REMOTE(5)

🌸 REMOTE(5) — the remote host description file, bestie edition 🌸

okay so this is a File Formats Manual page, section 5, and it's literally the whole guide to the remote file. it's giving "config file but make it vintage" and honestly? iconic. 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

remote — the remote host description file. that's it, that's the vibe. 🎀

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so the systems that tip(1) knows about — plus all their little attributes — live in an ASCII file that's structured somewhat like the termcap(5) file. like, cousin energy. each line in the file describes one single system. fields are separated by a colon (:). and if a line ends in a \ character with a newline immediately after it, the line keeps going on the next line. continuation slay. ✨

the first entry is the name(s) of the host system. if a system has more than one name, the names are separated by vertical bars. after the name of the system comes the fields of the description. a field name followed by an = sign means it's a string value. a field name followed by a # sign means it's a numeric value. iykyk. 🔥

entries named tip* and cu* are used as default entries by tip(1), and by the cu(1) interface to tip, like this:

• when tip is invoked with only a phone number, it looks for an entry of the form tip300, where 300 is the data rate with which the connection is to be made.
• when the cu interface is used, entries of the form cu300 are used.

no cap, that's the whole lookup system. 🫶

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🌈 CAPABILITIES 🌈

capabilities come in three flavors, and yes we stan all of them:

• strings (str)
• numbers (num)
• boolean flags (bool)

a string capability is specified by capability=value — for example, dv=/dev/harris. a numeric capability is specified by capability#value — for example, xa#99. a boolean capability is specified by simply listing the capability. that's it. just vibes. 💀

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• at (str) — auto call unit type.
• br (num) — the data rate (bits per second) used for communications on the serial port. when a modem is used, the data rate used to communicate with the remote modem may be different than this rate. this is a decimal number. the default rate is 115200 bits per second. ⭐
• cm (str) — an initial connection message to be sent to the remote host. for example, if a host is reached through a port selector, this might be set to the appropriate sequence required to switch to the host. like a little "hey bestie let me in" text. 🦋
• cu (str) — call unit if making a phone call. default is the same as the dv field.
• di (str) — disconnect message sent to the host when a disconnect is requested by the user. bye bitch energy. 👋
• du (bool) — this host is on a dial-up line.
• dv (str) — Unix device(s) to open to establish a connection. if this file refers to a terminal line, tip(1) attempts to perform an exclusive open on the device to ensure only one user at a time has access to the port. no sharing, we gatekeep. 🔒
• el (str) — characters marking an end-of-line. the default is NULL. ~ escapes are only recognized by tip after one of the characters in el, or after a carriage-return. important detail, don't forget it.
• fs (str) — frame size for transfers. the default frame size is equal to BUFSIZ.
• hd (bool) — the host uses half-duplex communication, so local echo should be performed.
• ie (str) — input end-of-file marks. the default is NULL.
• oe (str) — output end-of-file string. the default is NULL. when tip is transferring a file, this string is sent at end-of-file. 🎀
• pa (str) — the type of parity to use when sending data to the host. this may be one of:
  • even
  • odd
  • none
  • zero (always set bit 8 to zero)
  • one (always set bit 8 to one)

the default is even parity. 🌸

• pn (str) — telephone number(s) for this host. if the telephone number field contains an @ sign, tip searches the file /etc/phones for a list of telephone numbers (see phones(5)).
• tc (str) — indicates that the list of capabilities is continued in the named description. this is used primarily to share common capability information. literally inheritance before inheritance was cool. 👑

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🎀 FILES 🎀

• /etc/remote — the remote host description file resides in /etc.

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🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

here's a short example showing off the capability continuation feature, because honestly that's the main character of this page. it defines a 56k modem connection on the first serial port at 115200 bits per second, no parity, using the Hayes command set with standard line editing and end of file characters. the arpavax entry includes everything in the UNIX-57600 entry plus the phone number for arpavax — in this case an @ character so that it is retrieved from the environment. sneaky but valid. 🙈

UNIX-57600:\
:dv=/dev/cuau0:el=^D^U^C^S^Q^O@:oe=^D:du:at=hayes:br#115200:pa=none:
arpavax|ax:\
:pn=\@:tc=UNIX-57600

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

cu(1), tip(1), phones(5)

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⭐ HISTORY ⭐

the remote file format appeared in 4.2BSD. vintage. retro. a true elder. 🫶

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💀 BUGS 💀

tip(1) uses its own notion of the serial ports data rate rather than the system default for a serial port. so yeah, it does what it wants. not me being surprised. 😭

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and that's the whole page bestie!! this edition came from Debian, dated October 20, 2003 — an absolute time capsule, we love her for it. mwah 💋✨🍓