[HECnet] Intermittent Connection with PyDECnet?

[Johnny Billquist]

Oh, and on the topic of SET EXEC NODE ...

NCP>help set exec node
  Use the SET EXECUTOR NODE command to establish the executor node to be 
used
  by NCP.  Using this command causes subsequent commands (other than HELP,
  EXIT, or CLEAR EXECUTOR NODE)  to be directed to the remote command 
processing
  modules on the specified executor node.  The format is:

     SET EXECUTOR NODE node-id [access-control]

  Where node-id is the node name or node address of the desired executor 
node
  and access-control is the information necessary to gain the desired 
access.

  On an RSX node, the access control will be used to determine the level of
  privilege allowed in performing network management functions.  A 
privileged
  user identification and password results in privileged access, any other
  access control, or lack of it, results in non-privileged access.

  For more help use:

     HELP ACCESS CONTROL
     HELP EXECUTOR
     HELP NODE


   Johnny

On 2020-03-03 02:21, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> On 2020-03-03 02:16, Thomas DeBellis wrote:
>> Nope, I forgot.  So now I just did and got the following interesting 
>> selections:
>>
>>     NCP>set exeCUTOR nODE VENTI2:: ? one of the following:
>>       ACCOUNT    PASSWORD    USER
>>        or confirm with carriage return
>>
>> So I guess that's how Tops-20 parses for it.  So I suppose--assuming 
>> NMLT20 is actually going to swallow this particular parse tree--that 
>> Tops-20 is like RSX and authenticates on a node and not a circuit basis.
> 
> RSX don't even authenticate on a node basis. As I said, it's not "SET 
> EXECUTOR NODE ..." it is "SET EXECUTOR TRANSMIT PASSWORD ...".
> In RSX, it's global. Enable it, and you have it everywhere, and the same 
> password everywhere. No way of any finer granularity. Rather 
> unsatisfying...
> 
>> When I talk about what was written in BLISS and what wasn't, I am 
>> talking about a /seriously/ long time ago.  The first thing that DEC 
>> did when I started in 1979 was stick me in a BLISS class and the 
>> mantra was BLISS everywhere.   That was over 40 years ago...  I can't 
>> even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.
>>
>> Some of the Tops-20 monitor code for DECnet started out and was 
>> debugged under Tops-10.  However, this is Macro-10.
> 
> Oh, I know DEC did move a lot to BLISS. But DECnet-11M wasn't among 
> them, ever. There are only a couple of things in RSX written in BLISS. 
> On the DECnet side, that is PHONE, and then some Professional specific 
> modules that were tailored for P/OS.
> In RSX itself, some file system related stuff is in BLISS, but not much 
> else.
> 
>    Johnny
> 
>>
>> On 3/2/20 8:07 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>>> Did you see any SET EXEC TRANSMIT PASSWORD maybe?
>>>
>>> Anyway, the NCP parsing in RSX is all written in MACRO-11, so it was 
>>> never shared with anything written in BLISS.
>>>
>>>   Johnny
>>>
>>> On 2020-03-03 00:55, Thomas DeBellis wrote:
>>>> I appear to have neither CIRCUIT VERIFICATION nor NODE TRANSMIT 
>>>> PASSWORD, viz:
>>>>
>>>>     NCP>set cirCUIT ni-0 ? ALL
>>>>        or one of the following:
>>>>       ACTIVE         BABBLE      BLOCKING     CHANNEL       COST
>>>>       COUNTER      DEAD
>>>>       DTE            DYING       HELLO        INACTIVE      LINE
>>>>       LISTEN       MAXIMUM
>>>>       NUMBER         OWNER       POLLING      RECALL ROUTER 
>>>> SERVICE      STATE
>>>>       TRANSMIT       TRIBUTARY   TYPE         USAGE
>>>>
>>>>     NCP>set noDE venti2:: ? ALL
>>>>        or one of the following:
>>>>       ADDRESS   CIRCUIT
>>>>        or one of the following:
>>>>       AREA          BROADCAST        BUFFER          CONSOLE COUNTER
>>>>       CPU           DELAY            DIAGNOSTIC      DUMP HARDWARE
>>>>       HOST          IDENTIFICATION   INACTIVITY      INCOMING LOAD
>>>>       MAXIMUM       OUTGOING         RETRANSMIT      ROUTING SECONDARY
>>>>       SEGMENT       SERVICE    SOFTWARE        STATE SUBADDRESSES
>>>>       TERTIARY      TYPE
>>>>
>>>> I may be mis-remembering how our DN200 was configured.  I believe 
>>>> the Top-20 NCP parser may have shared keyword tables with other 
>>>> DECnet implementations via BLISS at one point. Anyway, I recall at 
>>>> least some of it was BLISS.  I haven't look in that particular box 
>>>> lately, but the parse tables appear to assembler now, with heavy 
>>>> uses of GLXMAC macros.
>>>>
>>>> The Tops-20 operator interface has two 'sub-modes', as it were: NCP 
>>>> and LCP.  NCP parses DECnet related keywords.  LCP is used for LAT 
>>>> configuration.  The operator subsystem is kind of neat; OPR parsers 
>>>> send packets to Orion, a communications server and router.  It notes 
>>>> an NCP subset and routes that to NMLT20 which contains just what you 
>>>> think it would.
>>>>
>>>> Early versions of NMLT20 (about 1980) appeared insufficiently 
>>>> productized.  It could hang in a loop or (more frequently) crash for 
>>>> no readily apparent reason. We submitted a rather large number of 
>>>> SPR's...  However, it's quite stable now; I don't believe I've had a 
>>>> single crash.  I have yet to come to a fully informed conclusion 
>>>> about the lexical interface; I sometimes get the impression that it 
>>>> parses for more than it can actually do.
>>>>
>>>> Elsewhere in Tops-20, DECnet implementation is a mixed bag; most of 
>>>> the monitor code appears finished; I go months without reboots and 
>>>> that is with active development.  The user mode code is another 
>>>> matter entirely.  I had my hands full fixing a number of issues with 
>>>> DAP and FAL. It was /invaluable/ having heterogeneous HECnet nodes 
>>>> to test against, RSX 11M+ and VMS. SETNOD needs some finishing and 
>>>> perhaps some additional functionality.  I have yet to look at FTS; I 
>>>> don't see how it can get or generate any traffic at all. The monitor 
>>>> interface (NFT:) does not appear to be operational. Elsewhere 
>>>> (perhaps Galaxy) appears to have no submission interface.  Johnny 
>>>> and I have some minor tweaks to flush out with MAIL11 (in addition 
>>>> to the changes that I've already put in).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 3/2/20 3:25 PM, Robert Armstrong wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> >I don't see where I would set an id and password in 7-1-CONFIG or 
>>>>> in NCP.
>>>>>
>>>>> Don’t know about TOPS-20, but in NCP/NICE/NML it’s
>>>>>
>>>>> SET CIRCUIT … VERIFICATION ENABLED
>>>>>
>>>>> and
>>>>>
>>>>> SET NODE … TRANSMIT PASSWORD …
>>>>>
>>>>> The password the remote node sends has to match the one that’s 
>>>>> associated with that node in the local DECnet database.
>>>>>
>>>>> Bob
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
> 
> 


-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol