tn5250 README

This is an implementation of the 5250 telnet protocol. It was originally an implementation for Linux, but it has been reportedly compiled on a number of other platforms. Contributed keyboard maps and termcap entries for FreeBSD are in this tarball as well (see freebsd/README for more information).

This, the 0.17.x series, is the development series and may cause severe headaches and stomach cramps, if only due to the quality of code :) If you are looking for a stable emulator, get the latest 0.16.x version. Even so, 0.17.x is quite stable and in production at several sites. Furthermore, for the enhanced 5250 protocol 0.17.x is required.

Building from CVS

Skip to ``Building and Installing'' below if you got these sources from a .tar.gz release file or a CVS snapshot (as opposed to using cvs checkout' or cvs update' to retreive the sources).

Certain files, such as the libtool support files and some shell scripts which replace possibly missing commands on the target system are not in CVS because we don't maintain them. They can be installed with the following command:

./autogen.sh

This command requires current versions of the following packages, and the generated files may not work properly.

automake autoconf libtool

You may receive an error the first time you run this script. If so, run the script a second time to make sure you don't get an error (this is a bug with automake).

Building and Installing

To build the emulator simply type the following:

./configure make make install

Additional (but decidedly generic) installation instructions are available in the file `INSTALL' included in this distribution. Installation instructions specific to your platform exist if you are using Linux or FreeBSD -- they are in the linux/ and freebsd/ directories, respectively. Please read these before telling us that the function keys don't work ;-)

The emulator uses the ncurses library for manipulating the console. Make sure you have the ncurses development libraries installed before trying to compile the source. There have been both reports of the standard BSD curses working and not working, so you may have to install GNU curses (ncurses) under *BSD.

X Windows

To use the emulator under X Windows, use the provided xt5250' shell script, which sets up a standard xterm' (it will not work with an nxterm' or an rxvt' terminal).

There is one common problem which would cause xt5250 to flash once on the screen then disappear. If the termcap or terminfo entry for the xterm-5250' terminal type does not exist, the xterm' will exit immediately.

x5250 is an X11 front end (which does not use xterm) written by James Rich. It can be found at http://www.chowhouse.com/~james/x5250.

Other Information

Other information is available on the web.

http://tn5250.sourceforge.net/ - linux5250 Homepage http://www.midrange.com/linux5250.shtml - linux5250 List Info http://archive.midrange.com/linux5250/index.htm - linux5250 List Archives http://sourceforge.net/projects/tn5250/ - linux5250 at Sourceforge http://perso.libertysurf.fr/plinux/tn5250-faq.html - linux5250 FAQ http://www.chowhouse.com/~james/tn5250-HOWTO.pdf - linux5250 HOWTO

Comments, questions, bug reports and patches are much appreciated - please subscribe to the list and post them there if at all possible. If that's too much trouble, email one of the maintainers below:

Jason M. Felice [email protected] Michael Madore [email protected]

Enjoy!