CP/M/CPM_CDROM.iso/simtel/sigm/vols000/vol008/rbbs22.doc

Text File | 1984-04-29 | 5.6 KB | 130 lines

    This is a preliminary documentation file for the 2.0
version of RBBS (Remote Bulletin Board System).  More com-
plete documentation, to include a complete overview as well
as more detailed implementation notes, is planned.

============================================================

RBBS PROGRAM

    The RBBS software has four new features with the 2.0
implementation:

    1) Personal messages:  A caller can leave a personal
       message to anyone else by entering the password
       "*".  This causes the message to be invisible in
       summary commands, and retrieve and kill, for any-
       one but the sender and receiver.  An attempt to
       Kill a personal message by anyone other than the
       sender or receiver (and, of course, the SYSOP),
       will result in a "message not found".

    2) Re-entry:  when a user has exited to the operating
       system, RBBS will retain his name in a file called
       "LASTCALR".    If RBBS is subsequently re-entered
       with RBBS P (the "P" was arbitrarily chosen), the
       system will retrieve his name from the "LASTCALR"
       file, and skip the sign-on printing.  Note that if
       you are using a loader program to load RBBS from
       another user area (under cp/m 2.x), you can make
       this function automatic, by having the loader fill
       in the "P" immediately before it transfers control
       to RBBS.  In this case, your BYE program should
       store a non-"P" character at location 5DH (default
       cp/m file control block).

    3) Killed messages will now have additional information
       in the record used to store the message number:
            0:<#>:<user name>
       where 0 indicates a killed message to RBBS, <#> is
       the original message number, and <user name> is the
       name of the user who killed the message.  This should
       be helpful in restoring messages improperly killed
       by inept/malicious individuals.  Note that after
       using an editor to restore the message (be careful
       here - the editor must not choke on blank-filled
       lines), the "BUILDSUM" function of the RBBSUTIL pro-
       gram can be used to generate a new summary file.

    4) Message passwords, previously only stored in the sum-
       mary file, are now duplicated in the message file.
       This was necessary to allow the BUILDSUM function of
       RBBSUTIL to generate a complete summary file.

==============================================================

RBBS UTILITY PROGRAM (RBBSUTIL)

    The utility program has the following changes with the
2.0 upgrade:

    1) When transferring a disk file to the message file,
       the files must have already been purged.  This in-
       sures that the files will have been backed up prior
       to any messages being added.  Note also that the
       file "COUNTERS" will also be backed up by purge.

    2) The purge function writes deleted messages to an ar-
       chive file called <DATE>.ARC, where the date is sup-
       plied by the operator when purge is invoked.  The
       archive file is written sequentially, and lines are
       unpacked before writing to conserve space.

    3) The purge function allows renumbering of the messages
       starting at any number specified when purge is in-
       voked.  You may choose not to use this option if you
       maintain archives, because duplicate message numbers
       can be left in the archive files.

    4) A new function, "B", will build a summary file from
       the message file.  This can be useful after editing
       the message file.  It also allows only the message
       file to be saved when doing back-up operations, as
       the summary file can now be derived from the message
       file.  Note that releases of RBBS previous to 2.0 did
       not save the passwords in the message file, there-
       fore, a summary file, rebuilt from such a message
       file will not have password protection.

                    Ron Fowler
                    Nov 18, 1980
                    Westland, Mich.


      PREVIOUS DOCUMENTATION OF THE RBBS SYSTEM
      =========================================


            RBBS.DOC as of 10/23/80

   RBBS is short for "Remote Bulletin Board System".
   RBBS.ASC is a file that was created with MBASIC 5.2.  Do
not try to edit it with a CP/M text editor because some  of
the multiple line statements may have special end-of-line
sequences which may mess up a video-oriented editor, making it
impossible to see some of the lines.  Use MBASIC 5.2 to edit the
file.  This is public-domain software, feel free to use it on
your own system.  The  best  way to run this program is to com-
pile it with the MBASIC compiler, making a COM file out of it.
It will run much faster  that way.  This is what Bruce Ratoff
did, and it works great on his system.
   The POKES to address 0000h change the C3 to a CD during
execution  of this program.  Bruce Ratoff tests for this in
his DCHBYE55  remote  console program. This testing is also done
in the PMMIBY63 remote console program. In the input from modem
port routine a test is made to see if address 0000h is a CD, if
so it causes the input routine to ignore control-C, changing it
to to a null character instead.  This makes it impossible for
the user to control-C  out of RBBS.   When the program is done,
if you are exiting to CP/M for file transfers, it changes the CD
back to a C3 and then jumps to 0000h (warm boot).
   RBBSPURG.ASC is a program for purging dead messages out of
the RBBS message files.  This should be done periodically to
compactthe message files, since  the "Kill" function simply
deletes  the pointer to the message, not the message itself.

-------
 NOTE: The above RBBSPURG.ASC has been superceded by
     RBBSUTIL.ASC      rgf
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