CKW: C-Kermit 10.0 for Microsoft Windows

Download   Install   Run   SSH   Coexist   Documentation

This page assumes a degree of familiarity with Kermit software; if you need an introduction, look HERE.

Frank da Cruz
fdc@columbia.edu
Created: 16 July 2022
Last update: Thu Jul 21 08:49:29 2022

Work on a free Open Source™ version of Kermit 95 for Microsoft Windows commenced in 2013 then ended inconclusively in 2015 (see this page). Work resumed in 2022 as part of the C-Kermit 10.0 rollout. The first Beta-test version appeared on 17 July 2022. The name of the executable program is K95G.EXE (which is the traditional name, but it might change); it is a text-mode application that executes in a GUI window. The Windows builds and packaging were done by David Goodwin in New Zealand, based on his 2013 work and the latest C-Kermit 10.0 Beta test source code. The result is called C-Kermit for Windows, CKW for short.

• CKW is freely downloadable, fully copyable and shareable, no registration required, no serial numbers, no unlocking codes.
• CKW is command-line only. There is no GUI point-and-click drag-and-drop user interface like the former K95 Dialer. The target audience is technical: programmers, sysadmins, network administrators, Web authors, etc. It is to be used exactly as C-Kermit is used on Unix, VMS, etc: by typing commands or executing command files (scripts).
• CKW is based on C-Kermit 10.0. In fact it will be the Windows version of C-Kermit 10.0, and therefore includes all the bug fixes and new features added to C-Kermit since version 8.0.207 when C-Kermit 2.1.3 was released 20 years ago.
• The main difference between CKW and other C-Kermit versions is that CKW does its own terminal emulation, with a built-in selection of over 40 terminal types (VT52, VT100, VT220, VT320, Wyse 30, Wyse 50, Wyse 60, Wyse 320, SNI–97801, ANSI‑BBS, TVI, QNX, HP, IBM3151, Hazeltine, Heath, DG Dasher, etc etc), with conveniences like key mapping, keyboard macros, scrollback, resizing, clickable URLs, screen capture, copy/paste, etc.
• Features that CKW shares with the other C-Kermit implementations include Kermit-protocol file transfer across the terminal connection; support for more than 50 national, international, and corporate character sets — including Unicode UTF-8 — with the ability to convert among them; a powerful scripting language for automation of communication and file-transfer/management tasks; (etc etc)...
• Unlike the original Kermit 95, CKW includes no built-in strong encryption functions and therefore no built-in SSL, Kerberos, SRP, or SSH clients. The first three are no longer needed since there are no Internet Telnet or FTP servers secured by these protocols to be found any more on the Internet.
• Since CKW contains no strong encryption code, there are no export restrictions so it is available for download to all countries. Including Cuba and Iran. CKW's little-known HTTP command can connect to only to HTTP sites, not HTTPS (which wouild require inclusion of the SSL code, which is not free of export restrictions, and is also a moving target).
• CKW includes numerous Windows-specific bug fixes.
• CKW has been tested on Windows versions back to Windows 95 SP1, and up to Windows 10.
• The CKW code still supports IBM OS/2 but there has not been an OS/2 build yet due to lack of access to the IBM VisualAge compiler for OS/2.
• Transfer of large files (bigger than 2³¹ bytes) works with the file-transfer display and statistics shown correctly (see screen shot).
• CKW does not include the XYZMODEM protocols, as that code was licensed for K95 from another company.
• CKW does not include support for proprietary networks like DEC PATHWORKS and LAT, as that code was licensed from DEC and other companies, and anyway there would be little or no demand in the 2020s and beyond.
• CKW should work ok on Windows NT 4.0 and later but hasn't been tested recently.
• Our goal is for CKW to be buildable with freely available toolsets like gcc and Open Watcom, but for now Microsoft Visual C++ 6 is required.
• Once the final version is released it will be installed on Github where it can take on a new life of its own in the future.

Source code is not available yet; it will be included beginning with the next C-Kermit 10.0 Beta test, Beta.05. The first downloadable version of CKW announces itself as:

C-Kermit 10.0 OPEN SOURCE:, Jul 17 2022, for Windows
 Copyright (C) 1985, 2022,
  Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York.

The copyright remains with Columbia U, in accordance with the separation agreement of 2011. CKW uses the C-Kermit version number, not the K95 one, which was different (the last K95 release was 2.1.3, which was contemporary with C-Kermit 8.0.207). The LICENSE command shows the new Open Source license.

SSH Connections

The SSH support code from K95 2.1.3 has been retired because it doesn't work any more due to changes in the ciphers used by modern SSH servers. SSH connections can be made in CKW by using an external helper program as described in THIS PAGE. It is hoped that the final CKW release will have an SSH command that works transparently, like C-Kermit's, i.e. by redirecting an external passthough SSH client such as Plink through a pseudoterminal (using a new Windows API called ConPTY, that did not exist until 2018; this work remains to be done).

David Goodwin says that "executables built with newer versions of Visual C++ likely won't work on older versions of Windows. Building with Visual C++ 2022 should get us PTY support on Windows 10 but at the cost of being able to run on anything older than Windows 7 (the clibs minimum supported windows release). So if we wanted to have a version of C-Kermit that still worked on anything older than Windows 7 we'd have to do two builds — one with a current compiler so people on Windows 10 can use new Windows 10 features like ConPTY, and one with an older compiler which couldn't support those features but could produce binaries that work on old machines. I think at the moment PTY support would really be the only feature difference between something built with a new version of Visual C++ and an old version — everything else would be identical."

Known Problems

• Jeff Altman says there are unpatched vulnerabilities in the Visual Studio 6 run time library and that nobody should be using Windows versions earlier than Windows 10. There are simply too many unpatched vulnerabilities in these systems. Future Betas and the final release will be based on the latest development tools (Visual Studio 16 or above).
• Windows version checking (for the SHOW FEATURES output) is now aware of Windows XP through to Windows 8.1. Windows 10 introduced a new API for getting the windows version and the old API stops at Windows 8.1. A future Beta will call the new API too, which should fix that.
• Although most URLs in the help and information text have been changed from columbia.edu to kermitproject.org, there might be some stragglers.

Send questions, bug reports, and comments to ckw@kermitproject.org.

Downloading

1. Download ckn10b4-2-vc6.zip to your Windows desktop (just click on the highlighted link).
2. Right-click on the .zip file and choose "Extract All...". This creates a subdirectory called .
3. Delete the .zip file (right-click → delete).

Installing

There is no "one-click" installer yet. Here is the procedure for the first Beta; hopefully it will evolve into something simpler:

1. Open the "" folder (double-click it).
2. See a folder called "dist"; double-click it.
3. The dist folder contains 14 files, which include:
   • k95g.exe - the executable C-Kermit 10.0 for Windows (K95) program
   • k95.exe - ditto, but runs in "console mode" (like DOS, not recommended)
   • MSVCP60.DLL - Microsoft Visual C++ 6 SP6 DLL appropriate for this version of Kermit
   • MSVCRT.DLL - The C Runtime Library that C-Kermit was built with
   • And a bunch of others that can be ignored
   The DLL's are required for Kermit to run, so don't delete them.
4. If you already have an icon on your desktop called "k95g.exe - Shortcut" from a previous CKW test version, delete it (right-click → delete)
5. Right-click on k95g.exe and choose "Create shortcut" This creates a file called "k95g.exe - Shortcut"
6. Drag the "k95g.exe - Shortcut" to your Windows desktop or wherever else you want to run Kermit from.

Leave the folder as it is, don't move, rename, or delete it.

Running

Start (run) the new C-Kermit for Windows program by double-clicking the "k95g.exe - Shortcut" icon. The first time you start it you'll get warnings from Windows and/or your antivirus software because this is a new program and it's free and open-source. Examples of warnings:

1. Windows protected your PC
   Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk.
   More info ← click this
   

   App:	k95g.exe
   Publisher:	Unknown publisher

   [ Run anyway ] ← click this

2. Symantec Endpoint Protection Download Insight
   Our information on this file is inconclusive. We recommend not using this file unless you know it is safe.
   k95g.exe
   [ Remove this file from my computer ]
   [ Allow this file ] ← click this
   Unproven: There is not enough information about this file to recommend it. Very few users: This file has been seen by fewer than 5 Symantec users. Very new: Symantec has known abou this file approximately 2 days.
   Permission: If you press OK, an application exemption will be created for this file. You should allow only files you are sure are safe. Are you sure you want to allow this file?
   [ Cancel ]
   [ OK ] ← click this

These warnings appear only the first time you start the new Kermit.

Coexistence with K95 2.1

If you already have Kermit 95 2.1.3 (or earlier) installed on your PC, CKW won't interfere with it and you can use both versions, and you can still use the K95 Dialer. At present CKW is installed in a folder on your desktop, whereas K95 2.1 was installed in the normal Windows way: CKW uses the same initialization and customization files. If these files contain any commands not supported by CKW (e.g. "set ssh") or by K95 ("set rename"), you can protect them with:

if < \v(version) 1000000 {
    commands for K95    
}
if >= \v(version) 1000000 {
    commands for CKW
}

\v(version) is all-numeric version number of the C-Kermit code used for the Windows build. 1000000 is C-Kermit 10.0 and 800207 is C-Kermit 8.0.207. When CKW is finally released it will still peacefully coexist with K95, although the exact mechanisms have yet to be worked out.

Documention

There is no single comprehensive user manual but since C-Kermit for Windows is C-Kermit, you can refer to the C-Kermit documentation for most everything:

https://www.kermitproject.org/ckbindex.html
https://www.kermitproject.org/ck90.html#doc

For an introduction to the Kermit script language (which lets you write procedures to automate common tasks), see this page:

https://www.kermitproject.org/ckscripts.html

For CKW's Windows-specific aspects, see:

1. Chapter 6 of the Kermit 95 manual: Using the Command Screen,
2. Chapter 7 of the Kermit 95 manual: Using the Terminal Emulator, and
3. Chapter 8 of the Kermit 95 manual: File Transfer.

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