OS/2 Shareware BBS: 2 BBS/02-BBS.zip/jtp114.zip/junktick.doc

Text File | 1994-05-03 | 19KB | 555 lines

                            JunkTick V. 1.14


I. Preface

It always bothered me that there were so many files sent around the world
with TICK but there weren't any really useable programs to work with them.
TICK itself was a brilliant idea but is very slow and lacks a lot of use-
ful features. So I grabbed my trusted compiler and after working all those
measly hours in which I don't have to work, to eat, to sleep or to play
with my girl friend JunkTick was created.


II. Features

- Available for DOS and OS/2 (16 bit application)
- Faster than TICK
- Dupe-Checking and replacing which really works (!)
- Fileareas can be passthru
- Lots of additional options to hatch single files or complete areas
- Unpacks archives created by my famed programs TICKECHO and TICKPACK
- Creates and unpacks TOC archives. Instead of sending hundreds of files
  and TIC attaches JunkTick can pack everything in one file. This avoids
  the dreaded FrontDoor bug and speeds up transfer
- File areas belong to groups, every user only has access to a subset of
  your groups
- Full replacement for TICK, HATCH, RFD and RAID
- Fully configurable announcements
- Autoadd for new areas
- Fully 4d capable and limited domain support


III. Config file

JunkTick reads its configuration from the file JUNKTICK.CFG which has
to reside in the same directory as JUNKTICK.EXE. The following is a
list of all configuration words, for additional reference see the
sample CFG file in this archive.


NoTouch

Normally all files will be set to the date on which they arrived on your
system so the new files scan will find them. If you don't want to touch
the files specify NOTOUCH in your config file.


Sysop

Sysop's name (needed for announcements). Blanks HAVE to be replaced by
underscores!

Example:
     Sysop      Kalle_Braun


Address

Your main address (needed mainly for your zone number).

Example:
     Address    2:2402/305


DupeDir

JunkTick creates all dupe files in this directory. You shouldn't keep any
other files there.

Example:
     DupeDir    I:\Bbs\Tick\Dupes\


DupeSize

Specifies how many dupe signatures are to be kept in the dupe files.
Every signature uses 8 bytes.

Example:
     DupeSize   1000


KillOnError

Usually JunkTick leaves all inbound files it couldn't process for any
reasons in the inbound directory, the corresponding TIC files will be
renamed to .BAD. While this enables you to check for anything going
wrong, it can fill up your harddisk quite fast with (often) useless
files. With this statement you can tell JunkTick on what sort of errors
it can simply delete the files. These categories are available:

     UnknownSystem       delete files received from unknown systems
     WrongPassword       delete files with wrong password in TIC file
     UnknownArea         delete files hatched in unknown areas (can't
             happen if you use the NEWAREAS keyword
     InactiveUser        delete files from users marked as inactive
     RcvOnlyUser         delete files from users who aren't allowed to
                         send in the corresponding area
     BadCRC              delete files with bad CRC
     DupeFile            delete duplicate files
     NoPassThru          delete files in areas marked as pass-thru when no
                         pass-thru directory is given
     DiskFull            delete files which can't be moved to their
                     target directory due to insufficient disk
                         space
     NoData              delete stray TIC files whose associated data
                         file couldn't be found

Example:
     KillOnError  DupeFile BadCRC


RaidAlias

Usually your downlinks manage their connections to your fileareas by
writing mail to JUNKTICK. In order to lighten the burden on those
downlinks who until now had to write to RAID or something else you can
define up to 15 additional names for JunkTick to accept.

Example:
     RaidAlias    Raid Foo Bar Scrap


AfterAnnounce

When processing requests from your downlinks JunkTick produces netmail
answers, when announcing new files it produces echomail packets. Both
sorts of mail should be processed right after exiting JunkTick. To
avoid having to run your mail processor every time you run JunkTick,
you can define special errorlevels for JunkTick to return after
creating any mail. The errorlevel for announcements takes precedence
over the request errorlevel.

Example:
     AfterAnnounce 5


AfterRequest

This is the errorlevel JunkTick returns when it has created netmail
responses for a downlink, but no announcement echomail.

Example:
     AfterRequest  6


Inbound

Inbound directory where JunkTick looks for new files.

Example:
     Inbound    I:\Bbs\PInbound\


PacketDir

Directory in which JunkTick will create the PKT file containing the
announcements. If you don't specify this JunkTick will use your inbound
directory (see above)

Example:
     PacketDir  I:\Bbs\MailIn\


MailerBase

Only used on Binkley systems: The outbound directory for your own zone.
JunkTick assumes, that the outbound dirs for other zones are built like
MAILERBASE.zone. If you use 5D addressing, you can specify up to 20
additional domains by specifying the zone number after the path.

Example:
     MailerBase I:\Bbs\Outbound
     MailerBase I:\Bbs\TurboNet  200
     MailerBase I:\Bbs\DfltOut   210


Logfile

Guess what it will be...

Example:
     LogFile    I:\Bbs\Junktick.Log


HoldDir

In this directory JunkTick keeps outgoing TIC and TOC files. You shouldn't
keep any other files in this directory.

Example:
     HoldDir    I:\Bbs\Tick\Hold\


MaxArchiveSize

In order to avoid very large (like 15 MB) TOC archives JunkTick usually
creates a new archive on every run. If you don't like this behaviour,
you can specify what archive size you would like. If you don't specify
MaxArchiveSize JunkTick will still create a new archive on every run.

Example:
     MaxArchiveSize Infinite                keeps adding forever
     MaxArchiveSize 1MB              \      creates new archive if
     MaxArchiveSize 1024kB            >     the current one gets
     MaxArchiveSize 1048576          /      larger than 1 MB


PassThru

This enables the passthru option of JunkTick. Files in areas marked as
passthru will be moved to this directory and will be deleted automatically
when all downlinks have received them.

Example:
     PassThru   I:\Bbs\Tick\PassThru\


NewAreas

Specifies the root directory for unknown areas. When JunkTick receives
files in an unknown area it will create a new directory and enter the area
in the group AutoAdded.

Example:
     NewAreas   J:\Filearea\


NetMail

Your netmail directory. This is the place where JunkTick looks for it's
mail and where the status mails for the sysop will be generated. On Front-
Door systems JunkTick will generate file attach messages in this directory.

Example:
     NetMail    I:\Bbs\Netmail\


AnnHeader

Template for the header of every announcement. The following special
tags are recognized:

   %wA - Aka for the current area, will be formatted to w characters
     if w is specified (i.e. %12A will print '2:2402/305  ')
   %DY - Year (4 digits)
   %Dy - Year (2 digits)
   %DM - Month (numeric)
   %DN - Month 3 chars (english)
   %Dn - Month 3 chars (german)
   %DD - Day (numeric)
   %DE - Date (english: MM-DD-YY)
   %D  - Date (german: DD.MM.YY)
   %TH - Hour (24 hour clock)
   %Th - Hour (12 hour clock)
   %TM - Minutes
   %TA - AM/PM
   %Ta - am/pm
   %TE - Time (english: HH:MMAM/PM)
   %Te - Time (english: HH:MMam/pm)
   %T  - Time (german: HH:MM)

Example:
     AnnHeader  I:\Bbs\Utils\AnnHeade.Txt


AnnText

Template for the announcement of a file. The following special tags are
recognized:

   %wFA - Area of file
   %wFN - Name of file
   %wFS - Filesize in bytes
   %wFO - Origin of file
   %FD  - Description of file

If you specify a width for the output, it will be formatted accordingly.

Example:
     AnnText    I:\Bbs\Utils\AnnText.Txt


AnnFooter

Template for the footer of every announcement. No special tags are allowed.

Example:
     AnnFooter  I:\Bbs\Utils\AnnFoote.Txt


AnnCount

Specifies how many files will be the maximum per message.

Example:
     AnnCount   20


AnnSubj

Subject line for every announcement. Announcement are sorted by group, if
there is a %G in the subject line it will be replaced by the group name.

Example:
     AnnSubj    New_files_again


AnnPart

If JunkTick generates more than one message this text will be appended to
AnnSubj. The first %d represents the number of the current message, the
second %d represents the total number of messages.

Example:
     AnnPart (Part_%d_of_%d)


HelpFile

When a mail to JunkTick contains the keyword %HELP this file will be sent
to the sender of this message. It should contain a short description how
to order areas.

Example:
     HelpFile  I:\Bbs\JunkTick.Hlp


Origin

You can define up to 20 different origins for your announcements. JunkTick
will pick one by random for each message.

Example:
     Origin     JunkTick:_It's_crap_and_we_love_it_(c)_1991_MTV


User

For every uplink and every downlink you have to create a user entry.
It looks like this:

  User UserName UserPassword UserAddress UserFlags UserGroups

  UserName is (surprise surprise) the name of the user. Remember to replace
  any blanks in the name with underscores.

  UserPassword is the users password for TICK and RAID

  UserAddress is the complete 4d address of the user. You don't have to
  specify .0 for nodes.

  UserFlags are:
    -H          Files will be put on hold
    -C          Files will be sent crash
    -D          Files will be marked as direct
        if you specify neither -H, -D nor -C files will be
        routed normally
    -I          User is inactive. By using -I you can disable a user
                without removing his area definitions.
    -Vaddr      Files for the user will be sent via ADDR
    -F><DSNP    Flags to use if user requests new area via RAID. If you
        don't specify this, >P will be used if there are no
        area specific defaults (see below for exact meaning of
        flags)

  The rest of the line contains a list of all groups the user may access.

Example:
     User Otto_Maier SPIEL 2:4711/0815 -H DVNet WinNet DDS


Group

With the first GROUP statement the area definitions begin. From now on only
GROUP and AREA statements are allowed. Every area after a GROUP statement
belongs to this group.

Example:
     Group WinNet


Area

The AREA statement defines all your areas. It looks like this:

  Area AreaTag AreaPath AreaDescription AreaFlags AreaLinks

  AreaTag is the name under which the area is known

  AreaPath is the path to which the files arriving in this area will be
  moved. If you enabled the passthru support you can specify -P if you
  don't want to keep the files yourself.

  AreaDescription is a short description of the area (mainly for RAID).
  Remember: Blanks should be replaced by underscores.

  AreaFlags can be any combination of:
     -Dnumber   - JUNKTICK KILL will delete files older than NUMBER days
     -$Filename - Activates dupe checking for this area. The dupe signatures
                  will be kept in the specified file. You MUST NOT use the
                  same dupe file for multiple areas!
     -C         - Activates CRC checking for this area
     -Aarea     - Activates announcing for this area. All messages will
                  be created in echo area AREA. You can specify up to
          20 areas to announce in.
     -Paddr     - uses ADDR instead of your main address as origin in TIC
                  files and announcements.
     -F><DSNP   - Flags to use if any users connects to this area via
          RAID. If you don't specify this, >P will be used if
          there are no user specific defaults. The area flags
          have precedence over the user flags! (see below for
          exact meaning of flags)

  AreaLinks is a list of system which send or receive files in this area.
  Every address can be marked with some of the following special characters:
      <         - Only receive files from this system, never send to it
      >         - Only send files to this system, don't accept any files from
                  it
      D         - Don't send TIC files, create a netmail containing the
                  description instead (mainly for system which don't use
                  any TICKlike utility)
      S         - Only send short TIC files (no PATH or SEENBY lines)
      N         - Only send the file, no TIC file or description etc. Mainly
                  useful to send NODEDIFFs etc. to your points.
      P         - Pack files and TICs in TOC archive

Example:
     Area XYZ J:\Files\ABC\ No_Desc -$XYZ -C <N2:47/11 >P2:08/15


IV. Running JunkTick

JunkTick accepts a lot of parameters:

  HELP
      prints a short description of every parameter.
  ADD [flags]addr area_or_group+
      adds user ADDR with the specified flags to the specified areas.
      If you specify the name of a group the user will be added to all
      areas in this group.
  DESCRIBE area description
      Enters DESCRIPTION as description of the specified area.
  HATCH area [/R:replace] file
      Hatches the specified file in the specified area. If you want this
      file to replace another you can specify the old name with /R:NAME.
      JunkTick searches for the file in the directory of the specified
      area, the description is taken from the respective FILES.BBS file.
  SEND addr file
      Sends a file to the specified system. HATCH send a file to all systems
      in the specified areas export list, SEND only sends to one system.
  RESCAN area|ALL addr [date]
      Rescans areas for the specified system. If you specify ALL instead
      of an area name all active areas for this system will be rescanned.
      If you specify a date (in DD.MM.YY format, sorry) only files younger
      than this date will be sent.
  QUERY addr
      Prints a list of all areas ADDR is connected to.
  LIST addr
      Prints a list of all areas ADDR has access to.
  UNLINKED addr
      Prints a list of all areas ADDR has access and is not connected to.
  ANNOUNCE date area+|ALL
      Creates announcements for all files which arrived in the specified
      areas after DATE (format again DD.MM.YY).
  REMOVE addr area_or_group+
      Disconnect system ADDR from all specified areas/groups.
  KILL
      Kills old files according to the -D parameter (see above).
  TICK
      Processes new TIC files.
  TOCK
      Processes new TOC archives.
  REQUEST
      Processes netmail for JunkTick.
  UNPACK
      Unpacks TICKPACK and TICKECHO archives.
  SORT
      Sorts JunkTick.Cfg (to keep it nice 'n tidy :-)

The last six commands can be specified together. JunkTick will then execute
all of them in the correct order (i.e. KILL first, UNPACK before TICK etc.)


V. Announcing

When an area declaration contains the -A flag all files arriving in
this area will be announced in an echo message. There are many ways to
accomplish that, but mostly they are very dependent on the BBS software
you use as they directly access the message base. JunkTick goes another
way, it simply creates an echo mail packet containing all messages.
This method is com- pletely independent of the software you use as echo
packets are a FIDO standard. It has a few disadvantages though: The
packet contains your main address as sender and receiver. If you use an
echo tosser with some sort of security feature it won't like these
packets as your own address is usually not in the export list for any
echo area. So you have to switch of the security features of your
tosser in order to process the announcements, but be careful that there
are no untossed packet lying around as they will be tossed without
security too! On my system I do it this way (using SQUISH):

SQUISH IN OUT SQUASH LINK            % Toss all other packets with security
JUNKTICK UNPACK TICK TOCK REQUEST    % JunkTick creates echo packet
DEL I:\BBS\BADMAIL\BADORG.*          % Rename badmail so SQUISH won't find it
REN I:\BBS\BADMAIL\BAD.* BADORG.*    %
SQUISH IN OUT SQUASH LINK -T         % Toss packet without security
DEL I:\BBS\BADMAIL\BAD.*             % Rename badmail back so everything's
REN I:\BBS\BADMAIL\BADORG.* BAD.*    % back to normal


VI. RAID Feature

Connecting and disconnecting areas is very simple. A user sends a netmail to
JUNKTICK and specifies his password in the subject line. The message text
has to be composed of the following commands:

-AREA        disconnects the area
+AREA   \    connects the area if the user has access to it
AREA    /
%-ALL        disconnects all areas
%HELP        sends the help text (see above)
%LIST        sends a list of all areas available to the user
%QUERY       sends a list of all areas the user is connected to
%UNLINKED    sends a list of all areas available to the user which he is
             not connected to

That's it!


VII. UNTOCK

In order to use the advantages of the TOC format even with downlinks which
don't use JunkTick there is UNTOCK. UNTOCK unpacks TOC archives and creates
the files and the TIC attaches which can be processed by TICK or any other
compatible program.

To use UNTOCK just change to the directory containing the TOC archives and
start UNTOCK.


VIII. Miscelleanous

JunkTick is FreeWare. I tried to market it's predecessor TICKPACK as Share-
Ware, but the hassle isn't worth the money (personal opinion!). So I keep
the copyright and the sources, you can distribute the program in any way
you like AS LONG AS YOU DON'T TAKE MONEY FOR IT!!!!! (just that I don't want
money doesn't mean you can have some...). I don't take ANY responsibility
for any damages JunkTick does to your hardware or the contents of your
harddisk or whatever. I use the program myself so that I can be reasonably
sure that there are no major bugs in it (knock on wood...). If you find any
bugs, please tell me about them, but I am in no way obliged to correct them
(still I will try to do so...)

Kalle Braun                                 2:2402/305@FIDONET