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TBAG.EXE
Author : Steve Thompson
GT Net Address : 302/006
Version 1.1 - 3rd March 1990
DISCLAIMER / COPYRIGHT
This program comes with no warranty, either express or implied.
Use it at your own risk.
These programs and documentation ARE NOT placed in the public domain
and the copyright remains with the author. However, please feel
free to share copies of these programs and documentation with anyone
provided that :
1) the EXE and DOC files are unmodified and distributed together and
2) no fee is charged for copying or distribution.
If you find this program useful, there's no need to send money, just
leave me a message as follows :
from the GT network, "Steve Thompson" or "Sysop" at 302/006,
On the other hand, if you're absolutely overwhelmed with
generosity, you can send donations (in Australian dollars) to :
Steve Thompson
PO Box E64
Parramatta East NSW 2150
Australia
PURPOSE
Tbag is designed to give the individual sysop information about and
the control over their own echomail routings. Using Tbag reports,
you can see where your echomail Q or E bags come from and each system
that they pass through. You can also see if upstream nodes are
crashable, what speed modem they use, in which city they're located
and if there are any warnings such as 'temp_down'. The Tbag report
will also show which day the Tbag passed through each system so that
you can spot any delays in the mail. From this, you can tell if
there is a more efficient or cost-effective routing for any and all
conferences. You also see the upstream routing of B bags in each
conference to check that it's the reverse of downstream routing.
Each system that sponsors one or more conferences, will generate a T
bag for each sponsored conference automatically twice a month, on the
1st and the 16th. T bags may also be generated manually by the
sponsor.
As it passes down the chain, each system will unpack the T bag,
append their own routing information and then repack all of the T
bags for each of their downstream nodes. While the T bag is
unpacked, it is distributed to the corresponding message area on your
system.
Here's a sample of the report you should get in each conference for
which the sponsor is generating T bags (and all intermediate systems
are running Tbag).
Echomail routing report generated by TBAG
E10/053 Oz Companions
302/001 96 C Sydney (Sponsor) E1136
║
╟─── 302/003 96 C T Sydney
║
302/000 96 C Sydney E1137 302/001
║
╟─── 004/005 96 C Dallas
╟─── 302/016 24 C T Sydney
╟─── 302/017 24 Sydney
╟─── 307/001 96 C Brisbane
║
302/006 24 C Sydney E1137 302/000
║
╟─── 302/011 24 T Sydney
SETTING UP
Using Tbag depends upon a couple of things.
1 - You must be using GT15,
2 - You must be receiving and sending G bags,
3 - You must be using pkzip for G bags,
(doesn't matter what you use for B, E or Q bags)
Place TBAG.EXE anywhere in your Dos path.
Next, make a subdirectory \TBAGOUT on you mail drive. The mail
drive is the one which has the \MAILOUT \MAILIN and \MAILWORK
subdirectories.
In \TBAGOUT, make up a text file called TBAG.CTL
In this file list each system which is downstream from you and that
you connect with and THAT IS RUNNING TBAG. See the list of
questions below.
The net/node number must start in column 1.
You can just copy lines out of the nodelist like so :
302/000 02-804-6412 96 Sydney *Poet's Dilemma John Della-Torre
302/011 02-455-1806 24 Sydney *Home Computing David Woodbridge
302/016 02-671-5538 24 Sydney *Koala Country Warren Leadbeatter
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
* I M P O R T A N T N O T E *
* *
* DO NOT ADD TO THIS FILE ANY DOWNSTREAM SYSTEM IF YOU *
* ARE NOT ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT THEY ARE RUNNING TBAG. *
* *
* If they're not running Tbag, then the T bags that you *
* send them will be unpacked by Mdist and they will build *
* up in their mailout and mailin subdirectories, eventually *
* bringing that downstream system to a grinding halt. *
* *
* No way around this one. Mdist unpacks everything in a *
* G bag, not just Q, E and B bags. *
* *
* You have been warned! *
* *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Here is an example of a few Tbag.ctl files. Let's assume that only
four systems are running Tbag.
tbag.ctl
302/000 sponsor 302/006
│ │
──────────────┘ │
Other │
systems tbag.ctl
not 302/006 302/000
running 302/011
tbag ──────────────┘ │ │ 302/016
│ │
│ │
┌─────────┘ └───────────┐
│ │
tbag.ctl
302/011 302/016 sponsor 302/006
No tbag.ctl
Ask yourself these questions before you add any system to the
TBAG.CTL file :
1 - Do I have a direct connect with this system?
2 - Am I passing G bags to this system?
3 - Are these G bags 'zipped'?
4 - Am I passing E or Q bags DOWNSTREAM in these G bags?
5 - Is the other system running Tbag? (Ask the sysop, don't assume)
If the answer to all of these questions is Yes, then you can add that
system to your TBAG.CTL file.
If the answer to ANY question is No, don't.
If you sponsor one or more conferences, add the following to the
start of your netmail.bat file so that it runs once per day, before
your first Mbag in mail time :
TBAG GEN
If you pass conferences to downstream nodes, put the following AFTER
EVERY run of Mbag :
TBAG BAG
Everyone, run the following BEFORE EVERY run of Mdist :
TBAG DIST
This means that you should modify all netmail batch files, such as :
NETMAIL.BAT
G_UNPAK.BAT
GTCRASH.BAT
CRASHOUT.BAT
etc.
If you don't run TBAG BAG after every MBAG and TBAG DIST before every
MDIST, you'll lose T bags.
Note that you should put TBAG in the batch file so that it runs on
your mail drive.
In summary,
If you sponsor conferences, you should run :
TBAG GEN once a day, at the start of netmail
TBAG BAG after every mbag
TBAG DIST before every mdist
If you pass conferences downstream but don't sponsor any, run :
TBAG BAG after every mbag
TBAG DIST before every mdist
If you don't sponsor and don't pass downstream, just run :
TBAG DIST before every mdist
By the way, here's how I have things set up on my system. For
clarity, I've taken out all the other miscellaneous programs and just
shown Tbag and the mail programs.
netmail.bat (runs at 4:30am)
D: <--- mail drive
CD \
TBAG GEN
MBAG
TBAG BAG
MDRIV ---------------> g_unpak.bat (after each connect)
TBAG DIST TBAG DIST
MDIST MDIST /G
MBAG /G
TBAG BAG
Next comes your routing file(s).
. If all of your ROUTING INSTRUCTIONS and MESSAGE DISTRIBUTION are in
ROUTING.BBS, do nothing
. If your ROUTING INSTRUCTIONS and MESSAGE DISTRIBUTION are together
but not in ROUTING.BBS, add something like /R:MYROUT.BBS to the
Tbag command line. In this case, all of the ROUTING INSTRUCTIONS
and MESSAGE DISTRIBUTION would be in MYROUT.BBS
. If your ROUTING INSTRUCTIONS and MESSAGE DISTRIBUTION are in
different files, add something like /R:MYROUT.BBS /M:MYDIST.BBS to
the Tbag command line. In this case, all of the ROUTING
INSTRUCTIONS would be in MYROUT.BBS and all of the MESSAGE
DISTRIBUTION would be in MYDIST.BBS
For example,
TBAG GEN /R:MYROUT.BBS /M:MYDIST.BBS
TBAG BAG /R:MYROUT.BBS /M:MYDIST.BBS
TBAG DIST /R:MYROUT.BBS /M:MYDIST.BBS
Make sure that you add these (if needed) to all occurances of TBAG in
every batch file.
The GEN, BAG or DIST parameter must be first on the command line.
All other parameters may be in any order.
Removing Extended Graphics Characters
This is for those who have printers or speech synthesisers that don't
handle extended characters too well. Add XOFF to the Tbag command
line. This will convert any extended graphics characters to
printable characters before distributing tbags to message areas. It
doesn't affect the downstream T bag.
It's only necessary on the GEN or DIST command lines, like so :
TBAG GEN XOFF
TBAG DIST XOFF
Once you're set for Tbagging, ask the sysop(s) of the upstream
system(s) to add you to his/her/their TBAG.CTL file(s). Now sit
back and wait for T bags to come your way.
REPORTS
Tbag will distribute its report for each conference to the
corresponding message area on your system. If there are any
conferences that are 'skipped' in your message distribution, the Tbag
report will be distributed to your first netmail message area.
Here is a sample of a Tbag report and a brief explanation of a couple
of the fields :
Echomail routing report generated by TBAG
E10/053 Oz Companions
302/001 96 C Sydney (Sponsor) E1136
║
╟─── 302/003 96 C T Sydney
║
302/000 96 C Sydney E1137 302/001
║
╟─── 004/005 96 C Dallas
╟─── 302/006 24 C T Sydney
╟─── 302/016 24 C T Sydney
╟─── 302/017 24 Sydney **TEMP_DOWN**
╟─── 307/001 96 C Brisbane
C means that the system is crashable (from the nodelist)
T means that T bags are being sent to that downstream node. This is
no guarantee that the downstream nodes is actually running Tbag.
Check with the sysop before sending T bags.
302/001 means that 302/000 is sending upstream B bags in this
conference to 302/001. This gives you a method of making
sure that upstream routing is a reverse of downstream
routing.
** Any warnings in the nodelist against downstream nodes (such as
temp_down) will also be shown.
Note that T bags piggyback on G bags. The netmail software (Mbag,
Mdriv and Mdist) doesn't know anything about T bags. This means
that you should not change the message header of a Tbag report to
'unbagged' in the expectation that it will continue downstream as a T
bag. It will just be bagged like the normal message file that it
now is and will handled like any other message by the mail software.
MANUAL GENERATION OF T BAGS
Tbag will automatically generate T bags for each conference on the
1st and 16th days of each month.
If, on any other day of the month, you (the sponsor) want to manually
generate a T bag for one conference, enter a message in that
conference, addressed to 'Tbag Gen'.
If, on any other day of the month, you (the sponsor) want to manually
generate T bags for all sponsored conferences, enter a message
addressed to 'Tbag Gen' in the first netmail area.
This message may be marked private but don't mark it received or
bagged. Tbag will take care of that when it runs. The subject and
text of the message are not important in this release.
If you're not the sponsor of a particular conference, don't enter a
message to Tbag Gen. Only the sponsor of a conference may do so.
If you're not the sponsor, the message will just be bagged like any
other message and be sent on its way around the network.
PROGRAM LIMITS
At present, the limits of Tbag are :
300 conferences
100 downstream connects
6000 bytes in gconsol.ctl
If any of these is insufficient, please let me know.
Appendix 1
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Bob Camp for his Turbo Pascal translation of the Toolkit.
Program History
17-Feb-90 version 1.0 First release
03-Mar-90 version 1.1 Corrected a bug in the calculation of the
EchoDay.
Improvements to come; please feel free to make suggestions :
1 - Improved support for $ include routing files (if anyone finds it
necessary.
2 - Remote turning on/off of Tbags from the upstream connect. Much
like the .QM and .QG messages.
3 - When a Tbag reaches the end of a chain, automatically send the
report back to the sponsor. Have to be careful with this one
that it doesn't cause an overload to the netmail system.
(ps, been thinking about this one. Can't think of any reliable
way to do it without overloading netmail. Consider any of the
popular conferences; we could end up with over 200 netmail
messages heading back to the sponsor.) Anyhow, this program was
originally intended to allow Subscribing sysops to improve echo
routings.
4 - A companion to allow sponsors to generate a routing map of their
conferences. Only useful if 3 goes ahead.