3. Remote Login -- Telnet Protocol
3. REMOTE LOGIN -- TELNET PROTOCOL
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Telnet is the standard Internet application protocol for remote
login. It provides the encoding rules to link a user's
keyboard/display on a client ("user") system with a command
interpreter on a remote server system. A subset of the Telnet
protocol is also incorporated within other application protocols,
e.g., FTP and SMTP.
Telnet uses a single TCP connection, and its normal data stream
("Network Virtual Terminal" or "NVT" mode) is 7-bit ASCII with
escape sequences to embed control functions. Telnet also allows
the negotiation of many optional modes and functions.
The primary Telnet specification is to be found in RFC-854
[TELNET:1], while the options are defined in many other RFCs; see
Section 7 for references.
3.2 PROTOCOL WALK-THROUGH
3.2.1 Option Negotiation: RFC-854, pp. 2-3
Every Telnet implementation MUST include option negotiation and
subnegotiation machinery [TELNET:2].
A host MUST carefully follow the rules of RFC-854 to avoid
option-negotiation loops. A host MUST refuse (i.e, reply
WONT/DONT to a DO/WILL) an unsupported option. Option
negotiation SHOULD continue to function (even if all requests
are refused) throughout the lifetime of a Telnet connection.
If all option negotiations fail, a Telnet implementation MUST
default to, and support, an NVT.
DISCUSSION:
Even though more sophisticated "terminals" and supporting
option negotiations are becoming the norm, all
implementations must be prepared to support an NVT for any
user-server communication.
3.2.2 Telnet Go-Ahead Function: RFC-854, p. 5, and RFC-858
On a host that never sends the Telnet command Go Ahead (GA),
the Telnet Server MUST attempt to negotiate the Suppress Go
Ahead option (i.e., send "WILL Suppress Go Ahead"). A User or
Server Telnet MUST always accept negotiation of the Suppress Go
Ahead option.
When it is driving a full-duplex terminal for which GA has no
meaning, a User Telnet implementation MAY ignore GA commands.
DISCUSSION:
Half-duplex ("locked-keyboard") line-at-a-time terminals
for which the Go-Ahead mechanism was designed have largely
disappeared from the scene. It turned out to be difficult
to implement sending the Go-Ahead signal in many operating
systems, even some systems that support native half-duplex
terminals. The difficulty is typically that the Telnet
server code does not have access to information about
whether the user process is blocked awaiting input from
the Telnet connection, i.e., it cannot reliably determine
when to send a GA command. Therefore, most Telnet Server
hosts do not send GA commands.
The effect of the rules in this section is to allow either
end of a Telnet connection to veto the use of GA commands.
There is a class of half-duplex terminals that is still
commercially important: "data entry terminals," which
interact in a full-screen manner. However, supporting
data entry terminals using the Telnet protocol does not
require the Go Ahead signal; see Section 3.3.2.
3.2.3 Control Functions: RFC-854, pp. 7-8
The list of Telnet commands has been extended to include EOR
(End-of-Record), with code 239 [TELNET:9].
Both User and Server Telnets MAY support the control functions
EOR, EC, EL, and Break, and MUST support AO, AYT, DM, IP, NOP,
SB, and SE.
A host MUST be able to receive and ignore any Telnet control
functions that it does not support.
DISCUSSION:
Note that a Server Telnet is required to support the
Telnet IP (Interrupt Process) function, even if the server
host has an equivalent in-stream function (e.g., Control-C
in many systems). The Telnet IP function may be stronger
than an in-stream interrupt command, because of the out-
of-band effect of TCP urgent data.
The EOR control function may be used to delimit the
stream. An important application is data entry terminal
support (see Section 3.3.2). There was concern that since
EOR had not been defined in RFC-854, a host that was not
prepared to correctly ignore unknown Telnet commands might
crash if it received an EOR. To protect such hosts, the
End-of-Record option [TELNET:9] was introduced; however, a
properly implemented Telnet program will not require this
protection.
3.2.4 Telnet "Synch" Signal: RFC-854, pp. 8-10
When it receives "urgent" TCP data, a User or Server Telnet
MUST discard all data except Telnet commands until the DM (and
end of urgent) is reached.
When it sends Telnet IP (Interrupt Process), a User Telnet
SHOULD follow it by the Telnet "Synch" sequence, i.e., send as
TCP urgent data the sequence "IAC IP IAC DM". The TCP urgent
pointer points to the DM octet.
When it receives a Telnet IP command, a Server Telnet MAY send
a Telnet "Synch" sequence back to the user, to flush the output
stream. The choice ought to be consistent with the way the
server operating system behaves when a local user interrupts a
process.
When it receives a Telnet AO command, a Server Telnet MUST send
a Telnet "Synch" sequence back to the user, to flush the output
stream.
A User Telnet SHOULD have the capability of flushing output
when it sends a Telnet IP; see also Section 3.4.5.
DISCUSSION:
There are three possible ways for a User Telnet to flush
the stream of server output data:
(1) Send AO after IP.
This will cause the server host to send a "flush-
buffered-output" signal to its operating system.
However, the AO may not take effect locally, i.e.,
stop terminal output at the User Telnet end, until
the Server Telnet has received and processed the AO
and has sent back a "Synch".
(2) Send DO TIMING-MARK [TELNET:7] after IP, and discard
all output locally until a WILL/WONT TIMING-MARK is
received from the Server Telnet.
Since the DO TIMING-MARK will be processed after the
IP at the server, the reply to it should be in the
right place in the output data stream. However, the
TIMING-MARK will not send a "flush buffered output"
signal to the server operating system. Whether or
not this is needed is dependent upon the server
system.
(3) Do both.
The best method is not entirely clear, since it must
accommodate a number of existing server hosts that do not
follow the Telnet standards in various ways. The safest
approach is probably to provide a user-controllable option
to select (1), (2), or (3).
3.2.5 NVT Printer and Keyboard: RFC-854, p. 11
In NVT mode, a Telnet SHOULD NOT send characters with the
high-order bit 1, and MUST NOT send it as a parity bit.
Implementations that pass the high-order bit to applications
SHOULD negotiate binary mode (see Section 3.2.6).
DISCUSSION:
Implementors should be aware that a strict reading of
RFC-854 allows a client or server expecting NVT ASCII to
ignore characters with the high-order bit set. In
general, binary mode is expected to be used for
transmission of an extended (beyond 7-bit) character set
with Telnet.
However, there exist applications that really need an 8-
bit NVT mode, which is currently not defined, and these
existing applications do set the high-order bit during
part or all of the life of a Telnet connection. Note that
binary mode is not the same as 8-bit NVT mode, since
binary mode turns off end-of-line processing. For this
reason, the requirements on the high-order bit are stated
as SHOULD, not MUST.
RFC-854 defines a minimal set of properties of a "network
virtual terminal" or NVT; this is not meant to preclude
additional features in a real terminal. A Telnet
connection is fully transparent to all 7-bit ASCII
characters, including arbitrary ASCII control characters.
For example, a terminal might support full-screen commands
coded as ASCII escape sequences; a Telnet implementation
would pass these sequences as uninterpreted data. Thus,
an NVT should not be conceived as a terminal type of a
highly-restricted device.
3.2.6 Telnet Command Structure: RFC-854, p. 13
Since options may appear at any point in the data stream, a
Telnet escape character (known as IAC, with the value 255) to
be sent as data MUST be doubled.
3.2.7 Telnet Binary Option: RFC-856
When the Binary option has been successfully negotiated,
arbitrary 8-bit characters are allowed. However, the data
stream MUST still be scanned for IAC characters, any embedded
Telnet commands MUST be obeyed, and data bytes equal to IAC
MUST be doubled. Other character processing (e.g., replacing
CR by CR NUL or by CR LF) MUST NOT be done. In particular,
there is no end-of-line convention (see Section 3.3.1) in
binary mode.
DISCUSSION:
The Binary option is normally negotiated in both
directions, to change the Telnet connection from NVT mode
to "binary mode".
The sequence IAC EOR can be used to delimit blocks of data
within a binary-mode Telnet stream.
3.2.8 Telnet Terminal-Type Option: RFC-1091
The Terminal-Type option MUST use the terminal type names
officially defined in the Assigned Numbers RFC [INTRO:5], when
they are available for the particular terminal. However, the
receiver of a Terminal-Type option MUST accept any name.
DISCUSSION:
RFC-1091 [TELNET:10] updates an earlier version of the
Terminal-Type option defined in RFC-930. The earlier
version allowed a server host capable of supporting
multiple terminal types to learn the type of a particular
client's terminal, assuming that each physical terminal
had an intrinsic type. However, today a "terminal" is
often really a terminal emulator program running in a PC,
perhaps capable of emulating a range of terminal types.
Therefore, RFC-1091 extends the specification to allow a
more general terminal-type negotiation between User and
Server Telnets.
3.3 SPECIFIC ISSUES
3.3.1 Telnet End-of-Line Convention
The Telnet protocol defines the sequence CR LF to mean "end-
of-line". For terminal input, this corresponds to a command-
completion or "end-of-line" key being pressed on a user
terminal; on an ASCII terminal, this is the CR key, but it may
also be labelled "Return" or "Enter".
When a Server Telnet receives the Telnet end-of-line sequence
CR LF as input from a remote terminal, the effect MUST be the
same as if the user had pressed the "end-of-line" key on a
local terminal. On server hosts that use ASCII, in particular,
receipt of the Telnet sequence CR LF must cause the same effect
as a local user pressing the CR key on a local terminal. Thus,
CR LF and CR NUL MUST have the same effect on an ASCII server
host when received as input over a Telnet connection.
A User Telnet MUST be able to send any of the forms: CR LF, CR
NUL, and LF. A User Telnet on an ASCII host SHOULD have a
user-controllable mode to send either CR LF or CR NUL when the
user presses the "end-of-line" key, and CR LF SHOULD be the
default.
The Telnet end-of-line sequence CR LF MUST be used to send
Telnet data that is not terminal-to-computer (e.g., for Server
Telnet sending output, or the Telnet protocol incorporated
another application protocol).
DISCUSSION:
To allow interoperability between arbitrary Telnet clients
and servers, the Telnet protocol defined a standard
representation for a line terminator. Since the ASCII
character set includes no explicit end-of-line character,
systems have chosen various representations, e.g., CR, LF,
and the sequence CR LF. The Telnet protocol chose the CR
LF sequence as the standard for network transmission.
Unfortunately, the Telnet protocol specification in RFC-
854 [TELNET:1] has turned out to be somewhat ambiguous on
what character(s) should be sent from client to server for
the "end-of-line" key. The result has been a massive and
continuing interoperability headache, made worse by
various faulty implementations of both User and Server
Telnets.
Although the Telnet protocol is based on a perfectly
symmetric model, in a remote login session the role of the
user at a terminal differs from the role of the server
host. For example, RFC-854 defines the meaning of CR, LF,
and CR LF as output from the server, but does not specify
what the User Telnet should send when the user presses the
"end-of-line" key on the terminal; this turns out to be
the point at issue.
When a user presses the "end-of-line" key, some User
Telnet implementations send CR LF, while others send CR
NUL (based on a different interpretation of the same
sentence in RFC-854). These will be equivalent for a
correctly-implemented ASCII server host, as discussed
above. For other servers, a mode in the User Telnet is
needed.
The existence of User Telnets that send only CR NUL when
CR is pressed creates a dilemma for non-ASCII hosts: they
can either treat CR NUL as equivalent to CR LF in input,
thus precluding the possibility of entering a "bare" CR,
or else lose complete interworking.
Suppose a user on host A uses Telnet to log into a server
host B, and then execute B's User Telnet program to log
into server host C. It is desirable for the Server/User
Telnet combination on B to be as transparent as possible,
i.e., to appear as if A were connected directly to C. In
particular, correct implementation will make B transparent
to Telnet end-of-line sequences, except that CR LF may be
translated to CR NUL or vice versa.
IMPLEMENTATION:
To understand Telnet end-of-line issues, one must have at
least a general model of the relationship of Telnet to the
local operating system. The Server Telnet process is
typically coupled into the terminal driver software of the
operating system as a pseudo-terminal. A Telnet end-of-
line sequence received by the Server Telnet must have the
same effect as pressing the end-of-line key on a real
locally-connected terminal.
Operating systems that support interactive character-at-
a-time applications (e.g., editors) typically have two
internal modes for their terminal I/O: a formatted mode,
in which local conventions for end-of-line and other
formatting rules have been applied to the data stream, and
a "raw" mode, in which the application has direct access
to every character as it was entered. A Server Telnet
must be implemented in such a way that these modes have
the same effect for remote as for local terminals. For
example, suppose a CR LF or CR NUL is received by the
Server Telnet on an ASCII host. In raw mode, a CR
character is passed to the application; in formatted mode,
the local system's end-of-line convention is used.
3.3.2 Data Entry Terminals
DISCUSSION:
In addition to the line-oriented and character-oriented
ASCII terminals for which Telnet was designed, there are
several families of video display terminals that are
sometimes known as "data entry terminals" or DETs. The
IBM 3270 family is a well-known example.
Two Internet protocols have been designed to support
generic DETs: SUPDUP [TELNET:16, TELNET:17], and the DET
option [TELNET:18, TELNET:19]. The DET option drives a
data entry terminal over a Telnet connection using (sub-)
negotiation. SUPDUP is a completely separate terminal
protocol, which can be entered from Telnet by negotiation.
Although both SUPDUP and the DET option have been used
successfully in particular environments, neither has
gained general acceptance or wide implementation.
A different approach to DET interaction has been developed
for supporting the IBM 3270 family through Telnet,
although the same approach would be applicable to any DET.
The idea is to enter a "native DET" mode, in which the
native DET input/output stream is sent as binary data.
The Telnet EOR command is used to delimit logical records
(e.g., "screens") within this binary stream.
IMPLEMENTATION:
The rules for entering and leaving native DET mode are as
follows:
o The Server uses the Terminal-Type option [TELNET:10]
to learn that the client is a DET.
o It is conventional, but not required, that both ends
negotiate the EOR option [TELNET:9].
o Both ends negotiate the Binary option [TELNET:3] to
enter native DET mode.
o When either end negotiates out of binary mode, the
other end does too, and the mode then reverts to
normal NVT.
3.3.3 Option Requirements
Every Telnet implementation MUST support the Binary option
[TELNET:3] and the Suppress Go Ahead option [TELNET:5], and
SHOULD support the Echo [TELNET:4], Status [TELNET:6], End-of-
Record [TELNET:9], and Extended Options List [TELNET:8]
options.
A User or Server Telnet SHOULD support the Window Size Option
[TELNET:12] if the local operating system provides the
corresponding capability.
DISCUSSION:
Note that the End-of-Record option only signifies that a
Telnet can receive a Telnet EOR without crashing;
therefore, every Telnet ought to be willing to accept
negotiation of the End-of-Record option. See also the
discussion in Section 3.2.3.
3.3.4 Option Initiation
When the Telnet protocol is used in a client/server situation,
the server SHOULD initiate negotiation of the terminal
interaction mode it expects.
DISCUSSION:
The Telnet protocol was defined to be perfectly
symmetrical, but its application is generally asymmetric.
Remote login has been known to fail because NEITHER side
initiated negotiation of the required non-default terminal
modes. It is generally the server that determines the
preferred mode, so the server needs to initiate the
negotiation; since the negotiation is symmetric, the user
can also initiate it.
A client (User Telnet) SHOULD provide a means for users to
enable and disable the initiation of option negotiation.
DISCUSSION:
A user sometimes needs to connect to an application
service (e.g., FTP or SMTP) that uses Telnet for its
control stream but does not support Telnet options. User
Telnet may be used for this purpose if initiation of
option negotiation is disabled.
3.3.5 Telnet Linemode Option
DISCUSSION:
An important new Telnet option, LINEMODE [TELNET:12], has
been proposed. The LINEMODE option provides a standard
way for a User Telnet and a Server Telnet to agree that
the client rather than the server will perform terminal
character processing. When the client has prepared a
complete line of text, it will send it to the server in
(usually) one TCP packet. This option will greatly
decrease the packet cost of Telnet sessions and will also
give much better user response over congested or long-
delay networks.
The LINEMODE option allows dynamic switching between local
and remote character processing. For example, the Telnet
connection will automatically negotiate into single-
character mode while a full screen editor is running, and
then return to linemode when the editor is finished.
We expect that when this RFC is released, hosts should
implement the client side of this option, and may
implement the server side of this option. To properly
implement the server side, the server needs to be able to
tell the local system not to do any input character
processing, but to remember its current terminal state and
notify the Server Telnet process whenever the state
changes. This will allow password echoing and full screen
editors to be handled properly, for example.
3.4 TELNET/USER INTERFACE
3.4.1 Character Set Transparency
User Telnet implementations SHOULD be able to send or receive
any 7-bit ASCII character. Where possible, any special
character interpretations by the user host's operating system
SHOULD be bypassed so that these characters can conveniently be
sent and received on the connection.
Some character value MUST be reserved as "escape to command
mode"; conventionally, doubling this character allows it to be
entered as data. The specific character used SHOULD be user
selectable.
On binary-mode connections, a User Telnet program MAY provide
an escape mechanism for entering arbitrary 8-bit values, if the
host operating system doesn't allow them to be entered directly
from the keyboard.
IMPLEMENTATION:
The transparency issues are less pressing on servers, but
implementors should take care in dealing with issues like:
masking off parity bits (sent by an older, non-conforming
client) before they reach programs that expect only NVT
ASCII, and properly handling programs that request 8-bit
data streams.
3.4.2 Telnet Commands
A User Telnet program MUST provide a user the capability of
entering any of the Telnet control functions IP, AO, or AYT,
and SHOULD provide the capability of entering EC, EL, and
Break.
3.4.3 TCP Connection Errors
A User Telnet program SHOULD report to the user any TCP errors
that are reported by the transport layer (see "TCP/Application
Layer Interface" section in [INTRO:1]).
3.4.4 Non-Default Telnet Contact Port
A User Telnet program SHOULD allow the user to optionally
specify a non-standard contact port number at the Server Telnet
host.
3.4.5 Flushing Output
A User Telnet program SHOULD provide the user the ability to
specify whether or not output should be flushed when an IP is
sent; see Section 3.2.4.
For any output flushing scheme that causes the User Telnet to
flush output locally until a Telnet signal is received from the
Server, there SHOULD be a way for the user to manually restore
normal output, in case the Server fails to send the expected
signal.
3.5. TELNET REQUIREMENTS SUMMARY
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| FEATURE | SECTION | T | T | e |
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Option Negotiation |3.2.1 |x| | | | | Avoid negotiation loops |3.2.1 |x| | | | | Refuse unsupported options |3.2.1 |x| | | | | Negotiation OK anytime on connection |3.2.1 | |x| | | | Default to NVT |3.2.1 |x| | | | | Send official name in Term-Type option |3.2.8 |x| | | | | Accept any name in Term-Type option |3.2.8 |x| | | | | Implement Binary, Suppress-GA options |3.3.3 |x| | | | | Echo, Status, EOL, Ext-Opt-List options |3.3.3 | |x| | | | Implement Window-Size option if appropriate |3.3.3 | |x| | | | Server initiate mode negotiations |3.3.4 | |x| | | | User can enable/disable init negotiations |3.3.4 | |x| | | | | | | | | | | Go-Aheads | | | | | | | Non-GA server negotiate SUPPRESS-GA option |3.2.2 |x| | | | | User or Server accept SUPPRESS-GA option |3.2.2 |x| | | | | User Telnet ignore GA's |3.2.2 | | |x| | | | | | | | | | Control Functions | | | | | | | Support SE NOP DM IP AO AYT SB |3.2.3 |x| | | | | Support EOR EC EL Break |3.2.3 | | |x| | | Ignore unsupported control functions |3.2.3 |x| | | | | User, Server discard urgent data up to DM |3.2.4 |x| | | | | User Telnet send "Synch" after IP, AO, AYT |3.2.4 | |x| | | | Server Telnet reply Synch to IP |3.2.4 | | |x| | | Server Telnet reply Synch to AO |3.2.4 |x| | | | | User Telnet can flush output when send IP |3.2.4 | |x| | | | | | | | | | | Encoding | | | | | | | Send high-order bit in NVT mode |3.2.5 | | | |x| | Send high-order bit as parity bit |3.2.5 | | | | |x| Negot. BINARY if pass high-ord. bit to applic |3.2.5 | |x| | | | Always double IAC data byte |3.2.6 |x| | | | |
Double IAC data byte in binary mode |3.2.7 |x| | | | | Obey Telnet cmds in binary mode |3.2.7 |x| | | | | End-of-line, CR NUL in binary mode |3.2.7 | | | | |x| | | | | | | | End-of-Line | | | | | | | EOL at Server same as local end-of-line |3.3.1 |x| | | | | ASCII Server accept CR LF or CR NUL for EOL |3.3.1 |x| | | | | User Telnet able to send CR LF, CR NUL, or LF |3.3.1 |x| | | | | ASCII user able to select CR LF/CR NUL |3.3.1 | |x| | | | User Telnet default mode is CR LF |3.3.1 | |x| | | | Non-interactive uses CR LF for EOL |3.3.1 |x| | | | | | | | | | | | User Telnet interface | | | | | | | Input & output all 7-bit characters |3.4.1 | |x| | | | Bypass local op sys interpretation |3.4.1 | |x| | | | Escape character |3.4.1 |x| | | | | User-settable escape character |3.4.1 | |x| | | | Escape to enter 8-bit values |3.4.1 | | |x| | | Can input IP, AO, AYT |3.4.2 |x| | | | | Can input EC, EL, Break |3.4.2 | |x| | | | Report TCP connection errors to user |3.4.3 | |x| | | | Optional non-default contact port |3.4.4 | |x| | | | Can spec: output flushed when IP sent |3.4.5 | |x| | | | Can manually restore output mode |3.4.5 | |x| | | | | | | | | | |