Transfer your files with Kermit

Hi, it’s been long time I wanted to write this article. The topic is Kermit, which is a file transfer protocol from the 80’s which solved problems of that era (text files and binaries files, poor lines, high latency etc..).

There is a comm/kermit package on OpenBSD and I am going to show you how to use it. The package is the program ckermit which is a client/server for kermit.

Kermit is a lot of things, there is a protocol, but it’s also the client/server, when you type kermit, it opens a kermit shell, where you can type commands or write kermit scripts. This allows scripts to be done using a kermit in the shebang.

I personally use kermit over ssh to retrieve files from my remote server, this requires kermit on both machines. My script is the following:

#!/usr/local/bin/kermit +
set host /pty ssh -t -e none -l solene perso.pw kermit
remote cd /home/ftp/
cd /home/solene/Downloads/
reget /recursive /delete .
close
exit

This connects to the remote server and starts kermit. It changes the current directory on the remote server into /home/ftp and locally it goes into /home/solene/Downloads, then, it start retrieving data, continuing previous transfer if not finished (reget command), for every file finished, it’s deleted on the remote server. Once finished, it close the ssh connection and exits.

The transfer interfaces looks like this. It shows how you are connected, which file is currently transferring, its size, the percent done (0% in the example), time left, speed and some others information.

C-Kermit 9.0.302 OPEN SOURCE:, 20 Aug 2011, solene.perso.local [192.168.43.56]
    
   Current Directory: /home/downloads/openbsd
        Network Host: ssh -t -e none -l solene perso.pw kermit (UNIX)
        Network Type: TCP/IP
              Parity: none
         RTT/Timeout: 01 / 03
           RECEIVING: src.tar.gz => src.tar.gz => src.tar.gz
           File Type: BINARY
           File Size: 183640885
        Percent Done:
                          ...10...20...30...40...50...60...70...80...90..100
 Estimated Time Left: 00:43:32
  Transfer Rate, CPS: 70098
        Window Slots: 1 of 30
         Packet Type: D
        Packet Count: 214
       Packet Length: 3998
         Error Count: 0
          Last Error:
        Last Message:
    
X to cancel file, Z to cancel group, <CR> to resend last packet,
E to send Error packet, ^C to quit immediately, ^L to refresh screen.

What’s interesting is that you can skip a file by pressing “X”, kermit will stop the downloading (but keep the file for later resuming) and start downloading the next file. It can be useful sometimes when you transfer a bunch of files, and it’s really big and you don’t want it now and don’t want to type the command by hand, just “X” and it skips it. Z or E will exists the transfer and close the connection.

Speed can be improved by adding the following lines before the reget command:

set reliable
set window 32
set receive packet-length 9024

This improves performance because nowadays our networks are mostly reliable and fast. Kermit was designed at a time when serial line was used to transfer data. It’s also reported that Kermit is in use in the ISS (International Space Station), I can’t verify if it’s still in use there.

I never had any issue while transferring, even by getting a file by resuming it so many times or using a poor 4G hot-spot with 20s of latency.

I did some tests and I get same performances than rsync over the Internet, it’s a bit slower over Lan though.

I only described an use case. Scripts can be made, there are a lot of others commands. You can type “help” in the kermit shell to get some hints for more help, “?” will display the command list.

It can be used interactively, you can queue files by using “add” to create a send-list, and then proceed to transfer the queue.

Another way to use it is to start the local kermit shell, then type “ssh user@remote-server” which will ssh into a remote box. Then you can type “kermit” and type kermit commands, this make a link between your local kermit and the remote one. You can go back to the local kermit by typing "Ctrl+", and go back to the remote by entering the command “C”.

This is a piece of software I found by lurking into the ports tree for discovering new software and I felt in love with it. It’s really reliable.

It does a different job compared to rsync, I don’t think it can preserve time, permissions etc… but it can be scripted completely, using parameters, and it’s an awesome piece of software!

It should support HTTP, HTTPS and ftp transfers too, as a client, but I did not get it work. On OpenBSD, the HTTPS support is disabled, it requires some work to switch to libreSSL.

You can find information on the official website.