
INTRODUCTION:

This is a bare bones utility to enable people who have Palm OS 
devices to sync to Mobile Application Link (MAL) compliant servers. 
AvantGo (www.avantgo.com) and Puma Technologies (www.pumatech.com) 
are the first two companies committing to producing servers which speak 
this protocol. This utility will allow a user to sync with multiple servers,
simultaneously or separately. The AvantGo.com service (www.avantgo.com) 
is the first such server.   

There is currently no way to set server parameters on the desktop; you 
need to use the MobileLink application on the device. 

MALSync only operates from the command line.  If you want to build it
into some Unix-based, HotSync-like GUI, more power to you. 

BINARIES:

Executables for MALSync on Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD are available at
http://www.tom.org/malsync

Whether you use the pre-existing binaries or build MALSync yourselves,
you will need the Palm OS applications.  Get these from
http://www.avantgo.com/download/unsupported/ and install to your Palm 
with either HotSync (MS Windows/Mac OS) or pilot-link (unix). 
(note: this web page will be up Real Soon Now.  In the meanwhile,
the binary downloads for linux, solaris, and freeBSD each contain 
the PalmOS apps.)


COMPILING:

To compile you need the source, which you can  get 
from http://www.tom.org/malsync/ 

You also need the pilot-link distribution, which can be found at
http://www.pilot-link.org
Download the latest version. You need libpisock.a. You 
can either compile the whole thing and the library will be in 
libsock/.libs or you can just type "make libpisock.a" in 
the libsock directory (after running configure first).

Now you need to edit the Makefile in the mal/client/unix 
directory. Change "PILOT_LINK_DIR" to the appropriate 
directory.

It should all make and be happy. If not, send email to me 
(tom@tomw.org) or the mal-dev mailing list (see below).

RUNNING:

You need to set two environment variables:

PILOTRATE is the baud rate you want to use 

PILOTPORT is the port your handheld is connected to.

All this stuff is documented in the pilot link distribution.


Usage: ./malsync [OPTIONS]

  -p, --proxyaddress   Proxy address.
  -r, --proxyport      Proxy port.
  -u, --proxyname      Proxy username.
  -d, --proxypasswd    Proxy password.
  -s, --socksproxy     Socks proxy.
  -o, --socksport      Socks port.
  -q, --quiet          Be as quiet as this program can.
  -D, --daemon         Work as a daemon (disconnect from shell).


The serial port to connect to may be specified by the PILOTPORT
environment variable. If not specified it will default to 
/dev/pilot 

The baud rate to connect with may be specified by the PILOTRATE
environment variable. If not specified, it will default to 9600.
Please use caution setting it to higher values, as several types
of workstations have problems with higher rates.


SUPPORT AND BUGS:
 

If you have any bugs or feature requests you can send them
to tom@tomw.org. Also feel free to fix or add them yourself 
and send me the diffs!

