Telnet terminal type option

M. Solomon; E. Wimmers

doi:10.17487/RFC0884

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This is a modified version of the Internet RFC suitable for machine-translating. Original version is available here: RFC884

Obsoleted by: 930 UNKNOWN

Network Working Group                                     Marvin Solomon
Request for Comments: 884                                 Edward Wimmers
                                       University of Wisconsin - Madison
                                                           December 1983

TELNET TERMINAL TYPE OPTION

This RFC specifies a standard for the ARPA Internet community. Hosts on the ARPA Internet that exchange terminal type information within the Telnet protocol are expected to adopt and implement this standard.

1. Command Name and Code

TERMINAL-TYPE 24

2. Command Meanings

IAC WILL TERMINAL-TYPE

Sender is willing to send terminal type information in a subsequent sub-negotiation

IAC DO TERMINAL-TYPE

Sender is willing to receive terminal type information in a subsequent sub-negotiation

IAC DON'T TERMINAL-TYPE

Sender refuses to accept terminal type information

IAC WON'T TERMINAL-TYPE

Sender refuses to send terminal type information

IAC SB TERMINAL-TYPE SEND IAC SE

Sender requests receiver to transmit his (the receiver's) terminal type. The code for SEND is 1. (See below.)

IAC SB TERMINAL-TYPE IS ... IAC SE

Sender is stating the name of his terminal type. The code for IS is 0. (See below.)

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RFC 884                                                    December 1983
3. Default

DON'T TERMINAL-TYPE

WON'T TERMINAL-TYPE

Terminal type information will not be exchanged.

4. Motivation for the Option

This option allows a telnet server to determine the type of terminal connected to a user telnet program. The transmission of such information does not immediately imply any change of processing. However, the information may be passed to a process, which may alter the data it sends to suit the particular characteristics of the terminal. For example, some operating systems have a terminal driver that accepts a code indicating the type of terminal being driven. Using the TERMINAL TYPE and BINARY options, a telnet server program on such a system could arrange to have terminals driven as if they were directly connected, including such special functions as cursor addressing, multiple colors, etc., not included in the Network Virtual Terminal specification. This option fits into the normal structure of TELNET options by deferring the actual transfer of status information to the SB command.

5. Description of the Option

WILL and DO are used only to obtain and grant permission for future discussion. The actual exchange of status information occurs within option subcommands (IAC SB TERMINAL-TYPE...).

Once the two hosts have exchanged a WILL and a DO, the sender of the WILL TERMINAL-TYPE is free to transmit type information, spontan- eously or in response to a request from the sender of the DO. At worst, this may lead to transmitting the information twice. Only the sender of the DO may send requests (IAC SB TERMINAL-TYPE SEND IAC SE) and only the sender of the WILL may transmit actual type information (within an IAC SB TERMINAL-TYPE IS ... IAC SE command).

The terminal type information is an NVT ASCII string. Within this string, upper and lower case are considered equivalent. A few terminal type names useful in the context of IBM systems are listed below. It is anticipated that additional names will be added in the future. The complete list of valid terminal types will be found in the latest "Assigned Numbers" RFC. The following is an example of use of the option:

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RFC 884                                                    December 1983

Host1: IAC DO TERMINAL-TYPE

Host2: IAC WILL TERMINAL-TYPE

(Host2 is now free to send status information at any time. Solicitations from Host1 are NOT necessary. This should not produce any dangerous race conditions. At worst, two IS's will be sent.)

Host1 (perhaps): IAC SB TERMINAL-TYPE SEND IAC SE

Host2:

IAC SB TERMINAL-TYPE IS IBM-3278-2 IAC SE

6.  Implementation Suggestions

The "terminal type" information may be any NVT ASCII string meaning- ful to both ends of the negotiation. The list of suggestions below is intended to minimize confusion caused by alternative "spellings" of the terminal type. For example, confusion would arise if one party were to call a terminal "IBM3278-2" while the other called it "IBM-3278/2". There is no negative acknowledgement for a terminal type that is not understood, but certain other options (such as switching to BINARY mode) may be refused if a valid terminal type name has not been specified. In some cases, a particular terminal may be known by more than one name, for example a specific type and a more generic type. In such cases, the sender of the TERMINAL-TYPE IS command should reply to successive TERMINAL-TYPE SEND commands with the various names, from most to least specific. In this way, a telnet server that does not understand the first response can prompt for alternatives. However, it should cease sending TERMINAL-TYPE SEND commands after receiving the same response two consecutive times. Similarly, a sender should indicate it has sent all available names by repeating the last one sent.

Here are a few terminal types useful in the IBM environment:

IBM-3275-2 IBM-3276-2 IBM-3276-3 IBM-3276-4 IBM-3277-2 IBM-3278-2 IBM-3278-3 IBM-3278-4 IBM-3278-5 IBM-3279-2 IBM-3279-3

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RFC 884                                                    December 1983

Here are a few terminal types useful in the TOPS20 environment:

ANN-ARBOR-AMBASSADOR CONCEPT-100 DATAMEDIA-2500 DEC-LA30 DEC-VT100 DEC-VT52 EXECUPORT-4000 HAZELTINE-1500 HP-2621 HP-2640 HP-2645A HP-2649 NETWORK-VIRTUAL-TERMINAL TEKTRONIX-4025 TELERAY-1061 TELETYPE-33 TELETYPE-37 TELEVIDEO-950 TERMINET-300 TI-700 ZENITH-H19

Here are a few terminal types used in the Unix environment:

ADDS-CONSUL-980 ADDS-REGENT-200 ANDERSON-JACOBSON-832 ANN-ARBOR-AMBASSADOR BITGRAPH CDI-1203 COMPUCOLOR-II CONCEPT-100 DATA-GENERAL-6053 DATAGRAPHIX-132A DATAMEDIA-3045A DATAPOINT-3360 DEC-DECWRITER-II DEC-GT40 DEC-VT52 DELTA-DATA-5000 DIABLO-1620 EXECUPORT-4000 GENERAL-TERMINAL-100A HAZELTINE-1500 HAZELTINE-2000 HP-2621 HP-2640A HP-2645 HP-2649A IBM-3101 INFOTON-100 LSI-ADM-3 MICROTERM-ACT-V MICROTERM-MIME-2 NETWORK-VIRTUAL-TERMINAL PERKIN-ELMER-1100 PLASMA-PANEL SUPERBEE-III-M TEKTRONIX-4014 TELERAY-3700 TELETYPE-33 TELETYPE-37 TELEVIDEO-912 TERMINET-300 TI-700 TI-733 TI-745 VISUAL-200 XEROX-1720 ZENITH-H19 ZENTEC-30

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RFC 884                                                    December 1983

The type "UNKNOWN" should be used if the type of the terminal is unknown or unlikely to be recognized by the other party.

The complete and up-to-date list will be maintained in the "Assigned Numbers".

Solomon & Wimmers [Page 5]

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