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╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ │ │ ▄█████████████ ████████████ █████ │ │ ████████████████ █████████████ █████ │ │ █████▀ ██████ ▄███████▄ ███████████▄ ▄██████████▄ │ │ █████ ███████ ██████▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ █████▀▀▀▀▀ █████████████ ██████ █████ │ │ █████▄ ▀▀█████ ████████████▀ █████ █████ █████ ▐█████ █████ │ │ ██████ █████ ██████▀▀▀▀▀▀ █████ █████ █████ █████ █████ │ │ ██████▄ █████ ██████ █████▄ █████ █████ ██████ █████ │ │ ▀████████████ ██████████████ ▀████████ █████ █████ ███████████ │ │ ▀▀█████████ █████████████ ▀▀████▀ █████ █████ ██████ │ │ │ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ GEcho 1.02+ Electronic Mail Processor MBUTIL 1.22+ Message Base Utility for the Hudson Message Base (HMB) Joaquim-Andrew-Mats Message Base Proposal (JAM) and *.MSG Message Base USER MANUAL Software and documentation written by Gerard J. van der Land Copyright (C) 1991-1994 Gerard J. van der Land All rights reserved M A D E I N H O L L A N D Table of Contents 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.1 What is GEcho? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.3 System Hardware and Software Requirements . . . . . . . 6 1.4 License and Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2 FidoNet Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.1 Network structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.2 Mail transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3 GSETUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.2 Starting the program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.2.1 Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.2.2 On-line help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.2.3 Specifying groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.3 System data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3.3.1 Network addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3.3.2 User maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3.3.3 Pathnames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.3.4 Filenames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3.3.5 External utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 3.3.6 External utilities options . . . . . . . . . . . 16 3.3.7 Area group names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.3.8 AreaMgr uplink manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.3.9 Origin lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 3.3.10 AKA matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 3.4 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3.4.1 Global options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3.4.2 GEcho limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 3.4.3 GEcho options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 3.4.4 Mgr options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 3.4.5 Netmail options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 3.4.6 MBUTIL options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 3.4.7 GSETUP colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 3.4.8 Log options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 3.5 Area manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 3.5.1 Area options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 3.5.2 Purge info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3.5.3 Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3.5.4 View mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 3.5.5 Edit mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 3.6 Node manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 3.6.1 View mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 3.6.2 Edit mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 3.7 Pack manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 3.8 Export data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 3.9 Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 3.10 Exit to DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 3.11 Command line options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 4 GCONVERT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 5 GECHO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 5.1 Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 5.2 Toss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 5.3 Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 5.4 Notify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 5.5 Mgr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 5.6 Pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 6 MBUTIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 6.1 Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 6.2 Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 6.3 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 6.4 Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 6.5 Maint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 6.6 Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 6.7 Pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 6.8 Post . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 6.9 Purge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 6.9.1 Purge examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 6.10 Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 6.11 Sort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 6.12 Undelete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 7 Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 7.1 Using GEcho with D'Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 7.2 Using GEcho with BinkleyTerm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 8 Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 9 Colors and Errorlevels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 10 Technical Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 1 Introduction 1.1 What is GEcho? GEcho is a very advanced FTSC-compatible one-pass echomail and netmail processor for the Hudson, JAM and *.MSG message bases. It uses ECHOMAIL.BBS, NETMAIL.BBS and ECHOMAIL.JAM, simultaneously exports both netmail and echomail, unpacks compressed mail files, tosses and forwards inbound mail, imports netmail, routes and packs outbound netmail, processes and forwards AreaFix requests, and compresses the created outbound mail packets, all in one single pass. GEcho was first released to the beta testers in January 1991, and has already been used and tested by thousands of users. 4 1.2 Features * Support for zones, 4D points and pointnets (fakenets). * Support for multiple compression formats, such as ARC, ARJ, LZH, PAK, SQZ, UC2, ZIP and ZOO. * Support for general unpack shell in the registered version. * Support for up to 6500 echomail areas and up to 350 links for each area. GEcho can easily handle very large message bases and huge amounts of mail. * Forwarded echomail is directly written to outbound packets while tossing. * Smart netmail routing and packing. * Supports the RemoteAccess/FrontDoor Hudson Message Base sharing specifications. * User friendly setup program. GEcho does not require any configuration files used by other software. * Supports XMS, EMS and disk swapping. * Supports DESQview 2.x, DoubleDOS, PC-MOS/386, Windows 3.x, OS/2 2.x multitaskers. * Writes log file in FrontDoor, BinkleyTerm, D'Bridge or QuickBBS compatible formats. * Complete message base maintenance using MBUTIL. * Complete, compact, fast, user friendly and reliable. * Very HIGH Quality & Performance, Very LOW Registration Fee! * Good support from the author and help nodes by netmail and in the GECHO_HELP area (available from the backbone in North America and TipTop in Europe). 5 1.3 System Hardware and Software Requirements * An IBM PC, XT, AT or 100% compatible with hard disk. * Microsoft MS-DOS or IBM PC-DOS version 3.00 or later. Version 3.30 or later is recommended. GEcho was successfully tested with DOS 3.2, 3.3, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 and 6.2, DR DOS 5.0 and 6.0, OS/2 2.0 and 2.1, Windows 3.0 and 3.1, QEMM-386 6.0 and 7.0, DESQview, DESQview/X, 4DOS/NDOS, Novell NetWare, Novell Lite and LANtastic on systems equipped with NEC V20, V30, V40, Intel 8086, 8088, 80186, 80286, 80386 and i486 CPUs. * At least "FILES=20" in your CONFIG.SYS. GEcho can optionally use more than 20 file handles, which requires a higher FILES value. A disk cache (especially one that can buffer disk writes, such as Norton Cache, HyperDisk or SmartDrive) can significantly improve performance, but of course it is not required to use one. If you are not using a disk cache, make sure that CONFIG.SYS contains the line "BUFFERS=30" (or a higher setting) to improve performance and consider enabling GEcho's internal disk buffer for writing to the Hudson message base. * At least 300 kB of RAM available. The amount of RAM needed by GEcho depends on the compression utilities and whether or not you enable swapping, JAM tossing, HMB buffering, the area cache and duplicate checking. GEcho can almost completey swap itself to XMS, EMS or disk when it calls an external utility. The amount of RAM needed by MBUTIL mainly depends on the size of the Hudson Message Base. * A Hudson Message Base and a message editor (FM, GoldED) and/or BBS package (RemoteAccess, QuickBBS, SuperBBS, ProBoard) that supports this message base format. * At least one of the following compression utilities: PKZIP 2.04g, LHA 2.13, PKPAK 3.61, ARC, ZOO 2.10, PAK 2.51, ARJ 2.30, SQZ v1.08.3 or UltraCompressor II. * A FidoNet compatible mailer. I use and recommend FrontDoor, the E-mail system by Joaquim H. Homrighausen. However, GEcho can also be used with InterMail, D'Bridge, BinkleyTerm, Portal of Power, The-Box, Dutchie, SEAdog, etc. 6 1.4 License and Disclaimer "GEcho" refers to all executables and documentation as distributed in the compressed file in which the package was released. * GEcho is copyrighted material by Gerard J. van der Land. It may only be used in agreement with the conditions set out in this License agreement. * This registered version of GEcho is NOT released as shareware. The registered version of GEcho may only be distributed to and used by registered users. * Although care has been taken to write and test a program that does what this document states, GEcho is provided as is, without warranty or guarantee of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the fitness for a particular purpose or quality or performance of this program, except that GEcho will occupy disk space. * In no event shall Gerard J. van der Land be liable to you or anyone else for any damages or cost, including, but not limited to, any lost profits, lost savings or lost income which may result from the use or inability to use GEcho. * In no way is Gerard J. van der Land obligated to you or anyone else to provide future versions of, or support for GEcho. * Your use of GEcho is your agreement with this License and Disclaimer and your release of the author from any form of liability or litigation. The access password for GSETUP is: "I AGREE" (without quotes). 7 2 FidoNet Technology 2.1 Network structure FidoNet is the biggest amateur network in the world. It was started in 1984 by Tom Jennings. Currently more than 26000 nodes worldwide are connected. The network has a hierarchic tree (or star) topology: +------------------------------+----------------------> | | zone 1 zone 2 | | +--------+--------+ +--------+--------+ | | | | | | region region region region region region | | | | | | +--+--+ | +--+--+ +---+---+ | +--+--+ | | | | | | | | | | | net net net net net net net net net net net | +-----+-----+ | | | node node node | +---+---+ | | point point Zones are divided in Regions, which are divided in Nets. The Nets consist of Nodes, which are usually (but not necessarily) Bulletin Board Systems. Each node has a unique address which consists of four parts: Zone, Net, Node and Point, in text form expressed as "Zone:Net/Node.Point". Zone numbers 1 up to and including 6 are used by FidoNet: 1 = North America (United States of America and Canada) 2 = Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States 3 = Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) 4 = Latin America 5 = Africa 6 = Asia There are several other networks that use FidoNet Technology, which occupy higher zone numbers (such as SIGnet, zones 24-29). Many nodes have one or more points. Points are users who get mail from a node (their "boss") in compressed files. That way they can read and write messages off-line, saving time and money. The point address of the boss is 0, but the ".0" is usually omitted from the address. 8 2.2 Mail transportation Electronic mail in a FidoNet Technology Network (FTN) is exchanged using mail packets, which are usually transmitted between two computers by modem. The software responsible for this is called a mailer. Mail packet files have the .PKT extension. They can contain one or more messages. There are two types of messages. Netmail goes from one node to another node (either directly or routed through other systems). Echomail is copied to all systems which are connected to a particular area (also called conference). Echomail messages are distributed using a special type of netmail message, where each message starts with "AREA:" followed by the name of the area, in which certain topic(s) are discussed. Packets with echomail are usually transported in compressed files to save time and money. Echomail contains special control information at the end of the text of each message, which consists of four parts: 1) --- GEcho 1.02+ 2) * Origin: GEcho Development (2:2802/110) 3) SEEN-BY: 28/77 2800/0 2801/0 2802/0 9 45 110 113 115 116 4) ^aPATH: 2802/110 0 28/77 1. The tear line. This optional field can contain the name of the software that first added the echomail control information. 2. The origin line. It contains a short description of the system where the message originated and its node number. GEcho uses it to find the end of a message. Beneath the origin line GEcho searches for the other control information: 3. The SEEN-BY lines. GEcho can optionally use them to find out which systems have already processed ("seen") a message. This can prevent duplicate messages if the topology is incorrect, or if a fully connected polygon is used. SEEN-BY lines are sorted and listed in short form, meaning that the net number is not repeated as long as it is unchanged. To save disk space, GEcho will by default not import SEEN-BY lines to the message base, nor will it use them for duplicate prevention, but both are optional per area. Imported SEEN-BY lines are by default visible, but you can optionally hide them. 4. The PATH lines. They show through which systems a message went, before it reached your system. GEcho will always import them, because this will allow you to figure out what echomail topology is used. This is very important for troubleshooting, such as finding the cause of duplicate messages. Normally you will not see them, because they are hidden. PATH lines are also listed in short form, but they are unsorted, as sorting would defeat their purpose. 9 3 GSETUP 3.1 Installation This manual assumes a setup with the FrontDoor mailer and the RemoteAccess bulletin board system, with the following sample directories: \RA Where the message and user base are located \FD Where GEcho's system data files are located \FD\NETMAIL Where netmail messages are stored \FD\INBOUND Where incoming files are stored \FD\OUTBOUND Where outgoing mail files are stored \FD\BADECHO Where bad echomail messages are stored \UTIL Where compression utilities are located Of course it is not required to use the same pathnames. It is convenient if the directories which contain executable files are listed in the DOS PATH, so make sure that your AUTOEXEC.BAT contains a line that looks like this: SET PATH=C:\UTIL;C:\FD;C:\RA;C:\DOS This will make sure that programs in those directories can be started from any directory. Put the directories that are used most often first to improve performance. Also add the following line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT to enable the executables to find their data files: SET GE=C:\FD 3 The "3" is the optional default text color (see page 64). Copy the following files from the compressed distribution file to C:\FD. GSETUP.EXE This is the setup utility, used to create and update the system data files, and export them to various types of text files. GECHO.EXE The main program. It is responsible for inbound mail decompression, netmail and echomail importing, exporting, forwarding, netmail routing and packing, outbound mail compression, and processing remote area maintenance requests. MBUTIL.EXE The message base maintenance utility, responsible for linking, purging, packing, etc. GE386.EXE The same as GECHO.EXE and MBUTIL.EXE, but these MBU386.EXE versions use 80386 instructions, which makes them both faster and smaller. The 386 versions are only distributed with the registered version of GEcho. 10 GECHO.DOC The GEcho documentation. The on-line help system (Alt-H) also uses this file. GE_DOC.GEX This is an index file used by the on-line help system. FTSCPROD.GE This file contains the names and capabilities of all programs with an FTSC assigned product code. GCONVERT.EXE The GEcho Conversion Utility, which can convert various types of data files to GEcho's format. HMB2JAM.EXE Mats Wallin's HMB to JAM converter. 3.2 Starting the program Before GEcho can run, it needs to be configured using the setup utility, GSETUP. When you start GSETUP, it will search for the system data file SETUP.GE in the current directory. If it is not found there, GSETUP will try to find it in the directory pointed to by the GE environment variable. The first time you run GSETUP, it probably cannot locate SETUP.GE, and it will ask you if you want to create it. If you press the space bar, GSETUP will create a new system data file, with example default values for most input fields. The directory where SETUP.GE is found is considered the "system path", where a few other data files are stored too: AREAFILE The area database AREAFILE.GE, and index file AREAFILE.GEX. NODEFILE The node database NODEFILE.GE, and index file NODEFILE.GEX. PACKFILE.GE The pack database. It contains netmail routing and packing information. ECHODUPE.GE The duplicate database. It contains signatures of imported and exported echomail messages. 11 3.2.1 Keys GSETUP uses pop-up menus. You can use the cursor up and down keys or Tab and Shift-Tab keys to move the menu bar up and down. You can select an option or command by pressing Enter. The Esc key will take you back to a previous level. At some places GEcho may ask you if you want to save the changes or discard them. Wherever this is the case, you may press F10 to save any changes unconditionally, i.e. without getting this question. The last line on the screen will contain useful help about the use of the selected function or help on keys that can be used. 3.2.2 On-line help From anywhere in GSETUP you can press Alt-H to get context sensitive on-line help. What this feature really does is showing the appropriate part of GECHO.DOC. You can move around as you like. You can also jump to a certain page or search for a certain text with Tab resp. F4. 3.2.3 Specifying groups When you have to specify authorized groups, you can press Enter or A-Z to toggle groups. The '+' key will select all groups, and '-' will unselect all selected groups. 12 3.3 System data This menu will enable you to enter miscellaneous system information, such as addresses, user names, directories, external utilities, groups, uplinks, etc. 3.3.1 Network addresses You must define your main network address here. You can optionally define up to 10 alternate network addresses (AKAs). It is recommended to use the same order as used in your mailer and BBS configuration. For each address you can specify a board to which GEcho and MBUTIL should import netmail for that AKA. For non-point addresses you can specify a pointnet (fakenet) to strip from the SEEN-BY lines when exporting or forwarding echomail messages, and to remap messages to the AreaMgr. A pointnet is only needed when one of your points has an old "stone age" 2D echomail processor. 3.3.2 User maintenance Here you can specify up to ten system users. SysOp/User name The first user name is the name of the System Operator (SysOp) and is required. Copy personal mail If personal echomail for this user name should be copied when tossing. The unregistered version of GEcho will only copy mail for the SysOp. Personal mail board Where the personal echomail for this user should be stored. This can be either a board in the Hudson Message Base or the "Personal mail" path. Use AKA board If netmail for this user should be treated like all other netmail. This means that netmail will be imported to the board defined for the AKA to which the message is addressed. Netmail board Board to which netmail for this user should be imported. Specifying zero will keep netmail in the netmail path. This field only has meaning if "Use AKA board" is set to No. Access password Password required to access GSETUP. This is only available in the registered version of GEcho, and can only be specified for the SysOp name. 13 3.3.3 Pathnames Here you can specify the pathnames used by GEcho. If you enter a pathname that doesn't exist, GSETUP will ask if you want to create it. GEcho itself will also try to create missing directories if necessary. Message base Where the Hudson Message Base (MSG*.BBS) and the user base are located. The ECHOMAIL.BBS and NETMAIL.BBS files are also expected to be found here. If MSGHDR.BBS or MSGTXT.BBS don't exist, GSETUP will ask if you want to create a new message base. If you don't use the Hudson message base, you should not specify this pathname. Netmail Where incoming and outgoing netmail messages are stored in *.MSG format. Inbound mail Where incoming files are stored by your mailer. Inbound PKTs Where incoming mail packets (.PKT files) should temporarily be stored. You should not set this to a path where the mailer stores inbound files. The current directory is used if this path is not specified. Outbound PKTs Where outgoing mail packets (.QQQ files) should temporarily be stored. Outbound mail Where outgoing compressed mail files should be stored. The "Outbound mail" path cannot be the same as the "Inbound mail" path. When using D'Bridge mailer type, this must be the "Queue" path and cannot be the same as "Outbound PKTs". If you are using multiple GEcho setups, do NOT point the outbound path of one setup to the inbound path of another setup, or mail will get lost! Bad echomail Where bad echomail is stored. This includes: - messages in unknown areas, - messages which violate security, - duplicate messages. Secure mail Mail packets tossed from this path are not checked for origin, destination, password or security violations. This can be useful for packets created by programs such as XRS (which can cause security violations) and RFD or RAID (local origin). The registered version of GEcho will also decompress compressed mail files in this path. 14 Personal mail Where personal echomail addressed to the users defined in GSETUP can be copied to. Rcvd netmail If these pathnames are specified, received and Sent netmail sent netmail messages will be moved to these directories. They must be on the same drive as the "Netmail" path for this to work. You may set both pathnames to the same directory. Nodelist Where the nodelist files are stored. This is not used yet. It is recommended NOT to store any of the paths above on a RAM disk, because all information stored there will be lost when there is a power failure and/or the system is rebooted. The only exception can be the "Outbound PKTs" path, provided your RAM disk is large enough. Swapping Path where the swap file GECHO.SWP is stored if you have enabled disk swapping, and XMS/EMS swapping is not enabled, or no or insufficient XMS/EMS memory is available. Up to 300 kB disk space is required. It is recommended to use a RAM disk for this. Semaphore Where semaphore files should be created and looked for. All programs that create semaphore files should use the same semaphore directory. It is recommended to use a RAM disk for this. 3.3.4 Filenames GEcho log The name and location of the GEcho log file. In the "Log options" menu you can select which types of messages should be logged. Mgr log The name and location of the AreaMgr log file. The GEcho log file will be used if blank. MBUTIL log The name and location of the MBUTIL log file. The GEcho log file will be used if blank. Areas file The name and location of the AREAS.BBS style file. This file is used by MBUTIL if "Use areas file" in the "MBUTIL options" menu is set to Yes. 15 3.3.5 External utilities Here you can specify up to 10 external utilities, which can be called to store outbound mail packets in compressed mail files, and to unpack inbound compressed mail files. GEcho recognizes the ARC, ARJ, LZH, PAK, SQZ, UC2, ZIP and ZOO format. For each program you can specify the switches and the amount of memory needed to run that program, so swapping is only done if necessary. With F10 you can select the compression utility GEcho should use for nodes not specified in the Node manager (see page 34). The registered version of GEcho can call a general unpack shell, such as UMAIL, GUS, POLYXARC or SPAZ if it is unable to figure out the compression method. This version can also call a program before each packet that is tossed or only before tossing the first packet from a decompressed mail file. 3.3.6 External utilities options Swapping method If there is insufficient memory available to run an external utility, you can allow GEcho to swap itself out of memory before calling the utility, leaving less than 2 kB of GEcho resident. There are 10 possible combinations of XMS, EMS and disk swapping. Each combination is listed in order of preference. If swapping to disk is enabled, GEcho can create the swap file GECHO.SWP in the "Swapping" path if sufficient disk space is available. Decompress extension Range of inbound compressed mail files serial numbers that will be considered to be valid. Check end of archives If GEcho should check if the end of inbound compressed mail files are valid, to prevent them from being decompressed if they are incomplete or invalid. Run PKT program once If the PKT program should only be run before the first tossed packet of a decompressed mail file. Redirect output If the screen output of external utilities should be made invisible by redirecting it to the NUL device. Not all utilities may allow this. 16 3.3.7 Area group names Here you can specify the meaning of the groups you use (A-Z). Groups are used to authorize nodes to connect to certain areas. You should make a logical arrangement by category. 3.3.8 AreaMgr uplink manager Here you can specify up to 10 uplinks to which AreaMgr requests for unknown areas can be forwarded. They are checked in ascending order. Uplink system Address of the uplink system. AreaFix program Name of the AreaFix compatible program the uplink uses. Password Password necessary to access the uplink's AreaFix. Add '+' prefix Specifies if the AreaFix program requires a prefix '+' to connect to an area. An example of such a program is TosScan 1.00. Required groups The requesting node must have access to at least one of these groups for a request for an area to be forwarded to this uplink. When only one group is specified, it will be assigned to the new area. If more than one group has been specified, a link to the uplink entry will be stored (displayed as Group '?') so that all nodes that would have been allowed to make the request from this uplink themselves, can connect to the area. Unconditional If requests should be forwarded to this uplink, even if the area was not found in the Areas file. This is only available in the registered version. Areas filename File that can be searched to find out if the requested area is available from this uplink, and to obtain the area description. File format The format of the specified Area file. If you select "Random", an area will be considered found no matter where the name of the area was found, as long as it is a whole word. This is recommended for AREAS.BBS style files. Invalid requests can occur if the area name is found in a comment or description. 17 If you select "<areaname> <description>", only the first word on each line is compared. The rest of the line will be used as description for the new area record. This is recommended for files as produced by GSETUP Export if you select "Echo list" (FIDONET.NA or NEWSGRPS.LST format). Origin AKA Address to be used as origin address in the requests that are sent to this uplink, and as "Origin AKA" of the new area that is created. Direct If GEcho should set the Direct status flag for the request messages sent to this uplink. 3.3.9 Origin lines Here you can specify up to 20 origin lines texts, which can be added to exported echomail by GEcho Scan and MBUTIL Post. Do not include your "Origin AKA" in this line, as that will be added automatically. 3.3.10 AKA matching Here you can specify which AKA should be used as origin address when packing netmail. The Zone:Net specifies the "Pack via" address, and matches all nodes in the specified net. You can match all nodes in a zone by specifying zero for the net number. 18 3.4 Miscellaneous This menu will enable you to select miscellaneous options, such as mailer type, log options, etc. 3.4.1 Global options Mailer type This defines what type of mailer you are using. It affects how outgoing compressed mail files are handled. You can choose FrontDoor (.MSG file attaches, also used for InterMail, SEAdog and Dutchie), BinkleyTerm (.?LO files) or D'Bridge (base-36 filenames in the D'Bridge queue). ARCmail compatibility If the ARCmail 0.60 naming convention should be used for out-of-zone mail. This can create duplicate compressed mail filenames, causing mail to be sent to the wrong nodes. This setting cannot be disabled in BinkleyTerm mode. In FrontDoor mode ARCmail naming compatibility is never used for compressed mail files to 4D points. Semaphore mode Which semaphore mode should be used for netmail rescan, busy flags, etc. If enabled, the mailer will be forced to rescan its netmail directory and rebuild the outbound mail queue if necessary. You can choose FrontDoor, InterMail, D'Bridge or BinkleyTerm. Create busy flags If busy flags should be created in FrontDoor, InterMail or BinkleyTerm semaphore mode. This will prevent the mailer from making an outbound call to a node whose compressed mail file is currently being updated. It will also mean that the mailer will abort an incoming call from that node, which is why this is an option. BBS type Which BBS type you are using. You can choose from RemoteAccess 1.11, RemoteAccess 2.00, QuickBBS 2.75, or SuperBBS 1.16. This setting determines how the user base and purge file should be handled. It is only used if you use a HMB. If your BBS program is not among the possible choices, select the one that is most compatible with it. Log file style Which log file style should be used. You can choose FrontDoor, BinkleyTerm, QuickBBS or D'Bridge. 19 HMB share mode Specifies how the Hudson Message Base should be opened and shared. If enabled, GEcho and some MBUTIL commands can share access to the message base with other programs. If disabled or if sharing is not available, the HMB will be opened with exclusive access, by opening the message base files in a mode which denies other programs from having write access to the message base files. See page 66 for more information about sharing modes. HMB write buffering If buffers should be used to write to the Hudson Message Base, rather than writing each message separately. This will increase tossing speed (especially on systems without disk cache), but it will require about 107 kB conventional memory, and has a risk of losing messages if the disk is full. This feature will be automatically disabled if there is insufficient memory. Enable JAM tossing If tossing to JAM message bases should be enabled. This requires about 80 kB of memory. Change PID kludge If PID kludges and tear lines should be left Change tear line unchanged, replaced or removed from mail exported from the message base. This feature is only available in the registered version of GEcho. Tear line The text MBUTIL Export -ReTear should put on the tear line of outgoing echomail messages. In the registered version this tear line can also be inserted when GEcho Scan exports outgoing echomail messages. 3.4.2 GEcho limits Some of these values affect the amount of memory GEcho reserves, so don't set them higher than needed, as it will waste valuable memory. Maximum area records Maximum node records The maximum number of area and node records GEcho should reserve memory for. 20 Maximum connections The maximum of connected systems per area GSETUP Pack should reserve space for. Points can choose "1" to save disk space and increase speed. If you need the maximum capability you can select "350". This settings affects the size of AREAFILE.GE. Maximum outgoing QQQs The maximum number of outbound packets (QQQs) GEcho should reserve memory for. You shouldn't have to worry about this unless you get a "Max. number of QQQ files reached" error. That could happen if you process huge amounts of mail, have many downlinks and use a small maximum packet size. Maximum file handles The maximum number of DOS file handles GEcho may use. Make sure that the number of FILES defined in CONFIG.SYS is high enough. If "Maximum file handles" is 15 higher than the number of downlinks, GEcho will never have to close a .QQQ file to be able to open another, which can significantly increase the tossing speed. If GEcho needs to open a packet when it has already reached the limit, it will close the least recently used packet. Maximum cache size The maximum size of GEcho's area cache. If disabled, GEcho will only keep one area record in memory at a time. Enabling the cache buffer will increase the tossing speed, because GEcho can keep the most recently used area records in memory, avoiding redundant reads from disk. A bigger buffer will give a higher cache hit ratio. Maximum packet size Maximum archive size The maximum size of the created outbound packets and compressed mail files (16-2048 kB). If a packet or archive exceeds the specified size, GEcho will stop appending to it. If you specify zero, the size will be unlimited. The maximum archive size is only available in the registered version of GEcho. 21 3.4.3 GEcho options Badecho board Board where echomail in unknown areas and security Duplicates board violations resp. duplicates should be stored. If you specify zero, the messages will be stored in the bad echomail path. This is required if you want to use the -TossBad switch (see page 44). Dupe database entries The number of messages that you want GEcho to keep track of for duplicate detection. Specifying zero will disable the duplicate detection. If you are a point system, you may find that duplicate detection is not very useful. Duplicates will most likely be detected by your boss, and your GEcho won't forward echomail to other nodes anyway. GEcho will run slightly faster without duplicate checking, and you save the disk space occupied by the ECHODUPE.GE database file. You can disable dupe checking by specifying zero dupe entries in GSETUP. Kill duplicates If duplicate received echomail messages should be deleted when tossing, rather than storing them. Check PKT destination If GEcho should check if the destination address of inbound packets is one of your AKAs. If this is enabled, packets which are not for your system will be renamed to .DST. However, this can give problems with some programs, such as SquishMail, which incorrectly put the address of the final destination of routed messages in the packet. SysOp notification If GEcho should write a SysOp notification message when packets are renamed to BAD/DST/LOC/PWD. Strip Soft-CRs If Soft-CRs should be stripped from mail exported from the message base. This reduces the size of outbound mail packets and will normally not cause problems. You should disable it in environments where the Soft-CR character (ASCII 141) is used as a printable character, or if it is used for other purposes (such as the 'Composed Character set', as supported by some editors, eg. GoldED). MSG compatibility If the Fido (zone and point information) or Opus (binary datestamps) convention should be used for the header of .MSG files. 22 3.4.4 Mgr options Keep requests If AreaMgr request and receipt messages should be Keep receipts kept after they have been processed resp. sent or packed, rather than being deleted. By default request messages which were processed without problems are deleted, and the Kill/Sent status is set on the receipt messages. Allow +* If nodes are allowed to use +* to connect to all areas available to them. Allow %COMPRESS If nodes are allowed to use %COMPRESS to change the compression utility used to create compressed mail files for them. Allow %FROM If nodes are allowed to use %FROM to do remote maintenance for other nodes. Allow %NOTIFY OFF If nodes are allowed to use %NOTIFY OFF to disable notify messages. Allow %PAUSE If nodes are allowed to use %PAUSE to temporarily suspend their connected areas. Allow %PWD If nodes are allowed to use %PWD to change their AreaMgr password. Allow %PKTPWD If nodes are allowed to use %PKTPWD to change their packet password. Allow %RESCAN If nodes are allowed to use %RESCAN to rescan new connected areas. Auto-disconnect If 'empty' passthru areas (with only one link) should be automatically disconnected. The remaining system is considered to be the uplink. This feature will only work if that system has been defined in the Uplink manager. Auto-add nodes If nodes requesting areas in a public group should automatically be added to the node database, with all data (SysOp name, password) as found in the request message to AreaMgr. Only available in the registered version of GEcho. Public groups Areas in these groups can be connected by all nodes, whether defined in the node database or not. These groups are also used as default groups when entering a new node in the node manager. Only available in the registered version of GEcho. 23 3.4.5 Netmail options Kill empty msgs If received netmail messages without any text should be deleted when tossing. Only available in the registered version of GEcho. Expand filenames Expand filenames in the subject field of received file attach messages to full path names when they are unpacked from inbound mail packets while tossing. Export local mail If netmail addressed to one of your own AKAs should be exported, for example if you have a utility that only works on *.MSG netmail. Keep netmail If netmail messages exported from the Hudson Message Base to *.MSG format should be kept in the netmail path, after they have been sent or packed. If disabled, the Kill/Sent status is set on exported netmail. Check user name If and where the Import commands should check if the user name of the netmail destinee exists on your system. You can disable the check, or choose to check the user file or user index. This does not affect netmail to the user names defined in GSETUP. You may want to separate the Toss and Import commands if you disable this option, to prevent messages for 'robot' utilities such as AllFix, FileMgr, FileFix, Tick, James, etc. from being imported before they have been processed. You can also specify the names of these utilities as users in GSETUP. Set Pvt on import If the private (privileged) status should be set on all imported netmail messages. Rcvd netmail board Board to which GEcho should move received and sent Sent netmail board netmail messages. GEcho will move the messages to the "Rcvd netmail" resp. "Sent netmail" path if you specify zero. 24 3.4.6 MBUTIL options Auto renumber MBUTIL Pack and Maint will automagically renumber the message base if the highest existing message number exceeds this value. This does not apply to JAM areas. Maximum days Default number of days to keep old and received Maximum rcvd messages resp. maximum number of messages to keep Maximum msgs for HMB boards not defined in GSETUP. Minimum msgs Default minimum number of messages to keep in areas defined in GSETUP. The Maximum msgs value of an area will override this if it is smaller. Del future If non-zero, MBUTIL can delete messages whose date is more than the specified number of days in the future, if enabled in GSETUP or if the -Future switch is used on the Purge command line. This feature will only work if the system date is in 1994 or higher. Recovery board Board to which MBUTIL should move messages in invalid boards. File buffer The size of MBUTIL's file I/O buffer. You can change this to optimize performance, or decrease it if MBUTIL runs out of memory. It is recommended to use a small buffer size when using MBUTIL in multitasking environments such as DESQview. Use areas file If MBUTIL should use the AREAS.BBS style areas file rather than using AREAFILE.GE. 3.4.7 GSETUP colors Here you can select the color set GSETUP should use or customize it with your own colors. It can also be used to calculate the color number that can be specified on the GE environment variable. Some of the color sets require an EGA/VGA card, as they use high intensity background colors. GSETUP will only set the card to this mode if one of the colors has a high intensity background. 25 3.4.8 Log options Here you can define what categories of messages should be written to the log file. The DEBUG setting allows you to log all messages without losing your customized settings. It will also log some extra messages. If "GEcho's statistics" is enabled, GEcho will write the following info about the number of processed messages to log file: Echo In: 0 Import: 0 Export: 0 Forward: 0 Out: 0 Net In: 0 Import: 0 Export: 0 Forward: 0 Out: 0 The first line is about echomail, the second about netmail: In Number of the messages that was read (unpacked) from inbound mail packets. Import Number of messages written to the message base. This includes messages for unknown areas, duplicates and security violations. Exported Number of messages that were exported from the message base, destined for other nodes. Forward Number of inbound messages that were forwarded to other nodes. Out Number of messages that were written to outbound mail packets. The following lines are only written to the log file if there is personal mail or there are messages for unknown areas, security violations or duplicates: Personal echomail: 0 Bad Unknown: 0 Security: 0 Duplicate: 0 When messages were tossed, you will also see information about the number of cache hits, disk reads, a hit ratio and the amount of memory that was allocated for and used by the cache. Even if you disable the Area cache will still consider two consecutive messages in the same areas as cache hit. 26 3.5 Area manager The Area manager is used to create and update the area database, which contains the area configuration. Following is a description of the fields on the screen: Area name The name (or tag) of the echomail area (or conference). Spaces are not allowed, and will automatically be replaced by underscores (_). Comment A short description of the topic of the area. It will also be shown to nodes who request a list of available areas from your system. Area type The type of the area. This can be Echomail, Netmail, Local, Badecho or Personal. Format Specifies how the area is stored. You can choose Hudson, JAM, *.MSG or Passthru. Messages in passthru areas are not stored on your system, but are only forwarded to nodes in the Connections list. Board Hudson Message Base board number resp. the base file Base name or path where messages for this area should be Path stored. This field only appears if "Hudson", "JAM" or "*.MSG" format has been selected. Group Group to which the area belongs. Options Defines various area status options. Purge info Purge information used by MBUTIL to delete old or received messages based on certain criteria. Origin line The origin line that should be added to echomail messages exported from your message base, if they don't already have a tear and origin line. The origin line can be customized for each area, or selected from the 20 default origin lines. Origin AKA The AKA that should be used in the origin line and as origin address of outbound packets. If you select a 4D point AKA, the address of the boss will automatically be added to the Connections list. Seen-By Addresses that should be added to the SEEN-BY lines of messages in this area. This is not available if the Origin AKA is a 4D point address. The Origin AKA is always added to the SEEN-BY lines, and does not have to be selected. You should only add AKAs that are useful for other nodes. 27 Connections List of nodes who are connected to the area. The maximum number of entries is configurable (see page 21). If the Origin AKA is a 4D point address, only a boss node can be specified. 3.5.1 Area options Check SB If SEEN-BY lines should be used for duplicate prevention, by not forwarding messages to nodes that are already listed in the SEEN-BY lines. This also enables GEcho to be used in a fully connected polygon topology, where SEEN-BY checking is required. Import SB If SEEN-BY lines should be imported to the message base or not. Since this information is not very interesting for the average user, it is not imported by default. Hide SB If SEEN-BY lines should be hidden if imported. Tiny SB If nodes not in the Connections list should be removed from the SEEN-BY lines of forwarded messages. Although this will decrease the size of outbound mail packets, it should be used with care, as it can cause problems. Check if the echomail policy of your network allows Tiny SEEN-BYs. Security If only echomail messages coming from nodes who are in the Connections list, and have Import mail set to Yes should be accepted in this area. Messages that violate this security will be stored in the Badecho board or path. Check dupes If GEcho should check for duplicate messages in this area. Hidden If this area should be hidden for all nodes, including those that are authorized to connect to it. Visible If this area should appear in the list of available areas for nodes who are not authorized to connect to it, with a minus sign prefixed to it to show that they cannot connect to it. Mandatory If this area should be mandatory, meaning that nodes will not be allowed to disconnect the area. This will override the setting in each Connections list entry. No %PAUSE If nodes should not be allowed to set this area inactive with %PAUSE. 28 Read-Only If new nodes that are added to the Connections list should be set to Export-Only. This will NOT override the setting in each Connections list entry. Allow Pvt If the Private status of echomail messages exported from or imported to the message base should be kept. This does not affect messages that are forwarded to other nodes. Del future If enabled, MBUTIL will delete messages dated in the future. Reply links If MBUTIL should link replies in this area. Disconnected Set to Yes if the area has been disconnected from the uplink, because this area is a passthru area and there was the only entry remaining in the Connections list. Notified Set to Yes if the SysOp has been notified that the area was disconnected. 3.5.2 Purge info Days old Used by MBUTIL to determine how many days normal Days rcvd resp. received messages in this area should be kept before they are deleted. If you specify zero, no messages will be delete by age. Max msgs Used by MBUTIL to determine how many messages should be kept in this area. MBUTIL will remove messages (starting with the lowest numbered) until there are this many left. If you specify zero, no messages will be deleted by number. 3.5.3 Connections Node address This MUST be the same as the Origin AKA used by the destination node! If those addresses don't match, either Security violations will occur, or all messages from that node will be returned as duplicates, unless Check SB is set to Yes and the node is not a 4D point. SysOp name This shows the name of the SysOp, if the node is defined in the node manager. You can also use this to browse through the nodes and select one. Export mail This specifies if echomail should be exported to and/or Import mail imported from this node. The latter is only checked if Security is enabled for the area. 29 Mandatory If the node is allowed to disconnect the area. Active Set to No if the node has used %PAUSE to temporary stop sending non-personal mail in this area. This only applies if Export mail is set to Yes. 3.5.4 View mode In view mode you can walk through the areas with the cursor up/down, left/right or PgUp/PgDn keys. The areas are sorted alphabetically by area name. Pressing Home or Ctrl-PgUp will take you to the first area, pressing End or Ctrl-PgDn will take you to the last area. Enter, F1 Edit the current area. Ins Add a new area. GSETUP will select "Hudson" area format with the first available board number, or else select passthru or *.MSG format if there are no unused Hudson board numbers available. Del This will mark the area as deleted and remove it from the index file. The area database has to be packed with "GSETUP Pack" to physically remove the area record. F2 Perform global maintenance on multiple areas. This will allow you to change settings, set or clear area and Connections list options and insert, delete or replace nodes in areas belonging to selected groups. F3 Add a new area and copy data from the current area. F4 Search for an area by name. Only a unique portion needs to be entered. Unless wildcards are used, GSETUP will show the closest match if an exact match can't be found. F5 Browse area list, to easily select an area. You can press A-Z to jump to the first area that starts with that letter. A-Z Jump to the first or next area of which the name starts with the entered letter. 30 3.5.5 Edit mode In edit mode you can move between input fields using the cursor up/down or Tab/Shift-Tab keys. Press Enter to edit a field. The following function keys are available: F1 Choose/edit the origin line. F2 Edit the export list. F3 Choose the origin AKA. F4 Select addresses to add to the SEEN-BY lines. F8 Edit the area options. Esc, F9 Save changes and return to view mode. GSETUP will check if you specified an area name, group, board number (unless it is a passthru area) and if the name is not already in use. If any data is missing or invalid, GSETUP will tell you so and stay in edit mode. F10 Save any changes unconditionally. 31 3.6 Node manager The Node manager is used to create and update the node database, in which you can specify which compression utility to use, select the status of mail files, and give nodes access to certain groups of areas and the remote area manager. Following is a description of the fields on the screen: Node address The network address of the node. SysOp name Name of the system operator or point. GEcho will use this name for the ARCmail file attach messages, so you can easily see for whom they are. It will also be used by the node browser and GEcho Notify. Route via Specifies to which address the outbound compressed mail files for this node should be routed. There are a few situations where this can be useful: - If you are sending echomail to a node in another zone with an echomail processor that is not zone aware, you can everywhere in GSETUP refer to this node as if he is in your own zone, and specify the real address in the other zone in this field. - If you are sending echomail to a point with an echomail processor that is not point aware, you can refer everywhere in GSETUP refer to this point using a pointnet/fakenet address, and specify the real 4D point address here. Of course you should do exactly the opposite if the node or point has zone/point aware echomail processor, but a mailer that is not.. - If the node has a mailer which is not EMSI-capable, and with whom you exchange mail for multiple AKAs. You would then specify one of his AKAs as "Route via" address in all his node manager entries. This has the additional advantages that you don't have to let your mailer route the compressed mail files, and that all packets for this node are stored in one compressed mail file rather than in one for each AKA. 32 Packet password Defines the password that will be stored in outbound packets to this node. Check password If enabled, GEcho will require the packet password to be in incoming packets from this node's address, to ensure their authenticity. Therefore you should only eanble this for nodes whose software supports this. If a packet with a correct password is received from this node, GEcho will automatically enabled this setting. Checking packet passwords is only useful if Security is enabled in each echomail area. If your mailer doesn't unpack any mail packets, it is recommended to use the mailer session level password as packet password, because you may receive packets created by a mailer, which contains the session password in the packet header. AreaMgr password If you specify this, the node will have access to the remote Area manager in GEcho. The node must enter this password in the subject line of messages addressed to AreaMgr. Read/write groups Read groups Groups of echomail areas available to this node for reading (and writing). Remote maintenance If this node is allowed to do remote maintenance for other nodes with the %FROM command. Allow rescan If this node is allowed to request a %RESCAN, which means that GEcho will send all messages in new non- passthru areas which the node just connected to. Forward requests If GEcho should forward an AreaMgr request from this node for areas which are not available at your system, to one of the uplinks defined in the Uplink manager. 33 Send notify list If the "GEcho Notify" command should send the SysOp of this node a list with the options that are set for this node and the areas to which the node is connected. Compression method Specifies which program should be used to compress the mail packets for this node. If you select "PKT", GEcho will not compress mail packets for this node, but keep them uncompressed in the "Outbound PKTs" path. Beware of this if you use a RAM disk for that path. Mail archive status AreaMgr msg status Specifies the status of mail archives resp. the AreaMgr messages and receipts for this node. It can be either "None", "Crash", "Hold", "Direct", "Crash Direct" or "Hold Direct". Pack netmail If netmail for this node should be packed. If you specify No, netmail for this node can still be packed, if the node is specified in the Pack manager. 34 3.6.1 View mode In view mode you can walk through the nodes with the cursor up/down, left/right or PgUp/PgDn keys. The nodes are sorted by node address. Pressing Home or Ctrl-PgUp will take you to the first node, pressing End or Ctrl-PgDn will take you to the last node. The following function keys are available while viewing: Enter, F1 Edit the current node record. Ins This will allow you to add a new node record. Del This will mark the node record as deleted and remove it from the index file. This does NOT disconnect the node from any area! The node database has to be packed with 'GSETUP Pack' to physically remove the node record. F3 Add a new node and copy data from the current node. F4 Search for a node by address. F5 Browse nodes, to easily select one. 3.6.2 Edit mode In edit mode you can move between input fields using the cursor up/down, Tab/Shift-Tab keys. Press Enter to edit a field. The following function keys are available: F1 Select compression program. F2 Toggle mail archive status. Esc, F9 Exit edit mode. If you made any changes, GSETUP will ask you if you want to save them. GSETUP will check if the specified node address already exists. If you entered a duplicate address, GEcho will tell you so and stay in edit mode. F10 Save any changes unconditionally. 35 3.7 Pack manager The Pack manager is used to instruct GEcho how to route and pack netmail messages. The order in which you enter the "Pack via" nodes doesn't matter, since GEcho will sort the "Routed nodes" information by priority, which is from high to low: 1. Individual node or point, 4D address, e.g. 2:2802/110.0 or .2 2. A node and its points, 3D address, e.g. 2:2802/110.* 3. All nodes and points in a specific net, e.g. 2:2802/* 4. All nodes and points in a specific zone, e.g. 2:* Mail for the "Pack via" nodes will always be packed and is never routed to another node, so GSETUP will consider adding that node to the Routed nodes as redundant. When you specify a "Pack via" node, netmail for points of that node will be routed to that node too. To specify not to route mail for some nodes (exception), route them to your main address or one your AKAs. Example for 2:2802/0 Pack via Routed nodes ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2:280/0 2:280/* 2:281/0 2:281/* 2:282/0 2:282/* 2:283/0 2:283/* 2:284/0 2:284/* 2:285/0 2:285/* 2:286/0 2:286/* 2:500/0 2:500/* 2:512/0 2:512/* 2:2800/0 2:2800/* 2:2801/0 2:2801/* 2:2802/0 2:2802/* ; Hold mail for our net by default 2:2802/9 2:2802/100 101 102 103 104 105 106 223 250 2:2802/45 2:2802/108 118 2:28/777 1:* 2:* 3:* 4:* 5:* 6:* 36 3.8 Export data The Export function can be used to export miscellaneous configuration data to ASCII text files. Area configuration Export information about all areas in specified groups defined in the Area manager, listed in alphabetic order. Node configuration Export information about all nodes defined in the Node manager. Pack configuration Export information about routing of netmail, defined in the Pack manager. Groups with areas Export list of areas belonging to specified groups. Member Export list of areas to which a specified node is connected. Quick HMB reference Export list of all areas stored in the Hudson Message Base, and their board numbers. Quick JAM reference Export list of all areas stored in JAM bases, and their base filenames. Quick MSG reference Export list of all areas stored in *.MSG format, and their pathnames. Quick PT reference Export list of all passthru areas. Auto-added areas Export list of all areas that were automatically added by GEcho's AreaMgr. Create areas file Export an AREAS.BBS style file, used by some echomail processors and utilities. Create echo list Export echo list, containing the name and comment of areas in the specified groups on each line. Create tag list Export tag list, containing the name (tag) of areas in specified groups on each line. 3.9 Information This screen shows some general information about GEcho, such as copyright, version number, country of origin, compilation date, compiler and assembler name and version. 37 3.10 Exit to DOS If you select this or press Esc from the main menu, you can exit GSETUP and return to DOS. GSETUP will check if the system data has been changed and ask if you want to save the changes. From anywhere in GSETUP you can press Alt-Z to temporarily shell to DOS. Type 'EXIT' at the DOS prompt to return to GSETUP. 3.11 Command line options The first time you run GSETUP, it will usually correctly detect if you have a color or monochrome display, and choose the appropriate color set. If necessary, you can override this with -Color and -Mono. GSETUP can also be used in a batch file to pack the area and node databases by removing deleted area and node records, create new index files, and export echo and tag lists. Commands: Index Creates new area and node database index files (AREAFILE.GEX and NODEFILE.GEX). Pack [-Clean] Removes deleted entries from the area and node databases (AREAFILE.GE and NODEFILE.GE) and creates new index files. Areas [file] Creates an AREAS.BBS style file. Echos [file] [groups] Creates an echo list. Tags [file] [groups] Creates a tag list. Keys Enter/edit the registration keys. Switches: -Color Force GSETUP to use the Homrighausen color set. -Mono Force GSETUP to use the monochrome (black and white) color set. -Clean Remove auto-disconnected areas. 38 4 GCONVERT Included in the package is the GCONVERT utility, which can convert an AREAS.BBS file, the TosScan 1.00 and FMail 0.96 area and node, and IMAIL 1.40 area, node and pack information to GEcho's format. Make sure you have entered all your AKAs in GSETUP before you run GCONVERT. When converting node information from other programs, be sure to check the compression programs, as they most likely need manual adjusting. GCONVERT can also update the Area comments using an echolist, a file in "<area> <description>" format. By default only areas without comments area updated, but if you use the -Overwrite switch GCONVERT will also replace old comments. If you run 'GCONVERT' without command line parameters, you'll get the following help screen: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Usage: GCONVERT <option> [-Overwrite] Options: 1 AREAS.BBS ==> AREAFILE.GE 2 IMAIL.AR ==> AREAFILE.GE 3 IMAIL.ND ==> NODEFILE.GE 4 IMAIL.CF ==> PACKFILE.GE 5 SETUP.GE ==> ECHOMAIL.TS [-QuickBBS|-MSG] 6 AREAFILE.FD ==> AREAFILE.GE 7 NODEFILE.FD ==> NODEFILE.GE 8 AREAFILE.GE ==> AREAFILE.FD 9 NODEFILE.GE ==> NODEFILE.FD 10 ECHOLIST ==> AREAFILE.GE (Update comments) 11 FMAIL.AR ==> AREAFILE.GE 12 FMAIL.NOD ==> NODEFILE.GE --------------------------------------------------------------------- 39 5 GECHO GEcho is the actual netmail and echomail processor. If you run 'GEcho' without command line parameters, you'll get the following help screen: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Usage: GEcho <commands> [switches] Commands: Scan Export echomail and netmail Toss Process inbound mail Import Import netmail to Hudson message base Mgr Process AreaMgr requests Notify Send notify lists to nodes Pack Route and pack netmail Run 'GEcho ?' to get information about [switches]. --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you run 'GEcho ?' you'll get the following help screen: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Switches: -Force Force complete HMB scan -Quick Only scan HMB for outgoing mail if necessary -NoMark Don't update High Water Marks -IgnoreMark Ignore High Water Marks -KillDupes Kill duplicate messages -NoDupe Disable duplicate checking -NoForward Disable echomail forwarding -NoMgr Disable AreaMgr processing -NoOutbound Disable outbound mail processing -NoPwd Disable packet password checking -NoSent Don't mark exported echomail as Sent -TossBad Process bad echomail messages -No<status> Don't pack netmail with <Intransit|Local> status -<status> Pack netmail with <Crash|Hold|Orphan> status -Flags Pack netmail with ^aFLAGS field Run 'GEcho' to get information about <commands>. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The commands and switches can all be used simultaneously. The order is not important. Following is an explanation of all commands and switches. 40 5.1 Scan The Scan command exports outgoing echomail and netmail messages entered on your system. If ECHOMAIL.BBS and/or NETMAIL.BBS exists, their contents are checked and used if valid. If they are not valid, or neither of them exists, GEcho will fall back to a full MSGHDR scan. Scan will strip existing line feeds, Soft CRs (optional) and INTL, FMPT, TOPT, PID (optional), SEEN-BY and PATH kludges from echomail messages. A tear and origin line will be added, if they don't exist already. For each area you can select one of the 20 origin lines to use or a custom origin line. The text will automatically be truncated to make sure that the origin lines do not exceed the length of 79 characters. GEcho will by default replace an existing tear line with its own. In the registered version this is fully configurable. For *.MSG and JAM areas, GEcho will by default only scan and export message numbers higher than the High Water Mark (which in the case of MSG areas is stored in 1.MSG). For netmail, GEcho will add an INTL kludge for messages to another zone, and will also do so if you have AKAs in more than one zone. GEcho will also decrease the users netmail credit if necessary. If the destination address is one of your AKAs, GEcho will only export the message if the user to whom the message is addressed, is listed in GSETUP, and if that user has a different netmail board number, or no board number at all. If echomail was tossed, GEcho will create the file SUMMARY.LOG, which is used by third-party utilities to generate statistics on the message flow. In a future version this will be replaced by a better system. 41 Switches: -Quick Only export outgoing mail if ECHOMAIL.BBS, NETMAIL.BBS or ECHOMAIL.JAM exists. Particularly useful if used when tossing incoming mail. -Force Force a complete message base scan, even if ECHOMAIL.BBS, NETMAIL.BBS or ECHOMAIL.JAM exists. -NoDupe Don't add the exported echomail messages to the duplicate database. If they return to your system, they will not be detected as duplicates. -NoOutbound Don't add the created outbound packets to compressed mail files. -NoSent Don't mark exported messages as "Sent". This can cause duplicates, so be careful! -NoMark Don't create or update the High Water Mark after scanning each *.MSG or JAM area. -IgnoreMark Ignore the High Water Mark. If you use this, all messages in each *.MSG or JAM area will be scanned. 42 5.2 Toss The Toss command is used to unpack, import and forward mail from inbound mail packets and compressed mail files. Toss will first unpack any existing mail packets in the secure path, current directory and inbound path. After that, it will decompress compressed mail files in the secure path (only in registered version) and the inbound path one at a time, and process the mail packets. If something goes wrong while decompressing a compressed mail file, already decompresssed packets are removed and GEcho continues. When unpacking, GEcho will show: Unpacking <packetname> from <address> to <address> (<program> [version], <type>) [(Password)] <packetname>:<packetmessage> ==> <area> GEcho can recognize the following packet header types: Type 2.0 2D Stone age processors Type 2.1 3D ZMail/QMail Type 2+ 4D GEcho/TosScan/FastEcho/FMail/IMAIL/D'Bridge Type 2.2 5D New SEAdog/BinkleyTerm If the packet type is invalid, the packet is renamed to .BAD. Local packets (which appear to come from your system), are renamed to .LOC, packets which are not for your system are renamed to .DST, and packets with a password error are renamed to .PWD. For each area you can select whether you want to import the SEEN-BY lines or not and select Tiny SEEN-BYs, which means that only nodes in your export list will be in the SEEN-BYs of forwarded messages. GEcho can optionally use the SEEN-BY to find out which nodes in the export list have already received the message. Messages in passthru areas are immediately exported to outbound packets. They are not stored in a directory or in the message base on your system. 43 Switches: -NoDupe Don't check for duplicates nor add the tossed echomail messages to the duplicate database. This was mainly for testing purposes, but you can also use it to reprocess packets that were already tossed if something went wrong, but be very careful with it! -NoForward Don't forward mail tossed from packets to the nodes in the export lists. -NoOutbound Don't add the created outbound mail packets to compressed mail files. -NoPwd Don't check packet passwords. -TossBad Process bad echomail messages. The messages must still contain the FROM: kludge that GEcho inserts when tossing mail to the bad echomail path to be processed. The TYPE: kludge is just to inform you why is message is considered bad. 5.3 Import The Import command is used to import netmail from the mail path to the netmail board (if defined) in the Hudson Message Base. 5.4 Notify The Notify command will send a netmail message to selected nodes in the node manager, informing them about the options set for their system and the groups they have access to and the areas that are connected to. 44 5.5 Mgr The AreaMgr maintenance function allows nodes to connect/disconnect areas in groups to which they are authorized. The AreaMgr is invoked each time GEcho is run, unless the -NoMgr switch is used. Use the "Mgr" command if you want to invoke the AreaMgr without having to run Toss, Scan, Pack or Import. AreaMgr will process messages to "GEcho", "AreaMgr", "AreaFix". "AreaLink", "ConfMgr" and "EchoMgr". The AreaMgr password should be specified on the subject line and should match the password in the node record. In the body of the message to AreaMgr the user can put the following commands: [+]<areaname> Connect an area -<areaname> Disconnect an area %HELP Request this message %LIST Request a list of areas available to you %QUERY Request a list of areas to which you are connected %UNLINKED Request a list of areas to which you are not connected %COMPRESS <method> Change the compression program %COMPRESS ? Request a list of available compression programs %PWD <password> Change your AreaMgr password %PKTPWD <password> Change your packet password %RESCAN Request a rescan of new added areas %PAUSE Temporary disconnect all connected areas %RESUME Reconnect all temporary disconnected areas %NOTIFY <ON|OFF> Enable/disable notify messages %FROM <address> Remote maintenance, must be the first command %RECEIPT <n>, <a> Send copy of receipt to <name> at <address> %NOTE [text] Note for the SysOp, request is not deleted [---] Everything below the tear line is ignored The user can also use the -H, -L, -Q, -R and -U switches on the subject line. Example: By: gerard van.der.land (2:2802/110) To: GEcho (2:2802/0) Re: SECRET St: Pvt Local Kill ---------------------------------------------------------------------- +GECHO*.* -SYSOPS.?28 %NOTE This is just an example %LIST %PWD SECRET %COMPRESS ZIP 45 5.6 Pack The Pack command is used to route and pack netmail as specified in GSETUP's Pack manager. Pack will ignore messages with a "^aFLAGS" field, or messages that have the Hold, Crash or Orphan status. You can use the -Flags, -Hold, -Crash and -Orphan switches to override this. For each packed message, GEcho will write a line to the log file: <msg#> <origin address> --> <dest address> [via <route address>] To each packed message, GEcho will add the following kludge line: ^aVia <your address> @YYMMDD.HHMMSS GEcho 1.02 GEcho uses AKA matching to choose <your address>. Switches: -Hold Pack netmail with Hold status. -Crash Pack netmail with Crash status. -Orphan Pack netmail with Orphan status (orphan = destination unknown). -Flags Pack netmail with FLAGS field. -NoLocal Don't pack netmail with Local status. -NoIntransit Don't pack netmail with In-transit status. 46 6 MBUTIL MBUTIL is the message base maintenance utility. Its features are: * Purging messages by number or date using data from GSETUP, the command line, a text file or data files produced by RemoteAccess or QuickBBS. * Message base packing with automatic or forced overwrite mode and automagic renumbering. * Sorting unread or all messages by board, post date and time * Creating/updating and removing reply chains and cleaning junk from subjects from both Hudson boards and MSG areas. * Creating new index files, detecting and fixing various damages, problems and errors. * Importing/Exporting *.MSG <==> MSG*.BBS (both netmail and echomail, can update user's netmail credit). * Replacing tear lines in outgoing echomail messages. * Reporting inbound & outbound traffic and message base statistics. * Posting a text file as a message. * Undeleting deleted messages in a specified board or all boards. * Moving all messages in one board to another board. * Maintenance on *.MSG and JAM areas. If you run 'MBUTIL' without parameters, you will get a help screen with commands. Run 'MBUTIL <command> ?' to get information about the parameters for that command. If a parameter is missing or invalid, MBUTIL will also show you a help screen or error message. Example: MBUTIL Purge ? 47 6.1 Export The Export command is the opposite of the Import command and can be used to export netmail from any board in the Hudson Message Base to the mailer's netmail path. MBUTIL Export [-All] [-Crash] [-Delete] [-ReTear] -All Send all messages to another zone direct -Crash Send only crash messages to another zone direct -Delete Delete messages in the message base after they have been exported. Normally this is only done for Kill/Sent mail. -ReTear Replace the tear line in Outgoing Echomail messages To qualify for export, a netmail message shouldn't be destined to one of your own addresses. Messages to your own points will always be exported. By default, out of zone netmail is routed via the zone gate (origzone:origzone/destzone), but you can use the -All switch to send all netmail directly or the -Crash switch to send only crash netmail directly. If netmail was entered using a program that sets the cost field in the message header and increments the Pending field in USERS.BBS, MBUTIL will decrement the user's Pending and Credit fields after exporting. Export will update the number of outbound messages per board in the file TRAFFIC.MBU, which is created in your message base directory. Export will also create a new ECHOMAIL.BBS, to make sure your echomail processor (which uses this file to speed up scanning) will never say that the file is invalid because messages were deleted or because you packed the message base. If there is no outgoing echomail, MBUTIL will delete ECHOMAIL.BBS, which can be tested (if not exist ...) in a batch file. If you use the -ReTear switch, MBUTIL will replace the tear lines in outgoing echomail messages with the tear line defined in GSETUP. Export always fixes outgoing echomail without the Local status, to prevent duplicates caused by bugs in old versions of QEcho and FrontDoor 1.99c. There is another usage for the Export command: MBUTIL Export <board> <path> [-Delete] This can be used to export all messages in a message base board to *.MSG format. You shouldn't use this to export netmail! Export will switch back to 'netmail mode' if you specify the netmail board or "NETMAIL". 48 6.2 Import The Import command can be used to import netmail messages from the mailer's Netmail path to a netmail board in the Hudson Message Base. This can also be done by GEcho's Import command. MBUTIL Import [switches] -Delete Delete the *.MSG files after they have been imported to the message base -Rcvd Import and delete received netmail *.MSG files To qualify for import, a netmail message must be destined for an addresses and user name specified in GSETUP or a user in USERS.BBS file. Messages to "SysOp" will be imported to the first user name specified in GSETUP. By default a message that has already been received in the netmail path is not imported and an imported message is not deleted, but is given the Received status. You can use -Delete to delete messages after import. You can use -Rcvd to import received messages too, but such messages will always be deleted after import. There is another usage for the Import command: MBUTIL Import <path> <board> [-Delete] This can be used to import all Fido standard echomail *.MSG files in a directory to a message base board, for example to convert a *.MSG message base to MSG*.BBS message base format or to import all messages in the directory where your echomail processor stores duplicates or messages for unknown areas. You shouldn't use this to import netmail! Import will switch to netmail mode if you specify the netmail board or "NETMAIL". Examples: MBUTIL Import -Delete Imports netmail in the netmail path to the netmail board MBUTIL Import C:\FD\BADECHO NEWECHO -Delete Moves all *.MSG messages in C:\FD\BADECHO to the area "NEWECHO". 49 6.3 Index The Index command can be used to create new index files in case they are damaged or missing. MBUTIL Index [switches] -Delete Delete messages which are cross-linked in MSGTXT.BBS -Recover Move messages in invalid boards to the recovery board -Renumber Renumber all message numbers in MSGHDR.BBS With -Delete you can delete messages that are cross-linked in MSGTXT.BBS (more than one message referring to the same text block or a message referring to a non-existing text block). With -Recover you can move messages with an invalid board number (0 or higher than 200) to the recovery board. If you don't define one, these messages will also be deleted. The -Delete and -Recover switches are also valid for the Pack command (see page 53). If the message numbers really get out of order and/or Pack is unable to renumber the messages (for instance if Pack -Renumber can't allocate enough memory), you can use Index -Renumber to fix this. This will *NOT* update the LASTREAD pointers, so only use it in extreme emergencies. MBUTIL will ask you to confirm using -Renumber, to prevent the LASTREAD pointers from becoming useless by accident. If you have a large message base but not very much memory available, you should run 'MBUTIL Pack -Renumber' regularly or choose a low auto renumber value to prevent needing this switch. New index files are also created by Undelete, and if necessary by Move, Pack, Purge and Sort. 50 6.4 Link The Link command can be used to link messages with the same subject in a reply chain that can be followed with the message editor. MBUTIL Link [switches] -Clean Remove "Re:" and "(R)" junk from subject lines -Force Force linking if import file doesn't exist -Hudson Only link messages in Hudson Message Base -JAM Only link messages in JAM areas -MSG Only link messages in *.MSG areas -Remove Remove all reply chains If IMPORT.HMB, IMPORT.JAM and IMPORT.SDM are not present in the system path and you didn't specify the -Force switch, Link will immediately exit to save time if no mail or only netmail was received. If IMPORT.HMB is present, Link will not use the contents of the link file, but link all messages in all boards. If -Force is not used, MBUTIL will only link JAM and *.MSG areas listed in IMPOR.JAM and IMPORT.SDM. The import files are deleted by the Link command. It is recommended to run 'Link -Clean' each time messages were tossed into the message base. There is no need to relink the message base after Purge or Pack, since those commands will automatically update the reply chains themselves. 6.5 Maint The Maint command can be used to do maintenance on one or all *.MSG areas. MBUTIL Maint [areas] <switches> -Purge Delete messages based on info from the GEcho area file -Renumber Renumber messages -Index Create index file MBUTIL.RNX with old and new message numbers this can be used by external utilities to update files to the new message numbers. 51 6.6 Move The Move command can be used to move all messages in one Hudson board to another Hudson board. MBUTIL Move <from_board> <to_board> The messages are not physically moved or copied, only their board number is changed. They keep the same message numbers and reply chains. Deleted messages will not be moved. Example: MBUTIL Move RA_UTIL #56 Move all messages in RA_UTIL to board 56. 52 6.7 Pack The Pack command can be used to pack the message base files by removing messages that are marked as deleted. MBUTIL Pack [-File <file>] [switches] -File <file> Name of a purge info file. See page 56. -Backup Keep the original MSGHDR.BBS and MSGTXT.BBS as MSGHDR.BAK and MSGTXT.BAK -Force Force overwriting of the existing message base files -Overwrite Overwrite existing files only if short of disk space -Renumber Renumber messages and update LASTREAD pointers -Delete Delete messages which are cross-linked in MSGTXT.BBS -Recover Move messages in invalid boards to the recovery board -Link Link JAM areas after packing -PackLrd Enable packing of JAM lastread (JLR) files WARNING: When you pack the message base files, it is no longer possible to retrieve deleted message with Undelete (see page 60). Pack will by default rewrite the message base file and delete the old files if the message base was successfully packed. If you use -Backup, the old MSGHDR.BAK and MSGTXT.BAK files are kept. The old index files are not kept, because you can create them with Index (see page 50). By using -Overwrite you can choose to overwrite the existing files if there is not enough disk space to create new files. You can use -Force to force overwriting always, which has the following advantages and disadvantage: + Overwriting requires no free disk space at all. + Overwriting can be much faster since MBUTIL won't rewrite text blocks which don't need to be moved). + Overwriting causes less disk fragmentation, and thus reduces message base access from becoming slow. - Overwriting can be dangerous, because it will damage your message base beyond repair if it is interrupted. MBUTIL will ignore the Break and Ctrl-C keys when overwriting, to prevent you from accidentally interrupting it. The -Backup and -Force and the -Force and -Overwrite switches are mutually exclusive. 53 Although MBUTIL will automagically renumber the messages in the Hudson Message Base if the highest message number gets higher than the auto renumber value defined in GSETUP, I recommend using -Renumber regularly or always (for example by setting "Auto renumber" to 0). While packing, MBUTIL will update the reply chains and after packing it will update and fix the LASTREAD pointers. If USERS.BBS exists it will also update the 'Highest Message Read' pointers and reformat LASTREAD.BBS if necessary. There is no need to run 'MBUTIL Index' before 'MBUTIL Pack', since Pack does not use or need the index files, and the -Delete and -Recover switches described at the next page can also be used with Pack. The -PackJlr switch can be used to remove lastread pointers that have no matching user in the USERS.BBS file from the .JLR files. 54 6.8 Post The Post can be used to create a message with the contents of a specified file up to 60 kB in a specified Hudson board. MBUTIL Post <file> <board> [switches] -<Echo|Net> Message should be exported as echomail/netmail -<status> Message must have <Pvt|Crash|File|Kill> status -From <from> Default: First user name in system file -To <to> Default: All -Subject <subject> Default: <file> -Origin <1-20> Default: Don't add tear and origin line -Aka <0-10> Default: Main address -Dest <address> Default: Main address When you specify the board of an echomail or netmail area, MBUTIL will automatically give the message echomail or netmail status. You can force this with -Echo or -Net. Messages will by default be public, but you can override this with -Pvt. You can also give the message -Crash, -File and -Kill status. MBUTIL will not add a tear and origin line by default, but you can add one with the -Origin switch. Use -Aka if you want another address than the main address to appear in the origin line. With -Dest you can specify the destination address for netmail messages. If <from>, <to>, <subject> or <line> contains spaces, enclose it in double quotes. Examples: MBUTIL Post C:\RELEASE.TXT GECHO_HELP -Subject "GEcho 1.02+ release" -Origin 2 MBUTIL Post C:\RELEASE.TXT #29 -Subject C:\FILES\GE_102R.ZIP -Net -Dest 2:2802/110.1 -Pvt -File -Crash -Kill The Post command has another format if you use the -Test switch: MBUTIL Post <number> <board> -Test [...] MBUTIL will post <number> test messages in the specified board. I used this for testing purposes and decided to keep in the release versions. Post -Test will ignore -Echo and -Net. Example: MBUTIL Post 120 TEST_BOARD -Test 55 6.9 Purge The Purge command can be used to delete messages based on criteria specified per board, such as age, received status or maximum number of messages. MBUTIL Purge [-File <file>] [criteria] [-Convert <output>] [-ToIdx] -File <file> The name of a purge info file. [criteria] A line with the following format: <board> [-Days <days>] [-Rcvd <days>] [-Msgs <msgs>] [-Future] [-All] -All Delete all messages in <board> -Future Delete messages dated in the future -Unused Delete all messages in unused boards -Days Delete messages older than <days> days -Rcvd Delete received messages older than <days> days -Msgs Delete all except the last <number> messages -ToIdx Update MSGTOIDX.BBS index file -Convert Convert AREAFILE.GE, AREAFILE.FD, MESSAGES.RA, MSGCFG.DAT or areas file to a text file. With -File <file> you can specify the name of a text file with lines in [criteria] format. Instead of the name of a text file, you can also specify the words "GEcho", "RemoteAccess" or "QuickBBS", which will use the purge info in the data files AREAFILE.GE, MESSAGES.RA or MSGCFG.DAT respectively. If you use -File <file> -Days <days> -Msgs <msgs>, <days> and <msgs> will apply to all boards for which the number of Days/Msgs was not defined (zero) in <file>. If you use -File <file> <board> -Days <days> -Msgs <msgs>, <days> and <msgs> will override the settings in <file>. If you add -Convert <output>, you can convert GEcho, RemoteAccess or QuickBBS information to a text file. If you use -Msgs <msgs> -Days <days> -Rcvd <days> -Convert <output>, your areas file will be converted to purge file format. You may put comments after a ; in a text <file>. Purge will by default not update MSGTOIDX.BBS to save time, since you will usually run Pack after running Purge. You can use -ToIdx to force MBUTIL to create a new MSGTOIDX.BBS. As long as the message base isn't packed with "MBUTIL Pack", you can still retrieve deleted messages with 'Undelete', described at page 60. 56 6.9.1 Purge examples ; Delete messages on board 10 older than 2 weeks or received. MBUTIL Purge #10 -Days 14 -Rcvd 2 ; Delete messages in SYSOPS.028 according to information in MBUTIL.PUR MBUTIL Purge SYSOPS.028 -File MBUTIL.PUR [---------------------------------------------------------------] ; Example MBUTIL 1.22 Purge File ; ; Example ; ; 0 Days or 0 Msgs = unlimited ; ;Board # of Days # of Msgs Rcvd Comment (optional) ;----- --------- ----------- --------- -------------------------- #001 -Days 14 -Msgs 200 ; RemoteAccess Utilities #002 -Days 21 -Msgs 50 ; Dutch RemoteAccess Support #003 -Days 28 -Msgs 75 -Rcvd 2 ; Local board ; ; It may also look like this: ; RA_UTIL -Days 14 -Msgs 200 ; RemoteAccess Utilities RA_SUP.028 -Days 21 -Msgs 50 ; Dutch RemoteAccess Support LOCAL -Days 28 -Msgs 75 -Rcvd 1 ; Local board NETMAIL -Rcvd 7 ; This is the netmail board ONEDAY -All [---------------------------------------------------------------] You can use -Convert to create a purge file: To convert the data in the GEcho AREAFILE.GE, RemoteAccess MESSAGES.RA file or the QuickBBS MSGDAT.CFG file, run: Either: MBUTIL Purge -File GEcho [...] -Convert PURGE.TXT or: MBUTIL Purge -File RemoteAccess [...] -Convert PURGE.TXT or: MBUTIL Purge -File QuickBBS [...] -Convert PURGE.TXT How to enter information the RemoteAccess or QuickBBS configuration programs is beyond the scope of this documentation. To convert your AREAFILE.GE or areas file to a purge file: MBUTIL Purge [...] -Convert PURGE.TXT For [...] you can specify default days/msgs/rcvd values: MBUTIL Purge -Days 14 -Msgs 75 -Rcvd 7 -Convert PURGE.TXT 57 6.10 Report The Report command can be used to get some Hudson Message Base statistics and a traffic report. MBUTIL Report [switches] -Traffic Inbound & Outbound traffic report -Stat General message base statistics The traffic information is stored in TRAFFIC.MBU. The outbound traffic is updated by running MBUTIL Export before running GEcho Scan. The inbound traffic is updated by copying MSGINFO.BBS to MSGINFO.MBU before running GEcho Toss and running MBUTIL Import afterwards. 58 6.11 Sort The Sort command can be used to sort all unread messages in the Hudson base by board number and post date and time. MBUTIL Sort [switches] -All Sort all messages (ignore LASTREAD pointers) -Backup Keep the original MSGHDR.BBS as backup (.BAK) -Force Force sorting if link file doesn't exist Sorting can have two advantages: + When using combined read mode to read new messages for example, you won't see new messages from different boards mixed up. + It reduces the chance that you read a reply to a message before you read the original message. Usually that is caused by echomail processors that don't sort incoming mail packets, but that doesn't have to be the case, since a reply can simply have a shorter and/or faster path than the message that was replied to. Whether the use of the Sort command gives desirable results or not very much depends on the time zone in which you live. For example, it *may* not work correctly in Australia. If IMPORT.HMB is not present in the system path and you didn't specify the -Force switch, Sort will immediately exit to save time if no mail or only netmail was received. MBUTIL checks if there is enough disk space available. After that it scans LASTREAD.BBS and USERS.BBS (if present) to find the highest message that was read by the users. MBUTIL always assumes that there are messages to sort and starts copying MSGHDR.BBS and creating MSGTOIDX.BBS while scanning MSGHDR.BBS to find out if there are messages to sort and where to start sorting. Sort will not update or reset the reply chains, so you should run 'MBUTIL Link' after you used Sort. You can use -All to sort the entire message base, but this is not recommended for Bulletin Board Systems, as this will not update the lastread pointers. MBUTIL will ask you to confirm using -All, to prevent the LASTREAD pointers from becoming useless by accident. 59 6.12 Undelete The Undelete command can be used to undelete all deleted messages in all Hudson boards or in a specified Hudson board. MBUTIL Undelete [board] [board] Number (#<board>) or name of area in which you want to undelete messages. If you do not specify a board, messages in all boards will be undeleted. When messages are deleted, they are marked as deleted and not overwritten or physically removed (that is done by the Pack command, see page 53). This means that you can always Undelete all deleted messages, as long as the message base hasn't been packed yet. 60 7 Hints 7.1 Using GEcho with D'Bridge Here are some hints on how to use GEcho as external echomail processor with D'Bridge, as received from some D'Bridge users. Choose the following settings using the "Config" menu: Under "Packet/Mail control": Unpack mail? Yes Kill null msgs? Yes Kill In-transit msgs? No In-transit rescan? Yes Process ECHOmail? No Under "XMail control": Unpack inbound XMAIL? No GEcho's netmail directory must be the same as the D'Bridge netmail directory. Do NOT use any other D'Bridge directory for GEcho. After GEcho has been used, D'Bridge should rescan the queue to prevent it from accidentally overwriting netmail, so make sure you enable the D'Bridge semaphore mode. When you let D'Bridge swap to DOS to start GEcho, put the following in the configuration: GEcho <commands> *R 7.2 Using GEcho with BinkleyTerm When you use BinkleyTerm mode you cannot use zone numbers higher than 4096. Mail for the zone of your main address is stored in the normal outbound directory, mail for other zones is stored a directory with the name of the normal outbound directory with the hexadecimal zone number as extension. Some BinkleyTerm-alike systems do not have the point support that BinkleyTerm 2.50 has. If that applies to your mailer as well, you have two options: 1. Do not use 4D destination addresses in the Area manager's Export list or in the Pack manager's "Route To" field. 2. Use 4D destination address, and specify a point's fakenet address in the Node manager's "Route via" field. 61 8 Credits Many thanks to all the registered users and beta testers in the following countries for their contributions: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Friesland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Philippines, Singapore, South-Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and United States of America. Thank you for your registration and the time you spent testing the programs, reporting problems, making suggestions. This may be a cliche, but I really couldn't have done it without you. Listing all of you here would take too much space, but I would especially like to thank the following people, listed in no particular order: John McDowell, John Johnson, Jonathan Rapoport, Roland Mausolf, Craig Gibson, Malte Erikson, Dick Augustsson, Peter Hebert, Peter Hoste, John Voskamp, Ruud de Bruin, Reinier de Groot, Ron Huiskes, Gerard Snoek, Ruedi Kneubuehler, Rolf Taschler, Mick Spice, Jim Nikolich, Andrew Leary, Ronnie Toth, Andreas Birgerson, Jens Fallesen, Mark Prado, Nathan Moschkin, Willem Blink, James Berry, Jan Walraet, Robbert Brown, Steve Winter, Gerrit Mak, Albert Dorrepaal, Jan Frederik Nipshagen, Jeroen Pluimers, Johan Corstjens, Martijn Ruygrok, Bonno Bloksma, Frans Hagelaars, Theo Frieling, Stuart Henderson, Norbert Versluis, Sander Hage, Donald Heering, Barry Lagerweij, Tonny Lin, Tim Peeters, Alex Woick, Ronald Faber, Evert Bruinsma, Eric Lotgerink, Darryl Gregorash, Edmond Vandermeersch, Kevin Zimmerman, Paul Wijhenke, Lars Laursen, James FitzGibbon, Harry Konstantinou, Manuel Wenger, Eric Carriere, Richard Huber, Gerard van Essen, Roland van der Put, Ryan Murray, Mikael Karlsson. Special thanks also go to Joaquim H. Homrighausen, Andrew Milner and Mats Wallin. The user interface was originally designed by Joaquim H. Homrighausen and is used with permission. In many ways GEcho was designed to look and work similarly to TosScan. Some of the knowledge needed to do this (such as the calculation of packet and ARCmail filenames for points) was obtained through reverse engineering. However, I make no apology for the similarity between GEcho and TosScan. 62 All brand and product names are Copyrighted (C) material, Trademarks (tm) or Registered Trademarks (R) of their respective holders: Fido, FidoNet Tom Jennings, Fido Software FrontDoor, TosScan Joaquim H. Homrighausen RemoteAccess Andrew Milner, Wantree Development GEcho, MBUTIL Gerard J. van der Land GoldED Odinn H. Sorensen PKZIP, PKLITE PKWARE, Inc. LHA Haruyasu Yoshizaki ARJ Robert K. Jung PAK NoGate Consulting SQZ Jonas I Hammarberg UltraCompressor II Ad Infinitum Programs the Netherlands ARC, ARCmail, SEAdog Systems Enhancements Associates FastEcho Tobias Burchhardt FMail Folkert Wijnstra IMAIL IMAIL INC. QuickBBS, QEcho Pegasus Software SuperBBS Risto Virkkala and Aki Antman InterMail Peter Stewart, InterZone Software, Inc. BinkleyTerm Bit Bucket Software D'Bridge Chris Irwin QEMM, DESQview Quarterdeck Office Systems, Inc. Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows Microsoft Corporation IBM, PC-DOS, OS/2 International Business Machines Corp. DR DOS Digital Research Borland C++, Turbo Assembler Borland International, Inc. 63 9 Colors and Errorlevels SET GE=<path> [color] [color] is the optional default text color, which is calculated as follows: <text color> + (16 * <background color>) Colors: 0 = Black 1 = Blue 2 = Green 3 = Cyan 4 = Red 5 = Magenta 6 = Yellow 7 = White Add 8 for highlighted text colors. The default color is 7, white text on a black background. You can also use GSETUP; Miscellaneous; PM Colors; Customized to calculate the color number. Example: SET GE=C:\FD 3 GEcho returns one of the following errorlevels: 255 Disk error or missing configuration data 254 Insufficient memory available 253 Insufficient disk space available 252 Incorrect DOS version 251 System file revision level mismatch 250 Swap error 249 Hudson message base full or incorrect Purge/pack/renumber are needed. 3 Fatal error detected by Borland C++ Start Up Code 0 No errors occurred Note that the ERRORLEVEL keyword in a batch file by default tests if the exit code is greater than or equal to the specified number, and that they should therefore be tested in descending order. The condition "ERRORLEVEL 1" will be true for all errorlevels. 4DOS allows you to specify a "EQ" (equal) condition, for example "ERRORLEVEL EQ 249". 64 10 Technical Notes * The FTSC assigned product code for GEcho is 0x61 (hexadecimal). * GEcho and MBUTIL are fully zone and point (3D/4D) aware. * The mail packets created by GEcho are FTS-1, FTS-4 and FSC-39 revision 4 compatible, using the Type 2+ packet header with Capability Word and Capability Word Validation Copy. The outbound mail packets temporarily have the .QQQ extension. When the outbound mail is processed, each of these files is renamed to .PKT and two NULs are added to the end. If anything should go wrong with compressing, these finishing NULs are removed again, and the packet is renamed back to .QQQ. When GEcho is started again, it will only append mail to existing .QQQ packets if they have only one NUL at the end, to prevent mail from getting lost. * GEcho will recognize Type 2+ (FSC-39 revision 4 and FSC-48 revision 2) and Type 2.2 (FSC-45 revision 1) compatible packet headers. GEcho uses an external override list (FTSCPROD.GE) to show the names of the programs that created the inbound packets. This file also allows GEcho to recognize 3D Type 2.1 (ZMail, QMail) or Type 2+ packets created by programs that don't use the Capability Word (TosScan 1.00, D'Bridge 1.30). * Line feeds are always stripped, stripping of Soft CRs is optional. The tosser will find AREA tags that are hidden with ^a, or when they are preceded by one or more ^a lines. Spaces after "AREA:" are ignored. GEcho will unhide hidden AREA tags when tossing messages to the bad echomail path. If there is any other information below the Origin line, GEcho will it ignore (strip) it and not forward it to other nodes. * To detect duplicates, GEcho can store CRC-32 signatures of the header of imported and exported messages in ECHODUPE.GE, and check every inbound echomail message it processes against this list to decide whether it probably is a duplicate message or not. This is NOT 100% reliable, because there is very small chance that messages are mistakenly identified as duplicates. * GEcho and MBUTIL can parse both Fido/Opus and SEAdog style date fields and converts Opus dates to Fido format when exporting messages from a *.MSG echomail area. * GEcho supports the file naming convention introduced in BinkleyTerm 2.50 to support 4D points. 65 * GEcho supports the RemoteAccess/FrontDoor Hudson Message Base sharing specifications. This method is a bit slow, because GEcho has to lock/unlock and read/update MSGINFO.BBS every time something is written to the message base. GEcho also supports the improved sharing method suggested by the author of GEcho. This method allows GEcho to keep the message base locked until the semaphore file MBUNLOCK.NOW is created or touched. This is supported by RemoteAccess 1.11, FrontDoor 2.10 and GoldED 2.40. Do not enable this unless all other your software that uses the message base while GEcho is running supports this! * In FrontDoor semaphore mode GEcho will touch FDRESCAN.NOW and FMRESCAN.NOW and the registered version will check the crc.`n semaphore introduced in FD 2.10. In InterMail semaphore mode GEcho will touch IMRESCAN.NOW and IERESCAN.NOW. In D'Bridge semaphore mode GEcho will touch DBRIDGE.RSN and DBRIDGE.NSW and create/update DBRIDGE.ESW. In BinkleyTerm semaphore the registered version of GEcho will check for .BSY files. * GEcho was written in C (compiled using Borland C++ version 3.1 in large memory model) and assembly language (assembled using Turbo Assembler Version 3.1). The source code is not available. However, a separate Developers Kit called GE_DEV is available for developers who are planning to write a utility that uses GEcho's data files. It contains technical information, data structures and sample source code for ANSI C and Turbo Pascal. * The executables have been compressed with PKLITE Professional Version 1.15 (* extra compression *). * File input/output is performed using standard DOS file handle calls, keyboard input is done using the BIOS interrupt 16h. * If a log file ends with an End-Of-File marker (ASCII 26), GEcho and MBUTIL will also append one when closing it. * GEcho automatically detects multitaskers and gives up time slices in RemoteAccess 1.10 sharing mode when GEcho detects that MBUNLOCK.NOW has been touched. Supported are DESQview 2.x, TopView, Microsoft Windows/386 3.x, OS/2 2.x, PC-MOS/386 and DoubleDOS. * The programs automatically detect the video environment and write directly to the screen or DESQview virtual screen buffer. * The swapper used is EXEC Version 3.3a by Thomas Wagner. It can swap to EMS (LIM 3.0 or higher) and XMS memory, and to disk. * GEcho and MBUTIL support the QuickBBS 2.76 file request netmail status bit (bit 7). 66 * GEcho supports the following D'Bridge Xmail archive naming convention: For nodes: ?-ZZZNNN.###. For points: ?-POINT.### ? = C (Crash), N (Normal) or H (Hold). ZZZ = zone (in base 36) NNN = network number (in base 36) ### = node/point number (in base 36) However, GEcho will still use "FrontDoor" mode if: - any of the base 36 numbers exceeds 46655 (36^3 - 1). - the point address is not a point of the main address In this case the archive will be stored in the netmail path. 67