Kermit FAQ - How Can I Exit from C-Kermit without Hanging Up?

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27 How Can I Exit from C-Kermit without Hanging Up?

Many people want to be able to make a dialout connection with UNIX C-Kermit, but then use some other software on the connection that C-Kermit made. For example, they want to use C-Kermit as their SLIP or PPP dialer. But they quickly find that when they exit from C-Kermit, that the connection is gone before they can start the other application.

It is a fundamental property of UNIX (and VMS, and Windows 95 and NT, and most other modern operating systems) that when a process exits, then every file that was opened by that process is automatically closed by the operating system. In most cases, closing a terminal device (such as a dialout serial port) hangs up the modem (by turning off the DTR signal). There is nothing the process can do about it.

However, many workarounds are possible. Here are just a few:

Update: C-Kermit 8.0.212 (as of Dev.21 of 5 Oct 2006) attempts to address this problem at least for Linux-like platforms; if you SET EXIT HANGUP OFF, C-Kermit will ask the OS to leave DTR signal on when it exits or when you close the port device.


Kermit FAQ / Columbia University / kermit@kermitproject.org