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Charon-AXP


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General Description

CHARON-AXP offers two-port serial console on all supported AXP models.

Example for OPA0 console ("COM1" port):

set COM1 alias=OPA0

When using the TTA0 console ("COM2" port):

set COM2 alias=TTA0

Refer to Mapping Serial line controllers to system resources for details of mapping.

General parameters

CHARON-AXP console lines COM1 and COM2 have the following parameters:

(info) All the values in the following tables are case insensitive.

alias

Parameteralias
TypeIdentifier
Value

This parameter is used to set an useful name for COM1 or COM2 ports.

Usually it is "OPA0" for COM1 and "TTA0" for COM2

Example:

set COM2 alias=TTA0

communication

Parametercommunication
Type

Text string

Value
  • "ascii" - for connection to terminals  (default)

  • "binary" - for binary (packet) protocols, which are used mainly for communicating with PLCs

baud

Parameterbaud
TypeNumeric
Value

Forces the baud rate of the corresponding COM port to be a specified value.

The variety of supported values depends on the underlying physical communication resource (COM port). The most widely used values are: 300, 1200, 9600, 19200, 38400.

Example:

set OPA0 baud=38400

break_on

Parameterbreak_on
TypeText string
Value

Specifies what byte sequences received over the physical serial line will trigger a HALT command.

This parameter works only for the console line.

Specify the following values: "Ctrl-P", "Break" or "none" ("none" disables triggering a HALT condition).

If your guest operating system is OpenVMS in addition to "none" setting you have to set a specific console parameter "controlp" to "off" in the following way:

>>> set controlp off
>>> power off

The second line is to preserve the ROM settings.

Example:

set OPA0 break_on="Ctrl-P"

The default value is "Break".

(warning) This parameter can be specified only for COM1 (OPA0) console

stop_on

Parameterstop_on
TypeText string
Value

Specifies what byte sequences received over the physical serial line will trigger a STOP condition. The STOP condition causes CHARON Virtual Machine (VM) to exit.

Specify the one of the following values: “F6” or “none” ("none" disables triggering a STOP condition).

Example:

set OPA0 stop_on="F6"

The default value is "none".

Setting "F6" triggers the STOP condition upon receipt of the "<ESC>[17~" sequence. Terminals usually send these sequences by pressing the F6 button

(warning) This parameter can be specified only for COM1 (OPA0) console

log

Parameterlog
TypeText string
Value

A string specifying a file name to store the content of the console sessions or a directory where the log files for each individual session will be stored.

If an existing directory is specified, CHARON VM automatically enables creation of individual log files, one for each session using the same scheme as used for the generation of the rotating log files. If the "log" parameter is omitted, CHARON VM does not create a console log.

Examples:

set OPA0 log="log.txt"
set OPA0 log="C:\Charon\Logs"

Only existing directory can be used as a value of the "log" parameter.

log_file_size

Parameterlog_file_size
TypeText string
Value

If log rotation is enabled, the log_file_size parameter determines the log file size threshold at which the log is automatically rotated.

  • "unlimited" or "0" (default) - the feature is disabled
  • "default" - default size is used (4Mb)
  • <size>[KMG] - size of the current log file in bytes with additional multipliers:
    • K - Kilobyte - multiply by 1024

    • M - Megabyte - multiply by 1024*1024

    • G - Gigabyte - multiply by 1024*1024*1024

Examples:

set OPA0 log_file_size="default"

set OPA0 log_file_size=10M

(warning) Minimum log file size is 64K, maximum is 1G. Setting size less then 64K effectively makes the log file unlimited.

host

Parameterhost
TypeText string
Value

A remote host’s IP address or hostname (and optionally a remote TCP/IP port number) for the virtual serial line connection. If omitted, the virtual serial line does not initiate a connection to the remote host and will listen for incoming connection requests.

Specify the value in the following form:

set OPA0 host="<host-name>[:<port-no>]"

If the "<port-no>" is not specified, the virtual serial line uses the TCP/IP port number specified by the "port" parameter (see below).

port

Parameterport
TypeNumeric
Value

The TCP/IP port number for the virtual serial line. A virtual serial line always listens on this port for incoming connection requests.

If multiple virtualized machines are running on a server, ensure the port number is unique across the platform.

application

Parameterapplication
TypeText string
Value

An application (a terminal emulator is assumed in most cases) to be started on initialization of this serial line emulation. The specified application startup string may contain all required parameters.

Example:

set OPA application = "putty.exe -load OPA0"

In this example the terminal emulator application: "putty" is started with the parameters "-load OPA0" telling it to load a specific saved session named "OPA0", (created separately) from the host registry.

The "application" parameter is often combined with a "port" parameter:

set TTA0 port = 10003 application = "putty.exe -load TTA1"

Notes on "virtual_serial_line" options


  1. Use the combination of "port" and "host" parameters as follows to connect a 3rd party terminal emulator or similar program.

    set COM1 alias=OPA0 host="192.168.1.1" port=10000

    In this example CHARON VM connects to port 10000 of a host with TCP/IP address "192.168.1.1" and at the same time it accepts connections on local port 10000.

         

  2. It is possible to specify a port on a remote host (note that CHARON always acts as a server). The syntax is:

    set COM2 alias=TTA0 host="192.168.1.1:20000" port=10000

    In this example CHARON VM accepts connection on local port 10000 and connects to remote port 20000 of a host with TCP/IP address "192.168.1.1"

Note: the examples above are mainly used for inter-CHARON communications. They are used to connect CHARON VM to an application that communicates to CHARON VM as described below.

Example:

Two CHARON VMs connected to each other:

On host "A":

set COM2 alias=TTA0 port=5500 host="B"

On host "B":

set COM2 alias=TTA0 port=5500 host="A"

On these two hosts, executing CHARON VM, the two TTA0 lines connect to each other, thus creating a "serial" cable between the two emulated HP Alphas. The sequential order in which the CHARON VMs are started makes no difference.

Mapping Serial line controllers to system resources

line

Parameterline
TypeText string
Value

A defined COM port on a host system in the form of "\\.\COMn" (or "COM<n>:")

Example:

set OPA0 line="\\.\COM1"


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