HAM Radio 1/HamRadio.cdr/misc/rs152upd/rs152upd.rme

Text File | 1991-04-08 | 11KB | 232 lines

PRMBS ROSERVER v1.52  04/01/91

CONFIG Changes - version/date

FIXES:
Diskspace re-comp:

  Any DOS command ('!') will now return a 'diskfull' flag forcing
diskspace recomputation.

NULL Pointer Assignment & Good Ole "ulockf:" probs:

  Complicated to explain, but in the myriad of changes that went into the
seemingly subtle mods to the flood bull pointer generation that caused all
the problems fixed in 1.51 for "Mail For:" was yet another subtle problem
which never showed up the same way twice but occasionally would show up
when the long oustanding string corruption problem " ulockf: unable to
open" would blow down to DOS it would be accompanied by a message "Null
pointer assignment". The NULL Pointer problem is fixed, but ..... the
"ulockf:" problem is, alas, still lurking in the mists!

I have included here a copy of the simple program BOOT.COM. I have modified
my PBBS.BAT to include an ERRORLEVL test for value 70 and GOTO a label
which executes the BOOT.COM to re-boot the computer via software every
morning at about 0530 local time. In that manner the occurrence of the
"ulock" problem has been reduced to nil on my operational computer. I am
still looking at the problem and its driving me nuts. This is a near sure
fire workaround.

Sysop High Message Read:

   There was a problem that has come and gone for 18 months. The basic
symptom was that the SYSOP's user record 'high message read' value would
get set back to zero periodcially - the problem was essentially eradicated
in ALMOST all circumstances. The one remaining circumstance was when you
did an "X" in an EVENT file. I looked the problem over and it was far from
easy to solve without some restructuring whihc I was faint to do. Instead I
added to the current 'states' of the BBS of LOCAL (super-sysop), SYSOP
(remote sysop), and REMOTE (normal user) the additional 'state' EVENT which
is the state of being online waiting for connect and time comes up to
execute the event file. In doing it in this fashion the problme was solved
and I was able to set up a mask to prevent commands whihc expect keyboard
or RF port response from being executed in the EVENT file. The 'cmds'
command was modified so that now in addition to the 'cmds -s' (lists
commands available to remote SYSOP) and 'cmds -u' (commands available to
the USER) you now have 'cmds -e' which will list commands available to the
EVENT processor.

   I will admit I excluded quite a few commands, that I at least could see
no reason for needing in the EVENT processor, but maybe you can.  Soooooo
once you bring this version up please get to BBS command line and type
CMDS -E  and then look the list over and let me know if anything needs to
be 'put back' - you can do a simple CMDS to see what amounts to being the
full list.

Message #65535 and Re-Numbering:

   The problem of what to do when the message count rolls over 65535
was still not fixed. I found several gotchas even after it appeared to
be fixed in 1.48. This time I believe (I hope!) I have found all of the
gotcha's (where is Harry Warren when you really need him??!!??). I made
a dozen or so different MAIL.DATs with numbers in the 65000 range and
tried various message forwards, imports, console creation, user port
creations etc and it all seems to work cleanly now - when it rolls from
65535 to 0, the zero is detected and the next message is bumped to 1.

   This revision is a MUST HAVE for anyone getting near 65535 message number
unless you are planning on doing a massive message export, initializing
a new message file at 1, and massive import.

   There will be some problems with simple L and E and RN commands
during the period when messages exist across the span 65535 and 1. The
system will still run but list commands will either give 'not founds'
or the world ... MAILWORK has been heavily overhauled and now supports
renumbering the mail file. I tested it out very carefully in many
circumstances and different combinations of Bulletins and un-forwarded
pointers etc. IT works just fine ..... I got so cocky about it I
renumbered the 'master file' of interesting bulletins and hate mail I
keep on my Compaq 386/25 - 1834  messages - it took a while even on the 12ms
330 Meg HD on the Compaq - but it came through without a hitch.

    I warn those of you with 300 plus messages in your files and still
running on an XT that the renumber will take some time. In order to
handle flood pointers correctly, as I read each message, I look at at
all the records following it for a possible flood pointer ... soooo ....
if you have 300 messages, the first record is read and the next 299. Then
the second record is read and the next 298, the third and the next 297 ...
crude, I know but it works, and as you get closer to the end it has
less and less to read and really starts to fly. On an XT you may wish
to use Lightening, the disk cache program with about a 300K cache. this
would speed the process up by a factor of 5 or 10. I should not have to
say that this absolutely should not be done in a multi-user environment
with the mail file active in another window.

   After I read the above - I decided to add an additional option to
MAILWORK Renumber. If you use a '-q' option you get 'quick'
renumbering, that is, '$' pointer will be ignored and not carried to
the new MAIL.DAT, so you can use this to purge pointers or if you have
none and do not want to wait forever for the renumbering.

   If you are feeling nervous about this, you may want to protect
yourself by getting  into your BBS directory and type:

       pkzip -ex -u -P savemail mail.dat mail\msg?????.mai

 ** the '-P' in this particular PKZIP command IS CASE SENSITIVE
This will archive your whole mail file and text files.

HOLDMAIL:

I fixed a problem in the HOLDMAIL function, which was holding
everything under some circumstances, regardless of the contents of the
HOLDTO, HOLDFROM, HOLDAT files. (thanks to WR2E and two other for the
reports on that)

Shelling to DOS:

I modified the '!' command to use the environmental variable COMSPEC
instead of a hard coded "command.com" when shelling to a DOS prompt. So
those of you wanting to use a COMMAND.COM replacement like 4DOS will be
in luck.

CHANGES:

Speaking of pointers:

 ...... I added the option '-$' to select flood pointers for edit,
list, kill etc. ( '-k$' killed pointers, '-B$' for bulletin pointers,
'-H$' - held pointers. However '-P$' will not work right, nor is it
likely you will ever get  '-T$', and so on)

Read Count Select:

   I added an additional option to the  LIST/EDIT/KILL/RN/E/R/V commands.
That is a 'times read' checker. It is mainly aimed at doing automated
killing of wasted bulletins. The '-r ###' option basically operates on any
message whose times read counter is less than the number specified. For
example:

  M 0809 K> 4SALE -ZB -X 20 -R 5 all
  M 0809 K> 4SALE -ZB -X 30 all

   These sample EVENT lines are setup to execute early in the morning.The
first will kill, without querying, all 'for sale' bulletins, over 20 days
old that have been read  4 or less times.  The second will kill any 'for
sale' bulletin over 30 days old

Doorway to DOS - temporary deactivated:

   The 'doorway' to DOS function has been deactivated for a a couple of
months I have found some problems with it and need to work on it. I
also need the space it occupied for a major restructuring. I plan to
re-activate the DOORWAY function in code to be released in June. In its
place, I have added a COPY command whihc iwll let you move files
around. It is a full DOS COPY sub-run. You will get the console ouput
back as well so if you do a COPY *.rs SYS, you will see each filename
copied, etc. I caution against copying to COM1, COM2, etc that will
destroy the interrupt IO vectors of BPQ or MBBIOS. Likewise do not copy
to floppy or printers that are not there - lockup-city! I recommend
some care here. The password functions should definitely be used.


PRMBS ROSERVER v1.51  03/15/91

FIXES:

'Mail For:' beacon was all screwed up, problem goes back to v1.48. I simply
didn't allow for some other changes I made which totally screwed this
process up. A further consequence was fouling up the display of 'you
have new mail' message.

'readnews' (rn) command would never find anything, yet another casualty
of the changes made in v1.48 and propagated in v1.50.

'putfile' yet one more victim of the above changes was the putfile command.

CHANGES:

 In fixing the above problems I saw an opportunity with but a half
dozen lines of code to add a 'subjects' search. If the command
'readnews' or 'rn' is issued with no arguments the system will display
a  list of up to the 64 mosr recently entered TO fields for bulletins.
This 'list' is compiled each time the system computes the 'Mail For'
banner, i.e. if it isn't Traffic or Private its To field gets examined
as a 'subject' - the titles aren't duped. This will make the READNEWS
command easier to use since it can be used to find out what topics to
ask for. This command is analogous to the LC (list category) command
that Hank put in RLI code several months ago.

PRMBS Ver 1.50  03/01/91

PROBLEMS fixed:

  - in 1.48 with the change in the manner flood pointers were
generated, a minor change to the findmsg() function set up a condition
where under specific circumstances an 'L' command would lock the system.

  - for several versions 'km' (kill mine')  was blowing everything
addressed to  user away, read or unread - and if that person was sysop,
all messages addressed to SYSOP as well - it is fixed.

CHANGES:
  There is a SETPARM parameter called HOLDMAIL. If set ON when any
message is being saved, it will check for files HOLDTO.RS, HOLDFROM.RS,
and/or HOLDAT.RS if the TO, FROM, or AT fields of the incoming message
match calls listed in any of these files (like all other PRMBS
permission  type  files, they do not have to be present.0if you have no
 files as suchthen setthe parameter OFF and save disk churning. You can
also setup the files for when you are away and turn the parameter
OFF/ON based on your general presence - like turn it ON when you are
away for the weekend and back off when you get back) and  save an
messagethat makes a match as status 'H'. it could be used to filter
@ALLBBS or @USA (editorial comment here, the concept appalls me, but I
see the need for the mechanism  from a pragmatic standpoint)

  When a message is created locally by sysop or a user and the TO field
contains the letters ALL as the  first three characters (ALL, ALLUSA,
ALLCAN, etc) The system will display the following  message and prompt
the user to re-enter the TO field

*** The TO field of a bulletin should be more specific than $S.
The following is a list of suggested topic areas that can be used
 ALL    4SALE   WANTED  HELP    MODS   CLASS  EXAMS  CLUB  HAMFST  MAP
 NETWRK LIST    SOFT    BEACON  LLBBS  DX     SAT    PROP  QST     SPACE
 AMSAT  COMPTR  C64     IBM     C128   MJF    AMIGA  AEA   PC      KANTRN
 CPM    PACCOM  UNIX    COMMDR  VIC20  ICOM   OSBORN YAESU KENWOD  ALINCO
 TANDY  RADSHK  ATARI
Please re-enter the TO field now (simply hitting ENTER or CR
will retain your original TO field):