6 has not been started.

• Question:
  Connection setup with open in the FTP or TELNET client takes a very long time. What is the reason?

  Answer:
  For connection setup both the client and the server use DNS functions. If the associated resolver files are not correctly set, this can result in lengthy wait times. This is the case when, for example, the DNS server specified in the resolver files cannot be reached.

  The name of the resolver file in BS2000 is:

  SYSDAT.SOCKETS.nnn.SOC6.RESOLV or
  SYSDAT.LWRESD.nnn.RESOLV.CONF

• Question:
  What does the following FTP client message mean?

  "time limit for server response exceeded"

  Answer:
  The client is waiting for an answer from the server which has not arrived after a predefined number of seconds (30 seconds). The reason for this can, for example, be that the network load is too high.
  You can often solve the problem by increasing the predefined timeout value of 30 seconds using the FTP user command settime (see the manual “interNet Services User Guide”).

• Question:
  When I transfer a file using FTP and save it as a PAM file in the target system, the string “C-DATEIENDE” is appended to it. What is the purpose of this, and how can I stop it?

  Answer:
  The string “C-DATEIENDE” is normally used to mark the exact end of a PAM file. With the FTP user command setfile datend off you can stop “C-DATEIENDE” being appended. Or you can activate with setfile datend lbp the new "last byte pointer" method for labelling the end of file, which puts information into the file catalog entry instead into the file itself.

• Question:
  In earlier FTP versions (< V4.0) tabulator characters in a text file were automatically converted into the corresponding number of blanks. This is now no longer the case. What is the reason?

  Answer:
  In the course of supporting restart capability in BS2000-FTP as of V4.0 the default for the transfer of text files was changed from ftyp text to ftyp textbin. Consequently tabulator characters are no longer converted by default.

  If you still want to use conversion of the tabulator characters, you can select this via the ftyp command or via the option file:

  • ftyp command (see the manual “interNet Services User Guide”). Specify ftyp text on the client or quote site ftyp text on the server.

  • Option file of the FTP client (initialCommand option, see the manual “interNet Services User Guide”) or option file of the FTP server ( initialChildCmds option, see "-initialChildCmds | -Z")

• Question:
  In earlier FTP versions (< V4.0), SAM files with a fixed record length for which type binary was specified were entirely in binary format and stored without end-of-record characters. In the current FTP version the target file contains end-of-record characters. How can I prevent this?

  Answer:
  ftyp settings are now also taken into account for SAM files with a fixed record length. If ftyp is not “binary”, the record structure of the original file is retained when the file is transferred. To prevent this, you must select ftyp binary explicitly.

• Question:
  In BS2000 FTP and TELNET it is possible to generate diagnostic information with the trace and debug commands (on clients) or with the -T and -D options (on servers). What is the difference between trace and -T on the one hand and debug and -D on the other?

  Answer:
  debug and -D generate diagnostic information which concerns the products FTP and TELNET. The highest useful level here is 6.
  trace and -T, by contrast, output diagnostic information generated by the sockets. The highest useful level here is 9.

• Question:
  I have started a second FTP or TELNET server but cannot set up a connection to it. What can be the reason?

  Answer:
  The most frequent causes of the problem are:

  • Specification of a port number for the server which had already been allocated.

  • Use of an application name in the server (-A option) which had already been allocated.

• Question:
  My FTP login is rejected by the (BS2000) FTP server with the message invalid login. I cannot find any reason for this behavior, however. What should I do?

  Answer:
  If possible, enable the FTP trace in the FTP server using the following command:

  /INFORM-PROGRAM 'debug 2',*TSN <tsn ftpserver>

  Repeat the login and, using the command

  /INFORM-PROGRAM 'rdProt', <tsn ftpserver>

  store the trace in the file SYSOUT.TCP-IP-AP.nnn.FTPD.<MMDDHHMMSS>.

  (MMDDHHMMSS is the date and time specification in the format Month Day Hour Minute Second).

• Question:
  In FTP it is possible to use quote <command> to send the command <command> to the server. However, there is also quote site <command> and quote site exec <command>. What is the difference?

  Answer:

  • With quote <command> you send FTP commands that conform with the standard to the server.

  • With quote site <command> you send BS2000-specific (“proprietary”) commands to the server which are not defined in the standard. These commands include ftyp, cmod, modc, file, setc, sfil.

  • With quote site exec <command> you send BS2000 commands to the server to be executed. To prevent misuse of these commands in the tagret system, this variant is disabled when FTAC is used (option -FTAClevel >0) or via the option -disableSiteExecCommand (see the manual “interNet Services Administrator Guide”).

• Question:
  When using FTP clients with a graphical user interface (GUI) there is often no way of specifying the account number required for the connection to BS2000. What should I do in this case?

  Answer:
  In cases like this enter the account number when you enter your ID as follows:

  <userid>,<account>

• Question:
  When fetching a file from a BS2000 FTP server my non-BS2000 FTP client aborts execution after a certain time without data transfer actually having begun.

  Answer:
  Some FTP clients show the progress of the transfer with a progress bar. For this purpose, the clients first of all use the FTP protocol command SIZE to query the size of the file from the server. Generally the server must read the relevant file in full to process this command. With very large files this can naturally take quite a time, with the result that the client’s timeout monitoring clears the connection.
  Unfortunately on some clients this timeout monitoring cannot be reconfigured to permit longer wait times. In addition, in many cases a SIZE command is sent to the server even when the progress bar has been disabled.

  If an enhancement of the configuration options can be obtained from the vendor of the FTP client, there is an option on the BS2000 FTP server to disable the SIZE command using the - disableSizeCommand option (see the manual “interNet Services Administrator Guide”).

  As a client cannot require that the server should support the SIZE command, transfer should always function. However, you must accept that the restart mechanism no longer functions because the SIZE command is needed for this.

• Question:

  When an LMS file is transferred from an NK2 pubset to an NK4 pubset, the destination file is no longer a valid LMS file.

  Answer:
  Transfer the file initially to a non-NK4 pubset on the destination computer and then use LMS to copy the LMS library to the NK4 pubset.

  Alternatively, you can convert the LMS library to an NK4 pubset on the source computer and then use FTP to transfer it to the NK4 pubset of the destination computer.