ser2net.8

This project provides a proxy that allows telnet/tcp connections to be made to serial ports on a mac

.TH ser2net 1 06/02/01  "Serial to network proxy"

.SH NAME
ser2net \- Serial to network proxy

.SH SYNOPSIS
.B ser2net
[\-c configfile] [\-p controlport] [\-n]

.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.BR ser2net
daemon allows telnet and tcp sessions to be established with a unit's
serial ports.
.PP
The program comes up normally as a daemon, opens the TCP ports
specified in the configuration file, and waits for connections.  Once
a connection occurs, the program attempts to set up the connection and
open the serial port.  If another user is already using the connection
or serial port, the connection is refused with an error message.

.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.I "\-c config\-file"
Set the configuration file to one other than the default of
.BR "/etc/ser2net.conf"
.TP
.I \-n
Stops  the  daemon  from  forking  and  detaching  from the controlling
terminal. This is useful for running from init.
.TP
.I \-d
Like -n, but also sends the system logs to standard output. This is
most useful for debugging purposes.
.TP
.I \-u
If UUCP locking is enabled, this will disable the use of UUCP locks.
.TP
.I \-b
Cisco IOS uses a different mechanism for specifying the baud rates
than the mechanism described in RFC2217.  This option sets the IOS
version of setting the baud rates.  The default is RFC2217's.
.TP
.I \-v
Prints the version of the program and exits.
.TP
.I \-p port
Enables the control port and sets the TCP port to listen to for the
control port.  A port number may be of the form [host,]port, such as
127.0.0.1,2000
or localhost,2000.  If this is specified, it will only bind to the
IP address specified for the port.  Otherwise, it will bind to all the
ports on the machine.

.SH CONTROL PORT
The control port provides a simple interface for controlling the ports and 
viewing their status. To accomplish this, it has the following commands:
.TP
.B showport [<TCP port>]
Show information about a port. If no port is given, all ports are displayed.
.TP
.B showshortport [<TCP port>]
Show information about a port, each port on one line. If no port is given,
all ports are displayed.  This can produce very wide output.
.TP
.B help
Display a short list and summary of commands.
.TP
.B exit
Disconnect from the control port.
.TP
.B version
Display the version of this program.
.TP
.B monitor <type> <tcp port>
Display all the input for a given port on
the calling control port.  Only one direction may be monitored
at a time.  The type field may be 
.I tcp
or
.I term
and specifies
whether to monitor data from the TCP port or from the serial port
Note that data monitoring is best effort, if the controller port
cannot keep up the data will be silently dropped.  A controller
may only monitor one thing and a port may only be monitored by
one controller.
.TP
.B monitor stop
Stop the current monitor.
.TP
.B disconnect <tcp port>
Disconnect the tcp connection on the port.
.TP
.B setporttimeout <tcp port> <timeout>
Set the amount of time in seconds before the port connection will be
shut down if no activity has been seen on the port.
.TP
.B setportconfig <tcp port> <config>
Set the port configuration as in the device configuration in the
.BR /etc/ser2net.conf
file.  If conflicting options are specified, the last option will
be the one used.  Note that these will not change until the port
is disconnected and connected again.  Options
.I 300, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 115200
set the various baud rates.
.I EVEN, ODD, NONE
set the parity.
.I 1STOPBIT, 2STOPBITS
set the number of stop bits.
.I 7DATABITS, 8DATABITS
set the number of data bits.
.I [-]XONXOFF
turns on (- off) XON/XOFF support.
.I [-]RTSCTS
turns on (- off) hardware flow control.
.I [-]LOCAL
ignores (- checks) the modem control lines (DCD, DTR, etc.)
.TP
.B setportcontrol <tcp port> <controls>
Modify dynamic port controls.  These do not stay between connections.
Controls are:
.I DTRHI, DTRLO
Turns on and off the DTR line.
.I RTSHI, RTSLO
Turns on and off the RTS line.
.TP
.B setportenable <tcp port> <enable state>
Sets the port operation state.  Valid states are:
.I off
to shut the TCP port down,
.I raw
to enable the TCP port transfer all I/O as-is,
.I rawlp
to enable the TCP port input and device output without termios setting, and
.I telnet
to enable the TCP port is up run the telnet negotiation protocol on the port.

.SH CONFIGURATION
Configuration is accomplished through the file
.BR /etc/ser2net.conf .
A file with another name or path may be specified using the
.I \-c
option.  This  file consists of one or more entries with the following
format:
.IP
<TCP port>:<state>:<timeout>:<device>:<options>
.PP
or
.IP
BANNER:<banner name>:<banner text>
.PP

.SS FIELDS
.TP
.I "TCP port"
Name  or number of the TCP/IP port to accept connections from for this
device.  A port number may be of the form [host,]port, such as 127.0.0.1,2000
or localhost,2000.  If this is specified, it will only bind to the
IP address specified for the port.  Otherwise, it will bind to all the
ports on the machine.
.TP
.I state
Either 
.BR raw
or
.BR rawlp
or
.BR telnet
or
.BR off.
.I off
disables the port from accepting connections.  It can be turned
on later from the control port.
.I raw
enables the port and transfers all data as-is between the port and
the long.
.I rawlp
enables the port and transfers all input data to device,
device is open without any termios setting. It allow to use /dev/lpX
devices and printers connected to them.
.I telnet
enables the port and runs the telnet protocol on the port to set up
telnet parameters.  This is most useful for using telnet.
.TP
.I device
The  name  of  the  device  to connect to. This must be in the form of
.BR /dev/<device> .
.TP
.I "device configuration options"
Sets operational parameters for the serial port.  Options
.I 300, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 115200
set the various baud rates.
.I EVEN, ODD, NONE
set the parity.
.I 1STOPBIT, 2STOPBITS
set the number of stop bits.
.I 7DATABITS, 8DATABITS
set the number of data bits.
.I [-]XONXOFF
turns on (- off) XON/XOFF support.
.I [-]RTSCTS
turns on (- off) hardware flow control.
.I [-]LOCAL
ignores (- checks) the modem control lines (DCD, DTR, etc.)
.I remctl
allows remote control of the serial port parameters via RFC 2217.  See
the README for more info.
.I <banner name>
displays the given banner when a user connects to the port.

.TP
.I "banner name"
A name for the banner; this may be used in the options of a port.
.TP
.I "banner text"
The text to display as the banner.  This may contain normal "C" escape
strings, and it may also contain, \\d for the device name and \\p for
the TCP port number of the given connection.

.PP
Blank lines and lines starting with `#' are ignored.

.SH SECURITY
ser2net uses the tcp wrappers interface to implement host-based security.
See hosts_access(5) for a description of the file setup.  Two daemons are
used by ser2net, "ser2net" is for the data ports and "ser2net-control"
is for the control ports.

.SH "SIGNALS"
.TP 0.5i
.B SIGHUP
If ser2net receives a SIGHUP, it will reread it configuration file
and make the appropriate changes.  If an inuse port is changed or deleted,
the actual change will not occur until the port is disconnected.

.SH "Error"
Almost all error output goes to syslog, not standard output.

.SH "FILES"
/etc/ser2net.conf

.SH "SEE ALSO"
telnet(1), hosts_access(5)

.SH "KNOWN PROBLEMS"
None.

.SH AUTHOR
.PP
Corey Minyard <[e-mail]>