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BOP-DATE.DOC
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1992-02-21
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BOP-Date.Doc
WHY ...
Several message editors and utilities that create Fido *.Msg type messages
put an invalid creation marker in the message header. When exported, these
messages may generate a warning message that is returned, or the message
itself may be returned as 'bad'. The marker may be invalid in several ways,
the most common are incorrect spacing, and improper field termination. Any
other mangling of the creation field is untreatable and is probably so badly
damaged that the rest of the message header is invalid anyway.
BOP-Date remedies these conditions by scanning any newly entered messages on
your system for correct format, then corrects any errors before exporting
takes place.
TECHNICAL ...
BOP-Date modifies only messages that are LOCAL, and haven't been SENT. These
markers are located in the message header attribute byte. SEA-Dog creation
entries are recognised and left unchanged. BOP-Date should be run whenever
1) a user logs off and has left echo messages (or NetMail) on your BBS, or
2) you leave echo or NetMail messages with a mail reader. Alternatively, it
can be run before your mailer does it's exporting. Determining how and when
to run BOP-Date is left to you. Not all BBS packages write bad creation
fields; same for message readers.
HOW-TO ...
Most installations will use:
BOP-Date /d<path to your netmail area>
With this option set, BOP_Date will scan your NetMail area, then your echo
areas that have any new messages to be exported. The echo information is
found in ConfMail.Out and Areas.Bbs (type) files.
OPERATIONS ...
There are a few options BOP-Date recognises. They are:
/? a reminder screen
/a allows an alternate echo control file to be matched with the toss log;
default is Areas.Bbs; should be in ConfMail/QM style.
/f specifies an alternate echo toss log file; default is ConfMail.Out.
Simply a listing of echos that have had new messages posted.
/h[1|2] sez to use that high water mark to scan new messages from. Useful in
multi-node or multitasking setups. Default is 1, the one mailers normally
use.
/d MUST be last option on command line; it specifies additional areas to scan
such as NetMail. NetMail isn't recorded in a ConfMail.Out file, so it has to
be specified seperately. Example: 'BOP-Date /dD:\Fido\NetMail' will scan
NetMail area first, then process echo areas normally.
/r rewrites ALL messages scanned, regardless of correctness.
/t TEST MODE recognises messages with bad creation fields, but does not
change them. Incorporates delays to make reading a little easier.
ERRORLEVELS ...
0 - normal exit
1 - error finding a data file NOTE: This is normal for scanning a specified
directory and no echo areas.
2 - help screen displayed
WARRANTY ...
You're kidding, right? No warranty, no guarantees, period. If it breaks
something, you get to keep the pieces. BOP-Date is free to use and
distribute.
THANKS ...
If you like the program (that implies using it!) please drop a line to Remus
at FidoNet 1:106/167. I'd like to keep track of it's usefulness.
HISTORY ...
0.01 -- 07/23/1991 -- For Cal; first release, no options. 4 hours from an
idea to implementation; not bad at all.
0.02 -- 09/20/1991 -- Added the options, changed file calls to DOS level in
some areas. Put a hexdump in the debugging version.
0.03 -- 09/21/1991 -- Forgot some utilities put xFF as TimeDate terminator;
now anything other than a NULL gets rewritten. Added
option /t. And the Docs finally appeared.
0.04 -- 09/24/1991 -- Messages are now counted before processing. If
messages #5, #6, #7, #8, and #9 are entered, then #7
was deleted before export processing occured, BOP-Date
would stop after #6.
0.04a - 10/08/1991 -- Typo fix where 'no messages!' display left '#0' on
screen, and changed warning to 'no new messages'.
0.05 -- 02/21/1991 -- Increased length of filenames. Against better judgement,
added -r option to rewrite ALL messages in directory.
Changed compiler to TC++.