home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
OS/2 Shareware BBS: 2 BBS
/
02-BBS.zip
/
nef238.zip
/
whatsnew.Txt
< prev
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-12-09
|
53KB
|
1,236 lines
NEF
Changes and Additions
2.38 Public Release, Dec 09 1996
- Fixed bug that may cause SYS3175 during "areafix" (with
totally empty message body).
- NEF had problems in deleting old FILE_ID.DIZ files with
Hidden, System or Read-Only attributes when extracting a
new one; fixed.
- Please note new email address, support/registration sites
etc.
2.37 Public Release, Aug 13 1996
- Additional <acc> argument for FileBone statement, in
order to allow the specification of a privilege required
to have access to the areas listed in the FileBone file.
- New "@<address>" option for the FileArea and NewAreasFrom
statements, in order to specify a default primary address
instead of an overriding one (as with "#<address>").
Please see the doc for further details.
- New "GetDizDesc <WTAG> ..." statement to specify the
areas where NEF must take the description for FILES.BBS
from the File_Id.Diz contained in the tossed archives.
- Files.Bbs handling routines now take as comments the
lines that start with high-ascii characters (>127).
This may be important when updating the filebase.
- The short description for hatch functions can now be
taken from Files.bbs, File_Id.Diz or a specified file,
just as with the long description (@BBS, @DIZ, @<file>
command line parameters).
- New support for multiple "Replaces" files.
On command line hatch, the names must be separated by '/'.
On interactive hatch they must be separated by ' '.
For developers of Feature DLLs: please note that the
replaces field of the _TICDATA structure may contain
multiple filenames separated by a space.
- New support for extended <WTAG> specifications: you can
now use level and keys to enhance the selectivity of all
the statements that use <WTAG>.
[<WTAG>][:[<level>][/<keys>]]
- If <WTAG> is omitted, '*' is assumed.
- if ':' is not used, any area matching <WTAG> is
included.
- if ":/<keys>" is used, <level> is assumed 65535.
Examples:
Announce OS2* ; All OS2* areas
Announce OS2*:100/fg ; OS2* areas that can be
; accessed with privilege level
; 100 and keys fg
Announce :100/fg ; All areas that can be accessed
; with level 100 and keys fg
Announce *:100 ; All areas that can be accessed
; with level 100
Announce :/g ; All areas that can be accessed
; with key g (and level 65535).
- NewAreasFrom now accepts an indication about the
"direction" of the created areas.
The default remains 'O'.
- New options for FileArea and NewAreasFrom statements:
-p<level>[/<keys>] and -P<level>[/<keys>]
The first one protects the Area from access, together
with ProtArea and FileBone.
The second one is a protection override (the area
protection does not depend on other statements).
The I|O|*, @|#<adr>, -<flag> flags can now be mixed in any order.
- New "NoOverWrite" statement.
When an incoming file is already present in the
destination directory and no explicit replace field is
used in the inbound TIC, this statement will trigger an
error and the TIC will be renamed to BAD.
- OS/2: New arrangement for the "FilesBbs",
"ArcDiz" and "File" push-buttons in the PmHatch dialog.
If the focus is on "Long Desc", they load the long
description, otherwise the short description is loaded
with newlines changed to spaces.
- OS/2: Now there is only one "Browse"
pushbutton, which affects the "File" or "Repl" field
depending on which one has the focus.
2.35 Public Release, June 14 1996
- OS/2:
Hatch: Added support for extracting File_Id.Diz from SFX
.EXE archives. There is no custom support for any archive
format: NEF supports all the archivers defined in
Compress.Cfg with an ID string of at least 2 bytes. This
method is not very accurate, but it's quite general and
it usually works.
- New "AnnExclude <filespec> ..." statement, to exclude
specified files from the announcements.
This statement can be used both in the global
announcement section and inside each "AreaTag/AreaPath"
block.
- The "FileBone Availability" message now respects the
FileLink message flags.
- FileFix commands are now accepted from command line:
NEF FileFix <adr> <cmd> ...
where <cmd>s are the same commands that can be used in
messages addressed to the AutoLink robot.
- Special commands for the filefix robot can now be
preceded indifferently by '?' or '%'. This is useful when
using the robot via command line with 4OS2, which
interprets the strings starting with '%' as environment
variables. If you still want to use '%', then you might
need to precede it with an escape character.
E.g. Nef FileFix 2:332/504.2 ?QUERY
Nef FileFix 2:332/504.2 ^%QUERY
- New FileLink flag 'Y' to specify links to be notified
when "NEF Notify" is executed with no address list.
2.34 Public Release, May 20 1996
- Extension of the PassThru concept.
If you specify the "-0" flag in a FileArea definition,
when you do "Nef Clean", the files not currently
referenced in outbound attaches are deleted.
If you specify "-0<days>", the files in that area will
not be deleted until they become older than <days> _AND_
there is no file attach pointing to them.
Example:
FileArea Area1 \file\area1\ O -030 2:345/678 I123/4
Files in \file\area1 will be deleted when older than 30
days _and_ not referenced by any file attach.
- OS/2: New "KillDate Write|Creation" statement.
To specify the date to be used for evaluating the file
age that triggers the file deletion in passthru areas.
This statement is useful for HPFS, ignored on FAT.
If none specified, "Creation" is assumed.
Example:
KillDate Write
- New extended "-0<days>" switch for the "NewAreasFrom"
statement.
- OS/2: New parameters "Creation" and "Write" for the Touch
keyword. You can configure the type of "touch" you need.
Examples:
Touch ; default: touch the Creation (upload) date
Touch Creation ; same as default
Touch Write ; touch the Last Write date
Touch Creation Write ; touch both dates
- Fixed bug introduced in 2.32 which caused an access
violation in the "query" type commands if AreaDescWrap
was not used in the config file.
- Added check to prevent access violation when interactive
hatch is used with @diz and CompressCfg is NOT defined.
Now an error is reported.
- Added check to prevent that NEF reports "Empty command"
when no MaxAreaCompile statement is used.
- Enhanced INF Documentation.
2.33 Public Release, Mar 13 1996
- A bug in the squish.cfg parsing routines has been found:
if an area is defined with NOTHING after the path, this
area cannot be opened. The problem usually happens when
AreaTag specifies a *.MSG netmail with NO flags in
Squish.Cfg.
2.32 Public Release, Mar 13 1996
- New registration options: BMT Micro, NC, USA and Vince
Coen, UK.
- If the file description contains high ascii codes
(>127), the announcements will now contain remapped
plain-ASCII characters.
- You can allow High Ascii characters in some (or even
all) areas by the use of the "HighAsciiOk" statement in
the global or local-override announcement sections.
- New (global) statement: UniqueDmpLine.
Makes NEF generate FILES.DMP filebase files with
descriptions on one line only (multiple lines are
concatenated).
By default, NEF outputs multi-line descriptions without
changes to FILES.DMP: when using L)ocate and N)ewfiles
commands, Maximus will respect the original formatting,
but the continuation lines will be aligned to the left.
When this statement is used, the original formatting of
descriptions is lost (in the filebase) but Maximus will
be able to word-wrap and align when executing L)ocate or
N)ewfiles commands.
- Added check to prevent misconfiguration of the "AreaTag"
statement: it's ILLEGAL to use "AreaTag MyTag -$".
You must either use "AreaTag MyTag" (if SquishCfg is
used) or "AreaTag MyTag c:\bbs\mail\mytag -$".
In other words: when you let NEF lookup the TAG in
Squish.cfg, it is smart enough to find out the area type
on its own !
- When hatching from command line, it is now legal to specify
@diz without specifying a short description: it will be
considered empty. I still strongly recommend to always
specify a "short" description besides the optional "long"
one.
Example
Nef Hatch c:\file\filename.ext TAG @diz
is now equivalent to:
Nef Hatch c:\file\filename.ext TAG "" @diz
- Changed a typedef in NEFEAT.H, so that it does not
create problems with IBM compilers (thanks to Michael
Hohner).
- OS/2: New mnemonic characters for PmHatch PushButtons.
2.31 Private Beta, Mar 3 1996
- Fixed problem with UNC filenames that start with a double
backslash (on LANs).
2.30 Public Release, Feb 19 1996
- Check added to prevent NEF from issuing a forward request
to multiple uplinks for the same area, when a TAG is
contained in more than one Filebone file.
- New cfg statement: "ForwardWildReq".
Starting with ver 2.30, by default, TicFix requests with
wildcards are NOT forwarded to the filebones; this verb
enables even this type of request forward.
- Additional check in PmHatch: if no "short" description is
specified, the user is prompted about whether he really
means to hatch with no (short) description.
- Updated Docs.
2.26 Public Beta, Jan 22 1996
- COMPATIBILITY WARNING:
New override priority sequence for "from AKA".
The highest priority is that of the "Area AKA": if you
have defined an area aka (#<address> in FileArea
definition), it will always be the "from address" for
TICs from this area.
Then there is the aka override of "FileLink" definitions.
If a node has a "from aka" specified in it's FileLink
definition, it will be used for all TICs addressed to
this node, unless there is an overriding "Area AKA".
If no override is applicable from FileArea and FileLink
definitions, then an aka match is attempted: if the
"to-address" has a zone that matches an address defined
in NEF.CFG, then the first match is used.
If none of the previous cases applies, the primary
address is used (the first address defined in nef.cfg).
- New command line options for hatch commands.
"@bbs" can be used in the place of the normal
description: NEF will take (if existent) from the
files.bbs.
"@diz" can be used as a further optional parameter (after
the "short" description) to make NEF take the "long"
description from the file_id.diz contained in the
archive.
Examples:
nef hatch d:\apbbs\nef999.rar APBBS "Nef 9.99"
nef hatch d:\apbbs\nef999.rar APBBS @bbs
nef hatch d:\apbbs\nef999.rar APBBS "Nef 9.99" @diz
nef hatch d:\apbbs\nef999.rar APBBS @bbs @diz
- New "Single Hatch" option.
If you Hatch/Catch/Match/Send a file with the -d<adr>
command line switch, it is sent to <adr> only.
<adr> can be any 4D address: in the case it is defined as
a link in the matching "FileArea" or even only as a
"FileLink", the specified akas, password and switches are
applied.
If, on the contrary, <adr> is a unknown address,
the Hold flavour is used, no password is put in
the TIC and the "from" aka is derived from an aka-match
on the zone.
Example: Nef -d2:332/504.2 hatch
- Now NEF is able to add new (created) areas to the Maximus
filearea.ctl or equivalent.
There are two new configuration statements:
MaxAreaAdd <fileareactl> <lev[/keys]> <acs> [<division>]
MaxAreaCompile <command>
<fileareactl> is the fully qualified name of the Maximus
file-area definition file.
<lev[/keys]> protects areas of higher privilege from
being automatically added to the Maximus configuration.
The level and keys are to be compared to those of
ProtArea statements and FileBone files.
<acs> is the Maximus access string to be used in
<fileareactl> for the new area.
<division> is the optional specification of a division
where you want to put new areas. If not specified or not
found, the new areas will be appended at the end of
<fileareactl>.
<command> is an external command to be executed before
NEF ends, from the Maximus system directory.
It should be used to compile the new Maximus
configuration via SILT/SILTP.
The area name is taken equal to the area TAG, with dots
changed to underscores.
The area description is taken from the FileBone files if
available, otherwise it is taken equal to the area TAG.
Example:
MaxAreaAdd d:\max\filearea.ctl 0 Transient Tic.New
MaxAreaCompile siltp max -a -2a
The new areas, will be inserted at the end of division
"Tic.New" in the file "d:\max\filearea.ctl", with an
access string of "Transient". Areas with protection level
above 0 or any protection key will NOT be added to
maximus configuration.
Before terminating, NEF will invoke the SILTP compiler to
update the area configuration. The command will be
executed after changing the current directory to the
Maximus system one (probably d:\max\).
- The filebone-style files now accept the specification of
keys after level.
Example:
Area NODEDIFF 0/f ! FidoNet: Weekly NodeList Updates
- The default message size is of 12KB.
The new cfg statement "MsgSize <bytes>" allows to specify
a different size (minimum 8KB).
Usually a larger message size is useful to avoid too many
messages in reports of filebone availability. Anyway,
please be careful not to use a size larger than your
downlinks can handle.
Example:
MsgSize 90000
- Fast Netmail Scan in Squish area.
The pointer to the last scanned message is stored
in <netarea>.NEF.
- New cfg statement "NoRaidBeforeHatch" to avoid the
scanning of netmail before the execution of hatch
commands. This could be useful to avoid delays with huge
*.MSG netmail areas.
- The tear line now reports the OS version (OS/2 or DOS)
and a '+' after the version number in the case of a
registered copy ("Evaluation" for unregistered copies, as
before).
- Errorlevels for Lock and Close error on message areas
have been dropped: if a Lock error happens, NEF will exit
with the Open area errorlevel; in the case of a Close
error, NEF will continue after issuing an error message.
- TICs received with no password in "NoSecure" mode are
accepted anyway.
- Area aka overrides are reported by the nef filefix robot
when answering to query type commands.
OS/2 Only:
- Added support for Feature DLLs:
Two new configuration statements are supported:
FeatureLoad <DllName>
Feature <cfgline>
"FeatureLoad" allows to load a "Feature" DLL.
<DllName> can be a simple filename without extension
(".DLL" implied) if the DLL is in the LibPath, otherwise
a fully qualified filename can be specified.
"Feature" allows to specify configuration statements that
are to be parsed by the DLL.
Multiple FeatureLoad statements are allowed, in which
case the Feature statements refer to the last loaded DLL.
An Example DLL, named "Feature.Dll" is provided, with
source.
Example (works with the example DLL):
FeatureLoad Feature
Feature OutPrefix "New File Received: "
2.21 Public Beta, Jan 1 1996
- This should be the last beta before a new "final" release.
- COMPATIBILITY WARNING:
The old "AreaList" configuration statement has been dropped.
In some cases you could use the new "HelpFile" statement
to point to the file you used with "AreaList".
- New "HelpFile <file>" configuration statement.
The specified <file> will be sent (via netmail) by the
FileFix robot when help is requested.
- New switches can be used on the subject of messages
addressed to the FileFix robot:
-h to ask for help.
-q remains "query": list of all areas.
-l now means "linked": list of linked areas only.
-u to get a list of unlinked areas only.
Only the first letter is checked, so you could use
"-query" instead of the simple abbreviation "-q".
- New commands are now available in the body of the
messages addressed to the FileFix robot.
Besides add/delete commands for areas, you can use:
%Help same as -h
%Query same as -q
%List same as -q
%Linked same as -l
%Unlinked same as -u
- New "FileBone" support.
NEF is now able to use information distributed via the
FileBone.Na and FileBone.No files.
Many useful functions are allowed by the use of these
files, so, even if you do not receive them from your
uplink, you could evaluate the possibility of creating
"filebone" style files on your own, just to store some
information that can be retrieved by NEF.
- The format for the filebone style is:
Area <Tag> <lev> <flags> <desc>
<Tag> is the TIC area Tag. The original filebone format
allows 8 character maximum but NEF is not that
limited.
<lev> is the protection level of the area, for "filefix"
(raid) functions.
The original format allows the range 0-4095 while
NEF allows 0-65535.
<flags> is a combinaton of !.*& and possibly other
characters.
! : Can be found at any Filebone Hub.
. : Only on some Filebone Hubs.
* : Any node can hatch into.
& : Do not send to downlinks.
Others : Private distribution.
Examples:
! : normal area from the uplink to its downlinks,
available on all Filebone Hubs.
!*& : return channel from the downlinks to their
uplink, available on all Filebone Hubs.
.* : bidirectional area (any node can hatch into),
available on some Filebone hubs only.
<desc> is the description for the area.
Example:
Area APBBS 0 P ApWorks OS/2 BBS programs
Area NODEDIFF 0 ! FidoNet: Weekly NodeList Updates
- New configuration verb:
FileBone <file> [<fm> <to> <toadr> <acc> [<pre>]]
Multiple FileBone statements are possible.
<file> is the filename of the filebone-style file.
If you want to enable the forward of requests for new
areas from your downlinks to your uplink(s), you must
specify the following fields (to be enclosed between
quotes when containing space) so that they can be used to
write netmail messages to your uplink's Raid:
<fm> is the "from" name.
<to> is the "to" name.
<toadr> is the "to" 4D address.
<acc> is a <level>[/keys] specification, to limit the
access of downlinks to request forwards addressed
to <toadr> for the areas described in <file>.
<pre> is an optional string to be prefixed to the area
Tags that are being requested.
Examples:
FileBone \bbs\FileBone.Na "Alberto Pasquale" SysOp 2:332/1 0
The "\bbs\FileBone.Na" file is used by NEF, also for
request forwards.
When a downlink requests an area that is not currently
defined in the NEF configuration (usually TicArea.Cfg)
but is described in FileBone.Na, a netmail message is
written by NEF from "Alberto Pasquale" to "SysOp" of
2:332/1 using the appropriate "from address" aka and
"subject" (password) as per the "FileLink" definition of
2:332/1. The body contains a list of the requested area
Tags, one per line.
No (<acc> = "0") protection is specified (any downlink
has access to request forwards).
FileBone \bbs\FB.SP "Alberto Pasquale" SysOp 2:332/1 30/a +
Only downlinks with level equal or above 30 and with the
'A' key have access to request forwards. The requested
tags will be preceded by "+".
If you need a space between the '+' and the tag, then you
must specify a <pre> that contains a space, so you have
to enclose it in quotes:
FileBone \bbs\FB.SP "Alberto Pasquale" SysOp 2:332/1 0 "+ "
- The forwarded requests are stored in a file named after
the configuration one, changing the extension to ".Fwd".
Usually the configuration file is "Nef.Cfg", so the
forwarded requests will be stored in "Nef.Fwd".
The format is: <Tag> <Addr>, i.e. every line contains a
Tag followed by the 4D Address of the downlink that made
the request.
When a new area is created, NEF looks into this file in
order to find nodes to be added to the new "FileArea"
definition.
- A node is entitled to add an area only if it has level
and keys that match the requirements from BOTH the
"ProtArea" statements in Nef.Cfg and the <lev>
specification in a FileBone file (if available).
- The various area-listing commands will list the
descriptions contained in the FileBone files.
- When the FileFix robot is requested a list of areas that
are not linked, it will list also those available to the
requesting node from the filebone.
- New cfg statement:
AreaDescWrap <indent> <right>
suggested:
AreaDescWrap 25 79
The descriptions returned by the filefix functions will
be word-wrapped so that continuation lines start with
<indent> spaces and do not exceed column <right>.
- New extended syntax for the Netmail statement:
NetMail <path> [-$] [-p<adr>]
The new -p<adr> switch allows to specify a primary
address for the netmail area. NEF will use this address
to write the messages to the FileBone's FileFix to the
correct netmail area.
If you have multiple netmails, please add the primary
address specification in all but the "default" netmail
areas.
- New command line command:
NEF NOTIFY [ALL | <adr> ...]
The Notify command sends a list of linked areas to the
specified links.
Examples:
NEF Notify
NEF Notify All
Sends notification to all links.
NEF Notify 2:332/504 81:449/9108
Sends notifications to the 2 specified addresses.
2.20 Public Beta, Dec 03 1995
- New type of hatch with copy:
If you use "NEF CATCH", the specified file is copied to
the destination area and hatched.
- Multi-Line files.bbs descriptions are now supported.
To enable this feature the way you like, please use the
"MultiLineDesc <nnn> [<c>]" statement, specifying the
continuation column and character.
For example, to have the 2nd and following description
lines in files.bbs start at column 31, use:
MultiLineDesc 31
To have the continuation lines preceded by a '|'
character, use:
MultiLineDesc 29 |
- Modified routines for PassThru clean-up.
Previously passthru areas HAD to be defined using a
separate path for each area. Now NEF works correctly even
if you define many areas with the same path.
Anyway this is not a recommended practice, since slightly
different files with the same name could arrive from
different areas causing a CRC mismatch.
OS/2 Only:
- New Pm Hatch.
To invoke the PM hatch program you must type "NEF send".
The PmHatch program is very simple and intuitive to use:
see the following description.
You can select the destination Area Tag via a drop-down
list: just click with the mouse on the button at the
right of the entry field.
You have three radio buttons to select the "type" of
hatch (normal, with Copy, with Move), just as you use
Hatch/Catch/Match from the command line.
You can choose the file to be hatched via a file dialog
box: just click on the "Browse" push button on the right
of the field.
You can also specify a "Replace" file via a file-dialog
by clicking on the "Browse" push-button on the right of
the "Repl" field.
When doing Copy or Move, the files.bbs of the destination
area is updated and the "replace" file (if specified) is
deleted, just as if the file were tossed from the
inbound.
You can mark the "No Local Kill" checkbox to prevent NEF
from deleting the "replace" file in the local area.
You can load a "short description" (Desc) from the
files.bbs, by clicking on the "FilesBbs" push-button.
You can load a multi-line "long description" (Long Desc)
from the File_Id.Diz inside the archive, from the
Files.Bbs or from a specified file (Arc Diz, FilesBbs,
File push-buttons respectively).
If you do not have the "CompressCfg <filename>" statement
in Nef.Cfg, the "Arc Diz" push-button will be disabled.
Of course you can always fill-in or modify any field
manually.
Now look at the five push-buttons at the bottom of the
hatch dialog:
<OK>: to exit the dialog and hatch all the entered files.
<Prev>: to visualize the previous hatch entry.
<Next>: to create a new (empty) entry in order to hatch
another file.
<Copy>: to copy the visualized entry to the first free
position, in order to hatch another file by
modifying the current entry.
<Cancel> or ESC: to cancel the current entry.
ALT-F4 or "Close", to abort (cancell all the hatch
entries).
- Please note that the PmHatch.Exe file must be in the path
when you invoke "Nef Send". In the case the PmHatch
program terminates abnormally, the NEF program will
wait for it indefinitely: you can stop it using CTRL-C or
CTRL-Break.
- To allow the extraction of File_Id.Diz while using the Pm
Hatch, use the "CompressCfg <filename>" statement to
specify the location and name of a "Squish style"
compress.cfg:
CompressCfg c:\squish\compress.cfg
2.19 Public Beta, Oct 04 1995
- Please note:
APWORKS has changed phone number:
2:332/504@fidonet +39-59-246112 ISDNC/V34/VFC/V32T/H16
2:332/524@fidonet +39-59-246113 ISDNC/V34/VFC/V32T/H16/FAX
A new registration site is available:
Jens Holm of 2:238/888@fidonet
Skanderupgade 9, D2
8660 Skanderborg
Denmark
Price: 125.- DKR.
Can be paid cash, check or postal order.
- ATTENTION: this version is for use with Maximus 3.00;
support for Maximus 2.0x has been dropped. If you still
use Max 2.0x you have to disable filebase support or
continue using version 2.18.
If you do not use Maximus, you can obviously use whatever
version of NEF you like.
- New mutual exclusive semaphore flag "FileBase.Bsy" used
to avoid concurrent access and modification of the
filebase by other ApWorks programs.
There is no need to delete this flag if it is not deleted
after a power failure or abnormal termination (ApWorks
programs are smart enough to realize whether the flag is
really in use or not).
- New errorlevel 17 for FileBase Busy Timeout.
- Support for the "MAXIMUS" environment variable: the
"MaxPrm" cfg statement is now only an override.
Please note that if the "MAXIMUS" variable is not
defined, you must use the "MaxPrm" statement BEFORE
"FileBaseUpdate".
- When the files are touched in HPFS, the creation date is
modified, not the modification one, in order to make the
files recognized as new by Maximus and FLM without
changing the date that is normally shown and transferred:
you "see" and transfer to your downlinks the original
date of the file while Maximus and FLM are able to
realize that the file is new.
- WildTags are now interpreted following the "OS/2 style"
for file wildcards: "*LOC*" specifies all tags that
contain "LOC"; "FW???" specifies all tags that have up
to three characters after "FW", etc.
2.18 Public Beta, Aug 28 1995
- KeepSeenBy statement dropped: SeenBys are now already
kept.
- SeenBys are now always fully processed as they should.
- Points are not included in the SeenBys of TICs addressed
to other links, to avoid unnecessarily huge lists of
SeenBys.
- Fixed bug of Dos 2.17 version that prevented NEF from
moving files between different logical drives.
- Description is now formatted between columns 4 and 79, to
make descriptions with empty lines look better.
- The outbound functions (Out, OutView, Clean) can now
handle 2000 files instead of 1000 (?UT, ?LO).
- PassThru areas implemented: new "-0" option in "FileArea"
statement.
FileArea <TAG> <path> I|O|* [#<adr>] [-0] [[<flags>[link]...]
When the "-0" is specified, the area is "PassThru", that
is its files will be deleted when already sent to all the
downlinks.
Please note that ANY file (apart from FILES.*) present in
<path> and not attached to any system will be deleted.
- Since it might be not efficient to always scan the entire
outbound to check for passthru files to be deleted, NEF
must be instructed to do so.
There are two ways to make NEF delete old passthru files:
- Use -p command line switch.
- Use CLEAN command line command.
Examples:
NEF -p
Makes NEF operate as usual, but it will clean the
PassThru areas before terminating.
NEF -p OUT
Makes NEF clean the PassThru areas and report the status
of Outbound. This is the most efficient use, since NEF
must scan the outbound once to make two different things
("clean passthru" and "outbound report").
NEF CLEAN
Makes NEF clean the PassThru.
- The OUT and OUTVIEW commands are now equivalent for
message output. When using file output ("NEF OUT Out.Txt"
or "NEF OUTVIEW Out.Txt") OUT generates a concise
Outbound analysis (no specification of each and every
attached file), while OUTVIEW generates a full report.
- The <OUT> special tag in "Announce" statements now makes
NEF write a concise outbound report.
- The new <OUTVIEW> special tag provides for a detailed
outbound analysis.
- New special tag <THRU> represents all passthru areas.
If you want to keep NEF from announcing files received
in PassThru areas, just use "NoAnnounce <THRU>".
- New extensions in "NewAreasFrom" statement:
NewAreasFrom <adr> [#<aka>] [-0] [<path>]
The "-0" switch allows to create PassThru areas when a
unknown TAG is encountered.
The <path> is an override for the global "NewAreasPath"
statement.
2.17 Public Beta, Aug 10 1995
- 16 bit versions dropped.
- (OS/2) EAs are now copied together with the file, when it
must be moved from inbound to the destination area.
- Fixed bug that caused newly created areas to be added
multiple times to ticarea.cfg if 2 or more areas were
created at the same time.
- When "MATCHing" a file that is already in its destination
directory, it was deleted. Fixed.
- Multiple "Desc" keywords in the inbound TICs are now
recognized properly. Previously only multiple "LDesc"
keywords were allowed; "Desc" had to be unique.
- The description for FILES.BBS is now always taken from
the "Desc" keyword(s) in the inbound TICs. Previously the
"LDesc" description was used if longer. Reason: many
"LDesc" descriptions contain boxes and look ugly when
reformatted. The Files.BBS description does not allow to
keep formatting (must be on a single line, the BBS
program will reformat according to its configuration).
- The description for announcement messages is the longest
one between "Desc" and "LDesc". Its formatting is now
preserved.
- Now the '*' wildcard used alone does not include special
tags (beginning by '<'). People using "Announce *" will
not be disappointed any further by the announcing of
<BAD> in the same area.
- The Path statement in outgoing TICs contained the ASCII
local (instead of GMT) time specification followed by
"GMT". Now this has been fixed and the "GMT" changed to
"UTC". Please note that you must have the environment
variable "TZ" correctly set in config.sys (OS/2) or
autoexec.bat (DOS) to have a correct specification of
UTC.
E.g. for Central European Time (CET)
SET TZ=CET-01 (winter, normal time)
SET TZ=CET-02 (summer, daylight saving time)
E.g. for USA East Coast:
SET TZ=EST5EDT
Eastern time is 5h less than UTC and Daylight saving
applies with the "standard rule" from the first sunday of
April to the last sunday of October.
More complicate expressions could be used to specify
automatic change to and back from daylight saving, if a
fix rule is available.
E.g. for Italy: daylight is 1h ahead from last sunday of
March to last sunday of September.
SET TZ=CET-01CDT,M3.5.0,M9.5.0
(See a C manual for more details).
- New "NoSecure" (global) cfg statement to disable the
Secure mode. When "NoSecure" is used, NEF will toss
incoming files ignoring errors due to password mismatch
and missing from-authorization (sender not linked, sender
receive only). Anyway the error will be noted in the logs
and <BAD> message report.
- New "-t" command line switch to toggle "Secure" mode.
- New (global) cfg statement "SquishCfg <filename>". It is
used to find the path of a message area from its TAG.
Required to use the new "AreaTag" statement in "short"
form.
- New "AreaTag <Tag> [<path> [-$]]" statement, to be used
in the place of "AreaPath <path> [-$]". You can now
specify an announcement area by using its TAG, as
specified in Squish.Cfg.
e.g.
AreaTag LOCAL_ANNOUNCES
The "long form", with both <Tag> and <path>
specifications is useful in the case you do not use
Squish and still want to tell NEF the TAG for an echo
area, so that it can log it to EchoTossLog.
- New "EchoTossLog <filename>" (global) cfg statement. NEF
will log to the specified file the tags of the echoareas
where it has written announcements. If you use the
"MaxPrm" statement, you can omit "EchoTossLog", since NEF
will take the default from the MaxPrm.
- New "MaxPrm <filename>" (global) cfg statement. It is
used to take the default for EchoTossLog and to get the
name and location of the files necessary for filebase
updating. This is required when using "FileBaseUpdate".
- New "FileBaseUpdate" (global) cfg statement.
Requires "MaxPrm".
NEF will automatically update the filebase for all the
areas changed when tossing/hatching new files. No more
need for external FB.
- New "NoReplace <WTAG> ..." (global) cfg statement.
Multiple statements can be used. The specified <WTAG>s
indicate in which areas you do not want NEF to delete
files specified by the "Replaces" keyword in inbound
TICs.
E.g.: to avoid Replace in all areas:
NoReplace *
2.16 Restricted Beta
- The special tags (e.g. <BAD>, <DEF>) can now be
excluded from announcement via the "NoAnnounce"
statement, just like all the normal tags.
This is useful for people who like announcing all
the areas together ("Announce *") and that were
annoyed by the inclusion of the special tags
also.
2.15 Public Beta, Nov 11 1994
- Be aware that all DOCS refer to version 2.00:
updated documentation will be included in next
version. For now, please read this file to know
new features and changes.
- The former support BBS (Videl, 2:332/504 511 524)
will close in a few days. A new support BBS
(ApWorks) is available with the same old address
2:332/504; V34/VFC +39-59-243882.
New Magics available for NEF beta: NEFBETA (OS/2)
and NEFDBETA (Dos).
- OS/2 versions are now compressed with InfoZip.
- Fixed a problem that occurred when "short
descriptions" (in "Desc" lines) were longer than
255 characters. Nef considered the remaining of
the description as an "unknown" line and put it
in the outbound TICs. Now the remainder of a too
long inbound-TIC line is discarded.
- The "short description" limit has been raised to
2KB (the same as for the "long description").
- When both the "short" (Desc) and "long" (LDESC)
descriptions are available, NEF uses the longer
one for announcements and FILES.BBS. Up to
v.2.14, NEF always used the "long" description
if available.
2.14 Public Beta
- Support for Long Tags
Now the area TAGs are not limited to 8 chars and
can contain any character.
Anyway you should be careful because other
TIC processing programs could not be capable of
handling such long tags.
For sake of completeness, they can even contain
blank spaces: where they could be misinterpreted
as field separating characters, you must include
the whole Tag in quotes: "Long Tag".
See the DOC for more details.
- Hatch/Match (batch mode):
the character for separating the name and the
replace fields has been changed from ',' to '/'.
- The "BefDesc" statement has been substituted by
the "DescStart" one.
Here is a comparison of old and new syntax:
BefDesc <WTAG> [<WTAG> ...] "<string>"
DescStart "<string>" <WTAG> [<WTAG> ...]
- Now there are 4 different EXEs.
NEF.EXE: 32 bit OS/2
NEF16.EXE: 16 bit OS/2
NEFD.EXE: 32 bit DOS, requires DOS4GW.EXE
NEFD16.EXE: 16 bit DOS
- The "areafix" robot ignored messages marked as
sent. Now they are processed, to avoid problems
with netmail packers that mark all messages as
sent, even if they are sent nowhere, being
already arrived at destination.
- New command line switch to override the
"StatusLog" filename: "-l<logname>".
- The maximum length of messages created by robots
before splitting has been elevated to 12KB.
2.12 Beta
- Fixed bug that caused access violations when
doing "NEF Out".
2.11 Beta
- Messages generated by NEF in multiple parts now
have a time stamp that increases one second for
each message part, thus avoiding false duplicate
detection by the buggy dupe check of Squish 1.10.
2.10 Beta
- New function: "Outbound Analysis".
Syntax: NEF OutView [<file>] (verbose)
NEF Out [<file>] (tiny)
If <file> is not specified, the report goes to
message areas. To define a message area for
report, use the "<OUT>" keyword as a TAG. In this
case, the Subj, Prefix and Suffix will be
ignored.
2.00 - First public release for the completely new NEF (OS/2 and
DOS).
- Added the <DEF> and <BAD> special tags for
announcements.
- Documented the NoAnnounce statement (already present in
NEF v1.00).
- Added the Tic processing and Link Robot sections.
1.00 - First public release (DOS only).
