Downloading Kermit with Kermit
At the downloads page, you can see the generic instructions for downloading C-Kermit, including links to websites. But you can also download Kermit using the Kermit protocol itself.
John Goerzen hosts the quux.org kermit server, which hosts mirrors of both the C-Kermit and ckwin (Kermit for Windows and OS/2, aka Kermit 95) source and binaries.
The quux.org instructions give you a tutorial and more information, but here is a quick runthrough.
Connecting
To connect, you’ll start up kermit and then type iksd /user:anonymous kermit.quux.org. It’ll look like this:
$ kermit
C-Kermit 11.0.502, 2026/07/23, for Linux+SSL (64-bit)
Copyright (C) 1985, 2025,
Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York.
Copyright (C) 2025-2026, John Goerzen
Open Source 3-clause BSD license since 2011.
Type ? or HELP for help.
(/tmp/ckermit-linux-amd64-11.0.502/) C-Kermit>iksd /user:anonymous kermit.quux.org
DNS Lookup... Trying 51.79.38.140... Reverse DNS Lookup... (OK)
Connecting to host glockenspiel.complete.org:1649
Escape character: Ctrl-\ (ASCII 28, FS): enabled
Type the escape character followed by C to get back,
or followed by ? to see other options.
----------------------------------------------------
>>> Welcome to the Internet Kermit Service at kermit.quux.org <<<
To log in, use 'anonymous' as the username, and any non-empty password
Internet Kermit Service ready at Thu Jul 23 22:04:42 2026
C-Kermit 11.0.502, 2026/07/23
kermit
Enter e-mail address as Password: blah
Anonymous login.
You are now connected to the quux kermit server.
Try commands like HELP, cd gopher, dir, and the like. Use INTRO
for a nice introduction.
Let’s explore a bit:
(~/) IKSD>dir
drwxrwsr-x 540 2024-07-06 23:57:39 gopher.quux.org
drwxr-xr-x 114 2026-07-24 01:56:43 mirrors
(~/) IKSD>cd mirrors
Here are various mirrors:
cu-kermit-ftp - A symlink to
kermit-websites-mirror/ftp.columbia.edu/kermit, which contains a the last
archive of the Columbia Kermit FTP site (from Internet Archive)
cu-kermit-ftp-www - A symlink to
kermit-websites-mirror/www.columbia.edu/kermit/ftp, which contains the
extended kermit archives.
kermit/ - From ftp.kermitproject.org
kermit-websites-mirror/ - The www.kermitproject.org and www.columbia.edu/kermit
mirrors
kermit-archives/ - Contains dar (like tar/zip) archives of the above directories
over time
nncp/ - The NNCP project, from nncpgo.org
openkermit/ - The Open Kermit project, home of current Kermit development
(~/mirrors/) IKSD>cd openkermit
Welcome to the mirror area related to the Open Kermit project,
https://www.openkermit.org/.
Open Kermit projects can be found here:
ckermit-releases/ All release files (sources and binaries) for C-Kermit
git/ckermit/ Git repo for C-Kermit
git/openkermit.org/ Git repo for the www.openkermit.org website
Additionally, while not Open Kermit projects, for convenience, I also
have C-Kermit for Windows and OS/2 (ckwin aka Kermit 95) here:
ckwin-releases/ All release files for Kermit 95
git/ckwin/ Git repo for Kermit 95
(~/mirrors/openkermit/) IKSD>dir
drwxrwxr-x 28 2026-07-24 00:07:10 ckermit-releases
drwxrwxr-x 176 2026-07-24 02:55:32 ckwin-releases
drwxrwxr-x 52 2026-07-24 02:57:25 git
Let’s download a C-Kermit release.
(~/mirrors/openkermit/) IKSD>cd ckermit-releases/v11.0.502
/mirrors/openkermit/ckermit-releases/v11.0.502
(~/mirrors/openkermit/ckermit-releases/v11.0.502/) IKSD>dir
-rw-rw-r-- 1692880 2026-07-24 00:07:08 ckermit-freebsd-amd64-11.0.502.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1876493 2026-07-24 00:07:09 ckermit-linux-amd64-11.0.502.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 4544349 2026-07-24 00:07:09 ckermit-linux-amd64-static-11.0.502.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1849844 2026-07-24 00:07:09 ckermit-linux-arm64-11.0.502.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 4853920 2026-07-24 00:07:09 ckermit-linux-arm64-static-11.0.502.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1556652 2026-07-24 00:07:10 ckermit-macos-arm64-11.0.502.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1732908 2026-07-24 00:07:10 ckermit-netbsd-amd64-11.0.502.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1840705 2026-07-24 00:07:10 ckermit-openbsd-amd64-11.0.502.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 3201934 2026-07-24 00:07:08 ckermit-v11.0.502.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 3249045 2026-07-24 00:07:08 ckermit-v11.0.502.zip
-rw-rw-r-- 1012 2026-07-24 00:07:10 SHA256SUMS
(~/mirrors/openkermit/ckermit-releases/v11.0.502/) IKSD>send ckermit-linux-amd64-static-11.0.502.tar.gz
Return to your local Kermit and give a RECEIVE command.
KERMIT READY TO SEND...
...
SENT: [/mirrors/openkermit/ckermit-releases/v11.0.502/ckermit-linux-amd64-static-11.0.502.tar.gz] To: [/tmp/ckermit-linux-amd64-11.0.502/ckermit-linux-amd64-static-11.0.502.tar.gz] (OK)
You can download a Git repo also.
(~/mirrors/openkermit/ckermit-releases/v11.0.502/) IKSD>cd ../../git
/mirrors/openkermit/git
(~/mirrors/openkermit/git/) IKSD>dir
drwxrwxr-x 1460 2026-07-24 00:10:11 ckermit
drwxrwxr-x 470 2026-07-24 02:57:30 ckwin
drwxrwxr-x 198 2026-07-24 00:10:17 openkermit.org
(~/mirrors/openkermit/git/) IKSD>send /dotfiles /recursive ckermit
By default, SEND /RECURSIVE omits files and directories that begin with .;
the .git directory is important, so /DOTFILES includes it. If you don’t
care about the history, though, you can leave it off.
Note: if you get a weird error at this point, make sure you are using at least C-Kermit 11.0.503; some earlier versions’ defaults can interfere with a recursive download.