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)