bionic (8) fal.8.gz

NAME

       fal - File Access Listener for DECnet

SYNOPSIS

       fal [options]
       Options:
       [-dvVhmt] [-l logtype] [-a auto-type] [-f <auto-file>] [-r <virtual-root>]

DESCRIPTION

       fal  is  a  daemon  that  serves  incoming DAP (Data Access protocol) connections from remote systems. It
       enables transparent file access to files from OpenVMS machines using standard DECnet syntax.   It  should
       be started at system boot time (after DECnet has been started) and must be run as root.
       The file names output by fal will adapt depending on the sytax of files that are requested of it. If VMS-
       style filenames are requested then VMS-style filenames will be  returned.  If  Unix-style  filenames  are
       requested  then  Unix-style  (native)  filenames  will be returned. Note that to force fal to display the
       contents of a directory with Unix-style names the name must end in a slash or have some form of  wildcard
       character in it.
       When returning VMS-style filenames, all names will be converted to upper case, directories will have .DIR
       appended to them and all filenames will have a version number of 1.  In addition  fal  will  construct  a
       volume  and  directory  syntax  for the directory that will look familiar to VMS users. Of course it also
       understands this syntax when files and directories are requested of it. One of the problems with this  is
       that  Unix  filenames  with non-VMS syntax (eg double dots or "funny" characters) or files with uppercase
       letter in their names will not be accessible from VMS using VMS syntax.  You  must  use  Unix  syntax  to
       access these files through FAL.
       The  options  below  affect  the  behaviour  of  fal. If you are using dnetd then these options should be
       specified in the dnetd.conf(5) file.
       By default all files sent by fal will be sent in STREAMLF  format.  This  is  configurable  by  the  many
       command-line switches detailed below.

OPTIONS

       -l     Set logging options. The following are available:
              -lm  Log  to  /dev/mono.  (only  useful  if you have my mono monitor driver or mdacon and a second
              monitor)
              -le Log to stderr. Use this for debugging or testing combined with -d.
              -ls Log to syslog(3). This is the default if no options are given.

       -a     Set algorithm for automatically selecting file types.
              -ag Guess file type based on first few bytes
              -ae Check file extension against a table
              By default all files will be sent/received as STREAMLF

       -f <filename>
              Specify the filename used to check file extensions. Only valid with -ae.  The format if  the  file
              is simple:
              extension  <b/r> <block size>.
              In  fact,  'r'  is  more  of a comment than an instruction but it may be used in future to support
              proper variable-length record files.
              By default an internal table is used with some common file extensions. It is as follows:
               #Generic types
               .txt  r
               .c    r
               .cc   r
               .log  r
               .html r
               # VMS types
               .com  r
               .lis  r
               .bck  b 32256
               .save b 8192
               .exe  b 512
               .zip  b 512
               #Linux types
               .tar  b 10240
               .gz   b 512
               .tgz  b 512
               .bz2  b 512
               # End of file

       -u     Enable users to override the two above options with a .fal_auto file in  her/his  home  directory.
              This  file  should  contain  a single word: guess, ext or none.  Note that -u and a .fal_auto file
              takes effect even if no -a option is present.

       -m     Use the meta-file directory (normally  named  .fal)  to  store  file  attributes.  Metafiles  will
              override any guessed or checked file attributes.

       -t     Instruct  FAL  for look for .$ADF$ files created by the NFS Client in TCP/IP for VMS V5.0+ and use
              them to get file attributes. This option can be used with the -m and -a  flags  in  which  case  a
              .$ADF$ takes precedence over a fal metafile or a guessed file type.

       -r <virtual root>
              Run  FAL  in a "virtual root". All file accesses will be done below this directory rather than the
              normal root filesystem. ie access for "/"  or  "SYSDISK:[000000]"  will  start  at  the  specified
              directory.  Requests  for ".." will be refused.  NOTE: This is not a chroot, fal still runs in the
              normal filesystem. also note that this will lose the ability to access users home directories: all
              users doing a "DIR LINUX::*.*" from VMS will see the virtual root instead.

       -d     Don't fork and run the background. Use this for debugging.

       -v     Verbose.  The  more  of  these there are the more verbose fal will be. Don't use more than one for
              normal operation because it will seriously impair performance.

       -h -?  Displays help for using the command.

       -V     Show the version of fal.

SEE ALSO

       decnet.proxy(5),  dnetd(8),  dnetd.conf(5),  dntype(1),  dndir(1),  dndel(1),   dntask(1),   dnsubmit(1),
       dnprint(1)