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 on 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 "settime - Set time limit for server responses").

• 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 alternatively you activate with setfile datend lbp the new "last byte pointer" method for labeling the file end, which deposits information in the file catalog entry instead in 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 "ftyp - Specify processing type for files on local host"). Specify ftyp text on the client or quote site ftyp text on the server.

  • Option file of the FTP client (initialCommand option, see "-initialCommand - Specify FTP client command") or option file of the FTP server ( initialChildCmds option, see the “interNetServices Administrator Guide”)

• 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 on the server (option -A) 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 on the FTP server using the following console command:

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

  Repeat the login and, using the console command

  /NFORM-PROGRAM 'rdProt',*TSN(<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 be executed to the server. To prevent misuse of these commands in the target system, this variant is disabled when FTAC is used (option -FTAClevel >0) or via the option -disableSiteExecCommand (see the “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 in the BS2000 FTP server to disable the SIZE command using the -disableSizeCommand option (see the “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 to a non-NK4 pubset on the destination computer, and then copy the LMS library to the NK4 pubset using LMS.

  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 on the destination computer.

• Question:

  How can I get the Windows GUI FTP client FileZilla to enable TVFS for the respective session without specifying other session default values?

  Answer:

  Unfortunately, FileZilla does not yet provide an option on the graphical user interface that allows you to specify FTP server commands to be sent to the server at the beginning of an FTP session. However, by editing the XML file %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\FileZilla\sitemanager.xml manually, you can configure these types of commands. To do so, first generate a server entry using the graphical user interface, then search for the related <server> entry in the XML file once FileZilla has finished, and insert the <Command>SITE SVFS ON</Command> sequence

  bracketed with <PostLoginCommands> ... </PostLoginCommands>. Using several <Command> ... </Command> sequences, you can specify other FTP server commands that are to be executed at the beginning of a session.

  For example, to enable TVFS and use LBP (Last Byte Pointer) as the method for marking the EOF of a PAM file:

  <Server>
     <Host>Testze04.example.com</Host>
     <Port>21</Port>
     ...
     <User>Username,Account</User>
     ...
     <PostLoginCommands>
         <Command>SITE SVFS ON</Command>
         <Command>SITE SFIL DATEND LBP</Command>
     </PostLoginCommands>
     ...
     <Name>TESTZE04</Name>
     ...
     <DirectoryComparison>0</DirectoryComparison>TESTZE04</Server>
  

• Question:

  How can I set the file attributes of the remote DMS file via the Windows GUI FTP client FileZilla?

  Answer:

  Generally, the site file command is to be used (see "FTP servers in BS2000"). In the log window, select Enter custom command via right mouse click and enter the appropriate command in the field, e.g.:

  site file file-name,recf=f,recsize=1234

  file-name is the file name which FileZilla will use as the target name of the file transfer (i.e. the name of the source file by default).

  One problem may be that FileZilla normally works with multiple parallel FTP sessions in order to be able to update remote file lists even during protracted file transfers. However, in this case the site file command may not be issued in the same FTP session as the subsequent file transfer. You can avoid this by limiting the maximum number of simultaneous FTP sessions to 1. To do this, open the server manager of the respective server and set the maximum simultaneous transfers to 1 in the transfer settings.

• Question:

  Mail sender: a file is locked, despite the mail sending is already completed (with error or successfully).

  Answer:

  Talk to your system administrator, who can remove the file lock with the command REMOVE-FILE-ALLOCATION-LOCKS.

• Question:

  How can I do with the Windows sftp client WinSCP a binary transfer of a file to/from BS2000.

  Answer:

  The sftp protocol version 3 implemented by OpenSSH gives an sftp client no direct possibility to influence the ASCII/EBCDIC conversion. But the sftp client can specify, which sftp server program shall be uses with which options.

  With the BS2000 proprietary option "-X binary" the sftp server can be adjusted such, that a binary transfer is reached. For this one goes in "Advanced Site Settings" to "Environment" →"SFTP" and configures under "Protocol options" the "SFTP server" with "/opt/TCP-IP-SV/openssh/libexec/sftp-server -X binary" (if OpenSSH was installed by the BS2000 system administrator under the standard path). With the file transfer itself one has to activate in WinSCP the binary transfer type because otherwise locally a transformation of the end of line character(s) is performed.
  Because the choice of the sftp server option is fixed for the respective site entry, if need be one has to create and use a second site entry with standard settings, when e.g. text files shall be transferred, where an ASCII/EBCDIC conversion is wanted.

  The approach described above can be transferred onto other sftp client programs, which also provide a specification mechanism for the sftp server program.

• Question:

  When using an RSA key for host or user authentication no connection to a very old SSH server is possible. What can one do?

  Answer:

  Since OpenSSH 8.8 the support for RSA signatures using the SHA1 hash algorithm is per default deactivated because the SHA1 hash algorithm isn't anymore secure enough. As a temporary stopgap one can activate again these signatures e.g. by adding the following lines to the file ~/.ssh/config:

  Host <Name of host with old SSH server>
      HostkeyAlgorithms +ssh-rsa
      PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms +ssh-rsa

  But this should be used only as a temporary stopgap until the SSH server on the respective host has been updated or reconfigured with another key type such as ECDSA or Ed25519.