File Transfer Protocol

Owned by Gunther Strube
Last updated: Jun 09, 2015Version comment

You might have computer you want to interface with EazyLink, which we have not yet supported. This documentation provides you with the information to develop your Client application to interface with the EazyLink Server. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in implementing a new client.

The current version of the EazyLink server popdown is v5.2.3 (stand-alone edition) and v5.4 (OZ-integrated edition).

For each command description you will see the version number it was developed in. The highest version number always contains all features below of the current version number.

- The initialisation

When the EazyLink Server is activated (#L shortcut) it automatically resets the serial port to 9600 baud for both Receive and Transmit Rates, with No Parity and No Xon/Xoff on the Z88 serial port. Then, a translation table is loaded; either from the external file "translate.dat" or using the internal ISO/IBM standard.

- The main loop

EazyLink now just listens to the serial port for commands to perform (or awaits a command from the keyboard). You may press <ESC> to abort EazyLink (KILLing the popdown) or any other protocol command that currently is being processed.

The main loop waits for two different protocol headers:

  1. The PC-LINK II protocol header identifier 
  2. The EazyLink protocol header identifier

The protocol header determines how the serial port byte stream is parsed. All request commands are initialized with a protocol header. Please refer to "PCLINK II protocol" or "EazyLink protocol" sections for the specific protocol and commands available.


Timeout - waiting for information

The EazyLink Server uses an implicit timeout of 30 seconds in all serial port communications. If you aborted the Client (Killed the application) while it was receiving a file from the Z88, the EazyLink Server suddenly couldn't transfer since the serial port buffer was filled. Then, it automatically waites 30 seconds to continue sending data to the serial port. If timeout occurs, the current command request is automatically aborted, and EazyLink returns to the main loop awaiting a new command request.

The same principle applies when the information flow is aborted during receiving data from the Client.

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