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XRobot 3.00
The FrontDoor Mail Robot for MS-DOS and OS/2
USER GUIDE
Absolute Solutions
SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT
The XRobot computer software, information attached hereto, and any
modifications made to the enclosed information, hereafter referred to
as XRobot, is protected by applicable copyright laws and international
treaty provisions pertaining to intellectual property.
XRobot is provided to you "as is", without warranty of any kind,
promise of merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose,
either expressed or implied, all of which are hereby explicitly
disclaimed.
Joaquim Homrighausen, hereafter "the author", only guarantees that
XRobot occupies disk space.
You are hereby granted a non-exclusive license to use and test XRobot,
provided you accept and abide to all parts of this "SOFTWARE LICENSE
AGREEMENT".
You agree and acknowledge that XRobot is a proprietary product of the
author, protected under international treaty provisions and other
applicable copyright laws. You further acknowledge and agree that all
rights, title, and interest in and to XRobot are and shall remain with
the author.
The author shall in no event be liable for any indirect, incidental,
consequential, special, or exemplary damages or lost profits, even if
the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
The author's cumulative liability to you or any other party for any
loss or damages resulting from any claims, demands, or action arising
out of or relating to this agreement shall not exceed the license fee
paid by you to the author for XRobot.
You may not lease, rent, or sell XRobot. You may not disassemble,
modify, decompile, or reverse engineer XRobot.
All organizations, clubs, schools, legal entities, sole proprietors,
commercial enterprises, companies, and government institutions (in
other words any juridcal person) must obtain a commercial license for
XRobot before using it.
You may freely distribute and copy XRobot provided no fee is charged
(including trading) and the distribution archive contains an
unmodified copy of XRobot. XRobot may not be included in any public or
commercial archive distribution shipped on physical media such as CD-
ROMs or tapes.
All brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of
their respective holders.
Copyright 1987-1993 Joaquim Homrighausen; All rights reserved.
CONTACTING THE AUTHOR
If you need to contact me, use one of the following addresses.
Joaquim Homrighausen
389, route d'Arlon
L-8011 Strassen
Luxembourg
INTERNET joho@ae.lu
FidoNet 2:270/17
COMMERCIAL LICENSE FEE
Single copy is LUF (equal to Belgian Francs, BEF) 1000.- or USD 35.00.
Volume discounts and site licenses are available. Smaller
contributions are (of course) also welcome, but does not buy you a
commercial license.
WHAT IS XROBOT
XRobot is what the name implies, an easy to control utility designed
to aid you in your daily SysOp chores. It will simplify tasks like
sending and requesting one or more files to and from one or more
systems.
These functions can involve a lot of extra work if the software you
are using does not handle everything properly.
It is assumed that you know enough about your FrontDoor e-mail
environment and terms involved with it to understand some technical
descriptions. This is not a beginner's utility - it is easy to use,
but it does require some knowledge about operating an e-mail system in
general.
The history of this program is quite long and credits are due to
several people who gave me ideas and hints (and complaints). It would
take up too much space if I were to list all of them here. One
individual should be named here though, Mats Knuts; I am not sure
XRobot would have been released back then without his constant nagging
and suggestions.
XRobot has been around since early 1986.
CHANGES FROM VERSIONS PRIOR TO 3.00
o The option to send a message via a zonegate has been removed.
o The support for drive mappings has been removed.
o XROBOT.CTL is no longer supported. All necessary configuration
data is retrieved from FrontDoor's system files, specifically
SETUP.FD and NAMES.FD.
SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
o FrontDoor 2.02 or above.
o MS-DOS 3.x (or compatible) or OS/2 2.x. For MS-DOS
environments, SHARE must be loaded.
o Roughly 64kb of available RAM memory.
BLA BLA
This is a complete rewrite of XRobot. No code from previous versions
has been used. XRobot was written using Zortech C++ 3.1 for DOS
(compiled in the small memory model) and Zortech C++ 3.1 for OS/2
(compiled in the 32-bit flat memory model).
BASICS
The basic functions are as mentioned to send and request files. You
can do this with several options and different type of addressing
methods.
Most of the data is taken from a file referred to as the FrontDoor
system file, SETUP.FD hereafter. To make changes to SETUP.FD, use the
FDSETUP program included in the FrontDoor e-mail package.
XRobot will search for SETUP.FD in the directory pointed to by the FD
or FRONTDOOR environment variable. If neither is set, it will attempt
to open SETUP.FD in the current directory.
XRobot treats uppercase and lowercase characters the same as far as
command-line parameters goes, e.g. "SEND" is treated identical to
"Send". The order of the command-line parameters is irrelevant.
RUNNING THE PROGRAM
XR <command> [<switches>]
Running XRobot without any command-line parameters will display a
brief help message.
COMMANDS
SEND Send one or more files to one or more systems.
GET Fetch one or more files from one or more systems.
POLL Create empty ("poll") messages to one or more systems.
TEXT Send one or more messages to one or more systems.
SWITCHES Displays a list of command-line parameters.
MSGBITS Displays a list of values for the /M parameter.
COMMAND-LINE PARAMETERS
Command-line parameters must be preceded by a hyphen (-) or a forward
slash (/) character. Data for a command-line parameter must follow
immediately.
/A<path> Used with the SEND command, this switch will force
XRobot to insert <path> as the path for each file
matching the given file specification (/F). E.g.
XR SEND /FC:\MYWORK\NEW.TXT /AC:\FD\OUTWORK /R2:270/17
would create one file attach message to send the
specified file. The attach message's subject field
(Re:) would contain C:\FD\OUTWORK\NEW.TXT.
/D<days> Used with the SEND and TEXT commands, this switch will
force XRobot to only send those files updated (as
indicated by their directory entry) since <days> days.
For the OS/2 version, the "LastWritten" date stamp is
used.
/F<file> File to send or fetch (placed in subject (Re:) field
when used in conjunction with the TEXT command).
This specifies which file(s) XRobot should send or
request (get). For the SEND command, all files
matching <file> will be sent.
XRobot will by default not include those files with
SYSTEM or HIDDEN attribute. This behavior can be
overriden with the /NI switch.
The OS/2 version supports "long" (HPFS) filenames. If
they include a space, you should put <file> within
double quotes, i.e. "A name with spaces", after /F.
/I Forces XRobot to insert ^aINTL information in all
messages it creates. This is by default only done when
the recipient address (/R) is located in a zone other
than the zone of your primary network address.
/M<bit><m> Set or reset a specific message bit. <Bit> specifies
which bit should be set or reset, and <m> must either
contain a hyphen (-) character to reset <bit>, or a
plus (+) character to set the bit.
Multiple message bits can be specified to set or
reset, e.g. /MC+I- would set the CRASH message bit and
reset the IMMEDIATE message bit.
See MSGBITS for a detailed description of available
and default message bits.
/N<1-10> Specifies a username slot in SETUP.FD to use in all
created messages' "By:" field instead of the default
("XRobot..").
/NL XRobot will by default add information about its
activities to the FrontDoor log file. This switch can
be specified to disable logging.
XRobot will always create two log entries, regardless
of if this switch is used or not.
/NR XRobot will by default update the FrontDoor rescan
semaphores FDRESCAN.NOW and FMRESCAN.NOW when it has
created one or more messages. By using this switch,
you can prevent this behavior.
/NI Includes files with SYSTEM and/or HIDDEN attribute
when used in conjunction with the SEND and TEXT
commands. See the description of the /F switch for
more information.
/O<1-10> Specifies which AKA (network address) in SETUP.FD
XRobot should use as the originating address of the
messages. If this switch is used, the automatic AKA
matching is disabled.
/R<addr> Specifies a recipient (more than one /R switch may be
specified to indicate multiple recipients). XRobot
will honor short-form addressing and fetch the missing
portions from your primary network address.
E.g. ".1" implies <YourPrimaryAddres>.1. "17", implies
<YourPrimaryZone>:<YourPrimaryNet>/17.
/T<file> Includes the contents of <file> as the message text in
all created messages for the SEND, GET, and POLL
commands.
<File> may not include wildcard characters. For the
TEXT command, the text specified after /T is inserted
into the created messages' subject (Re:) field. To
include space characters, use an undescore (_)
character.
/U Forces XRobot to set the "File Update Request" message
bit when used in conjunction with the GET command.
/ZN /ZS Used in conjunction with the SEND command, these
switches instruct XRobot to scan your requestable
directories (as defined in SETUP.FD) for the files
specified with the /F switch.
/ZN uses the list of requestable directories specified
for normal sessions, and /ZS uses the list of
requestable directories specified for secure sessions.
Note that by using /ZN or /ZS, the /A switch is
automatically disabled. The FrontDoor request alias
definitions are first scanned, and if a match is made
for a particular file specification, XRobot will
proceed to search for the next specified file.
MSGBITS
The meaning of these message bits is explained in the FrontDoor
documentation.
The /M parameter is used to set or reset specific message bits to
alter the default behavior of XRobot. Certain defaults apply and some
bits cannot be removed (reset) from messages being created.
For all commands, the "Local" bit is always set. For the GET command,
the "File Request" bit is always set unless the /U switch is also
used, in which case the "File Update Request" bit is always set. For
the SEND command, the "File" bit is always set. The "Kill/Sent" and
"Private" bits are by default set. For the POLL command, the "Direct"
bit is assumed.
Some bits do not make any sense when combined. Such combinations
include the "Immediate" (or "Crash") and "Hold" bits.
The following letters are used to represent message bits in
conjunction with the /M switch:
A Force pickup (FPU) K Kill/Sent
B Fax cover message (FAX) L Local
C Crash M Return receipt (RRQ)
D Direct (DIR) O Orphan
E Del/Sent (file) (KFS) P Private
F File attach R File request
G Trunc/Sent (file) (TFS) S Sent
H Hold U File update request
I Immediate (IMM) X In-transit
J Confirmation receipt (CFM) Y Received
COMMAND-LINE EXAMPLES
XR SEND /FC:\*.ARJ /FC:\FD\NEWS\FIDO*.NWS /R2:270/17 /R255:3000/0
Would send all files matching C:\*.ARJ and C:\FD\NEWS\FIDO*.NWS to
2:270/17 and 255:3000/0.
XR GET /FFILES /R2:270/17 /R255:3000/0
Would request "FILES" from 2:270/17 and 255:3000/0.
XR POLL /R2:270/17 /R255:3000/0
Would create a "poll" message to 2:270/17 and 255:3000/0.
XR TEXT /FC:\*.TXT /R2:270/17 /R255:3000/0 /THello_There
Would send all files matching C:\*.TXT as normal text messages
(the contents of the matching files are inserted into the message
text) to 2:270/17 and 255:3000/0. The messages' subject (Re:)
field would be "Hello There".
XR SEND /FC:\FD\NEWS\*.ARJ /R2:270/17 /D10
Would send those files matching C:\FD\NEWS\*.ARJ that have been
updated in the last ten days to 2:270/17.
NAMES.FD AND RECIPIENT NAMES
When specifying a recipient (/R), you may use name macros listed in
NAMES.FD. This is indicated to XRobot by preceding the recipient with
an asterisk (*), e.g. XR SEND MYFILE.ARJ /R*JoHo would search for
"JoHo" in NAMES.FD and use the address (and SysOp name, if defined)
associated with that macro.
If you do not want to use NAMES.FD, but want to specify a recipient
name instead of the default "SysOp", you may do so by putting a comma
(,) followed by the recipient's name after the network address, e.g.
XR SEND MYFILE.ARJ /R2:270/17,Joaquim_Homrighausen.
REQUESTING FILES WITH PASSWORDS
To request a file that is protected by a password, you must supply the
password when you specify the filename (/F switch). The filename and
password must be separated by a comma (,) character. E.g.
/Fsecret.arj,mypassword would request the file SECRET.ARJ with a
password of "mypassword".
FDOPT SETTINGS
NOISCR XRobot will by default remove SoftCR characters from text
files before importing them into the body of a message.
This may be inappropriate in some environments.
If the NOISCR string is present in the FDOPT environment
variable, XRobot will preserve any SoftCR characters in
text files that are used for message text.
INTL If this string is present in the FDOPT environment
variable, it has the same effect as specifying /I on the
command-line to XRobot.
RESPONSE FILES
XRobot is capable of using response files for input to the /F and /R
switches, as well as a global response file for all commands and
actions you want it to carry out.
To indicate that you want to use a response file, XRobot requires that
you preced them with an @ character, e.g. @<response.fil>. This
instructs XRobot to read the file "RESPONSE.FIL" and take its input
from the file as opposed to from the command-line. This allows you to
create pre-defined "sets" of recipients and files to send or request
and then reuse them.
The format of a response file is that of a plain vanilla ASCII file
with each line terminated by a <CR><LF> combination (although XRobot
should be able to handle a single <CR> or <LF> as the line
terminator).
Text following a semi-colon (;) is ignored and can be used as comments
to make your response files more readable. The maximum line length is
255 characters.
Here is an example of a response file given to the /F switch, we'll
call the file RESPONSE.FIL to keep things simple:
[RESPONSE.FIL]:
;This is a comment
C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT C:\CONFIG.SYS ;This too is a comment
C:\FD\NEWS\FIDO*.NWS C:\FD\FRODO\FD211.ARJ ;And this..
[END]
XR SEND /F@response.fil /R2:270/17
would instruct XRobot to send all files listed in RESPONSE.FIL to
2:270/17. The [RESPONSE.FIL] and [END] text is simply used to
indicate the contents of the file, you should not put that in your
own response files.
Another example, for use with the /R switch follows, again, we will
call the file RESPONSE.FIL:
[RESPONSE.FIL]:
;This is another useless comment
2:270/18 1:170/400 255:3000/0 *JoHo
[END]
XR SEND /FMYFILE.ARJ /R@response.fil
would instruct XRobot to send MYFILE.ARJ to all recipients listed
in RESPONSE.FIL. Note the use of "*JoHo" which forces XRobot to
scan NAMES.FD for the macro "JoHo".
One other very powerful concept of response files as implemented in
XRobot is the use of labels. This allows you to put several different
sets of pre-defined files and recipients in one physical file and
instruct XRobot which set to use.
A label is specified in a response file by preceding the first word on
a line by a colon (:). The length of the label may not exceed 255
characters and must not contain any spaces. To specify a label in
conjunction with a response file, use the format @response.fil@label.
An example follows (again, the response file is called RESPONSE.FIL):
[RESPONSE.FIL]:
;My global XRobot response file
:MYNET
2:270/18 2:270/3 2:270/7
:USNET
1:170/400 1:107/574 1:234/567
[END]
XR SEND /FMYFILE.ARJ /R@response.fil@mynet
would instruct XRobot to send MYFILE.ARJ to all recipients
starting at the "MYNET" label.
When you have specified a label, XRobot will first search for the
label, and if found, read all input until the next label is found, or
the end of the file is encountered. If you do not specify a label, the
entire response file is read (all labels are ignored).
One other use of response files is supported by XRobot, a global
response file. This allows you to specify multiple actions to be taken
by XRobot. Normally, this would require several calls from the DOS or
OS/2 prompt (or .BAT/.CMD file).
If a global response file is used, no other parameters will be honored
and all input is read from the response file. The global response file
is specified as XR @response.fil. E.g.
[RESPONSE.FIL]:
;Some comments
SEND /FMYFILE.ARJ /R2:270/17 /R2:270/18
GET /FFILES /R2:270/17
;Some more comments
TEXT /FC:\TEXTS\NEWS.NOW /R2:270/18 /MC+
SEND /F@many.fil /R@many.rcp
[END]
Note the use of response files in the last SEND command.
Enjoy.
// end of file "xrobot.doc"