TailTalk is designed as a "toolkit" for building fully userspace AppleTalk implementations on Linux, and later Mac OS and Windows systems. It is built from scratch with zero dependencies on Netatalk or any kernel drivers - All it needs is a raw socket and patience for grumpy old computers. It provides a complete AppleTalk stack, with multiple copies of it able to run on the same machine at the same time.

I started this project to be able to copy files to/from my old Macs, print to LaserWriters and networked StyleWriters, and be able to write modern async software to communicate with them. It is not meant to support the full feature set of Netatalk, but rather communicate with small networks of a couple Macs and printers. Zones, routing, and other similar features are beyond the scope of this project.

Each part of the stack is meant to be as "zero config" as possible, just like running on a Mac of the era. Just plug it in, launch and things should just work without any fuss.

This project is very much a work in progress prototype, so expect bugs and missing features. expect and unwrap are used far too often during my prototyping and will be replaced with proper error handling in time.

Packet parsers and fully async APIs for almost all the major AppleTalk protocols.

• AppleTalk Address Resolution Protocol (AARP)
• Datagram Delivery Protocol (DDP)
• Name Binding Protocol (NBP)
• AppleTalk Transaction Protocol (ATP)
• Printer Access Protocol (PAP)
• AppleTalk Session Protocol (ASP)
• AppleTalk Filing Protocol (AFP)
• AppleTalk Data Stream Protocol (ADSP - untested)

There are 4 demo programs I have written to verify the functionality of this software as I have developed it:

• aep-echo - A simple echo program that sends an echo request to a target address and prints the response time.
• afp-server - An AFP 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 compatible AFP server. Very much a work in progress but is capable of reading and writing files to classic Mac systems. Basic directory browsing and file operations are supported.
• nbp-lookup - Performs an NBP lookup based on the provided request string and returns the results
• pap-print - Sends a PostScript file to a PAP printer. Aimed at LaserWriters, and have only tested on my own 4/600 PS.

All of the examples run a complete copy of the stack using a raw socket and thus need to be run as root, or the appropriate setcap applied to the compiled binary.

Beyond unit tests I have found the best way to test this software is with real hardware. My current test setup consists of:

• Linux machine running TailTalk
• PowerBook G3 running Mac OS 9.2 via Ethernet
• LaserWriter 4/600 PS via AsanteTalk
• Color StyleWriter 2200 via EtherTalk adapter
• Macintosh SE/30 running System 7.1 via AsanteTalk
• Macintosh Classic running System 6.0.8 via AsanteTalk

When the AsanteTalk is first powered on it "listens" for incoming packets on the Ethernet side before choosing what EtherTalk phase to operate under. If it doesn't see any EtherTalk Phase 2 packets it will default to Phase 1. TailTalk supports Phase 1 and this works just fine for LaserWriters, NBP and some basic operations but does not work with AFP (The Mac will discover the AFP TailTalk server but our responses appear to be dropped).

• Large AFP file transfers (30+ MiB) from TailTalk to Mac clients appears to cause the Mac to hang. Still trying to debug what is going on with it. Smaller transfers however work just fine.
• Files copied from us to a Mac have weird file layouts even after moving them around.
• Macs with a connected AFP volume seem to stall when trying to do a reboot if the volume is still connected.
• Multiple AFP sessions are not properly supported yet. After a Mac disconnects the server should be restarted.
• AFP node IDs use a crude name hashing mechanism that can lead to collisions.

I'd love to see this project grow into something that can be used to build more complete AppleTalk implementations. All contributions are welcome, but please open an issue first to discuss the changes you'd like to make. Additionally Pull Requests should mention what systems the change was verified against. This project has made me realise how quirky old systems are.

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.