OS/2 Shareware BBS: 2 BBS/02-BBS.zip/mg109.zip/MAILGATE.DOC

Text File | 1995-11-22 | 29KB | 836 lines

                     MailGate 1.09

               Copyright (c) Dave Hamilton 1995




                        WARNING

    This is shareware. It is not guaranteed to do anything, or
    to not do anything. Use it at your own risk.

    This software is not free. If you don't want to register it,
    please remove it from your system or give it to someone else to
    try.

    See the section on Registration at the end of this document.


                  Acknowledgements

OS/2, Warp, and IBM's version of SENDMAIL are copyright (c) IBM Corp.
Msgapi32.dll and Squish are copyright (c) SCI Communications, and are
    trademarks of Lanius Corporation.
FleetStreet is copyright (c) by Michael Hohner and Harry Herrmannsdorfer.

Many thanks go to:

    - Niel Kempson, who gets out his email after a walk in the Alps

    - Pete Norloff, for his kind, thoughtful, and thorough feedback

    - Eric Allman, for giving us Sendmail and still hanging in there
        in comp.mail.sendmail





1.1 What is MailGate ?

    MailGate allows multi-user mail on an OS/2 system or LAN.

    MailGate is a command-line program that acts as an interface between
    OS/2's Sendmail and your BBS Message Base. Typically, you set up
    one Message area for Email. Your users can then send and receive
    internet mail via this area. MailGate retrieves incoming mail that
    has been received by SENDMAIL, confirms that the addresee exists
    in your user base, and places the mail in this area, addressed
    to this user. MailGate can also scan outgoing mail out of this area
    and send it out of your system via SENDMAIL.

1.2    Installation

    Create a directory for MailGate (typically C:\MM ) and place
    the files from the .zip file in that directory.

    If you don't already have msgapi32.dll on your system, copy
    the one in this distribution to a directory in your LIB path.

    Create MailGate's User file. If you're using Maximus as a BBS,
    you can use the makeuf.exe utility included with MailGate. Decide
    where you want the user file to be (usually in your \mm directory
    or your \max directory) and run the utility, specifying the path
    to your USER.BBS file, and the path to where you want the user
    file. Example:

        makeuf \Max\ \MG\

    If you don't want makeuf to create aliases in the UserFile
    from the alias fields in your User.BBS file, specify the
    commandline switch -noalias. Example

        makeuf \Max\ \MG\ -noalias

    If you use makeuf, you should be aware that MailGate supports
    one-word user names as well as firstname.lastname@yourdomain.
    MailGate will use the Alias field from USER.BBS as a mailing
    alias. You can have Aliases turned off in Max but still use
    them for email addresses. If you use the -noalias switch when
    running makeuf, aliases will not be copied from your User.BBS
    file. However, you can still use aliases by manually entering
    users into the UserFile.

    If you don't use Max, you can create the user file with any
    text editor.

    The file must be called USERFILE (you don't have to use upper case)
    and you must specify where it is located in your MailGate.Cfg
    file.

    The format of the file is:

        Firstname Lastname [, alias]

    Note that the alias is optional, but if you use it, MailGate will
    look for one-word mail recipients as aliases.

    Copy Sample.Cfg to MailGate.Cfg

    Edit MailGate.Cfg file to suit your needs. Items in the config file
    are fully documented. Any line that begins with a hash (#) is
    a comment. MailGate ignores these and blank lines.

    Add the line:

        SET MAILGATE=\MG\

    (or whatever MailGate's home directory is) to your CONFIG.SYS.
    MailGate looks for the environment variable MAILGATE to find its
    configuration file. If you don't set this variable, you can
    always run MailGate in its own directory.

    Copy MailGate.EXE to a directory in your PATH.

    AFTER you have set up MailGate.Cfg to suit your needs, compile
    your user data base. Type:

        MAKEIDX

    MailGate determines where to put the compiled files from your
    configuration. If you have specified either a UserFile location
    or a User.BBS location, MailGate places the indexed files in
    the first of those locations it encounters when reading MailGate.Cfg.

    On startup, MailGate uses the same approach to locate its indexed
    files. If it finds them, it uses them.



1.2 How Does it Work ?

    MailGate, if run without any commands or command-line switches,
    will simply report any mail that is sitting in SENDMAIL's inbound
    directory - who it's from and who it's to.

    When run with the -in switch,

        MailGate -in

    MailGate reads all the mail in SENDMAIL's server inbox, converts
    it to your message base format, either Squish or *.MSG, and places
    the mail in your message area for your users to read.

    When run with the -out switch,

        MailGate -out

    MailGate scans the Email message base defined in MailGate.Cfg for
    outgoing mail. If any messages are found, they are sent via
    SENDMAIL.

1.3    Other Command Line Switches

    -v    Verbose mode - MailGate will display a running commentary on
        everything it does.

    -l    Logging - MailGate will create the file MailGate.Log in its home
        directory. This is useful for running MailGate as a background
        or CRON-scheduled task.

    -po Peek at Outbound - MailGate will scan your Email area rapidly,
        not reading messages but counting messages that will be
        scanned out. This lets you know if there is any mail to
        go out without running MailGate -out

    -pi    Peek at Inbound - This will give you a quick report of mail
        that is sitting in SENDMAIL's inbox, waiting to be tossed
        into your Email area.

    -pq Peek at Queue - At the time of this writing, IBM has not
        implemented an outbound queue listing service in SENDMAIL.
        When you use this option, MailGate lists messages that have
        been passed to SENDMAIL but have not yet been sent by
        SENDMAIL. This could be an indication of a problem with
        your ISP's routing, or with the recipient's routing.

        You can concatenate the -p options together:

            -pioq

    -r    Reset the timestamp. This will set the last-looked time
        to zero, so that all incoming mail will be checked when
        you next look or scan.

1.4    Without Command Line Switches

    Just type MailGate ( or MailGate -v ) for a report on what mail is
    pending.

2.0 About SENDMAIL

    When the internet access kit is installed, it defaults to using
    the SMTP (Simple-Mail-Transport-Protocol) protocol for receiving
    mail, and POP (Post-Office-Protocol) for sending it. POP is a
    single-user protocol. Users must use a login name and password
    to access their mail.

    There are two widely distributed versions of SENDMAIL for OS/2.
    One works with Ultimail, the other with the older LaMail. These
    versions behave slightly differently. If you use either of these
    programs, you must have a MailStyle=Ultimail, or MailStyle=LaMail
    line in your MailGate.Cfg file for MailGate to interface completely
    with your setup. If you don't put this line in your config file,
    MailGate will still appear to work correctly, but information
    created by SENDMAIL that is not obvious will not be correctly
    updated.

    You need to set up SENDMAIL to use SMTP for both sending and
    receiving. If you're not sure how to do this, an excellent
    source of information is contained in the file umsmtp03.zip
    by Niel Kempson, available on wellknown internet sites, including
    this author's site ( ftp.proven.com ). This file contains
    in-depth documentation of the Warp release of SENDMAIL, as well
    as sample SENDMAIL configuration files.

    If you really want to know everything there is to know about
    SENDMAIL, read Sendmail by Bryan Costales et al, O'Reilly &
    Associates.

    We have seen many systems that started out as a single OS/2
    multi-user machine, and have had workstations added on a
    network later. If your system is on a network, we strongly
    urge you to consider using one machine for your BBS and
    another for your internet mail and news, as a gateway. This
    gives you more flexibility in your mailing setup and significantly
    reduces competition for resources on your main machine. IBM's
    version of SENDMAIL is extremely well suited to local networking
    and distributed processing. Just an observation...


3.0    The MailGate.CFG File

    MailGate requires some information to run, which is contained in
    the MailGate.Cfg file. A well-documented example is contained
    in the distribution.

    You must edit this file using any OS/2 text editor (E.EXE will do)
    and specify some paths and options to suit your system.

3.1 MyAddr

    This line contains your FidoNet address, which you will have if
    you are running a BBS. MailGate supports 4-D addresses. Example:

        MyAddr=1:229/622.2

3.2    MyOrg

    This is the name of your organization. It is included in outbound
    messages in the standard Organization: header. Example:

        MyOrg=Proven Systems

3.3 MyDomain

    This is the full domain name of your mail server. If your mailing
    address is [e-mail], the domain name will be hoochie.com
    Example:

        MyDomain=proven.com

    When processing inbound mail, MailGate only processes messages destined
    for this domain, or for no domain (local messages). MailGate ignores
    messages addressed to users with other email domains.

3.4 LogFile

    Logging is optional. If you want MailGate to keep a log, you must
    run it with the -l switch. If you do, this specifies the directory
    path where the logfile will go. It does not contain the name of
    the log file itself - MailGate will create that - it just needs to
    know where you want it put. Example:

        LogFile=c:\MG\

3.5 ServerInBox

    This is the pathway to SENDMAIL's inbox. MailGate will check this
    when run without switches, or with the -i switch, for incoming
    mail. Example:

        ServerInBox=c:\tcpip\umail\server\inbox\

3.6    ServerOutBox

    This is the pathway to SENDMAIL's outgoing spool queue. MailGate
    will ONLY access this path if you specify Send=Queue for the
    sending method. Whether you specify Queue sending or not, it is
    a good idea to declare this path. You will read several warning
    messages throughout this document about using the Queue method
    on a network. Please don't. Use the Pipe method instead.
    Example:

        ServerOutBox=c:\tcpip\etc\mqueue\

3.7    EmailArea

    This is the path to your Email BBS area. If your message base
    is *.MSG (shudder) this line will be the path to where the
    messages are stored. If this is a Squish message base, it is
    the path and name of the message area. If this is a Squish area,
    put a $ at the end of the line.

    Example for a *.MSG area:

        EmailArea=c:\Max\Msg\Email\

    Example for a Squish area:

        EmailArea=c:\Max\Msg\Email $

3.8    BadArea

    This is the path to your BBS bad files area, usually called
    BAD_MGS. Optionally, you can have MailGate toss bad messages or
    messages to users unknown to you into this area. The syntax is
    the same as the Email area. If it's a *.MSG area, specify the
    directory. If it's a Squish base, specify the path and name, and
    put a $ at the end of the line.

    Example for a *.MSG area:

        BadArea=c:\Max\Msg\Bad\

    Example for a Squish area:

        BadArea=c:\Max\Msg\Bad $

    MailGate will only toss messages here if the TossBadMsgs line
    IS specified and the BounceBadMsgs line is NOT specified.

3.9    FileAttachArea

    This line specifies the directory where MailGate should deposit
    binary files it finds encapsulated in your mail messages. MailGate
    automatically detects and decodes UUencoded files.

    You can instruct MailGate to totally ignore encapsulated binary
    files using the IgnoreFileAttach line. This only applies to
    inbound messages. You can still send binary files by attaching
    them to outbound messages, and MailGate will UUencode them.
    Example:

        FileAttachArea=c:\Max\File\Uncheck

3.10 UserFile

    This is the path, not including the filename, of where MailGate's
    UserFile is located. Example:

        UserFile=c:\MG\

3.11 Max2UserBBS

    If you use Maximus 2.x or 3.00, you can have MailGate search your
    User.BBS file for users. In this case, you don't have to run MAKEUF
    every time you make changes to your user base. If you are specifying
    both UserFile and UserBBS, MailGate will search in both files
    starting with whichever you specify first. Note that you can turn
    off searching-by-alias using the UseBBSAlias=No line. This will
    cause MailGate to ignore the alias field in your User.BBS file,
    but it will still search for aliases in your UserFile.

    Example:

        Max2UserBBS=c:\Max\

3.12 TossBadMsgs

    You can specify TossBadMsgs, BounceBadMsgs, or neither. If you
    specify TossBadMsgs, MailGate will put mail for unknown users
    in the area specified by BadArea.

3.13 BounceBadMsgs

    If you specify BounceBadMsgs, MailGate will return to sender any
    mail for which it cannot locate a valid, legal user. If you
    don't specify either TossBadMsgs or BounceBadMsgs, MailGate will
    skip such messages.

3.14 Send

    There are currently two methods of sending mail: Pipe or Queue.
    If your machine is on a network and the SENDMAIL directories
    are on another machine, you MUST specify Pipe.

    Why the choices? If you specify Pipe, MailGate sends outgoing
    messages by calling SENDMAIL, and pipes the messages to SENDMAIL.
    This is not particularly fast, but it is very reliable. If
    SENDMAIL cannot connect with a destination host, it will enqueue
    the message for later transmission by itself, and retry at a
    later time to send the message.

    If you are on a single machine, you can specify Queue, in which
    case MailGate will create the appropriate files in SENDMAIL's
    outbound queue. SENDMAIL checks its outbound queue periodically,
    and if there is anything in it, sends out the messages. This
    method is ver fast in terms of getting the mail out of the
    BBS base, and overall it is faster than piping the messages
    one at a time.

    Examples:

        Send=Queue
        Send=Pipe

3.15 HideAHeaders

    RFC822 mail has a header and a body. The header is classified
    by MailGate into two areas, A and B. Info contained in the A
    part is To:, From:, Full-Name:, and Return-Path:. Info contained
    in the B part is everything else that comes in in a header.
    MailGate ALWAYS hides this information in the hidden control area
    of each message, so this keyword is invoked by default.

3.16 KeepAHeaders

    If you want to include A-Header information in your message body
    so you can read it, specify this keyword in your .cfg file. Example:

        KeepAHeaders

3.17 HideBHeaders

    Non-essential header information can also be stored in the hidden
    area if you specify HideBHeaders. Most message editors have some
    way of showing you the hidden information on demand. This is the
    default choice for MailGate. Example:

        HideBHeaders

3.18 KeepBHeaders

    If you want the Class B header information to show up in your
    messages, specify this keyword. Example:

        KeepBHeaders

3.19 SkipBHeaders

    If you're not interested in keeping the non-essential header
    information at all, specify this keyword to instruct MailGate
    to just skip over it. Example:

        SkipBHeaders

3.20 NoOutboundKludges

    If you are using (recommended) a Local area for your email
    message base, you don't need to worry about this option. If
    you are using (not recommended) an EchoArea for your email,
    Fido programs normally place a hidden PATH kludge after the
    tearline (origin line). These will appear on an internet
    mail editor. To have them ignored when scanning messages OUT
    of your message base, include this line in your MailGate.Cfg:

        NoOutboundKludges

3.21 NoOutboundSeenbys

    As in the situation above (section 3.20), Fidonet Echo areas
    have a hidden line at the end of a message with a list of
    systems that have seen the message. You should never remove
    this line from incoming or existing messages. However, when
    scanning them out to Email, you can direct MailGate to omit
    this line by including in your MailGate.Cfg:

        NoOutboundSeenbys

3.22 TextWidth

    Well-written Fido message editors allow the text to free flow
    except for paragraph breaks. This lets editors with varying
    screen widths format text in readable form. It is convention
    however in internet mail to place carriage returns at the end
    of lines. By default, MailGate sets the right margin at 70
    characters, and word-wraps text that would exceed that limit
    by starting a new line. You can set the TextWidth to any number
    of columns from 40 to 80, but 65-75 are recommended. Example:

        TextWidth=70

3.23 UseBBSAlias

    By default, MailGate will search your User.BBS file looking for
    either a match in the alias field for one-word recipients, or
    a match in the username field for multiple-word recipients. To
    have MailGate ignore the alias field altogether, specify:

        UseBBSAlias=No

    When creating a UserFile using the utility Makeuf, use the
    commandline switch -noalias.

3.24 MailStyle

    If your system is set up for LaMail, specify:

        MailStyle=LaMail

    If your system is set up for Ultimail, specify:

        MailStyle=Ultimail

    If you are not set up for either LaMail or Ultimail, leave
    this specification line out of your .cfg file. Other interfaces
    may be supported in the future.

    If you are using the Warp Internet Access Kit, install Ultimail
    even if you don't plan to use it. This will ensure that SENDMAIL
    is creating the .UML files. Then, specify:

        MailStyle=Ultimail

3.25 UseTime

    If you specify a single line with:

        UseTime

    MailGate will remember when it last scanned mail in. On systems
    that toss or bounce mail to unknown users, this will not be
    relevent, but for those who keep mail to read with some other
    mailer, it can speed up your processing. When MailGate checks
    for inbound mail, if this line has been specified, it only
    checks mail that has arrived since the last time it looked.

    If you want MailGate to re-scan older mail, you can either leave
    this line out of your configuration, or you can reset the
    timer by running:

        MailGate -r

    This will have the one-time effect of setting the last-looked
    timer to zero which will cause MailGate to scan all mail
    in the inbox.

3.26 NoLocalFlag

    If you specify a single line with

        NoLocalFlag

    MailGate will not set the MSGLOCAL bit in your Squish/MSG base
    when it tosses incoming mail. By default, this bit is set, but
    it causes problems with some tossers/scanners.

4.0    Sending Email

    We suggest setting up your Email area as a Local file area. This
    way, when Squish scans, it will ignore this area.

    When a user wants to send email, she goes to this area via whatever
    menu paths exist on your BBS and enters a new message. For her own
    name (From:) she can either put Firstame Lastname, or she can enter
    [e-mail], or she can enter [e-mail].

    In the To: line, the user enters the email address of the recipient
    of the message. If your message editor does not have enough room
    to enter the email address,

        Leave the To: line blank, and on the first line of the
        message body, enter:

            To:[e-mail]

        Leave the next line blank. Then, enter your message.

    If you are using a full-featured editor such as FleetStreet,
    you can set it up so that when you are in the Email area,
    your personal email address is used for the From: field.

    If your editor insists on having something in the To: field,
    rather than leaving it blank, just put in something like 'list'.
    It will be replaced by the real destination found on the first
    line of the body when MailGate scans it out.

    Multiple Recipients:

    MailGate can handle sending a message to multiple recipients.
    You can have multiple addresses on the To: line of the
    body like this:

        To: [e-mail],
            [e-mail]

    Just be sure that there are no blank lines until after the
    addressing. The To: must be on the first line of the body.
    Place a comma at the end of every line but the last one,
    to tell MailGate that there are more lines.

    There must be at least one blank line after the addresses.

    Carbon Copies:

    MailGate can send carbon copies of a message to you or other
    users. Specify carbon copies like this:

        To: [e-mail],
            [e-mail]
        Cc: [e-mail]

    As above, there must be no blank lines until after the addresses.

    Blind Carbons:

    RFC822 defines a blind-carbon copy field, and MailGate supports
    it for the sake of convention. You would use this when sending
    mail to a host where the message is send to a list of users,
    and you know the name of the list. The receiving host will
    take care of copying in everyone on its list. Example:

        To: [e-mail],
            [e-mail]
        Bcc: [e-mail]

5.0    Name-Alias Translations

    When sending mail, MailGate looks to see how many words are in
    the sender's name. If there are more than one, MailGate considers
    this to be the sender's BBS name. It then looks for an alias in
    the UserFile, and if it finds one, uses [e-mail] for the
    sending address and return path. If MailGate finds a multiple-word
    name but no corresponding alias, it uses [e-mail] as
    the email address.

    If only one word is found in the sender's name, it is considered to
    be an alias, but it is verified. MailGate then uses [e-mail]
    as the sender's address.

    When receiving mail, MailGate counts the number of words in the
    recipient's name. If it finds only one, it looks for an alias in
    the UserFile. If it finds one, it translates the alias to the
    user's registered BBS name and files the message under that name
    so that the BBS itself can recognize it. If MailGate finds multiple
    words for the recipient's name, it considers them to be parts of
    a BBS name, parses them out, and looks in the UserFile for
    verification. If it finds the name, it saves the message.

    If neither a valid name nor a valid alias are found, MailGate
    designates the message as Bad. It then behaves according to its
    configuration file.

    If you have specified BouceBadMsgs, MailGate returns the message to
    its sender.

    If you have specified TossBadMsgs, MailGate places the message in
    the area you have defined as BadArea.

    If you have not specified either TossBadMsgs or BounceBadMsgs, the
    message is left untouched in SENDMAIL's inbox.

    If you have logging turned on ( -l switch ) when MailGate is run,
    a record of the action taken on received messages is kept.


6.0 How to reach us

    For problem reports, suggestions for future releases, and even
    good news, you can reach us at:

        [e-mail]

    or you can send Fido Netmail to Mail Gate at 1:229/622.

7.0 Current Versions

    The current release is in mg109.zip.

    You can FREQ the current release from 1:229/622 using the
    magic name MAILGATE, or you can download it from hobbes or:

        ftp.proven.com

    in the Os2/Inet directory.


8.0 The makeidx.exe utility

    Beginning with version 0.9, MailGate uses a compiled index
    created from your User.BBS and/or UserFile. MAKEIDX scans
    your MailGate.Cfg to determine which of these files you use,
    and whether or not you permit the User.BBS alias field to
    be used. It then creates the index files.

    Note that even if you don't allow your User.BBS alias field
    to be used, aliases are still permitted and searched for in
    your UserFile, allowing you to set up aliases for you and your
    staff, but not for your users, or to create aliases for some
    users in such case that you might be using the alias field
    in your User.BBS for some other thing.

    Once the indexed files are compiled, MailGate automatically
    detects them and uses them.

    This process reduces the time for MailGate to validate a user
    dramatically.

9.0 The fu.exe utility

    You can lookup user names and/or aliases using the fu utility.
    FU searches your files in the same sequence as MailGate does.
    By default, fu expects as an argument either a name or an alias,
    and returns the name for that user. Example:

        fu daveh
           daveh is Dave Hamilton

    If you use the -a switch anywhere in the command line, fu will
    return an alias from either a name or alias:

        fu dave hamilton -a
           dave hamilton is daveh

    The -v switch can provide more information IF you have used a
    User.BBS file to create your indexed files. In this case, pointers
    to the User.BBS entries are maintained, and fu has access to
    all the information contained about the user in your system.
    Try looking up a user with the -v switch for a demonstration.

    This was originally developed for testing purposes, but it has
    proven to be handy. We just thought we'd share it with you. Even
    if you decide not to register MailGate, please keep it with our
    compliments.

10.0 Registration

    If you wish to use MailGate, please consider registering it.
    Registration is $25. US. Registration will entitle you to
    support responses and future upgrades. You can register either
    by mail or through BMT Micro using pretty well any payment
    method you can think of.

    Registering by Mail:

    Please print the form REGISTER.FRM and send it with your check
    to:

        Dave Hamilton
        220 Arthur Street
        Newcastle, ON, CANADA, L1B 1L8

    We will send you a registration name and key via email, snailmail,
    or netmail. Please indicate your choice on the registration form.


    Registering with BMT Micro:


                  Mail Orders To: BMT Micro
                                  PO Box 15016
                                  Wilmington, NC 28408
                                  U.S.A.

                    Voice Orders: 9:00am - 7:00pm EST (-5 GMT)
                                  [phone] (orders only)
                                  [phone]

                      Fax Orders: [phone]  24 hours / 7 Days

         Online Orders via modem: [phone]  10 lines, all 14.4K
                                  [phone]  Direct 28.8K line

     Ordering and general ordering questions:
                         Via AOL: bmtmicro
                  via Compuserve: Thomas Bradford, 74031,307
                    via Internet: [e-mail]

     We accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, Money Order,
     Cashiers Check, Personal Check.  Please do not send cash in the mail.
     Personal checks are subject to clearance.

     Each copy of the package includes the latest version of MailGate.


     Name ________________________________________________________________

     Address _____________________________________________________________

             _____________________________________________________________

     Phone _______________________________________________________________


     Product                    Quantity Price  Number of copies
     _________________________  ______________  ________________

                                              x ____________ = + $ _______

                                              x ____________ = + $ _______

                                              x ____________ = + $ _______


     Product is shipped on 3.5" diskette.


     Shipping and Handling (no quantity limit):                + $ _______

       Email - Subject to Credit Card Verification     Free
       Fax - Subject to Credit Card Verification..     Free
       Worldwide 1st Class .......................     Free
       2nd Day Priority, USA Only ................ $   4.00 US
       US Postal Service International Express
         (Including Canada and Mexico), allow up to
         7-10 days ............................... $  20.00 US
       Airborne Select Delivery  (USA Only)        $   7.00 US
       FedEx Overnight, USA Only (delivery by
         3:00 pm the following day) .............. $  15.00 US
       FedEx Europe/Japan (guaranteed delivery
         within 3 days) .......................... $  30.00 US

       Worldwide, any business with a valid FedEx account can
       charge shipping to their FedEx account and pay no
       shipping charges to us.

     Total:                                                      $ _______


     For credit card payment only

      Circle one: VISA / Master / Discover / American Express

      Credit card number: _____________________________________________

      Expiration date: ________________________________________________

      Authorization signature: ________________________________________



Happy Computing...

dave hamilton