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"The Message & File manager"
Release version 2.20
Copyright 1990-1993
Programming by: Jan Berends
Documentation by: Rob Meulendijks
All Rights Reserved
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
PREAMBLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
CREDITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
OVERVIEW AND FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
LICENSING INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
JAMES SUPPORT SYSTEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
HOW TO REGISTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
REGISTRATION FORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
THE KEY SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
FILEFIX (MAGIC NAMES) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
TICK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
THE AREAMANAGER CONCEPT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
THE ALLFIX CONCEPT (SEARCH REQUESTS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
INSTALLATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
CONFIGURATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
JAMESCFG
Dos
Shell to Dos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Save config as . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Exit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Main
Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
System Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
System Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Command-lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Local
BBS File Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Skipfiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
LogFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Local Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
CC Addressee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Network
Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Magic Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
File Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Miscellaneous
Origin Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Months . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Display formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Export
Main . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
All of above . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
DISPLAY FORMATS USAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
JAMES COMMANDLINE PARAMETERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
B= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
C= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
CC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
DEBUG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
DEF= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
FL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
FN= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
LIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
LOCAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
M= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
MGR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
ON= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
SCAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
SM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
SR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
T= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
TIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
JAMES MESSAGE METASTRINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Metastrings for Names
%BoardName . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%GroupName . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%FirstFrom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%FirstSys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%FirstTo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%FromName . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%LastDay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%LastFrom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%LastMonth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%LastStrMonth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%LastSys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%LastTo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%LastYear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%LocalFolder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%Month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%Pw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%StrDay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%StrMonth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
%SysName . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%ToName . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%Var . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3
%Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%FromAddress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%FromNet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%FromNode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%FromPoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%FromZone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%ToAddress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%ToNet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%ToNode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%ToPoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%ToZone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Metastrings for files
%Desc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%FileName . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%MagicName . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%NewFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
%NewTicks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%ReqFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%ReqMask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%ShowAvailableAreas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%ShowAvailableFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%ShowConnectedAreas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%ShowConnectedFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%UploadedFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Metastrings for various sizes
%DriveSizeXN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%FileKb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%FileSize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%FreeXN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%KbDriveSizeXN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%KbFreeXN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%KbNewFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%KbUploadedFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%NrNewFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%NrReqFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%NrUploadedFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%PFreeXN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%SizeNewFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%SizeUploadedFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%CarbonCopiesThisWeek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%CarbonCopiesToday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%ExportedThisWeek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%ExportedToday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%ForwardedThisWeek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%ForwardedToday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%ImportedThisWeek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%ImportedToday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
%NewSizeKBThisWeek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
%NewSizeKbToday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
%NewSizeThisWeek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
%NewSizeToday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
%NrFilesThisWeek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
%NrFilesToday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
%RequestsThisWeek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
%RequestsToday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
%ThankYouThisWeek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
%ThankYouToday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
%TotalThisWeek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
%TotalToday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4
%WelcomeThisWeek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
%WelcomeToday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
FILE NAMING CONVENTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
ERRORLEVELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5
PREAMBLE
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The first public release of James was in early 1990. Reason for
developping it was because my hard disk became more and more filled
with all kinds of programs which all did something with the message
base of my RemoteAccess BBS. Those programs filled about 800Kb of my
diskspace, and I needed the space. So, I decided the time was right to
start writing my own message butler. After about two months of
development I released the first version of James. Now, almost three
years later, James can do almost anything with messages, and with
files received through your mailer.
Jan Berends, January 1993, Groningen, Holland.
6
CREDITS
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
This documentation makes reference to a number of third-party pro-
ducts. Please note that all copyrights, trademarks and/or reserved
rights held in these products are acknowledged and respected.
I'd like to thank the following persons for their contributions (in
alphabetical order). All of them have played a part in the development
of James:
Jos Bergman, Jos Chrispijn, Christophe David, Daniel
Docekal, Barry Geller, Glenn Harwood, Anton Hovestad, John
Klaassen, Rob Meulendijks, David Morris, Sandra Nooren,
Ginie Smith, Peter Sykora and Hans de Vor.
7
OVERVIEW AND FEATURES
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
James The Message & File manager (henceforth known as James) is a
message butler and file manager for Bulletin Board software with
either a RemoteAccess 1.11 or Ezycom message and file base, and
requires a FidoNet compatible mailer with a *.MSG netmail message
base. It has many features in it, so you no longer have the need for
that other dozen message and file managing programs. In addition,
James requires only a little memory.
James allows you to generate a wide variety of messages, such as:
■ Netmail
■ Echomail
■ Local mail
■ File requests
But James can also ease many other actions, normally done manual.
James can:
■ Import netmail into the various supported messagebases
■ Export netmail from the supported messagebases into a *.MSG
netmail area
■ Send new file announcements to various boards
■ Forward local messages from your BBS to personal netmail for
predefined persons.
■ Search through download areas for files and create a message
■ Automaticaly update an alias list (magic request names)
That was only the messages. James can also manage files; it can:
■ Process inbound files
■ Send inbound files to downlinks
■ Process tick files
■ Send tick files to your downlinks
■ Remove old files from your file areas
And that still isn't all. James can perform a lot more tasks. This is
only a selection of main features found in James.
8
LICENSING INFORMATION AND DISCLAIMER
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
"James" refers to the executable programs and documentation contained
in the James distribution archives released by Jan Berends.
This program is not freeware. It resides under the SHAREWARE concept,
which means it is user-supported software. If you use this program for
a period exceeding 30 days, you are asked to register James with any
of the registration sites, or you should stop using our software. 50
Guilders (about US$30,-) is not a lot to ask. As a way of saying
thanks, you will have some bonus features, unregistered users will not
have.
Shareware only works with your support. If you find that you can use
this program, then a registration fee of 50 Guilders will help defray
the development cost and encourage the authorship of other programs
that might be useful to you. The registration form for this purpose is
included with the James distribution archive as JAMESREG.DOC.
"James" is copyrighted 1990 thru 1993 by Jan Berends, ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED WORLDWIDE. You may distribute unmodified versions of the
Shareware release of James, provided that it is distributed
unmodified. You are granted a repacking of the archive into another
compression method as long as all files are included in the archive
unmodified. If you have registered your copy of James, you are allowed
to make one copy of your key-file for archival purposes.
You may not sell the product for a fee and/or distribute the product
along with other (commercial) products without expressed written
permission from the author of James, nor may you modify or remove the
copyright notice from the program or the documentation.
Neither the author, Jan Berends, nor any of the other people listed
above in CREDITS, can held responsible for any damage (indirectly or
directly) that occured through the use of this software package.
This program has been successfully tested on a wide variety of PC's,
including: PC/XT clone, 286, 386SX, 386DX, 486DX and 486DX/2 machines.
Comments, suggestions and bug reports are welcome. If you have any,
you can call one of the James Support systems listed below, and leave
a message to the sysop. Before reporting a bug, please try to
reproduce the problem. If you are reporting a bug, please give as much
detail as possible. If needed, send a copy of the configuration files
also.
9
JAMES SUPPORT SYSTEMS
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The systems listed in the table below, are acknowledged as official
distribution channels and support systems for shareware versions of
James.
You can send your questions, and/or bug reports to any of the systems
listed here:
BBS Name Phone Net Address Speeds
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Holland:
────────
HIO-BBS +31-50-712756 2:282/5 V32/V42B
Googol Board +31-4927-65271 2:284/105 V32B/V42B
RAccess JayBee +31-38-541358 2:512/146 HST/V32B/V42B
AllTime Board +31-1185-2213 2:285/402 HST/V32/V42B
NewAge RAccess +31-50-712518 2:282/510 HST/V32B/V42B
United Kingdom:
───────────────
Octopus BBS +44-706-874802 2:250/131 V32B/V42B
10
HOW TO REGISTER
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Print or reproduce the registration form in the JAMESREG.DOC file and
send it with your registration payment to:
"Registration/JAMES"
J.Berends
Koolstraat 21a
9717 KB GRONINGEN
HOLLAND
PostGiro: 5579328
The registration fee is 50 Dutch Guilders, or the same amount in your
local currentcy.
For the United Kingdom:
"Registration/JAMES"
Mr David Morris
183 Newchurch Road
Stacksteads
BACUP
Lancashire
OL13 OTS
The registration fee for the United Kingdom is 17 Pound Sterling.
For Germany:
Thomas Fensterseifer
Herbartstrasse 71
8500 Nuernberg 44
Germany
Account Number 2401652090
Bank Number 300 209 00
Citi-Bank Duesseldorf
The registration fee for Germany will be 50 Deutsche Mark.
■ You MUST fill out the registration form correctly in order for
your details to be processed. Not doing so will result in delays
in your key delivery.
■ Cheques and money orders should be made payable to the person at
your registration site and should be in the apropriate currency.
■ Please allow approx. two weeks for delivery of your key.
11
REGISTRATION FORM
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Enclosed is my registration fee for JAMES:
Name: ________________________________________________________
Street: ______________________________________________________
City: __________________________ State: ________ Zip: ________
BBS Name as it appears in JAMESCFG: __________________________
Sysop Name as it appears in JAMESCFG: ________________________
BBS Phone: _____________________ Net/Node Number: ____________
Opening hours of BBS: ________________________________________
Type of computer _____________________________________________
What do you like about James?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Program Suggestions/Comments
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
12
THE KEY SYSTEM
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Upon registering you will receive your uniquely generated key. Each
key is a small file, about half a kilobyte in size which contains
information about your registration. To install the key, simply rename
it to JAMES.KEY (if not already) and copy it to your James system
directory.
When James detects a valid key it switches into registered mode.
Features marked with a {+} in this documentation are only available
when James is running in registered mode.
It should be made absolutely clear that James is still fully
functional before it is registered; the bonus features are 'nice' but
their absence makes James no less usable. James is not and never will
be 'DemoWare' or 'ExpireWare'.
WARNING! Your key is unique, and under NO circumstances should it be
made available to anyone else. Doing so is a direct violation of
license agreement entered into with us upon registering.
13
FILEFIX (MAGIC NAMES)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
FileFix is a file distribution method developped by Stig Jacobsen.
James supports the concept of passing files through a system by magic
names. What are magic names, and how does the concept work?
A magic name is a description of a file. For the FidoNet nodediff
files, the magic name could be NODEDIFF, with a filemask NODEDIFF.???.
Whenever a downlink connects to a magic file, every time the boss
receives this file, a file-attached message will automatically be
created by James for this downlink. In this way, the boss has to do
almost no maintenace on files which have to be send on through his
system and are defined as magic's in James.
Another thing that can be done with magic names, is automatic
execution of DOS commands whenever a magic file has been found in the
inbound path of the mailer. With this option it is possible to
process, for example, received NODEDIFFs. This can be done by telling
James the commands to execute when a magic NODEDIFF has been found, or
telling James to execute a batch file which processes the nodediff.
14
TICK
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Tick is a file distribution method developped by Barry Geller.
James also supports the concept of passing files through a system by
Tick area definitions. The Tick concept is a more flexible and a more
secure way of sending files around a network.
A Tick area definition is a definiton of an areatag (the name of the
area). In a tick area definition, you do not specify the names of the
files that will be processed in that area as you do with the magic
names. In a Tick area, a file can have any name. Each file sent out in
a Tick area, will be accompanied with a TIC-file. This control file
contains information about the file, such as:
■ Name of the Tick area
■ Name of the file
■ Size of the file
■ Description of the file
■ A 32-bits Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)
■ A password
■ The nodenumber of the system sending you the file
The control file also contains some other information used to prevent
it from being send back to the same system twice. Old file processor
did this by checking the so-called SEEN-BY's, but James is more
intelligent and keeps track of flow in a duplicate database. Further-
more, a TIC file contains information about which systems the have
processed the file before it reached your system (called the PATH).
The description of the file is in the control file, so the description
which will be inserted into your filebase, will be the actual descrip-
tion of the file as it was defined by the person that hatched the
file.
About the security aspect of a Tick area. A tick file will have to
pass the next steps in order to be processed:
■ Does the area exist?
■ Do you allow to receive files from the sender?
■ Is the password defined for the sender correct?
■ Is the CRC of the file the same as in the control file?
■ Is the file not a duplicate?
When any of these checks fails, the file will not be processed and
remains in the inbound files directory of your system and the TIC file
will be renamed to *.BAD.
One part of the tick concept is hatching of files. Hatching is what
you do when you create a tick control file for a file for the first
time. In a normal tick network, only certain systems are allowed to
hatch files.
You can allow nodes to send files to you in a Tick area, and/or allow
nodes to receive files from you in a Tick area. Those restrictions can
be set for each individual node in each Tick area, so a node can have
Send and Receive rights in one area and have Receive-only rights in
another.
15
The node listed as the origin in a TIC file, will never receive the
file via Tick, because it already is on it's system. The origin node
normally is the person that initiated the Hatch within a file net. If
the file is then exported outside the network into another, the first
node within the new network will then be listed as new origin node in
that net.
Since forwarding TICK files can produce a huge amount of file attached
netmail on HUB systems, a new feature was introduced in TICK con-
figurations lately: the creation of so-called ZIC files.
ZIC files contain all hatch information and files of one James run for
one system in one ZIP file. When ticking a large amount of files, the
output of netmail messages is reduced to a single message per node,
instead of hundreds of netmail attaches. This also has one major
disadvantage: it requires the distribution file to be compressed in
all outgoing ZIC files. Hatching huge files to numerous nodes will
require a large amount of disk space to hold all ZIC files. System
that do not have large disk capacity will probarbly stick to producing
TIC files instead of ZIC.
James supports both TIC and ZIC file forwarding and it can be set for
each listed node individually.
16
THE AREAMANAGER CONCEPT
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
In order to have to do as little maintenance as possible, James
supports the AreaManager concept. With the AreaManager, your downlinks
can send a netmail message to a special user on your system (such as
AreaMgr). James recognises a netmail message to this user as a message
to the AreaManager.
In this message your downlinks can connect and disconnect from the
MagicFiles and Tick areas you give them access to. They can also get a
list of connected and/or available MagicNames and Tick areas.
The downlink has to supply a password for the AreaManager. This
prevents illegal connecting/disconnecting of MagicFiles and Tick
areas.
A message to the AreaManager could like like this:
By: Jan Berends
To: JamesMgr, 2:284/105
Re: MyPasswrd
St: Pvt Local Kill
------------------------------------------
+Nodediff
-Z2-Diff
%List
This message requests to connect to Nodediff, to disconnect from
Z2-Diff, and send a list of all files available to you at 2:282/5.
17
THE ALLFIX CONCEPT (SEARCH REQUESTS)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The AllFix concept is an alternative for a megalist project.
The idea behind a megalist project is that one system has a list of
all files available at systems which participate in that megalist
project, this enables a user to find out at this system where he can
get a certain file.
One problem with a megalist project is, is that the megalist system
never has the latest information about available files at the
participating systems. This disadvantage does not apply to the AllFix
concept.
With the AllFix concept, all systems which participate in the project
have an echomail area installed in which the AllFix requests can be
send by the users. Whenever a user is search-ing for a file, he can
enter an echomail message in an AllFix area requesting a search for
the file he is looking for.
This echomail message will then be send to all the participating sys-
tems. On those systems, James sees the request, and searches the local
file areas for the requested file. When James has found the file, it
will send a message (netmail or echomail) to the person who requested
the search. In this way, the user can do a search in the actual
database of the participating systems instead of searching a database
which contains old information.
An other advantage of the AllFix concept when comparing it to a
megalist project is that the user can call his local system, and does
not have to call any other systems until he knows the exact location
of the file he was searching for.
A message in an AllFix echomail area requesting a search for The
Message & File manager James could look like this:
By: Jan Berends
To: AllFix
Re: Manager
St: Local
------------------------------------------
This requests a search for all programs which have the word Manager in
their description. The same search could also look like this:
By: Jan Berends
To: AllFix
Re: James*
St: Local
------------------------------------------
This requests a search for all files which have a name which equals
the mask JAMES*.*. You do not have to supply the extension, because
James will substitute the extension of a search mask always by a *.
18
INSTALLATION
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
James should run on any IBM 8088 or 8086 compatible computer. The only
other software you will need in addition to the release package is DOS
version 3.30 or higher (DOS 5.0 is recommended).
The minimum memory requirement is 200K but 512K is recommended.
1. Ensure that your CONFIG.SYS file contains these statements:
FILES=20
BUFFERS=25
If you are running in a multitasking system, you may need to
increase the number of file handles that DOS can open at one
time, by raising the FILES= value. You should also have loaded
SHARE. This utility allows you to open one file by two programs
at the same time. If you haven't loaded SHARE, and are running a
multitasking mode, you are asking for disaster.
2. Create a directory to put the main program files in. The con-
figuration example that follows later assumes that this directory
(the SYSTEM directory) is C:\JAMES.
3. To be able to access James from anywhere on your system, include:
PATH=C:\JAMES;
in your path line (probarbly the best place is in the
AUTOEXEC.BAT) and add the following DOS environment setting:
SET JAMES=C:\JAMES
4. Copy all of the executable files from the James distribution
package into the SYSTEM directory.
5. If you have the program Pretty Good Privacy version 2.0,
written by Philip Zimmermann, you can assure that the files came
from the Author of James by running: "PGP JAMES.SIG". Enter
JAMES.EXE when you are prompted for the textfile.
When it succeeds, you have a good copy of James. The .SIG files
should be in the distribution package. If not, request a fresh
copy of James from our support systems. The public key which is
required for this test can be requested at 2:282/5 with the
magicname PGPKEY.
6. Read the manual (you are well on your way).
This completes the installation, and you are now ready to move to the
CONFIGURATION section.
19
CONFIGURATION
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
JAMESCFG
The configuration part of James is built into a seperate program
called JAMESCFG, which should be invoked at this point. The look and
feel of this configuration is adopted from the FrontDoor setup
utility. Since FrontDoor a widely used product, it will ease
installation for most people.
JAMESCFG will allow you to built various configurations, all for dif-
ferent purposes. You will see that there are six main menus, from
which all features are configured.
JAMESCFG uses colour. When using a monochrome monitor on a color card,
you might want to use the -M command-line parameter to have JAMESCFG
displayed in black and white.
As said before, James has the oppertunity to use different
configurations for each James session. To modify a configuration other
than JAMES.CFG, specify it on the JAMESCFG command-line.
All Node addresses in JAMESCFG should be entered in 3D or 4D format!
CONFIGURATION: Dos
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Available options:
Dos: Shell to Dos
─────────────────
Use this option for a temporary shell to Dos. You can also press ALT-Z
from anywhere in JAMESCFG to shell to Dos.
Dos: Save config as
───────────────────
Allows you to save the current configuration under a different name.
Dos: Exit
─────────
Select this item when you want to leave JAMESCFG. Escape from the main
menu has the same effect.
20
CONFIGURATION: Main
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
This part of the configuration program is used to configure some
general information about your system.
Main: Addresses
───────────────
Use this window to enter you network address (if any). If you have any
alias addresses (AKA's) you may enter these in one or more of the nine
slots provided. Behind each address you can enter the netmail board
for that address uses in your message base. When you want to use the
Import netmail function, you have to define a netmail board for every
one of your addresses when you want to import netmail. When sending
messages James will try to find the address 'closest' to that of the
addressee when no address is specified.
Main: System Names
──────────────────
In this section you tell James where all files have to be stored or
can be found. Also some other system dependent names have to be
entered in this window:
Sysop Name : Name of sysop of BBS.
Board Name : Name of BBS. This one is the one your key is
generated upon.
Mailer type : Select the mailer type you are using. Using the
space bar you can toggle between:
FrontDoor : Writes the semaphore FDRESCAN.NOW
D'Bridge : Writes the semaphore DBRIDGE.RSN
None : Does not write any semaphore file
Message Base : The type of bulletin board you are using. Using the
space bar you can toggle between:
RemoteAccess 1.11
Ezycom
File Base : Here you can select what type of file base you are
using. Currently only FILES.BBS or None is sup-
ported.
Manager Names : In this section you can enter 7 names where the
JAMES -SCAN function should respond to. The first
three names can not be changed.
Main: System Paths
──────────────────
Inbound Path : Where inbound files are received
Messagebase
Path : RA/Ezycom message base.
Mailer Path : Mailer semaphore directory.
Netmail Path : Mailers *.MSG netmail directory.
21
Outbound Path : Outbound directory for MGR and TIC functions. This
directory should only be used by James. Eventual
other files in this directory will be deleted.
Swap Path : James' swap files will be placed here.
Queue Path : D'Bridge QUEUE directory. This is applicable only if
selected mailer type is D'Bridge
Aliasfile Name : Name of file containing the alias information used
by the mailer to honour file requests.
Helpfile Name : The HELP text file for JamesMgr %HELP requests.
Log File : Directory and filename of the James log file
└ Log Level : How the James should log actions. With the space bar
you can toggle between:
No logging: Do not log any actions
Standard : Verbose logging
Full : Debug logging. Write ANY action to the
system log.
Main: Switches
──────────────
This section deals with many of the global settings in relation to
messages.
Force Rescan : Create messagebase rescan semaphore files for
mailer whenever a echomail/netmail message has been
sent.
Show Size : Show size of listed file after filename in messages
where newfiles or files found after an AllFix
searchrequest are being displayed.
Show
description : Show description of listed files in messages where
newfiles or files found after an AllFix searchre-
quest are being shown.
Add Private
Files : Show files which have NO description in your
filebase in %NewFiles or AllFix searchrequest reply
messages.
Show Area Name : Show name of file area if newfiles or AllFix search-
request messages.
Insert Blank
Line : Insert a cosmetically good looking blank line bet-
ween two file areas in newfiles messages.
Tabulate
Descriptions : Split description of files over more than one line
when they get too long. James will also do this when
it detects a plus sign (+) at the first position in
a FILES.BBS. This is used in a lot of programs such
as RFW.
Send Empty
New Files : Send new files message even when no new files were
found.
Send Empty
22
Search Requests: Send searchrequest reply message even when no re-
quested files area being found. Only recommended
when replies are being sent by netmail.
Suppress Scrn
Output : Do not write anything to screen after reading the
configuration file.
Compress Mail : D'Bridge has the ability to compress normal netmail
messages into the XMAIL mail bundles and putting the
file-attached file directly in the disk based queue,
which cleans up the netmail area. If you use
D'Bridge and want to use this option, toggle it to
Yes. Otherwise set it to No.
Clear Stat. On : James keeps track of how many messages have been
sent. You can define on what day the statistics have
to be reset to 0.
Maximum #
Wildcards : Maximum number of "?" in an AllFix searchrequest
filename. '*' will be expanded to (multiple) '?'. A
recommended value here is 3.
Minimum #
Characters : Minimum number of characters in an AllFix
searchrequest when searching by description (when
searchstring contains no wildcards).
Days to keep
dupes : Number of days to keep a file's CRC in the JAMES.DUP
file. These CRC's are calculated over all files
processed by the -MGR, -TIC and -H functions.
Main: Command-lines
───────────────────
This feature allows you to give James predefined command-lines. For
exmaple, if you generate multiple file announcements regularly, you
can execute them all in one run by using the command-line database,
without spawning JAMES multiple times and without the worries of
seperate batch files. With -DEF= (see command-line options) you can
use one or more predefined command-lines.
23
CONFIGURATION: Local
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
This section contains mainly information from your BBS.
Local: BBS File Areas
─────────────────────
In this section you can enter the information about your local File
Areas.
Path : Directory where the files in this area are being
stored
Description : Description of this area (Used in newfile messages).
SearchRequests : Whether this file area is to be searched when an
AllFix search request is being processed.
NewFiles : Whether this file area has to be searched for new
files. See the meta-string %NewFiles for more
information about NewFiles announcements.
Group : Group to which this file area belongs for selective
new file announcement messages.
Skipfiles
─────────
Here you define which files should never be reported in %NewFiles.
This is useful for files like your Allfiles file which probably will
be new every day. It is nonsense to announce this file in every
%NewFiles announcement. The files defined here will never be
automatically hatched (See Network/File Areas/Auto hatch).
LogFiles
────────
Here you tell James which logfiles should be searched when James is
checking for new users or for uploaders. To have James correctly read
the logfiles, you can define important information in
"Miscellaneous -> Display Formats"
Local: Local Boards
───────────────────
Here you define the boardnumber and a description of the message
boards in your messagebase which have to be searched for messages
addressed to persons listed in the nodes database (see Network ->
Nodes -> Forward).
Local: CC Addressee
───────────────────
In this window you specify the information about the addressee of
Carbon Copy messages which will be send when you specify the -CC
parameter on the commandline.
Name : Name of Carbon Copy addressee.
Address : Optional netmail address of CC addressee.
24
Board : Message base board number. You have to specify
adress or board, not both.
Subject : Subject which will be given to CC message.
Attributes : Attributes which will be given to CC message. A
CarbonCopy message is an exact copy of a message
sent to any person, but sent to the person defined
in this section.
25
CONFIGURATION: Network
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Network: Nodes
──────────────
In this section you can define your uplinks and down-links. Use Insert
to add a new node-definition, Delete to remove a node-definition, and
Enter to edit an existing node-definition.
Address : Net address of system.
Sysop name : Name of sysop (will be used for all messages send to
this system).
Groups : Controls which areas and magic files this system can
connect to/disconnect from with an AreaMgr message.
Password : Defines the password for the AreaManager and Tick
functions of James.
Use Aka : Use which address when sending messages to this system.
This will default to the closest address defined in the
Main/Addresses section.
OldFashioned: Send an Oldfashioned Tick-file to this node. This means
that when this option is set to Yes, no point-info will
be includeded in the TIC-file. When this option is set
to No, Pointinfo will be added, and SEEN-BY lines will
be removed from the TICK-file (since an intelligent
Tick-processor does not need these lines for dupe
checking).
Forward : If James detects messages addressed to this node in the
local areas defined in Main: Local Message Boards, it
will forward them to netmail using the node address of
this sysop.
Notify : Send notification message of AreaManager to this sys-
tem.
Uplink : Set this to Yes if this this node is an uplink of you
(the node that takes care of your mail and files). If
you serve as a Hub for the node, that node is a
downlink, and in that case this option should be set to
No.
Create ZIC : If you want to create ZIC files for this node, select
Yes. If you want normal TIC files, set this to No. For
more information about ZIC files, please read chapter
TICK earlier in this manual.
Manager Name: In case this is an uplink definition, you should enter
the name of the file manager used at the uplinks site.
It is used to address automatically generated
(dis)connection requests.
Status : Defines the status of all messages send to this system.
Network: Magic Names
────────────────────
In this section you define the magic files. Magic files are filemasks
of files which you receive through your mailer in your inbound
directory and want to process automatically. When you have downlinks,
you can define them also. Whenever you receive a file defined as a
magic file, it will be send on to your downlinks.
MagicName : Name of file used for connecting/disconnecting files
with a message to AreaManager.
26
FileMask : File mask of file. Wildcards are allowed in this
filemask.
Description : Description of file used for manager mes-sages. This
description will be inserted in the filebase in the
destination path. You can use some meta-strings in
the description:
%1-%8 for the first upto the eighth character of
the filename.
%9-%11 for the first upto the third character of the
extension.
Destination : Where to move the file to. Leave this blank when the
file should be moved.
Group : Defines a group to which this file belongs.
Downlinks requesting a magic-file though a manager
request must have the same group in their groups
listing in order to be able to connect/disconnect
the file.
On Days : You have to define on which day the file will be
processed.
Keep Latest : Keep latest allows you to control the number of
files hold in the destination directory. It is un-
necessary to keep all received nodediff's for
example. When you set this number to 3, the latest 3
nodediff's will remain in this directory. Set this
number to 0 if you want to keep all files.
Auto Forward : Automatically forward files with a date/time newer
than the last time JAMES -MGR has been executed
found in Destination path to downlinks.
AliasList
Update : The alias list defined in the Main/Names section.
James will search for the magicname in this list,
and insert the correct path and filename in it. Eg.
when you have the following entry in your alias
list:
NODEDIFF C:\FILES\NODEDIFF.A76
and James processes the next nodediff, James will
replace the entry with:
NODEDIFF C:\FILES\NODEDIFF.A83
(assuming that C:\FILES\ is the destination path for
the magic NODEDIFF). In this way, you alias list is
always up to date.
No Delete : When you want to use the -MGR function to perform
certain tasks on the file, and to update your alias
list, but the file is received as a tick file and
you want to forward it to your downlinks as a tick
file. Normaly, James would move the file to the
destination path, and JAMES -TIC will give an error
because the attached file could not be found. When
you activate this option, James will process the
magic but instead of moving the file, James will
copy the file to it's destination path.
Allow repack : This option allows you to repack the files located
27
on your bulletin board, even before all nodes have
picked up the file. You might want, for example, to
repack ZIP files to ARJ files in your download area.
When you set this option to Yes, James will place a
second copy of the in-transit file in the outbound
directory. The original copy is then moved to the
file area it belongs in. Outgoing file-attach mes-
sages for this area then do not attach the file in
the download area, but will use the temporary, non-
repacked copy in the James outbound. When all sys-
tems have picked up this file, it is deleted.
Commands : The commands entered here will be executed when the
file has been found in the inbound directory prior
to moving the file to its destination directory.
Commands should be separated by ';'. When the line
is too short for all your commands, simply create a
batchfile containing all your commands, and enter
the name (and path) of your batchfile. You can use
three macro's on this line:
%1 for complete filename+path
%2 for filename
%3 for extension
Nodes : Here you define the nodes you want to send the file
to whenever it has been found in your inbound direc-
tory. James will create a file-attach message for
each node.
Network: File Areas
───────────────────
In this section you define your Tick areas.
AreaTag : This is the name of the area. This name will be in
the tick control files which comes with the files.
Description : Description is the description shown in AreaManager
messages.
Destination : Destination is the directory where the files
received in this area will be moved to. If this you
leave this empty, the file will NOT moved.
Group : Defines a group to which this file belongs.
Downlinks requesting a magic-file through a manager
request must have the same group in their groups
listing in order to be able to connect/disconnect
the FileArea.
Use Replace : Defines whether or not the replace option should be
used for this area. The replace option is activated
whenever the tick control file accompanying the file
contains the REPLACES keyword. When James finds the
file following this keyword, James will delete this
file when you activate this option. The filename may
NOT contain any wildcards. This is done for security
reasons, in order to disallow things like REPLACES
*.*. We suggest you only activate this section for
28
areas where it is useful to use this option.
Save Info : This option defines whether the information of a
file should be saved in order to make it possible to
announce the new received files in this area in an
(echo)mail message. James will store the information
in a file called JAMES.TCI in your James directory.
(refer to metastring %NewTick for more information
about announcing new ticks).
Auto Hatch : Automatically hatch files found in desti-nation path
of this area which have a time/date newer that the
last time JAMES -TIC was executed.
Allow repack : This option allows you to repack the files located
on your bulletin board, even before all nodes have
picked up the file. You might want, for example, to
repack ZIP files to ARJ files in your download area.
When you set this option to Yes, James will place a
second copy of the in-transit file in the outbound
directory. The original copy is then moved to the
file area it belongs in. Outgoing file-attach mes-
sages for this area then do not attach the file in
the download area, but will use the temporary, non-
repacked copy in the James outbound. When all sys-
tems have picked up this file, it is deleted.
Nodes : Nodes defines your UPLINK and downlink nodes. Pres-
sing enter on a defined nodenumber allows you to
define whether a node is allowed to send files TO
you in this particular area and/or is allowed to
receive files FROM you. When you do not specify your
uplink here with receive status, TIC's received in
this area will NOT be processed.
In order to know whether a file has been processed before or not,
James keeps a duplicate file. This file contains a CRC-32 check over
the received file. This duplicate checking is done for both the Magic
files and the files received in a tick area. The Areatag or Magicname
will also be included in the duplicate check in order to allow a file
to pass your system in more than one area, or to process it with -MGR
and forward it with -TIC.
29
CONFIGURATION: Miscellaneous
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Here you can define some global texture to give your own designed
messages a better look.
Miscellaneous: Origin Lines
───────────────────────────
With "Origin Lines", you define the origin lines James will add to
your echomail messages. The first origin line is the default origin.
The origin line is used to give information about the sender of the
message and is placed at the end of any echomail message. An example
of an origin line is:
* Origin: HIO BBS Groningen * +31-50-712756 * (2:282/500)
James itself (like most other programs) will add the text "* Origin: "
and the nodenumber to any echomail message. So you should enter the
above origin line here as:
HIO BBS Groningen * +31-50-712756 *
Miscellaneous: Days
───────────────────
This section allows you to define the full names of the days in your
own language or in the language you want to announce messages. This
gives the messages you send an extra good look, as most other programs
insert the default English name of the days.
Miscellaneous: Months
─────────────────────
This section allows you to define the full names of the months in your
own language or in the language you wish to announce your messages.
Miscellaneous: Groups
─────────────────────
These are the groups a particular node (configured in Network: Nodes)
is secured with. A group definition is the Group combined with a
description.
The Group and description is included in notify lists (-LIST) and is
used all over JAMESCFG. For example, for FidoNet files you could use:
F FidoNet File Distribution
And for general files, you could assign group G:
G General Files
You are not obliged to assign descriptions to your groups, but it
improves the looks of your notify lists and it will ease your own
JAMESCFG usage as well.
30
Miscellaneous: Display formats
──────────────────────────────
This is the section that allows you to have James create messages the
way you want them to look, and also how James scans existing log files
for uploads and new users. This is rather powerful and looks
complicated, but it really isn't that difficault. You will find
examples and syntaxis for display formats later in this manual in
section 'Display formats usage'.
The following option can be configured for log-file analysis:
User on-line : This defines what's written to your BBS' log-file
when a user enters your board.
User off-line : Defines how your BBS software writes to the log-file
if a user leaves your board.
Upload : Here you can define the way your bulletin board
software writes to the log file when an upload is
made.
New User : This specifies the text your bulletin board software
logs when a new user has just logged on.
The following options can be configured for message layouts (see
metastrings for explanation):
%UploadedFiles : This is how your messages look when using the
%UploadFiles metastring.
%List : How the format of metastring %List will look in mes-
sages.
%ReqFiles : How messages will look when using metastring
%ReqFiles.
%NewFiles : How messages using metastring %NewFiles will look.
%NewTick : How messages using metastring %NewTicks will look.
31
CONFIGURATION: Export
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
In the export section you can export your configuration to a plain
vanilla ASCII text file. This is very useful when you have a
bug-report or are trying to find out where a problem is in your setup.
Export: Main
────────────
This exports all functions listed under menu Main: Addresses, system
names, system paths, switches and the command-line database.
Export: Local
─────────────
This exports BBS file areas, skip files, log files, local boards and
CC addressees.
Export: Network
───────────────
This will export all node, magic files and TICK configurations.
Export: Miscellaneous
─────────────────────
The will export the origins, day-namings, month-namings, group
definitions and display formats.
Export: All of above
────────────────────
This will export Main, Local, Network and Miscellaneous.
32
DISPLAY FORMATS USAGE
─────────────────────
When configuring James in Miscellaneous: Display Formats, there are
several commands you can use for analyzing log files.
The meaning of these commands is explained below:
!nn skip nn positions in the current line
; skips to the next line
'text' a normal text definition
@ skips to the next word without using it
* is replaced by the user-name in a 'User on-line' definition
# represents the filename in an 'Upload' definition
$ represents the size of an upload in an 'Upload' definition
Also, the layout of file announcements, ALLFIX messages and 'Thanks
for upload' messages, can be entirely customized. The commands used to
do this are:
%0 prints a semi-colon (;) in the message
%1 is replaced by the filename in the message
%2 the size of the file in bytes
%3 is replaced by the description of the file
%4 represents the areaname the file was hatched into. This
option can only be used in conjunction with metastring
%NewTicks (see section Metastrings for an explanation of the
NewTick function).
%5 is replaced by the origin of the file. This parameter can
only be used in conjunction with metastring %NewTicks.
; starts at a new line.
So, let's say you're running RemoteAccess logging in extended mode.
When someone enters your board, RemoteAccess might log:
> 20-Jan-93 12:03 Jan Berends on-line at 14400 bps
To analyse this in 'Display formats' we should use
!19*' on-line at'
to have James correctly look up the log file for the 'On-line' option
in JAMESCFG.
If you are running a Ezycom BBS logging in extended mode, you could
use the following as a default setup:
User on-line : !12@*' at '@'baud'
User off-line : !12'Call Terminated'
Upload : !12'Upload('@#
New-User : !12'Questionnaire NEWUSER'
%UploadedFiles: %1
33
JAMES COMMANDLINE PARAMETERS
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
James has a lot command-line parameters, each having its own special
function. Some parameters can be used together with others, other
parameters must be used as the only parameter. Some other parameters
can only be used with others. All this will be explained in the
following section.
Command-line parameters should be preceded with either '-' or '/'.
All files specified on the commandline (and all other files) will
first be looked for in the current directory, and when not found
there, James will look in the directory specified by the James
environment parameter. All addresses should be entered completely!
When an example contains parameters which you do not under-stand at
the time you read them, don't bother. When you have read this complete
manual, you will understand them.
Command Description
─────── ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
? This parameter will display the help message.
Example: JAMES -?
0=..9= With these ten parameters you can specify a variable on the
commandline, and with the %Var0..%Var9 you can include those
parameter in your message text. The value of those
parameters have to be given be-tween '"'.
Example: JAMES -M=Msg -T=New,2:282/5 -N -0="c:\KEY"
B= The B= parameter defines the boardnumber in your message-
base. This parameter can be used with both the R and the M
parameters.
Example: JAMES -B=13 -M=NewMsg.Txt -T=Sysop -E=1,2
C= This parameter designates an alternate configuration file.
The default extension for the configuration file is .CFG.
This parameter can be used with any other commandline
parameter.
Example: JAMES -C=MyCfg -I
CC When you include the -CC parameter with any other com-
mandline parameter, a Carbon Copy of new created messages
will be send to the person defined in the CC Addressee
section of JAMESCFG. This is not the case when using one of
the options -Fl, -I or -X.
Example: JAMES -Scan -CC
DEBUG This commandline parameter shows most of the internal
actions of James' operation. It has been included for
debugging purposes.
DEF= Allows you to execute predefined command-line option
specified in JAMESCFG. This allows you to easily executed
34
regular used command-line option, without the worries of
creating seperate batch-files.
Example: JAMES -Def=1
JAMES -Def=1-5
E The message sent will be an echomail message. James will
append an origin line and a tearline to your message. The
format of this parameter is:
-E<=OriginNumber<,AddressNumber>>
- OriginNumer is the number of the origin line to use.
- AddressNumber is the number of the address to use.
Address 1 is your Main address, address 2 is Aka 1,
address 3 is Aka 2 and so forth.
This parameter can be used with the R end T= parameter.
Examples: JAMES -E -B=2 -T="To Name" -M=Msg
JAMES -E=2 -B=7 -R
FL When James finds the FL parameter on the commandline, James
will scan the message base for messages in the defined local
boards addressed to the persons defined in the Node
database. When James finds such a message James will export
this message to the Netmail directory, and sending it to the
address specified in the Node database.
You can specify the M= parameter on the same commandline.
The message text defined in the file given with the M=
parameter will precede the original message text.
Examples: JAMES -Fl
JAMES -Fl -M=FlHeader
FN= If you want to substitute the default sysop name in the
From: field of messages, you can specify this parameter.
Examples: JAMES -Scan -M=JamesMgr -FN="JamesMgr"
JAMES -R -B=12 -M=Search -FN="File Locator James"
H The H parameter allows you to Hatch file into file
distribution networks. This function will send out the file
accompanied with a TIC file to all downlinks listed for a
certain area which allows full automated file forwarding.
It is important to know if your uplink allows you to hatch
files into file areas.
With -H as the only command-line option for James enters the
manual hatch mode. From here you can manually hatch files
into an area. You will have to specify the following data:
AreaName : The name of the TICK area the file will be
hatched into.
FileName : The filename (eventualy with path) to be
hatched
Description: A description of the hatched file
Origin : Your nodenumber
Replaces : File that needs to be replaced by this one
35
(if it exists).
Then, James will automatically forward this file to all up-
and downlinks listed for that particular TICK area. You can
only hatch one filename at a time.
You can also hatch a file by reading the neccesary infor-
mation from a file on disk.
Example: JAMES -H=Dummy
will hatch a file listed in file DUMMY. The format of this
file is almost the same as with a manual hatch. It should
contain
AREA TICK area
FILE Filename
DESC Description
ORIGIN Origin address
REPLACES
I {+} The I parameter invokes the Import Netmail function.
James scans your netmail directory for netmail message
addressed to one of your addresses, and when found imports
that message into the defined message base board. This
parameter should be the only on the command-line.
Example: JAMES -I
LIST {+} With the LIST function you send a message to all the
connected nodes containing a list of all connected
files/areas, and a list of all available files/areas. You
can also send a list to a selected person by adding the
nodenumber to send it to preceded by a =. The layout of this
'notification message' is configurable with metastrings (see
the section about metastrings for more inforation)
Examples: JAMES -List
JAMES -List=2:282/5
JAMES -List=2:282/5 -M=Notify
LOCAL The LOCAL parameter allows you to test the -R function (see
later). When you include the LOCAL parameter on the com-
mandline, JAMES will also answer locally generated messages
in the searches. This parameter is intended to test if James
correctly searches for requests, and should only be used for
test purposes.
Example: JAMES -R -B=13 -LOCAL
M= The M= parameter defines which ASCII file should be used as
the message body. It is used with almost all options of
James. James defaults to the extension .MSG. The first line
of this message is placed on the subject line.
Example: JAMES -M=Message.Txt -R -B=34
MGR The Mgr parameter tells James to perform all the tasks
related to the MGR function. Those task are:
36
- Checks the distination path for new files to
auto-forward;
- Checks the inbound path for files which match a magic
file definition, and processes them;
- Cleans up the files in the detination path.
The Mgr Function can be executed on the same command-line as
the TIC function. Which function will be executed first,
depends on the order of those commands on the command-line.
Examples: JAMES -Mgr
JAMES -Mgr -M=MgrMsg
JAMES -Mgr -Tic
JAMES -Tic -Mgr
N The message generated will be a netmail message. This
parameter can be used with the -R and the -T= parameter. The
format of this parameter is:
-N<=AddressNumber>
Address one is your Main address, address 2 is Aka 1,
address 3 is Aka 2 etc.
ON= With the ON= you can specify on which days the messages have
to be send. You run James every day, but only on the days
given with the ON= parameter James will send messages. This
is useful for sending inbound and outbound traffic overviews
to the sysop.
Examples: JAMES -On=SunTueThu -List
JAMES -On=Mon -M=Report -T=Sysop -B=10
R When you use this parameter James will scan your message
base for messages addressed to either James or AllFix. You
have to specify a boardnumber (-B=) in which James will
search on the commandline. You can also use the -M=
parameter to define the message sent to the person who
requested a search. All reply's will default be sent in
NETmail. Locally generated message will never be answered,
unless LOCAL is supplied.
Examples: JAMES -R -B=17
JAMES -R -B=23 -M=Answer
JAMES -R -B=41 -E=1,4
SCAN When Scan is given as a parameter, James will scan your NET-
mail directory for messages addressed to your selected
'Manager Names' specified in JAMESCFG. These messages are
requests from your downlinks for connecting and disconnec-
ting magic files and/or tick areas. The node sending the
message can include some meta-strings in his request mes-
sage:
%L{IST} to list all available files/tick areas
%Q{UERY} to list all connected files/tick areas
%H{ELP} to request help about the JamesMgr
+%ALL to connect all available files/tick areas
-%ALL to disconnect all available files/tick areas
37
SM The SM parameter (Skip Move) tells James not to move the
file you are hatching. This parameter can only be used with
the H parameter.
Example: JAMES -H -SM
SR The SR parameter (Skip Reset) can be used with message which
include a listing of new file announcements. When you use
this parameter, the time information will not be updated. In
this way you can send more than one announcement in a very
simple way. When you run James after you ran James with the
-SR parameter, James will not know it has sent out a message
previously and will send the information once more until the
-SR option is ommited.
Example: JAMES -M=NewFls -T=Sysops -E=1,2 -B=1 -SR
T= This parameter defines the receipient of your message, or a
file containing multiple addressees. This parameter should
be used with at least the -M= parameter, and the -B= or -N
parameter. The format of this parameter is:
-T=<">Name<,Address><;Attrib><">|@FileName
- Name : is the name of the addressee, underscores will
be translated to spaces.
- Address : is the netmail address of the addressee
- Attrib : are the attributes given to the message
Valid attributes are:
C Send netmail with Crash priority
D Send netmail Direct to addressee
E Delete attached file when send
F File attached (first line of message is filename)
H Hold message
I Send netmail with Immediate priority
K Kill netmail message when send
P Message is Private
R Request a file (first line of message is filename)
T Truncate attached file when send
U Update request (first line of message is filename)
- FileName is an ascii file containing one addressee per
line.
Examples: JAMES -T=To_Name -M=MyMsg -B=14
JAMES -T="To Name,2:282/500" -M=Test -N
JAMES -T=@Nodes.Dat -M=TestMsg -N
JAMES -T=To_Name,2:282/500.1;PK -M=Test -N
TIC The Tic parameter activates the following functions: first
of all James will clean the outbound directory.
James will do this by checking all files in this directory
against the file-attached messages in your Netmail direc-
tory. Files which are not attached to a message are con-
sidered to be send, and thus will be deleted. The only
not-attached file that James will not delete is the
FILES.BBS file.
The -Mgr Function can be executed on the same commandline as
38
the -TIC function. Which function will be executed first,
depends on the order of those commands on the commandline.
Examples: JAMES -Tic
JAMES -Tic -Mgr
U {+} This parameter tells James to check the logfile(s)
defined in the Local/LogFiles section of JamesCfg for
uploaders. How James checks this log file is specified in
JAMESCFG in 'Display Formats'. James will place the defined
message in the message base board you define. You can add
the status bits given to the message with an =<status bits>
after the U parameter.
Examples: JAMES -U -B=17 -M=UplFiles
JAMES -U=P -B=17 -M=UplFiles
W {+} This parameter tells JAMES to check the logfile(s)
defined in the Local/LogFiles section of JAMESCFG for new
users. How JAMES scans the log file(s) is specified in
JAMESCFG in 'Display Formats'. James will place the defined
message in the message base board you define. You can add
the status bits given to the message with an =<status bits>
after the W parameter
Examples: JAMES -W -B=17 -M=NewUsers
JAMES -W=P -B=17 -M=NewUsers
X {+} The X parameter invokes the Export Netmail function.
James scans your entire messagebase for messages with
netmail status, which are not yet exported. When found,
James will create a new message in your netmail directory,
and will delete the original located in the message base
board or flagging it 'Rcvd'. This parameter should be the
only on your commandline.
Example: JAMES -X
39
JAMES MESSAGE METASTRINGS
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
James has the capability to replace information in your messa-ge files
by other information. When you include a 'metastring' this string will
be replace by the appropriate value. In this way, for the reader of
the message, it is possible to let a message look just as if you
entered it manually. Below is a listing of all metastring divided into
some logical groups.
Metastrings for Names
─────────────────────
%BoardName Name of Bulletin Board as defined in JAMESCFG.
%Day Current day (1..31).
%GroupName Name of group as defined in JAMESCFG. This
metastring should be followed by the letter of the
group. E.g. %GroupNameA for the description of
Group A.
%FirstFrom First name of sender of message.
%FirstSys First name of sysop as defined in JAMESCFG.
%FirstTo First name of addressee of message.
%FromName Full name of sender of message.
%LastDay Day when James has done a check for new files for
the last time (1..31).
%LastFrom Last name of sender of message.
%LastMonth Month when James has done a check for new files for
the last time (1..12).
%LastStrMonth Month when James has done a check for new files for
the last time (jan..dec as defi-ned in JAMESCFG).
%LastSys Last name of sysop as defined in JAMESCFG.
%LastTo Last name of addressee of message.
%LastYear Year when James has done a check for new files for
the last time.
%LocalFolder Name of local folder, when using FL= parameter,
where the original message was found.
%Month Current month (1..12).
%Pw Password of node for manager messages. Is only
valid when -Scan, -Mgr or -List is used.
%StrDay Current day (Sun..Sat as defined in JAMESCFG).
%StrMonth Current month (jan..dec as defined in JAMESCFG).
40
%SysName Names of sysop as defined in JAMESCFG.
%ToName Name of addressee of message.
%Var The contents of the command-line parameters 0=..9=.
This metastring should be followed by the number of
the command-line parameter. Eg %Var3 for the con-
tents of command-line parameter 3
%Version Version number of James.
%Year Current Year.
Metastrings for addresses
──────────────────────────
Addresses are only valid for Netmail and Echomail messages. Addresses
of addressee are only valid for Netmail messages.
%FromAddress Origin address of message.
%FromNet Net number of origin address of message.
%FromNode Node number of origin address of message.
%FromPoint Point number of origin address of message.
%FromZone Zone number of origin address of message.
%ToAddress Destination address of message.
%ToNet Net number of destination address of message.
%ToNode Node number of destination address of message.
%ToPoint Point number of destination address of message.
%ToZone Zone number of destination address of message.
Metastrings for files
─────────────────────
%Desc Description defined in JAMESCFG of magic file when
-Mgr parameter is used.
%FileName File name in case of a file-attached message when
-Mgr is used.
%MagicName Magic name of file attached file when MGR parameter
is used.
%NewFiles New files found in file areas since last run of
James with %NewFiles metastring. When you want to
announce new files in a specific group of areas,
you can add :Groups to this meta-string. Eg. use
%NewFiles:ACF to announce only those new files
found in areas belonging to groups A, C and F. Do
not forget to add the -SR switch to the command-
line when you want to make other announcements (The
41
marker will otherwise be reset to the current time
and date, and James will not find any new
messages).
%NewTicks New arrived Tick files in Tick areas since last run
of James with %NewTicks metastring. When you want
to announce new arrivced ticks in a specific group
of areas, you can add :Groups to this metastring.
Eg. %NewTicks:GYD to announce only those new ticks
arrived in the areas belonging to groups G, Y and
D. Do not forget to add the -SR switch to the
command line when you want to announce those new
ticks in an other message.
%ReqFiles Files found matching searchmask when -R parameter
is used.
%ReqMask Searchmask given by user on the "Subject" line in
the original message, when R parameter is used.
%ShowAvailableAreas
Used in notification messages (-LIST). Shows all of
the available TICK areas.
%ShowAvailableFiles
Shows the available magic files in the notification
messages.
%ShowConnectedAreas
Used in the notification messages. This option
shows the currently connected TICK areas.
%ShowConnectedFiles
Also used in the notification messages. It shows
the connected magic files.
%UploadedFiles The filenames of the files a user has uploaded when
-U parameter is used.
Metastrings for various sizes
─────────────────────────────
%DriveSizeXN Size of drive X using N positions in message in
bytes. The size will be right justified (see also
%KbDriveSizeXN).
%FileKb Size of attached file in case of a file attached
message in KiloBytes (1024 bytes).
%FileSize Size of attached file in case of a file attached
message in bytes.
%FreeXN Free space on drive X in N positions in message in
bytes. The size will be right justified (see also
%KbFreeXN).
%KbDriveSizeXN Size of drive X using N positions in message in
KiloBytes. The size will be right justified (see
also %DriveSizeXN).
42
%KbFreeXN Free space on drive X in N positions in message in
KiloBytes. The size will be right justified (see
also %FreeXN).
%KbNewFiles Total KiloBytes of new files found when %NewFiles
is used in same message (see also %SizeNewFiles).
%KbUploadedFiles Total KiloBytes of files uploaded by user when -U
parameter is used (see also %SizeUploadedFiles).
%MBDriveSize Shows the total capacity on disk in megabytes.
%MBFree Shows the total free space in megabytes.
%NrNewFiles Number of new files found when %NewFiles is used in
same message.
%NrReqFiles Number of files found matching the search mask
found when using the -R parameter.
%NrUploadedFiles Number of files uploaded by user when U parameter
is used.
%PFreeXN Percentage free on drive X in N positions in mes-
sage. The percentage will be right justified.
%SizeNewFiles Total bytes of new files found when %NewFiles is
used in same message (see also %KbNewFiles).
%SizeUploadedFiles Total size of files uploaded by user when U
parameter is used.
Metastrings for Statistics
──────────────────────────
%CarbonCopiesThisWeek
Number of Carbon Copy messages send in the past
seven days, or since last reset.
%CarbonCopiesToday Number of Carbon Copy message send today.
%ExportedThisWeek Number of netmail messages exported in the past
seven days or since last reset.
%ExportedToday Number of netmail messages exported today.
%ForwardedThisWeek Number of messages forwarded from local boards in
the past seven days or since last reset.
%ForwardedToday Number of messages forwarded from local boards
today.
%ImportedThisWeek Number of netmail messages imported in the past
seven days, or since last reset.
%ImportedToday Number of netmail message imported today.
43
%NewSizeKBThisWeek Total size in KiloBytes of new files found in the
past seven days or since last re-set.
%NewSizeKbToday Total size in KiloBytes of new files found today.
%NewSizeThisWeek Total size in bytes of new files found in the past
seven days or since last reset.
%NewSizeToday Total size in bytes of new files found today.
%NrFilesThisWeek Number of new files found in the past seven days or
since last reset.
%NrFilesToday Number of new files found today.
%RequestsThisWeek Number of search requests answered in the past
seven days or since last reset.
%RequestsToday Number of search requests answered today.
%ThankYouThisWeek Number of user thanked for uploads in the past
seven days or since last reset.
%ThankYouToday Number of users thanked for uploads today.
%TotalThisWeek Total number of messages send in the past seven
days, or since last reset.
%TotalToday Total number of messages send today.
%WelcomeThisWeek Number of new users welcomed in the past seven days
or since last reset.
%WelcomeToday Number of new users welcomed today.
44
FILE NAMING CONVENTION
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
James creates several files by itself which have a hardcoded name.
These files will be created in the James directory.
JAMES.CFG Default configuration file
JAMES.HIS History file about the amount of messages send etc.
JAMES.NDE This file contains the information about your uplink
and downlink nodes.
JAMES.FLS This file contains the information about your magic
files.
JAMES.ARE This is the file which contains the defi-nitions of
your Tick areas.
JAMES.DUP File containing the CRC-32 checks used for duplicate
checking.
JAMES.TCI File containing the information about new received tick
files.
JAMES.KEY Key file you will receive when you have registered
JAMES.
45
EXAMPLE MESSAGE FILES
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Included in this package is a file called EXAMPLES.ZIP. This file
contains some example messages to help you on the way, and to show you
what can be done with James.
DAILYREP.MSG This message includes some statistical in-formation
about your BBS, and the thing James has been doing.
Usage: JAMES -M=DAILYREP -T=Sysop -B=10
FLHEADER.MSG You can use this message as a header mes-sage when for-
warding messages from your local boards to the users
defined in the NetWork/Nodes section.
Usage: JAMES -FL -M=FLHEADER
MANAGER.MSG This message can be use as a message ac-companying
files which you forward to your downlinks.
Usage: JAMES -MGR -M=MANAGER
NEWFILES.MSG With this message you can announce new files which are
moved to your BBS file-areas in a message.
Usage: JAMES -M=NEWFILES -T=All -B=35 -E
NEWUSER.MSG This is an example of a message which you can send to a
new user on your system.
Usage: JAMES -W=P -M=NEWUSER -B=10
UPLFILES.MSG When you use this message with the -U pa-rameter, James
will send the message to all uploaders.
Usage: JAMES -U=P -M=UPLFILES -B=10
46
ERRORLEVELS
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Whenever James has an unexpected problem James will exit with an
errorlevel. Below is a listing of all possible errorlevels.
0 Nothing wrong. All went well
1 No message sent
2 Could not process a configuration file
3 Outbound path not defined in configuration file
4 Sysop's name not defined in configuration file
5 Not enough parameters given on commandline
6 An invalid skipfile definition was given in configuration file
7 No name of BBS defined in configuration file
8 No message base board given on commandline
9 Could not open a file
10 An invalid boardnumber was given on commandline
11 One or more netmail addresses have no netmail board defined
12 Wrong day for message
13 No message text file given on commandline
14 No file areas defined in configuration
16 An invalid origin line number was given on commandline
17 An invalid address number was given on commandline
18 An invalid drive letter was given in message text
19 Could not create netmail message
20 Configuration file is not a James configuration file
21 Invalid drivespace definition in message text
22 parameter conflict
23 No logfile(s) defined in configuration file
24 Requested option is only for registered versions
25 Attached file could not be found
29 Unable to create TIC file
30 Configuration locked
31 No message base board numer or netmail address specified for
Carbon Copy
32 Information missing in hatch file
33 No hatch information given on commandline
34 Insufficient hatch information
35 An invalid timezone was given in JAMES environment string
36 An invalid on-line string was given in configuration file
37 An invalid off-line string was given in configuration file
38 An invalid upload string was given in configuration file
39 An invalid new-user string was given in configuration file
47