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ECHOLIST The EchoMail Conference List USERS GUIDE 01 Apr 98 ELMOD804.TXT No Changes this edition ************************ This Users' Guide is intended as a brief description of the EchoList, a summary of how to submit updates to the database, and how to obtain information on the status of an echo from the Echolist. Changes since the last issue are highlighted in the left margin with the pipe symbol '|'. FILE CONTENTS ============= Table of Contents of this file: FILE CONTENTS DISTRIBUTION CURRENT ELIST STATUS PURPOSE OF THE ECHOLIST EXPIRY OF ELIST ENTRIES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OF UPDATES SENDING AN ADDITION OR UPDATE DELETING AN ECHO SENDING A RULES FILE SENDING A QUERY REQUEST OBTAINING INDIVIDUAL RULES AUTOMATING THE UPDATES HOW ECHOLIST PROCESSES MESSAGES CONCLUSION DISTRIBUTION ============ A new ELMODnnn.ZIP (User's Guide) is distributed monthly, and each issue replaces all previous versions of ELMOD. The 'nnn' is replaced by 3 numbers representing the last digit of the year followed by two digits of the month number - eg June 1997 is 706. This file is distributed monthly in the ECHOLIST file echo, and is also available on the Internet at the following Web page: http://www.portal.ca/~awalker/elist.htm In addition, the file is constantly updated to reflect changes in the Echolist software, or to improve the explanations, and the current draft version of the file is published weekly in the ECHOLIST message echo, distributed by Fidonet's North American Backbone. CURRENT ELIST STATUS ==================== In the weeks following 02 June 1995, the Echolist software was completely rewritten to permit its use on a different platform and to allow fully automated operation. Most former features and formats were retained, but since the rewriting of the software necessitated some changes, moderators are encouraged to read this file carefully for details of the current Elist operation. PURPOSE OF THE ECHOLIST ======================= The EchoList is a monthly publication produced by the Zone 1 Echolist Coordinator at 1:153/752. It provides a place for Moderators to advertise their conferences regardless of distribution system or network, both to people who would like to participate, and to those who route echo traffic. It is also a reference for distribution systems wishing to contact the Moderator of an echo, or wishing information about an echo's topics. The Echolist is independent of all echomail distribution systems and their rules. Only one restriction exists on the acceptance of entries. We reserve the right to decline to accept a requested entry if in our opinion the listing of an entry appears intended to cause harm to an individual, promotes illegal activities, or is likely to affect adversely those involved in distribution of the Echolist or the echo. The listings in the EchoList are maintained by the Moderators and Robot software, not by the Echolist Coordinator. Additions and updates to the database are done by submitting NetMail messages addressed to a special name and node address. The Subject of the message indicates what is to be done, and the body of the message has the data for the database entry. The format of the message body requires that each line have one keyword and its accompanying data. Since the process is automated, correct formatting of both the address and the message body is essential to having your data recognized by the program. EXPIRY OF ELIST ENTRIES ======================= To ensure that the Echolist contains only up-to-date information: *********************************************************************** ALL ENTRIES EXPIRE SIX MONTHS AFTER THE MODERATOR'S LAST UPDATE IS SENT *********************************************************************** This means that a Moderator must send an update by netmail or Internet email at least once every six months to maintain the EchoList entry. Moderators and Co-Moderators should work together to ensure that this is done. It is suggested that the process be automated, and many moderators send their updates monthly. 5 months after an entry was last updated, a netmail or Internet email advisory is sent to the person who last updated the entry, at the node number or Internet address on record. At the same time the Elist entry is flagged with the following warning immediately under the tag in the Elist: !!! DELETE WARNING !!! 6 months after an entry was last updated, if the entry is still not updated, it is deleted from the Elist distribution files. 7 months after an entry was last updated, it is completely purged from the database, and all password protection of the tag is lost. NOTE: Warning, expiry and purging are performed when the Elist is published on the first of each month, so for calculation purposes the software assumes that an echo was updated on the first of the month following the actual update. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OF UPDATES =========================== Acknowledgements of receipt of update netmail messages are sent via Fidonet's echomail-routed netmail, unless the hold option is specified. Update Internet email messages are acknowledged by return Internet email. Acknowledgements to non-Fidonet nodes are available only if the hold option is specified. Please note that packet-header format prevents holding mail addressed to points - it will be necessary for points to call in as .0 to pick up such mail. Automated expiry warning netmail is all routed. The Elist software is run each time inbound mail is received. Netmail is processed immediately regardless of whether it arrives via a passworded or an insecure session, and email is processed immediately as well. As a result, updates usually are processed within 60 seconds of their arrival. Some delay is inevitable if the system is in the middle of processing a major mail dump. To allow for that, if you have requested that an acknowledgment to be placed on hold, it is suggested that you wait for one hour after delivering an update before polling again. Email responses are sent to the Internet immediately after being written. Successful updates are also posted daily in the ECHOLIST echo. SENDING AN ADDITION OR UPDATE ============================= To add or update an EchoList entry, submit either a 1. NetMail message addressed to "ECHOLIST" at 1:153/752, or 2. Internet email message addressed to awalker@portal.ca NOTE: The return Internet email name@address MUST be 35 characters or less since Fidonet *.msg format is used by the Robot for creating return messages. A separate message is required for each echo being updated. The message subject for both netmail and Internet email must be "MODerator UPDate" which may also be abbreviated to "MOD UPD". The message header thus looks like this: Correct: [Netmail] [Internet email] To: ECHOLIST awalker@portal.ca At: 1:153/752 [n/a] Subject: MOD UPD MOD UPD Wrong: To: Adrian Walker At: 1:153/752 Subject: MOD UPD Note: The Echolist software will take your return address from the MSGID, if present. If your message originates in a Fidonet or FTN-format network, the MSGID is expected to show an address in a form which constitutes a valid return address for the originating network. An Internet-format MSGID address will result in an error in recording of the return address. MESSAGE BODY FORMAT ------------------- The body of the message text has the data for the database entry, formatted so that every line starts with a special keyword that identifies the field name as detailed below, followed by at least one space, followed by the data to be put in that field. The required fields for new entries are TAG, TITLE, DESCRIPTION, and MODERATOR. The use of PASSWORD is strongly encouraged! The other lines are optional, and if you do not wish to supply data for a given field, omit that line. Similarly, if you wish to delete the contents of a data line, just include the keyword with no text after it, and the 'empty string' will replace whatever is in the database for that keyword. If the echo is already in the current Elist, only the TAG and (if a password is in place ...) PASSword fields need to be included in an update message, since the software will supply the remaining information from the existing Elist entry. NOTE 1: If an abbreviated update is sent, the netmail response from the Robot will only contain the data provided in the update. All previous data in the database is left intact, but is not shown in the netmail. To see a copy of the complete entry, the QUERY function described below may be used. NOTE 2: Although an abbreviated update is accepted, the public posts of updates in the ECHOLIST echo similarly contain only the data from the update message. Since these posts form a useful advertising medium for an echo, a moderator may wish to include all data in every update to assist users reading these public posts. NOTE 3: If the echo has already been deleted from the Elist, you can not submit an abbreviated update, since the missing data is no longer on file, and only the tag and password are kept until the 7-month purge date. Each line may appear only once, the two exceptions being DESC and MOD lines, of which there may be as many as necessary up to the limit shown below. If multiple copies of other lines are included, only the last one will be recognized by the software. The first data line MUST be TAG. After that, all other lines can come in any order. The keyword starts at the left margin of the line, and may be abbreviated, but the CAPITALIZED part of the keyword is the minimum abbreviation you can use. Put at least one space between the keyword and the text of the line. The To-name, subject, keywords and passwords are NOT case sensitive. The <> and [] in the following lines are used here only for clarity and should be omitted. In the body of the message: Mandatory: TAGname <echo area name> [max 19 characters] AREA is also accepted for backward compatibility. TITle <brief description of the echo> [max 58 characters] DESCription <full description of the echo> [max 25 lines] MODerator <moderator name>, <moderator node> [max 6 lines] Strongly encouraged: PASSword <current password>, <new password> Optional: ORIGin <originating node of the distribution> DISTribution <distribution systems or regions> FEED <main Zone-level feeds in each network> GATEway <gateways to other zones & networks crossed> LANGuage <language(s) accepted in the echo> RESTrictions </SYS /MOD /MEM /REA /ACC /RUL> TOTalnodes <number of nodes carrying this echo> VOLume <number of messages>/<Month, Day or Week> RULEfile <filename of rules file in ELRULnnn.ZIP> OPTION <HOLD> [no abbreviations] Note: 1. Fields such as SEEN-BY and PATH are no longer recognized or recorded. 2. Packet-header format prevents holding mail addressed to points - points should call in as .0 to pick up such mail. SAMPLE ENTRY ------------ TAG ECHOLIST PASS YOURGUESS TIT EchoList Access Conference DESC The EchoList, or Elist, is published at the beginning of each DESC month and is a listing of EchoMail Conferences as described DESC and submitted by each conference's moderator. Successful echo DESC update requests are posted in this echo in addition to being DESC sent in netmail to moderators. This provides public DESC information on updates between the monthly Elist file DESC distribution dates. This echo also provides access to the DESC Elist's author for questions about the database which are not DESC answered by the ELMOD and ELFAQ help files. For availability DESC of files and routine questions about update formatting, DESC participants should first contact their NEC or REC. Discussion DESC of echomail links and distribution systems is off topic. ORIG 1:153/752 DIST Z1-Backbone FEED 1:396/1, 1:140/1, 1:3615/50, 8:973/1 VOL 300/Week RULE ECHOLIST.RUL MOD Adrian Walker, 1:153/752 KEYWORD EXPLANATIONS -------------------- <MANDATORY KEYWORDS> TAG is the one-word name used in distributing the echo, and is also called the area name or group name. Since the tag is used by areas control programs to create subdirectories, is formatted into the echo listings of distribution systems, and is processed by various mail processing software, the following guidelines for tags are provided: - No longer than 19 characters. - The first 8 characters should not duplicate those of other tags. - Characters should be between ASCII 33 and ASCII 126 inclusive. - The following characters should be avoided, because the software indicated below is known to restrict their use in tags. Any use of these characters in a tag name, therefore, may cause distribution problems for the echo when passing through systems using such software: * (Imail, Fastecho) ? (Imail, Fastecho) [ (Imail, Fastecho) ] (Imail, Fastecho) . (Can not be used in Tag-name-based filenames/subdirectories) - The first character should not be any of the above, or: - (Imail, Fastecho) + (Imail, Fastecho) & (Imail, Fastecho) ~ (Imail, Fastecho) # (Imail, Fastecho) % (Imail, Fastecho) = (Imail, Fastecho) The Echolist does not accept duplicate tag names. TITLE should be a one-line title for the conference, preferably 58 chars or less. Since the title is also imported from the Elist directly into the echolists of various distribution systems, titles longer than 58 characters are likely to be truncated. DESCRIPTION is a mandatory field, and allows for a more detailed description of the conference, since you can supply multiple DESC lines. In the Elist all DESC lines are combined into a single paragraph. Make sure that you have the keyword DESC in front of *every* line of description text, or the Elist software will not recognize what type of line they each are. Correct: DESC The EchoList, or Elist, is published at the beginning of each DESC month and is a listing of EchoMail Conferences as described DESC and submitted by each conference's moderator. Wrong: DESC The EchoList, or Elist, is published at the beginning of each month and is a listing of EchoMail Conferences as described and submitted by each conference's moderator. MODERATOR, for the purpose of the Echolist, is normally defined as the person(s) with authority over the distribution and policies of a conference. For those echoes not requiring such a single authority, the listing refers instead to the person designated as contact person or liaison on behalf of the echo. There MUST be at least one Moderator listed in order to have a valid EchoList entry. Each Moderator line consists of a first and last name (no initials or middle names) followed by a comma, and then the Moderator's node address. Only one name and address is permitted per MOD line. Node addresses should provide the method of contact with the Moderator, and since the Echolist is produced within Fidonet, this should be an address, or a point off an address, which is listed in a commonly available nodelist and is thus accessible from Fidonet. There should be no spaces in the address field. Correct: MOD Adrian Walker, 1:153/752 MOD Adrian Walker, 1:153/752.0 MOD Adrian Walker, awalker@portal.ca Wrong: MOD Adrian Walker 1:153/752 [no comma] The use of the PASSWORD field is strongly encouraged. It may protect your entry from modification by someone else. There are two password fields on the PASSWORD line. The first is for the current password. The second is optional and is for the new password to change it to, if you want to change it. Here are the formats: PASS SOMEWORD [existing password] PASS SOMEWORD, NEWWORD [change passwords] PASS NEWWORD [add password if none] or PASS , NEWWORD [add password if none] Please note that the use of "PASS , NEWWORD" to update an entry causes the Robot to expect the current password to be non-existent (nothing before the comma), and to be replaced by the new password provided. If there actually *IS* a password on record, such a format will cause the update to be bounced for an incorrect password. <OPTIONAL KEYWORDS> ORIGIN, DISTRIBUTION, FEEDS, GATEWAYS and LANGUAGE are just an organized set of text fields which you can use to describe sources and contacts that control links to the conference. Use any of them which you need. If you are on a formal distribution backbone of some kind, don't just say BACKBONE - there are lots of them. Specifically say "Zone 1 Backbone" or "Zone-3 Backbone" or "EchoNet Backbone"... RESTRICTIONS is a shorthand reference to rules applied by the Moderator concerning admission to the conference. /ACC - access is limited to Read-Only status. /MEM - you must be validated as a member of some organization. /MOD - you may not link in without specific approval of the Moderator. /REA - only real names are permitted - no aliases. /RUL - a rules file is included in ELRULnnn.ZIP. /SYS - only Sysops are allowed to participate. The letters following the '/' must be in upper case. If more than one is needed these should be separated by a space. A free form Restrictions line is permitted, but ONLY if the line does not contain the preceding '/' character. Acceptable formats include: REST /SYS REST /MOD /SYS REST Startrek Fans only TOTALNODES is for providing an estimate of the number of systems participating in your conference. It must be a single integer number such as 6, 21, 190, etc.. VOLUME is for providing an estimate of the volume of messages to be expected by those who link-in. It must be a single integer number followed by a slash followed by either MONTH, WEEK or DAY to identify the time period in which that number of messages flow. RULEFILE allows you to specify the name of the rules file, or other information file or FAQ about the echo, which you submitted for inclusion in the ELRUL archive. If you send the rule file as an attach, you can name it as you wish. If the rules were provided in message form, the Echolist software will extract them to a file and automatically name the file with the first 8 characters of the echo tag, in which case the response message will remind you to change your next update to show the automated rule file name. Please note, this keyword is only used to display the NAME of the rules/FAQ file in the Elist entry - to submit the rules/FAQ FILE itself, you must use a separate message following the format detailed in "SENDING A RULES FILE" below. All rules/FAQ files have the extension of *.RUL. After the keyword "RULE" you should ONLY put the rulefile name on this line - no other text: Correct: RULE WHATEVER.RUL RULEfile WHATEVER.RUL Wrong: RULE WHATEVER.RUL is the file. [extra words] OPTION allows you to specify the way in which your update message should be handled by the Echolist software. At present the only option is HOLD which causes the acknowledgement message to be held for you to pickup, instead of being sent to you via routed netmail. Allow 12 hours before polling for pickup. The HOLD option is ignored for Internet email responses. DELETING AN ECHO ================ There is at present no automated routine for deleting an echo from the Elist. To have a complete entry deleted, please send netmail addressed to Adrian Walker at 1:153/752, giving the echo tag, your password, and requesting that the entry be deleted from the Elist database. On receipt, the entire entry and its password will be removed from the Elist. This also removes all protection for the echo tag, thus allowing others to make use of it. SENDING A RULES FILE ==================== To submit an echo rules/FAQ file to the Echolist for inclusion in ELRUL###.ZIP, the monthly collection of current echo rules/FAQs, submit either: 1. NetMail message to "ECHOLIST" at 1:153/752, or 2. Internet email message to awalker@portal.ca. In order to submit a Rules/FAQ File the EchoList entry must already have been added to the Elist with a MOD UPD message. Rules File messages can not be used for adding or updating Elist entries. Depending on whether it is done by netmail or Internet email, the rules/FAQs may be submitted using either of the following methods. 1. As a file attach message (only applicable to Fidonet direct Netmail): To: ECHOLIST At: 1:153/752 Subject: <attached rules/FAQ file name (xxxxxxxx.RUL)> NOTE: The file being attached must be a plain language text file in ASCII format. Use of extended ASCII is permitted. The file must NOT be a compressed file, since this poses problems on some systems when the ELRUL archive is decompressed. In the body of the message: TAGname <symbolic area name> PASSword <current password> --- 2. Included in the text of the message (Netmail or Internet email): [Netmail] [Internet email] To: ECHOLIST To: awalker@portal.ca At: 1:153/752 At: [n/a] Subject: MOD RUL Subject: MOD RUL In the body of the message: TAGname <symbolic area name> PASSword <current password> RULEtext <Full Title of rule/FAQ file - one line only> [insert freeform rules file into message here] --- The format for the password is the same as shown in the Update message format, above. Note that in both cases the 3-character string "RUL" appears as part of the subject line, and this is the cue for the Elist software to process the message as a Rules/FAQ submission. All rules/FAQ messages must end with a 3-dash tear line. ************************************************************* ALL RULE/FAQ FILES EXPIRE AND ARE DELETED WHEN SIX MONTHS OLD ************************************************************* As with database echo description entries, to ensure currency, rule/FAQ files are removed from the archive when more than 6 months old, and Moderators wishing their rules/FAQs to appear in ELRULnnn.ZIP should resubmit their echo's rules/FAQs at least once every 6 months. They are not retained in the database after this time. All rules/FAQ files are stamped with the date of arrival at 1:153/752, regardless of the original file date, so as long as a Moderator submits a rule/FAQ file every 6 months, it is not essential that the file have a recent file date. SENDING A QUERY REQUEST ======================= To obtain a list of echoes and the date of their last update, file request ELTAG from 1:153/752 or 1:153/751, and the current ELTAGnnn.TXT will be sent (approx 110 kb). This file is updated every time an update arrives so it will contain up-to-the-minute information. To query the EchoList database, you can do one of two things. 1. Do an online query by file-request, or 2. Send a netmail query. 1. For the first option, send a file request to 1:153/752 with the following filename: ELQUERY TAGNAME In the above example, TAGNAME is the tag you wish. The two words must be on the same line in the file request, separated by a space. This is similar to requesting a file with a password, only if you entered it as a password, the request attach would look like: ELQUERY !TAGNAME (The '!' would have to be pulled out in such a case.) While you are online, the Elist Robot will search the database, including the Zone 2 Elist, and will pull out the current entry for that echo. It takes about 30 seconds for the response, called ELENTRY.TXT, to be sent to you. It is important to send the request to 153/752, since that system has a 486/66 computer and can extract the data from the Elist database before some mailers time out. The other system is only a 286/12. 2. For the second option, submit a NetMail message to "ECHOLIST" at 1:153/752. The message subject must be "ECHO QUERY" (no abbreviation). The body of the message text has the arguments for the request. Only a single Query parameter is currently available with the new Elist software, and only a single echo may be queried in a given query message: /MODUPD <Echo area name> This produces an updated copy of the echo's complete Elist entry formatted as it appears in the monthly ELIST###.TXT file. Thus the message will look like the following: To: ECHOLIST At: 1:153/752 Subject: ECHO QUERY /MODUPD SOMEECHO --- It should be noted that some options for message forwarding, and string searches other than a complete tag name are not implemented at present. OBTAINING INDIVIDUAL RULES ========================== To obtain a list of the most current rules files on record, file request the magic name RULES from 1:153/752. From that list you can then file request specific rules which may be more current than those in the last ELRULnnn.ZIP distribution file. AUTOMATING THE UPDATES ====================== You can automate the process of sending update messages with a batch file like the following. The programs I use (and there are many others) are DOM100.ZIP (Day of the Month), and MESSGN19.ZIP (Message Generator) and/or MKMSG21.ZIP (Makemsg). This extract is from my Mailer's batch file: :MIDNIGHT call c:\batch\midnight.bat dom {see it it is the first of the month} if errorlevel 2 goto M2 if errorlevel 1 goto M1 :M2 goto start :M1 c: cd\bink\mailchek {post policies into the echo} copy z1_back.hdr messgn.ctl messgn c:\max\policies\z1_back.pcy c:\msgs\z1back 153 752 All {post Elist entry into netmail} {this is all one line} makemsg -Cc:\elist\echo.upd -Dc:\msgs\netmail\ -S1:153/752 -F"Adrian Walker" -R1:153/752 -T"Echolist" -J"MOD UPD" -P -O"Your Origin Line, Vancouver BC " {post Elist rules into netmail} {again all one line} makemsg -Cc:\elist\echo.rul -Dc:\msgs\netmail\ -S1:153/752 -F"Adrian Walker" -R1:153/752 -T"Echolist" -J"MOD RUL" -P -O"Your Origin Line, Vancouver BC " goto start HOW ECHOLIST PROCESSES MESSAGES =============================== Echolist is a group of programs each performing part of the function of processing update messages and updating the database. This group of programs runs after every inbound mail packet is processed. The editing of help files, preparation of the distribution archives, and hatching of these archives each month is performed manually. After mail tossing is complete, the following series of actions takes place: 1. ECHOLIST.EXE runs. This is the main Elist program, and does 3 things - it manages the password file, extracts data from messages to a temporary update file, and it prepares netmail responses based on the information received. It also processes ECHO QUERY messages based on information as it showed in the database immediately prior to the program running. 2. ESORT.EXE runs. It sorts the extracted data in the newly-created update file in preparation for merging into the main database. 2. EMERGE.EXE runs. It runs through the database looking in turn for each echo noted in the update file. When it finds the matching database entry, it merges the 2 files segments. This is done by replacing any field which has been updated and retaining any field which has not been updated. Thus a new one line description field will replace an entire previously multi-line description field, a new title line will replace a previous title line, and so on. CONCLUSION ========== Frequently-asked questions are discussed in ELFAQnnn.TXT contained in the distribution Elist archive. If you have a problem, you should consult the ELFAQ file, this ELMOD file, and finally your NEC and REC for assistance. ---ooo000ooo---