Open-Source Kermit Project - Free, Portable, Scriptable, Transport-Independent Communications Software. Hosted by Panix.com.


[NYC New Deal]

The New Open-Source Kermit Project

Frank da Cruz
fdc@kermitproject.org
Page created: 1 July 2011
Most recent update: Sat Feb 15 14:38:22 2025

New offsite (August 2023): Try the Last Internet Kermit Server by John Goerzen, complete.org. Also by John:: Kermit (intro); The quux.org Kermit Server: a publicly available Internet Kermit Server; Old and Small Technology (newer and bigger isn't necessarily better).

NEW 27 January 2025... Seventh Beta Test of Kermit 95 for Windows and OS/2: Info Download

DECSYSTEM-20 Kermit 5.3(277)-5, 30 August 2023:

Web page and download

C-Kermit 10.0 Beta.11, 8 August 2024:

Kermit books and articles online:

Click here to access them

March 2024

As of 8 March 2024, the previously HTTP-only original Kermit Project website at Columbia University — and more importantly the very large Kermit software archive there — are accessible by HTTPS as well as HTTP and therefore by browsers such as Chrome and Safari that require HTTPS and no longer make HTTP connections.

27 April 2021

Firefox and Chrome have dropped support for FTP links. More than 10,000 FTP links at this site had to be changed to HTTP, but certain types of FTP links have no HTTP equivalent. READ MORE HERE. Report any remaining broken links to me by email.

25 October 2022
But you can still use FTP the old-fashioned way: ftp ftp.kermitproject.org, user: anonymous, password: anything, cd kermit (and at this point you might have to give the "passive" command depending on the FTP client) and then (for example) cd test/tar to download ("get") C-Kermit Beta-test tarballs. For best results use C-Kermit's built-in FTP client.

Kermit is a robust and portable platform-and-transport-independent file-transfer protocol and a large collection of software programs that implement it on a wide variety of platforms. In addition to file transfer, many of these programs also make network, dialed, and/or serial-port connections and also offer features such as terminal emulation, character-set conversion, and scripting for automation of any communication or file-management task. The Kermit Project originated at Columbia University in New York City in 1981 and remained there for 30 years. Since 2011 it is independent. CLICK HERE for more about the Kermit Project, protocol, and software.

News:

August 11, 2024... ck10.0 for Microsoft Windows and IBM OS/2 Beta.06 based on C-Kermit 10.0 Beta.06 from David Goodwin in New Zealand.
August 8, 2024... ck10.0 for UNIX (Linux, BSD, etc) and (Open)VMS Beta.06.
July 15, 2023... Sortable tables on the website, which stopped being sortable last September, are now sortable again, for example the Kermit file-transfer packets reference page. They are also found on the NYC New Deal site, e.g. here, here, and here). Thanks to Stuart Langridge for the fix (and for sorttable.js).
July 3, 2022... C-Kermit 10.0 Beta.10 - The forthcoming new C-Kermit release for Unix, VMS, and MS-Windows. Details here.
2 April 2023... DECSYSTEM-20 Kermit 5.3(230) by Tom DeBellis, the first major release in nearly two decades (with a subsequent minor update 11 June).
May 1, 2023... The Kermit Project site is accessible by IPV4, HTTP, HTTPS, and as of 27 Apr 2023 IPV6 and a new FTP server.
September 18, 2022... New Kermit File-Transfer Packet Reference
September 15, 2022... Third Beta Test of the new C-Kermit for Windows.
April 29, 2022... The Kermit script for downloading and installing other Kermit scripts, getkermitscript, a casualty of the Great FTP Purge of 2021, now fixed; download new version.
February 10, 2022... Problem with download links to the original Kermit Project website at Columbia University; see notice.
November 14, 2021... G-Kermit 2.01 - a few more adjustments to our ever-changing Unix APIs.
October 17, 2021... Photogallery 3.12 - some minor fixes.
May 26, 2021... E-Kermit 1.18 Bug fixes, plus all FTP links in the E-Kermit page have been converted to HTTP.
May 26, 2021... G-Kermit 2.00, the first and only new release since it debuted over 20 years ago. Version 2.00 should compile cleanly in most modern Unix versions and produce a working excutable. All FTP links in the G-Kermit page have been converted to HTTP.
May 7, 2021... All FTP links in the C-Kermit page and the C-Kermit "Daily" page converted to work with Chrome and Firefox.
May 2, 2021... All FTP links the Kermit Archive page have been converted to something that Chrome and Firefox will accept.
April 30, 2021... All FTP links removed from this page since they no longer work in Firefox or Chrome..
April 29, 2021... 40th anniversary of first Kermit protocol file transfer and Why I still use Kermit all day every day
16 February, 2021... HTTP-to-HTTPS conversion: Kermit Project website is now encrypted.
August 1, 2019... New index to all C-Kermit documentation HERE, plus comprehensive tables of C-Kermit's built-in functions and built-in variables. For associative arrays, SEE HERE.

September 15, 2021... C-Kermit 9.0.305 Alpha.04 available for testing; some preliminary work has been done on the VMS support.
July 25, 2020... C-Kermit 9.0.305 Alpha.01 available for testing. Important: This is an emergency test release that works around a change made affecting Linux and other Unix systems that use the GNU stdio library (glibc) which causes C-Kermit builds to fail; affected systems include (at least) Ubuntu and Debian. Please test to make sure this version builds without errors, and that arrow keys function correctly in C-Kermit command mode, e.g. up-arrow for command recall.
April 19, 2021... C-Kermit 4C(057) of 31 July 1985 has been added to the historical archive, thanks to Jeffrey H. Johnson.
24 March, 2021... Some minor improvements to Photogallery, and the three iframes in the user manual are working again (they were casualties of the http-https cutover).
June 29, 2020... Photogallery 3.04. Improved handling of character sets, etc.
April 26, 2020... The first release of C-Kermit, version 4.0 of 5 February 1985, has been excavated.
2016-2019... Translations of this page (and others) into many languages; see credits below.
December 30, 2019... Is this website secure? (yes)
January 31, 2020... Photogallery 3.00, a major new release. Supports PNG, GIF, and Animated GIF as well as JPG, and does not require ImageMagick, many more improvements. Use this version with C-Kermit 9.0.304 Dev.23.
November 22, 2019... Photogallery script 2.38... IMAGES file: ignore leading blanks, allow end-of-line comments
October 17, 2019... K95 Russian Keyboard Map for English speakers who want to type Russian words mnemonically: a new fit-on-one page table (new Oct 16, revised Oct 17).
April 19, 2019... This page converted to HTML5 and validated; layout and fluidity improved.
June 17, 2017... The First Kermit File Transfer Re-enacted (report from 2017 Vintage Computer Festival East).
May 1, 2017... C-Kermit 9.0.304 Dev.22 available for testing, plus a new script for converting plain-text files to HTML.
April 7. 2017... Original 1983 Kermit BYTE article located.
March 15, 2017... This page converted from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8. The original remains available here.
January 14, 2017... ITS Kermit in Maclisp for the PDP-10 resurfaces, mostly.
March 14, 2016... Does Kermit 95 work in Windows 10? (yes)
February 10, 2016... New Kermit software archive page with updates.
February 8, 2016... Kermit books are now online as PDF files.
January 28, 2016... C-Kermit 4.2 from March 1985, which was lost for decades, has resurfaced. Happy 30th birthday to C-Kermit, somewhat belated.
January 16, 2016... C-Kermit 9.0.304 Dev.20 available for testing.
January 16, 2016... New script: Remind, reminds you about what's coming up on your schedule.
October 25, 2015... Photogallery script 2.09, with new optional button to enlarge images, special treatment for portrait images, ability to insert descriptive text after subtitles on the index page.
May 19, 2015... Photogallery script 2.02, now “mobile friendly”; download it with Getkermiscript. Also, most of the top-level pages on this site have been “mobilized”.
January 30, 2015... Progress Report on Open Source Kermit 95.
February 28, 2014...Replacetextblock - A script to replace blocks of text.
February 19, 2014...The MM email client moves to kermitproject.org
January 12, 2014... New Getkermitscript script for downloading and installing Kermit scripts.
October 30, 2013... Kermit Project Oral History Transcripts at the Computer History Museum HERE and HERE.
October 29, 2013... Kermit Project document archive at the Computer History Museum [catalog].

See Timeline for other items.

Kermit programs currently in use

And hosted at kermitproject.org...

All of these are written in the C programming language, with source code available.

Program	Operating systems
C-Kermit	Unix, VMS
Terminal sessions, file transfer, character-set conversion, scripting. Makes serial and TCP/IP network connections, including secure ones. Unix is the operating system family that includes Linux, Mac OS, Android, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and hundreds of others. C-Kermit 9.0 and later has an Open-Source BSD license. Prebuilt C-Kermit binarires for over 700 platforms 1985-2011 are archived at the Columbia University Kermit website. As of 2023, C-Kermit 10.0 is in Beta test.
G-Kermit	Unix
File transfer only, does not make connections*. GNU Public License.
E-Kermit	None/Any
For embedding in devices that might not have an operating system. File transfer only. Programming is required for adaptation to a given device. Extremely small and compact. BSD license.
Kermit 95	Windows, OS/2
Terminal emulation, file transfer, character-set conversion, scripting. Makes serial and TCP/IP network connections, including secure ones. The new Open Source version is now in Beta Test (Windows only so far, maybe OS/2 later).

“Does not make connections” means that this Kermit program is used only on the "far end" of a data connection. For example, if you have a PC on your desk with Windows and Kermit 95, or with Linux and C-Kermit, you can make a connection (direct serial, or dialed with a modem, or Telnet, or SSH) to another (remote) computer, and you can use G-Kermit or E-Kermit (or C-Kermit) on the remote computer to transfer a file with your local computer (the PC in this case) using Kermit protocol [see diagram].

The historical Kermit software archive — the one that contains all the Kermit programs and files from 1981 to August 2011 — is at Columbia University: about 150 different programs, covering thousands of hardware-OS-version combinations, in 36 different programming languages and many more dialects. The archive page indicated just below links mostly to Columbia, but also links to some newer items that are here at the new site:

Kermit Software Archive 1981-2023:
http://kermitproject.org/archive.html

My thanks to Panix Public Access Networks Corporation on behalf of the open source community and Kermit software users and developers for hosting this site since 2011. —Frank da Cruz, fdc@kermitproject.org

Translations of this page courtesy of...

Language	Link	Date	Translator	Organization
Albanian	Shqip	2023-08-17	Ermira Beqiri	NPI Finder
Arabic	عربى	2019-02-04	Anonymous	3 Piece Wall Art
Belarusian	Беларускі	2023-08-17	Vladyslav Byshuk \| Владислав Бишук	skyclinic.ua
Catalan	Català	2024-05-31	Carlos García	Picture with Words
Chinese (S)	中文	2018-06-04	Danie Huang	furnitureok.com.au
Chinese (T)	繁體字	2019-08-03	Austin Cole	MattressMoz.com
Czech	Český	2024-09-11	Alena Piksaeva (Алёна Пиксаева)	Allekredittkort.org
Danish	Dansk	2023/08/19	Kersten Schmidt	writemypaper4me.org
Dutch	Nederlands	2017-12-20	Anonymous	BedsOnline.com.au
Farsi	فارسی	2019-02-04	Anonymous	3 Piece Wall Art
Finnish	Suomalainen	2017-12-20	Anonymous	blackmango.com.au
French	Français	2018-02-13	Martin	koddos.net
German	Deutsch	2017-12-20	Anonymous	gstore.com.au
Greek	Ελληνική	2023-08-19	Kersten Schmidt	ProThesisWriter
Hebrew	עִברִית	2017-03-08	CSH team	CustomerServiceHelpline.co.uk
Hebrew	עִברִית	2017-12-20	Anonymous	focusonfurniture.com.au/
Hindi	हिंदी	2017-12-20	Anonymous	codecamp.com.au/
Indonesian	Bahasa Indonesia	2016-12-29	Jordan Silaen	chameleonjohn.com/
Italian	Italiano	2017-12-20	Anonymous	directartaustralia.com.au/
Korean	한국어	2019-02-04	Anonymous	Word Art America
Norwegian	Norsk Bokmål	2018-12-07	Lars Olden	Norwegian Translations
Norwegian	Norsk Nynorsk	2022-02-22	Espen Garman	Forbrukslån på dagen
Polish	Polski	2023/08/19	Kersten Schmidt	justdomyhomework.com
Portuguese	Português	2017-03-17	Anonymous
Romanian	Română	2017-04-14	Irina Vasilescu
Russian	Русский	2023-08-17	Vladyslav Byshuk \| Владислав Бишук	studybounty.com
Spanish	Español	2011-10-01	Aleida Morel
Swedish	Svenska	2022-08-16	Cecilie Brekgård	Kredittkortisten
Tatar	Татар Теле	2017-04-03	Timur	myscres.com
Turkish	Türkçe	2020-12-31	Anonymous
Ukrainian	Українська	2023-08-17	Vladyslav Byshuk \| Владислав Бишук	studycrumb.com
Urdu	اردو	2019-03-26	Sharifa	RealMS
Uzbek	O’zbekcha	2017-01-15	Daniyar Nurgaliev	Best Car Team

[about translations] Note: Translations are hosted at other sites and tend to disappear.

Notices:

As of 16 February 2021, this website is encrypted via services provided by the free, automated, and open Let's Encrypt certificate authority as administered by Panix.com.
As of 10 October 2020, this site participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, linking to reference materials (mainly books and films) at Amazon.com in order to partially fund its expenses through small referral commissions on book orders. No endorsement, support, or sponsorship of this site by Amazon.com (or vice-versa) is expressed or implied, nor any affiliation with Amazon beyond membership in the Affiliate program.

Most recent update: 15 February 2025