This method seems unnecessarily complex.  If you have libpcap networking, attach xu (4.3bsd de0) to your ethernet interface and you can bring it up (ifconfig de0) and talk to any machine on the local network except the one hosting the SIMH instance. If you set up SIMH tap networking you can talk to the hosting machine (https://github.com/simh/simh/blob/master/0readme_ethernet.txt).  If you set up your router (route add default x.x.x.x 1) you can talk to any host on the internet numerically.  Now you can get files via ftp, rcp, etc.

You could also attach a tar file as any block device - RQ, RL, whatever - and have tar read directly from the block device, which does not require any sort of padding or modification of the original file.

I believe that 4.3's tar will understand most tar files, but if you have problems you can always create (or recreate) a tar file using the "o" option to output as an old style archive.

-Henry

On 10 March 2017 at 16:14, Nick Downing <downing.nick@gmail.com> wrote:
To get files into a 4.3BSD SIMH system the easiest way is with a Python script that blockifies the file by outputting a 32 bits length (say 0x400), then that many bytes, then the length again, and repeat for next block until done. There is also a Perl version floating around which is popular for canned SIMH scripts/packages. Then you mount this file on tm0 (if I recall) in SIMH and then in the emulated system it appears at /dev/mt0. I normally use tar in conjunction but it's not necessary (note star is a highly compatible tar implementation, I think it is by Joerg from this list, although I use actual 4.3BSD tar compiled for Linux and I think gnu tar also works mostly). I can send the details later, I am using phone atm.
Nick

On Mar 11, 2017 4:52 AM, "John Floren" <john@jfloren.net> wrote:
Thanks Warren and Geoff,

Two problems:

1. 403 forbidden on that tarball

2. What's the best way to get these files into a running 4.3 system?

Thanks!

John

On Fri, Mar 10, 2017 at 2:49 AM, Warren Toomey <wkt@tuhs.org> wrote:
> OK, Geoff Collyer has built the C-News binaries for the 4.2 emulated
> systems. They are temporarily at http://minnie.tuhs.org/Y5/Cnews/
>
> Does someone want to try and get them up and running on an emulated system?
>
> Also, I've build a 4.3BSD version of the emulated uucp systems. It's a
> separate branch at https://github.com/DoctorWkt/4bsd-uucp. You can get it
> by doing:
>
> git clone https://github.com/DoctorWkt/4bsd-uucp.git \
>         --branch 4.3BSD --single-branch
>
> Once it's solid enough I will make this the default branch, but I'll
> leave the 4.2BSD branch there as well.
>
> Thanks Geoff!
>         Warren