Magnum One

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Magnum One / Magnum One (Mid-American Digital) (Disc Manufacturing).iso / d20 / imail120.exe / CHANGES.DOC next >

Wrap

Text File | 1991-08-17 | 27KB | 847 lines

╒══════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ │ │ IMAIL │ │ │ │ The "Semi-Intuitive" Mail Processor │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ (C) 1990, 1991 Fabiano Fabris │ │ │ ╘══════════════════════════════════════════╛ REVISION HISTORY ═══ INTRODUCTION ═══ The following is a more or less ordered summary of the most important changes made in IMAIL since the release of version 1.10. For information on the use of the programs, please consult the documentation. IMAIL 1.20 is an almost complete rewrite of the previous version. It has been recoded in Borland C++ 2.0, to make use of the modularity that C++ offers. The structures have changed radically, so please run IMCVT before trying to use any of the programs. Note that the key file structure has also been changed, so you will need to have a new one. Please contact the nearest registration site for more information. ═══ IMAIL ═══ PACK is now a separate program called IMPACK. For more information regarding changes in this module, see the entry for this program. - General Added Binkley support to IMAIL (and IMPACK). Currently, IMAIL will generate and update "flow files" in the outbound directory. It also handles multiple directories for multi-zone support. The following types of "flow files" are handled: *.FLO *.CLO *.HLO IMAIL, IMPACK and IMTHINGS can now also output information in a Binkley log format. For this to be done, the "environment" must be set to Binkley in IMSETUP. IMAIL can now be used on multi-node RA systems. It follows the RA specification regarding the use of locking the file MSGINFO.BBS before writing to any of the message base files. SHARE =must= be loaded in order for this to work correctly. Implemented full support for the Capability Word (see FSC-0039). For detailed information, refer to the documentation. IMAIL will now swap most of itself out of system memory before calling another program. It may swap to EMS or extended memory, or to disk; this is controlled by an option in IMSETUP. Since fakenet support has been removed from IMSETUP, it is now controlled by an environment variable. If you set POINTNET to some value, TOSS and SCAN will remove fakenet addresses when exporting echo mail to a "normal" (4D) system; ie, to an addresses which is NOT a pointnet address. Added support for more than one net mail board. You may define as many net mail boards as you have AKAs. If a net mail board is not defined for a given AKA, IMAIL will use the one which corresponds to your primary address. IMAIL will now recognize ARCmail files produced with ARJ, and call it if files compressed with ARJ are found. Naturally, you will have to have it defined in IMSETUP. IMAIL (and IMPACK & IMTHINGS) now generates FTS-0001 dates in messages, instead of the SEAdog format previously used. IMAIL and IMPACK will now allow uncompressed mail to be file attached to another system. Simply specify "No compression" as the program in the Node Manager. Cleaned up the code which imports external texts, such as that used by AreaLink when help is requested. Tab expansion is now left up to the message editor instead of being handled by IMAIL. The same code is also used in IMTHINGS. TOSS, SCAN and AreaLink make use of the Default Origin (defined in IMSETUP) when new areas are added, or when existing areas have no origin line defined. It is now possible to mark outgoing ARCmail as Delete/Sent, instead of having it always marked as Trunc/Sent. - AreaLink Added a new meta-command to AreaLink: %HELP will send a help text to the sysop, describing how to use AreaLink. If a text file is defined in IMSETUP, the contents of that file will be sent instead. Note that the help text must reside in the directory pointed to by the IMAIL environment variable, or in the current working directory. AreaLink can now add an area even if there is no leading '+' sign. Thus the commands: +JUNK and JUNK are equivalent. The %UNLINKED meta-command in AreaLink will send a list of available but not currently linked echo areas to the requesting system. AreaLink automatically adds to the Areas database any echo areas which it has requested from an uplink. These areas will be flagged as "Auto-Added" in IMSETUP. The record will be appended to IMAIL.AR, but IMAIL.AX will remain sorted. The newly added areas may optionally be logged to a separate file, definable in IMSETUP. When AreaLink processes an invalid request (no groups available, or bad password), it will generate a message to the sending system (this was also the case in previous versions). The message will now also contain the given password, as well as the origin and destination addresses of the message. This message will =never= be marked Kill/Sent, so the sysop will be able to see it too. AreaLink now has Remote Deletion capability. If a system has Remote Maintenance enabled in the Node Manager, it may request that AreaLink delete an area. The request may be contained in a normal AreaLink message; the name of the are to be deleted should be prefixed with a '~'. If AreaLink finds the area, and the node requesting the deletion is active for that group, it will first advise your other downlinks, and you, of the deletion, and then mark the area as deleted. When you next run IMSETUP, the area will be removed permanently from your configuration; until then, it will simply be flagged as inactive, and thus not be listed as available. Note that this feature will be available in registered versions only. AreaLink looks for the forward request Areas files in the directory specified by the IMAIL environment variable, or in the current working directory. AreaLink will now allow Remote Change requests. These allow a system to which you have given Remote Maint privileges to change the area name of one or more echos on your system. The format of the request is: #OLD_NAME : NEW_NAME The '#' indicates the Change request, and the ':' separates the old name from the new one. If the old name is not found, or the new one already exists, the request will fail; similarly, if the requesting system is not active for the area's group, the change will not be made. If all goes well, AreaLink will notify all your downlinks of the change via a net mail message. AreaLink puts the sysop's name in the From fields of net mail messages it sends when requesting an area from a feed. Previously, it used "IMAIL", which would make the feed send a reply to IMAIL, so AreaLink would try to process the reply... infinite loop! :-) - SCAN SCAN now exports net mail to MSG files, rather than bundling them as previously. Thus the /N switch has been removed. Added a switch to SCAN: if you specify the /F switch, it will force IMAIL to rescan the entire message base, regardless of the contents of an ECHOMAIL.BBS file. SCAN will now use the origin address in IMAIL.AR when exporting mail, rather than trying to get it from the message header. Similarly, it will use the information in the export list to get the destination zone. SCAN will save dupe information for exported echo mail, thus if a message is returned to the origin, it will be caught. - TOSS TOSS now zeros the net mail attribute if it is importing a message into a board which is =not= the net mail board; otherwise, it sets it. This should eliminate the cosmetic problem with RA. TOSS will now compress outgoing mail if less than 100k is free on the disk; the previous limit was 50k. Previously, TOSS would rename "bad" ARCmail files to have a .BAD extension ... but it did not check to see if the rename was successful (duplicate file names?). Now, it will try to rename the files to have a .BA1 extension; if this fails, it will increment the number and try again ... and so on. Fixed the problem where, under certain conditions, the net number was omitted from the beginning of a SEEN-BY line. Added checks for mail addressed to 0/0: if the PKT file is addressed to 0/0, it will not be forwarded, but processed; if a message has that destination address, it will be marked HOLD and ORPHANed. When reading in the header of a message in a PKT file, TOSS now checks to see if certain entries are 0. If so, it displays a warning about a NULL message, and aborts processing of the packet. Removed the code which generates and maintains the IMAIL.NE file. Instead, you can now specify whether TOSS should automatically create new Area records for unknown echos. The new records will be created using the same method as for AreaLink. TOSS would set the Kill/Sent bit on imported messages if it was set in the original message in the packet. This bit is now zeroed. TOSS will now strip line feeds from all messages it processes; it will also NOT add any when generating kludge lines. If TOSS cannot determine the compression type of an ARCmail file, and if the "Unknown" program is defined in IMSETUP's "Decompression Programs" menu, IMAIL will call that program. Otherwise, it will simply ignore the file, renaming it as before. If TOSS finds an echo message with no origin, it will invalidate any SEEN-BY or PATH lines it finds, before adding its own. When checking the Bad Message Board, messages which are found to be in Passthrough areas are now deleted, rather than left in the Bad Message board. TOSS would always ignore the origin and destination point fields in the PKT header when processing the single messages; now, these fields are "considered", but an embedded TOPT or FMPT kludge (net mail only, of course) will override them. If the Forward For option is set in IMSETUP, IMAIL will =not= process packets which are not for your system, but will simply forward them on. Otherwise, the packets are processed just as if they were addressed to your system. Note that in this case, any routed echo mail will not be sent on, but will almost certainly end up in your bad message board. The "Warn No Forward" option has been removed from IMAIL; thus IMAIL will now automatically forward routed net mail or mail bundles. The number of dupe records saved in IMAIL.DP is now configurable in IMSETUP. If the number is less than 2, no dupe checking will be performed. Removed the handling of the XRS address when importing (TOSSing) echo mail. This address is now totally redundant. ═══ IMSETUP ═══ New entries in the Compression and Decompression menus allow you to define command string for ARJ. A new entry in the Node Manager edit screen allows you to define how the Capability Word is to be used on incoming mail. If set to "Force", IMAIL will always use the defined capability for the system, regardless of the contents of the packet it is processing. If set to "Auto", IMAIL will try to determine the capability by checking the CW and the CW Validation Copy. The "Kill Empty" and "Kill to 0" entries in the "Other Parameters" menu have been eliminated". Added a new option in the AreaLink menu: you may now specify the name of a text file to send if AreaLink processes a %HELP request. If this field is left empty, a default text will be sent. The maximum number of dupes recorded by IMAIL in IMAIL.DP is now configurable in IMSETUP. Also, the structure of IMAIL.DP has been changed, so that more dupe records will fit in the same sized file ... about 8 times as many. The Pack Routing screen has been changed. The number of Route Via nodes has been expanded to 32, so the Routed nodes are no longer shown. Added an option to set the "environment" as FrontDoor or Binkley. In first installations, IMSETUP will look for the "FD" environment variable; if set, IMAIL's environment will be set to FroDo, otherwise to Binkley. Note that the log format can now be set to "Binkley". Added a browse function to the Area Manager and to the Node Manager. This will allow you to see the information in "condensed" format, and to position yourself on a desired record. For more information on what is shown, see the docs. The Pack Manager now behaves like the others. In other words, F10 saves and exits; Esc exits, asking if changes should be lost. However, when editing the "Routed Nodes", both F10 and Esc will exit and save. Modified the Area Manager so that it would show when areas were Auto-Added by AreaLink; this is done both in the normal editing screen as well as in the browse window. Similarly, when AreaLink deletes an area, the Area Manager will not load it - thus when the areas are saved again, the deleted record will be gone. Removed the code which handles new echo areas. However, since AreaLink will now automatically add areas requested from uplinks, these areas will be flagged as "Auto-Added". This flag will disappear as soon as the area is edited. Since AreaLink will cannot keep IMAIL.AR sorted, the logic of the way the Area Manager loads the configuration has been changed. Now, if IMAIL.AX is found, it will be used to load IMAIL.AR into memory, thus restoring the correct order to the individual records. However, if IMAIL.AX is missing, the records in IMAIL.AR will be loaded as they are. Removed mouse support from the program. In the "AreaLink Options" menu, the name of the Areas file is now limited to 13 characters; the path will be that specified by the IMAIL environment variable. Added a new entry to the "Decompression Programs" menu. You can now define a program to be used when IMAIL TOSS finds an ARCmail file for which it cannot determine the compression type. If you make changes to the list of System Addresses, IMSETUP will now try to "synchronize" the AKAs in the Area Manager (both with the Origin Address and the SEEN-BY addresses). It does this by first trying to find the old address in the new list. If it is not found, it checks for a new address in the old position in the list. If all this fails, it zeroes the AKA. This "synchronization" will only take place if you enter the Area Manager. You will now not be able to set MaxDupes to a number less than 50 (except 0) - try it! :-) Added 2 new options to the "Other Parameters" menu: Auto-Add, and Forward For. The Area Manager will now show you a list of "available" board numbers when you are editing an entry. It will exclude all boards currently in use =except= the one you are editing. Once you have selected one, you may still type over it. Or you may simply press <Esc> to accept the currently defined one. In the Area Manager, when editing the export list, you may now omit the zone and net numbers; if you do, they will be taken from the origin address as defined for that area. Added a new entry in the Directories menu; here you may now specify the name of a "log" file which will contain a list of the new areas automatically added by TOSS and/or AreaLink. The file will be created in the directory pointed to by the IMAIL environment variable. Forced the up and down arrow keys to behave the same way as tab and shift-tab when editing input forms. The Create Areas.Bbs function in the Import/Export menu is now available to unregistered users also. Made a few modifications in the Import Areas.Bbs function. First of all, it will now check not only for an existing board number, but also for an existing area name. Secondly, a third selection is now possible if either are found to exist: Skip, which is the default if you press Enter or Esc. If you select to Skip, the area will not be added, and the following line of the file will be processed. Added an option to specify where IMAIL should swap itself before shelling to a program. The list of "fake nets" which was given along with the list of network addresses has been replaced by a list of net mail boards. Each net mail board coresponds to an AKA, but may be omitted; only the first entry is required. Removed the 'Echo Log' option. You may now specify the file name directly in the IMTHINGS STAT command line. ═══ IMPACK ═══ IMPACK is a new program which was created by "extracting" the PACK module from IMAIL and making it stand-alone. It uses a lot of the same code as in IMAIL, so many of the changes in IMAIL refer to IMPACK as well; those listed below are specific to IMPACK. IMPACK will no longer try to process locked (read-only) net mail messages; it will now leave them alone. The net mail (file attach) message generated by IMPACK has an origin address and MSGID which tries to match the destination address of the message. In other words, it will try to find an AKA which is in the same zone. If it cannot find a match, your primary AKA will be used, as before. (The same change was made in IMAIL.) ═══ IMTHINGS ═══ - EXPORT This function has been removed, since IMAIL SCAN now does the same job. - IMPORT IMPORT now will not move messages to the net mail board if they are addressed to one of: SYSOP, IMAIL, AREALINK, AREAMGR, AREAFIX, or the name of the sysop as given in IMSETUP. Case is not significant. - INDEX Added file buffering to MSGTOIDX.BBS in the INDEX function. This should make it somewhat faster. - KILL KILL will now work by creating a temporary file to which it will write the new MSGHDR.BBS file. The original will then the deleted and the temporary file renamed. This method will give a speed increase of more than 3 times with respect to the previous method (my tests gave 62 seconds as compared to 227, for 1501 messages). However, if you are short of disk space, KILL will work as before, automatically going into overwrite mode. Added another switch to KILL: /K<days> will make KILL delete old ARCmail file and their respective file attach messages if they are older than the given number of days. - LINK In LINK, implemented an switch to remove junk from the message subject lines: if /C is specified, all occurrences of "RE:" (in upper and/or lower case) will be stripped. - NOTIFY NOTIFY will now allow you to specify one or more (up to a limit of 20) nodes to be notified. The ALL macro is supported for nets, nodes and points. For example: IMTHINGS NOTIFY 27:1331/ALL If no address is specified, it will behave as before, notifying all systems. Added a switch to NOTIFY which will make it send not only the list of linked echos, but also those available for request. The switch is /A. Added a new switch to Notify: /P will make Notify "remind" the sysop of the AreaLink password you have assigned to him/her. If no password has been assigned, Notify will inform the sysop of this. Notify will also send a message to all systems listed in the Node Manager, unless the /N switch is specified, in which case it will only process those nodes listed in the echo areas' export lists. - PACK Fixed a minor cosmetic bug in PACK: the record number was not being displayed while it scanned the message base. PACK will now automatically detect if there is not enough free space on the disk; if so, it will go into overwrite mode automatically. Thus, the /O switch has been removed. Similarly, this switch was removed from the KILL command. Fixed the bug which would make PACK remove messages which were not marked as deleted. This would happen if the message had the same message number as one which =was= marked as deleted. - POST POST will now update the ECHOMAIL.BBS file when it generates a message. You can now specify the name of the sender of a message with POST: specify the name after the /R switch, replacing any spaces in the name with an underscore. - SEND SEND can now be used as a message robot: if a text file is specified (with /T) the file name can be omitted. - STAT Added another switch to STAT: /E will force STAT to log empty areas along with the ones which have had some traffic. STAT will now allow the generated file to have the information sorted by Board, Group or Name (default). This is done by specifying one of the following switches on the command line: /SB - Board /SG - Group /SN - Name If no switch is given, the listing will be sorted by area name. It is now possible to specify the groups for which STAT will generate a statistics report. By using the /Gxxx... switch, you may list the groups for which STAT will output information. STAT now shows the group of each echo, next to the board number. Added a switch to STAT: /C will force it to use only low ASCII characters in its output. A new switch, /F, will allow you to specify the name of the file to which the statistics information should be logged.