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- GEcho 1.02+
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- Electronic Mail Processor
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-
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- MBUTIL 1.22+
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- Message Base Utility
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-
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- for the Hudson Message Base (HMB)
-
- Joaquim-Andrew-Mats Message Base Proposal (JAM)
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- and *.MSG Message Base
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-
-
- USER MANUAL
-
-
-
-
-
- Software and documentation written by Gerard J. van der Land
- Copyright (C) 1991-1994 Gerard J. van der Land
- All rights reserved
-
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-
-
-
-
- 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
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- 2 FidoNet Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
- 2.1 Network structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
- 2.2 Mail transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
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- 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
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- 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
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- 7 Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
- 7.1 Using GEcho with D'Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
- 7.2 Using GEcho with BinkleyTerm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
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- 8 Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
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- 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.
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- 4
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- 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).
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- 5
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- 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
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- 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).
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- 7
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- 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
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- 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.
-
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- 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
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- 3 GSETUP
-
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- 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.
-
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- 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.
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- 11
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- 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.
-
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- 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.
-
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- 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.
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- 12
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- 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.
-
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- 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.
-
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- 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.
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-
- 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.
-
-
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-
- 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.
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- 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".
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- 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.
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- 65
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- * 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.
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