“Linux and Unix users are often pleasantly surprised by how much
software is available to support PalmOS devices. In addition to the
traditional graphical “Palm Desktop” environment programs like
J-Pilot, there exists a large quantity of low-level and specialized
tools for communicating with, managing, and even emulating the
Palm.”
“Included with most modern Linux distributions now is a
package called “pilot-link,” written by Kenneth Albanowski. This
suite of tools and libraries enables communications between a Unix
environment and a Palm though the serial port, and is used by many
other programs to take care of the messy details. Language
bindings exist for C, C++, Python, Tcl, and Perl. If you find you
don’t have pilot-link installed, or want to upgrade, download
locations can be found at FileWatcher).”
“The most useful tool included is probably “pilot-xfer,” which
has its own man page, and is able to do most of the data exchange
needed day-to-day. To back up your Palm, for example, simply
execute the command pilot-xfer -b BACKUP_DIRECTORY,
place your Palm in its cradle, and press the hot-sync button. Every
program (.prc) and database (.pdb) file on the Palm will be
transferred and stored in the directory. To synchronize all the
files, execute the pilot-xfer -s BACKUP_DIRECTORY
command. To completely restore instead (for example, after a
hard-crash), use pilot-xfer -r BACKUP_DIRECTORY.”