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╒═══════════════════════════════════════════╕
│ │
│ I M A I L │
│ │
│ │
│ The "Semi-Intuitive" Mail Processor │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ Version 1.10 │
│ │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════╛
Copyright 1990, 1991 by Fabiano Fabris
for Intuition Software
All Rights Reserved
Dedicated to
Marco Manzocco
and all the beta testers
┌── IMAIL 1.10 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
══ TABLE OF CONTENTS ══
1. INTRODUCTION .................................................... 1
2. WARRANTY AND REGISTRATION INFORMATION ........................... 2
3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................ 4
a. Copyrights ................................................... 4
4. INSTALLATION .................................................... 5
a. System Requirements .......................................... 5
1) Hardware .................................................. 5
2) Software .................................................. 5
3) Networks .................................................. 6
5. IMSETUP ......................................................... 7
a. General Configuration ........................................ 7
1) System Addresses .......................................... 7
2) Domain Names .............................................. 8
3) Subdirectories ............................................ 8
- QBBS/RA System .......................................... 9
- Net Mail Message ........................................ 9
- Inbound Net Files ....................................... 9
- Outbound Net Files ...................................... 9
- IMAIL Log File Name ..................................... 9
- Echo Stats Log File ..................................... 10
- Log Level ............................................... 10
- Net Mail Board .......................................... 10
- Bad Message Board ....................................... 11
- Dupe Message Board ...................................... 11
4) AreaLink Options .......................................... 11
- Keep AreaLink Receipt ................................... 12
- Allow Rescan Request .................................... 12
- Forward Link Requests (R) ............................... 12
5) Other Parameters .......................................... 13
- No Net Mail Forward ..................................... 13
- Check Bad Message Board ................................. 13
- Kill Empty Messages ..................................... 14
- ARCmail 0.6 Compatibility ............................... 14
- Max Packet Size (R) ..................................... 14
- Kill Messages to 0/0 (R) ................................ 14
- Single Bundle Extract (R) ............................... 14
- Save Remapped Mail (R) .................................. 15
- Send Return Receipt (R) ................................. 15
- Automatic Message Replies (R) ........................... 15
- Sysop Name .............................................. 16
b. Compression Programs ......................................... 16
c. Decompression Programs ....................................... 16
d. Echo Areas ................................................... 17
1) Editing Keys .............................................. 17
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- F1: Edit ................................................ 17
- F2: Find ................................................ 17
- F3: Global .............................................. 18
- Ins: Add ................................................ 18
- Del: Delete ............................................. 18
- Home: First ............................................. 18
- End: Last ............................................... 18
- ESC: Exit ............................................... 18
- PgUp/PgDn: Previous/Next ................................ 19
2) The Echo Area Record ...................................... 19
- Area Name ............................................... 19
- Active .................................................. 19
- Comment ................................................. 19
- Origin Line ............................................. 20
- Board ................................................... 20
- Passthrough ............................................. 20
- Secure .................................................. 20
- # Days .................................................. 21
- Group ................................................... 21
- Tiny-Seens .............................................. 21
- Keep-Seens .............................................. 21
- # Msgs .................................................. 22
- XRS (R) ................................................. 22
- Origin Address .......................................... 22
- Seen-Bys ................................................ 22
- Export List ............................................. 23
e. Node Export Manager .......................................... 23
1) Address ................................................... 23
2) Password .................................................. 23
3) Groups .................................................... 23
4) Direct .................................................... 24
5) Remote Maint (R) .......................................... 24
6) Status .................................................... 24
7) Program ................................................... 24
8) Capability ................................................ 25
f. Pack Routing ................................................. 25
g. Import/Export ................................................ 26
1) Import Areas.Bbs .......................................... 26
2) Export Areas Config (R) ................................... 27
3) Create Areas.Bbs File (R) ................................. 28
4) Export Group List (R) ..................................... 28
5) Export Nodes Config (R) ................................... 28
6. IMAIL COMMAND LINE OPTIONS ...................................... 29
a. /? - Help .................................................... 29
b. TOSS - Toss Incoming Mail .................................... 29
1) /B - Check Bad Message Board .............................. 30
2) /N - No AreaLink .......................................... 30
c. SCAN - Scan for Outgoing Mail ................................ 30
1) /N - No default pack routing .............................. 31
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d. PACK - Pack Net Mail Messages ................................ 31
1) /N - No default pack routing .............................. 33
2) /C - Pack Crash Messages .................................. 33
3) /H - Pack Hold Messages ................................... 33
4) /? - Help ................................................. 33
e. ALNK - AreaLink .............................................. 34
f. Other Information ............................................ 34
1) Packet Compression ........................................ 34
2) New Echo Areas ............................................ 34
7. AREALINK ........................................................ 35
a. Format of the Request ........................................ 35
b. Meta-Commands ................................................ 36
1) %ALL ...................................................... 36
2) %FROM (R) ................................................. 37
3) %LIST ..................................................... 37
4) %QUERY .................................................... 37
5) %RESCAN ................................................... 37
c. AreaLink Replies ............................................. 38
d. Forward Link Requests (R) .................................... 38
8. AUTOMATIC MESSAGE REPLIES (R) ................................... 39
a. %of% ......................................................... 39
b. %ol% ......................................................... 39
c. %os% ......................................................... 39
d. %df% ......................................................... 39
e. %dl% ......................................................... 39
f. %ds% ......................................................... 39
g. %mt% ......................................................... 40
h. %md% ......................................................... 40
i. %at% ......................................................... 40
j. %ad% ......................................................... 40
k. %dy% ......................................................... 40
l. %im% ......................................................... 40
9. IMTHINGS ........................................................ 41
a. EXPORT - Export Net Mail Messages ............................ 41
b. IMPORT - Import Net Mail Messages ............................ 42
c. INDEX - Rebuild index files .................................. 42
d. KILL - Delete messages from an area .......................... 42
1) /A<areaname> .............................................. 43
2) /B<board> ................................................. 43
3) /D<days> .................................................. 43
4) /N<number> ................................................ 43
5) /O - PACK with Overwrite .................................. 44
6) /P - Run PACK after KILL .................................. 44
7) /U - Use Default Information .............................. 44
e. LINK - Link Messages in Message Base ......................... 44
f. MOVE - Move Message Area ..................................... 45
1) /SA<src area> ............................................. 45
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2) /SB<src board> ............................................ 46
3) /DA<dst area> ............................................. 46
4) /DB<dst board> ............................................ 46
g. NOTIFY - Send list of linked echos ........................... 46
h. PACK - Compress message base ................................. 46
1) /B - Keep backup .......................................... 47
2) /C - Check for cross-linked message ....................... 47
3) /O - Overwrite ............................................ 47
4) /R - Renumber ............................................. 47
i. POST - Post message in echo area ............................. 47
1) /F<filename> .............................................. 48
2) /A<areaname> .............................................. 48
3) /B<board> ................................................. 48
4) /W<to_who> ................................................ 48
5) /S<subject> ............................................... 48
j. RECOVER (R) - Unerase messages ............................... 49
1) /A<areaname> .............................................. 49
2) /B<board> ................................................. 49
3) /U - Automatic Mode ....................................... 49
k. SEND (R) - Send a file ....................................... 49
1) /F<filename> .............................................. 50
2) /A<address> ............................................... 50
3) /W<to_who> ................................................ 50
4) /T<text> .................................................. 51
5) /C - Crash ................................................ 51
6) /H - Hold ................................................. 51
7) /D - Direct ............................................... 51
8) /K - Kill/Sent ............................................ 51
9) /E - Delete/Sent .......................................... 51
10) /Y<days> - Newer than .................................... 52
11) /1-10 - Alternate AKA .................................... 52
l. SORT - Sort the Message Base ................................. 52
m. STAT - Generate Statistics Report ............................ 52
1) /K - Keep Statistics Information .......................... 52
10. AN OVERVIEW OF ECHOMAIL ........................................ 54
a. What is Echo Mail? ........................................... 54
b. How it Works ................................................. 54
c. Echo Mail Message Control Information ........................ 55
1) Area Line ................................................. 55
2) Tear Line ................................................. 55
3) Origin Line ............................................... 56
4) SEEN-BY Lines ............................................. 56
5) PATH Lines ................................................ 56
d. Methods of Sending Echo Mail ................................. 57
e. Topology ..................................................... 57
f. Why a PATH line? ............................................. 59
g. Gating of Echo Mail .......................................... 59
11. KLUDGE LINES USED BY IMAIL ..................................... 61
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a. INTL ......................................................... 61
b. TOPT ......................................................... 61
c. FMPT ......................................................... 62
d. EID .......................................................... 62
e. MSGID ........................................................ 62
f. REPLY ........................................................ 63
g. PID .......................................................... 63
h. FLAGS ........................................................ 63
1) DIR ....................................................... 63
2) IMM ....................................................... 64
3) TFS ....................................................... 64
4) KFS ....................................................... 64
5) CFM ....................................................... 64
6) RRQ ....................................................... 64
12. BATCH FILE EXAMPLE ............................................. 66
13. MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION ...................................... 68
a. Files Maintained by IMAIL .................................... 68
b. Exit Codes ................................................... 69
14. IMAIL DISTRIBUTION SITES ....................................... 70
a. Registration Sites ........................................... 70
1) Headquarters .............................................. 70
2) Europe .................................................... 70
3) North America ............................................. 70
b. Support Sites ................................................ 71
1) Austria ................................................... 71
2) Sweden .................................................... 71
3) Switzerland ............................................... 71
4) U.S.A. .................................................... 71
INDEX .......................................................... 72
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1. INTRODUCTION
IMAIL is a FTSC-compatible echo mail processor and net mail message
bundler written for QuickBBS or RemoteAccess and fully compatible
BBS software. Since it is also a message packer, is does away with
the need for such programs as oMMM, which are NOT FidoNet
compatible. Rather, IMAIL uses the technique of creating file
attach messages for outgoing mail. Net mail messages are also
packed, a possibility not generally available to QuickBBS systems.
It also features full Zone and Point support, eliminating the need
to use the "fake address" method of sending mail to and from points
(IMAIL does however have limited support for point net addressing).
If you are new to FidoNet-type mail processing, I suggest you
familiarize yourself with the documentation for the mailer you will
be using, and read "An Overview of Echomail", Chapter 10.
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└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
2. WARRANTY AND REGISTRATION INFORMATION
IMAIL is distributed as ShareWare. This means that you are free to
distribute this program to anyone you like, as long as you don't
charge for it, modify the program in any way, or add files to the
original distribution archives.
IMAIL may be used freely without registration in non-commercial and
non-governmental sites. Commercial and governmental sites MUST
register the program if they intend to continue using the program
after a trial period of THIRTY (30) days.
Registration is valid for all versions of the program; you only
need to register once. It will enable the advanced features of
IMAIL, and give me incentive to continue development... so that
little feature you suggested can be implemented! :-)
The base registration cost is $50.00 US. For specific rates,
contact the registration site closest to you, the addresses of
which appear in Chapter 14. Section a. When you register, send a
cheque or money order to the registration site, and a net mail
message with your name as it appears in the IMSETUP screen, your
postal address, and one of the network addresses you have defined.
This is important, because the key you receive will be locked on
your name and the network address you supply.
When the registration fee is received, you shall be sent a net mail
message to which your key will be attached. The name of the key
file you will receive will resemble 154BD7A9.KEY; rename this to
IMAIL.KEY and copy it to the directory from which you run IMAIL, or
to the directory pointed to by the IMAIL environment variable. This
will enable the advanced features of IMAIL. The key will be valid
for all versions of IMAIL, future and past.
IMAIL is in no way a crippled program, nor will it stop working
after a certain amount of time. I didn't like this concept in
ShareWare programs. So instead, some extra features were
implemented which would only work in registered copies of the
program.
This program is only guaranteed to take up disk space, nothing
else. In other words, if it breaks itself or your system, you own
both parts. However, I will do my utmost to fix any bugs reported
to me, ask long as I have enough information to do so. Due to my
work load, I can only guarantee support to registered users.
OK, 'nuf said. Time to get on with the serious stuff. But before
closing: bug reports and comments should be addressed to:
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Fabiano Fabris
Via Zardini 19
33090 Sequals (PN)
Italy
SIGnet 27:27/0 or 27:1339/103
FidoNet 2:230/41.22
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3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This program is dedicated to Marco Manzocco, a very close friend,
without whose support IMAIL would never have been written.
IMSETUP makes use of the C eXtended Library (CXL) version 5.2 by
Mike Smedley.
My deepest gratitude to my Beta Testers, who risked seeing their
message base grunged by my program, and for having had patience
when I released buggy beta versions (a few horrible examples come
to mind). I could never have done it without them!
Very special thanks to:
Harry Dijkstra, Jimmy Hansen, Henk Heidema, Joaquim
Homrighausen, Mark Howard, Maurice Leeflang, Andreas
Levenitschnig, Luca Leone, Tom McGivern.
a. Copyrights
These programs are mentioned in this document, and are
copyrighted as follows:
D'Bridge Chris Irwin
FrontDoor Joaquim Homrighausen
oMMM Wymm Wagner III
QuickBBS Richard Creighton &
Steve Grabilowitz
RemoteAccess Andrew Milner
Scottex Toilet Paper Scott Corp.
TosScan Joaquim Homrighausen
XRS Mike Ratledge
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4. INSTALLATION
IMAIL is supplied in a single compressed file which should contain
the following files:
IMAIL.EXE The executable file
IMSETUP.EXE The setup program
IMTHINGS.EXE The external utilities
IMAIL.DOC The documentation
CHANGES.DOC Changes since the last release
IM_REPLY.TXT Sample text to use with the Automatic
reply function
REGISTER.FRM A registration form which may be imported
into a net mail message
Copy the two executable files to the same directory (which might be
the same directory from which you run QuickBBS or RemoteAccess) and
run IMSETUP.
Should you want IMAIL to look for its configuration files in
another subdirectory, set the environment variable IMAIL to point
to it. For example:
SET IMAIL=C:\IMAIL
a. System Requirements
1) Hardware
IBM PC/AT/386, or fully compatible
Mono or color display
Hard disk
2) Software
MS-DOS (or PC-DOS) 3.10 or greater
A message editor which supports the QuickBBS message format
An FTSC-0001 compatible mailer
One or more compression programs, selected from:
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ARC by System Enhancement Associates;
LHarc by Haruyasu Yoshizaki;
PKARC/PKPAK by PKWARE Inc.;
PAK by NoGate Consulting;
PKZip by PKWARE Inc.;
ZOO by Rhaul Dhesi.
3) Networks
WARNING!!! This version of IMAIL has not been tested with
any networking software! If you run Novell or any other
network, you do so at your own risk!
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5. IMSETUP
The program IMSETUP is used to configure the various options used
by IMAIL. Some of these may be omitted, and some are available only
to registered users.
In this chapter, each option will be examined in detail. Options
available only to registered users are indicated with an (R).
IMSETUP can be given one or more command line options, selected
from the following:
/M Force 'mono' color set
/C Force 'color' color set
/D Force direct screen writes
/S Force CGA snow elimination
Naturally, /D and /S have exactly opposite effects, so it makes no
sense to use them together.
Note: Should you wish IMSETUP to create and/or look for the
configuration files in a directory which is different from the one
in which you ran it, set the IMAIL environment variable to point to
this directory. Otherwise, IMSETUP will create in files in the
current working directory.
a. General Configuration
This options leads to another menu which allows various
system-wide parameters to be set. Please follow through this
section carefully!
1) System Addresses
The "System Addresses" menu allows you to define up to 11
network addresses and fakenet addresses. The first of these
is your primary address. It should be the same as the one
defined as your primary in your mailer and/or BBS program.
The other addresses given are your system's AKAs (or
aliases).
Addresses should be given in the form:
zone:net/node.point
The point field may be omitted, in which case it will default
to 0.
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Addresses may be in different zones, and even in different
domains (or networks).
At least the primary address must be specified.
Fakenets are used in situations where you are exporting net
mail to points which do not support full 4D addresses. In
such cases, you will need to define a "fake net number".
IMAIL will use these numbers as follows:
If your address is 27:1339/103, and you have a fakenet of
21339, mail addressed to 27:21339/10 will be remapped to
27:1339/103.10 before being sent on.
You need only use fakenet numbers if you are a boss system;
if you are a point, there is no need for this, since IMAIL
will correctly handle the point number.
IMAIL uses these fakenet numbers to readdress net mail
messages to the correct point system, as well as to eliminate
them from outgoing echo mail (both during TOSS as well as
SCAN).
2) Domain Names
In this menu are specified the domain(s) to which you belong.
The word "domain" is used to distinguish between different
amateur networks such as SIGnet and FidoNet.
Here, you should indicate the zone number(s) and domain
name(s) of which you are a part. If this is the first time
you are running it, IMSETUP will supply as default the zones
and domain names for SIGnet and FidoNet. You need not define
all the zones for a given domain, just those relevant to your
geographical area.
IMAIL uses this information for MSGID kludges when generating
net mail messages (AreaLink or the AutoReply feature).
If you are in doubt of which zone you belong to, or which
domain, please contact your nearest Coordinator or Host.
3) Subdirectories
In this menu, specify the paths to the various files IMAIL
needs to use during execution. Most of the fields are
required.
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When specifying subdirectories, you may omit the trailing
backslash.
- QBBS/RA System
Specify the path to the QuickBBS or RemoteAccess message
base files. These message base files are searched for
outgoing messages when you run the IMAIL SCAN function. For
example:
C:\QBBS
This field is required.
- Net Mail Message
The path to where your mailer stores its net mail
messages (*.MSG). IMAIL will use this when searching for
existent file attaches, or when it generates outgoing
net mail of its own.
This field is required.
- Inbound Net Files
This is where your mailer stores inbound compressed mail
files and packets. IMAIL will look here when you run the
TOSS function.
This field is required.
- Outbound Net Files
This subdirectory is where your mailer normally looks for
outbound compresses files. These files may be generated by
all of IMAIL's functions.
This field is required.
- IMAIL Log File Name
Is you wish IMAIL to log its activity to file, you may
specify the name of the log file here. It should be the
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complete path and name of the file. If a path is not
specified, the file will be written to the current working
directory.
- Echo Stats Log File
IMTHINGS, the supplementary utilities for IMAIL, can
generate a statistics file containing information about how
much echo mail has passed through your system (TOSS and
SCAN combined). If you wish to generate this file, specify
the path and name of the file here. If the path is omitted,
the file will be written to the current working directory.
(For more information on how to generate this file, see
Chapter 9.)
- Log Level
If you have specified that IMAIL should create a log file,
here you may indicate how much information you wish to be
written to the log file.
There are three possible choices:
0: Normal. This will log only important information,
errors and final stats to the log.
1: Verbose. Complete information will be logged,
including all echo areas scanned or tossed.
2: FrontDoor. This will create a log file compatible
with the format used by FrontDoor. The amount of
information written, however, is the same as for
"Normal"
- Net Mail Board
IMAIL will scan this board number for outgoing net mail
messages. However, incoming net mail messages will be
written to the Net Mail Message subdirectory as MSG files.
This field is required.
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- Bad Message Board
Messages flagged as "bad" will be tossed into this message
board. These include echo mail messages arriving from
unlisted systems when "Secure" mode is active for that
area, as well as echo in unrecognized areas.
In registered versions of the program, IMAIL will generate
a message to the sysop stating that unrecognized echo mail
has been received. It will also create a file called
IMAIL.NE. IMSETUP will look for this file, and if found,
ask if you wish to add the new areas. If you reply
affirmatively, IMSETUP will create the areas. (Note that
you will still need to enter the Area Manager to define the
board number and the group).
This field is required.
- Dupe Message Board
This message board is the one into which all messages
flagged as duplicates will be tossed. It may be the same as
the one defined a Bad Message Board (see above), or a
different board. If not defined, dupes will simply be
killed (deleted).
4) AreaLink Options
The options in this menu regard IMAIL's area manager, called
AREALINK. This function will do for IMAIL what AreaFix does
for other systems.
Your downlinks will be able to request that new areas be sent
to them, or that areas no longer be sent. Besides this, they
may request information on which echos are available to them,
and have a list of the echos they are currently receiving. In
registered copies of IMAIL, AreaLink can also request areas
not no your system from your uplinks, thus further automating
your system.
For information on how AreaLink is used, see Chapter 7.
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- Keep AreaLink Receipt
If you enable this option (set it to 'Y'), then IMAIL will
not mark its outgoing messages as KILL/SENT. In other
words, once the message has been sent, it will remain in
your net mail directory for you to see it.
- Allow Rescan Request
If enabled, AreaLink will honour requests to rescan the
message base for a particular echo. For more information on
how the rescan may be requested, see Chapter 7. Section b.
If this option is set to "N", rescan requests will be
ignored.
- Forward Link Requests (R)
Forward Link Requests are a method to have IMAIL
automatically request areas from your echo uplinks. If
AreaLink processes a request for an echo area which is not
listed in your configuration, it will search the files you
have defined for this area. If found, it will send a
request for that area to the system listed. See Chapter 7.
section d. for more information.
In the "Uplink" column, specify the network address of the
system to which the request should be sent. The "Areas
file" column indicates the file name of an AREAS.BBS type
file containing the list of echo areas available on that
system.
In the "Send To" column, indicate the name of the program
to which a request should be sent. For systems running
IMAIL, this would be AREALINK; for systems running TosScan,
specify AREAMGR. In the "Password" column, write the
password the uplink has assigned you for his area manager.
The format of the AREAS.BBS file is the same as that used
by most programs, and recognized by the "Import Areas.Bbs"
function in IMSETUP. Each line is composed of three fields.
The first is a board number or a subdirectory name, and
must be present in order for IMAIL to correctly extract the
information it needs. The second field is the name of the
echo area. The third field is the list of export addresses;
this field is not required. Note that IMAIL will discard
the first line of the file, as well as any beginning with a
semi-colon (';').
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5) Other Parameters
This menu is a "catch all" for various options which control
how IMAIL operates.
Most of the options available are of the "on/off" type; in
other words, specifying 'Y' will enable the option, while 'N'
will disable it.
Options available to registered users only will not be shown
to unregistered users.
- No Net Mail Forward
If this option is enabled, your system will not forward
mail for ANY system. This includes net mail messages, or
routed files.
For a routed file attach, the file will simply be renamed;
for a routed net mail message, the message will be tossed
into your Bad Message Board.
If your are a registered user, IMAIL will generate a
warning message to the sender of the routed mail.
- Check Bad Message Board
If this option is active, IMAIL will check the Bad Message
Board for echo mail which might have been considered "bad"
during the previous run. If found, the messages will be
moved into the correct echo mail board.
Use this option if you expect to receive new echo areas
without warning; once you have added them to your list of
areas, you can have IMAIL scan for the messages which would
otherwise "sit" in your Bad Message Board.
Please note that echo mail which is re-imported using this
method cannot be exported. The reason for this is that the
messages might easily create duplicates.
If you set this option off, it may still be overridden by
using the /B switch with IMAIL TOSS (see Chapter 6. section
b.).
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- Kill Empty Messages
Enabling this option causes IMAIL to kill (delete) messages
with no content.
- ARCmail 0.6 Compatibility
If this option is set, IMAIL will generate compressed mail
bundles that conform to the ARCmail 0.6 naming standard
when sending to systems marked in the node manager as
"Stone Age", or to systems not listed in the node manager.
Systems listed as "Type 2+" will have a special naming
scheme. (See Chapter 5. section e. for information on the
Capability Word).
If this is set to "No", then IMAIL will always use its own
internal method for the naming of outbound compressed
files.
Note that the setting of this flag will be ignored when
IMAIL generates ARCmail to point addresses.
- Max Packet Size (R)
With this option, you can specify the maximum size of the
packet files (*.PKT) that IMAIL will create. Use this if
your up- and/or down links are short on disk space.
The number should indicate a size in kilobytes. If a zero
(0) is specified, there will be no limit imposed.
- Kill Messages to 0/0 (R)
If this option is enabled, IMAIL will automatically kill
(delete) incoming messages addresses to 0/0.
This was added because some mailers have the nasty habit of
generating such messages for reasons of their own.
- Single Bundle Extract (R)
When enabled, IMAIL will try to extract one bundle or
packet at a time from compressed mail files.
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This option should be used only on systems where disk space
is tight, because it will slow down the execution of the
program noticeably.
Currently, this option will extract the packets in a single
compressed file before processing, but it will extract ALL
the packets. In a future version, IMAIL will be able to
extract a single packet from the compressed file, process
it and then go on to the next. However, I need the internal
structures of LZH and ZOO files in order to do this.
- Save Remapped Mail (R)
When mail is remapped, a copy of the message will be saved
when this option is enabled.
Mail is remapped automatically when it is addressed to a
point of your system.
- Send Return Receipt (R)
If a net mail messages arrives with the "Request Return
Receipt" flag set, IMAIL will automatically generate a net
mail message to the originating system, stating that the
message arrived.
Note that the FLAGS RRQ kludge is not supported by IMAIL in
the current version. Since the message attribute is
defined, I decided to support it.
- Automatic Message Replies (R)
IMAIL can generate automatic replies to net mail that has
been sitting in your Net Mail directory for longer than a
specified period.
Specifying a number of days will activate this option.
IMAIL will scan your Net Mail Directory for unread mail
addressed to your system, which is older than the given
number of days.
If you activate this option, you may also specify the path
and name of a text file to send as a reply.
For more information, see Chapter 8.
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- Sysop Name
This field is required, as it is used by IMAIL for the
generation of automatic messages and so on. IMAIL also uses
it to validate your registration key file.
For information of how to register IMAIL, see Chapter 2.
b. Compression Programs
In this section, you may specify the programs, along with their
parameters, to use in the creation of outbound compressed mail.
When you run IMSETUP for the first time, it will show defaults
for the following programs:
ARC by System Enhancement Associates;
LHarc by Haruyasu Yoshizaki;
PKARC/PKPAK by PKWARE Inc.;
PAK by NoGate Consulting;
PKZip by PKWARE Inc.;
ZOO by Rhaul Dhesi.
If you wish, you may add other programs of your own choice, or
delete those you do not intend to use.
Of course, all of the programs you intend to use must be present
somewhere in the DOS path.
You will then select which of these programs to use for mail
compression on a per-system basis, in the Node Export Manager
(see Section e.). If IMAIL needs to compress mail for a system
not listed, it will use the first of those given in this menu.
c. Decompression Programs
IMAIL automagically recognizes compressed files produced by the
following programs:
ARC by System Enhancement Associates;
LHarc by Haruyasu Yoshizaki;
PKARC/PKPAK by PKWARE Inc.;
PAK by NoGate Consulting;
PKZip by PKWARE Inc.;
ZOO by Rhaul Dhesi.
In this menu, you may change the name and parameters which will
be executed when compressed mail files are identified.
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Be VERY careful when changing these items, for a mistake might
produce very unexpected (and often unwanted) results. And
certainly do NOT try to use one program instead of another. A
compressed file identified as having been created by LHarc, for
example, cannot be decompressed by ARC!
If possible, have all of the decompression programs somewhere in
the DOS path, unless you are absolutely certain that you will
not be getting mail compressed by one or more of them.
d. Echo Areas
The echo area manager is one of the most important parts of the
program, and also controls most of what IMAIL does.
When you first run IMSETUP, no echo areas are defined. You will
see a screen with many different fields, all empty or set to
certain default values. These fields will be explained in a
moment, but first the editing keys.
Note: Registered users who are changing over from other mail
processors may prefer to import their existing echo area
configuration information. See Chapter 5. section g.
1) Editing Keys
The following keys will allow you to edit, add, delete or
find echo area records. They are:
- F1: Edit
The F1 key allows you to edit the current echo area record
(ie the one currently being displayed). For the meaning of
each of the fields, see below.
If at any time during editing you wish to abort, simply
press ESC, and nothing will be saved. The same is true if
you were adding an area: it will be "forgotten".
- F2: Find
Pressing F2 brings up a window in which you may specify an
area name. If the area is found, it will be displayed; if
not, the area which most closely matches the required one
will be displayed. It may then be edited with F1.
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- F3: Global
If you need to make global changes to the echo area
information, pressing F3 will bring up the Global Edit
menu. From this, it is possible to edit the origin lines,
origin addresses, or to add, delete or replace systems in
the export list.
In each case, the changes will be made on a per-group
basis. One or more groups may be specified, and the
modifications will be made for all echo areas which belong
to the selected groups.
To close the Global Edit menu, press ESC; you will be
returned to the main Area Manager screen.
- Ins: Add
Adds a new echo area, and takes you into editing mode.
Added records are automatically inserted into the list so
that is it maintained in alphabetical order.
- Del: Delete
Deletes the current echo area. You will be asked for
confirmation.
- Home: First
Takes you to the first echo area (they are sorted in
ascending alphabetical order).
- End: Last
Takes you to the last echo area.
- ESC: Exit
Leaves the Echo Area Manager, saving any changes made. F10
will do the same thing.
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- PgUp/PgDn: Previous/Next
The PgUp and PgDn keys move between the echo area records.
Once you have found the one you are looking for, you may
edit it with F1.
2) The Echo Area Record
What follows is a description of the individual fields of the
echo area record, and how they are used and changed.
All fields are required unless stated otherwise.
- Area Name
This is the name of the echo area, sometimes called "Area
Tag". The name may be up to 20 characters long; it will be
forced into upper case. Special characters such as '-', '_'
and '.' may be used, but no spaces may appear. Please be
sure of the spelling of the name, since it is used to
identify which board an incoming message should be tossed
into.
Note that it is not possible to define two areas with the
same area name. IMSETUP will show a warning message, and
you will be prompted to correct the name. This is to
prevent cross-linked areas.
- Active
This by default is set to 'Y', which means that the echo
area is active. If set to 'N', IMAIL will behave as if the
area had not been defined.
This will allow you to disable an echo area for any reason
you may wish, without having to actually delete it, and
later re-enter it.
- Comment
Here you may enter a brief (up to 60 characters)
description of the area. This description is used by some
of the export functions (see Section e.), and may also help
remind you what the subject of the echo is.
This field is optional.
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- Origin Line
Here you may specify up to 63 characters which will be used
as the origin line for the echo area (see Chapter 10. for
more information on Origin lines).
To this will be prefixed the string
* Origin:
and your origin address (see below) will be appended. The
total length must not exceed 79 characters.
- Board
In this field you should specify the board number
corresponding to the echo area.
The board number may be between 1 and 200 inclusive (the
upper limit is imposed by QuickBBS). The number 0 is used
by IMAIL to indicate a passthrough area (see below).
IMSETUP will not let you use the same board number twice,
because you would be cross-linking echo areas.
TOSS uses this number when importing echo messages, since
the QuickBBS/RemoteAccess message bases contain no
indication of the area name. Similarly, SCAN uses this to
derive the name of an echo area when exporting mail.
- Passthrough
If set to 'Y', this area is marked as passthrough (and
consequently the board number zeroed).
In other words, echo mail arriving in this area will NOT be
imported into your message base, but only passed on to any
other systems you might be feeding. If you are not feeding
any systems, the messages will simply be killed.
- Secure
If enabled, IMAIL will check the address of the system
which sent the message in this area. If it is listed among
the systems to whom you are linked, it will be imported and
processed; otherwise, it will be tossed into your Bad
Message Board.
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- # Days
This item is used by IMTHINGS KILL /U (see Chapter 9.
Section d.) to determine which messages to kill: it will
mark as deleted any messages older than the number of days
specified here. If this field is left at zero, no messages
will be killed, unless the "# Msgs" field below is
specified.
The maximum value which can be entered in this field is
255.
If the area is marked as Passthrough, this field has no
meaning.
- Group
A letter between A and Z which identifies the group to
which this echo belongs.
Groups are used primarily by the AreaLink function to
indicate which nodes may request links to which echo areas.
For more information on this, see Section e., and Chapter
7.
- Tiny-Seens
Enable this option is you want to strip all the SEEN-BY
information from an incoming echo message before it is
re-exported.
In this case, the outgoing message will contain only the
SEEN-BYs of your downlinks. Note, however, that if the area
is not marked as passthrough, and if the Keep-Seens option
(below) is active, the message will be imported with the
original SEEN-BY information.
- Keep-Seens
Enable this option if you want to import the SEEN-BY
information into your message base. If disabled, the
SEEN-BY lines will be stripped from the message.
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- # Msgs
This is used by IMTHINGS KILL /U (see Chapter 9. Section
d.) to determine how many message to leave in this board.
If this field is left at zero, it will be ignored, and no
messages will be killed, unless the "# Days" field (see
above) is specified.
Naturally, is the area is Passthrough, this field has no
meaning.
- XRS (R)
This field allows you to specify an address as import-only.
In other words, when IMAIL is TOSSing mail, it will accept
echo messages from the specified system (even if security
is enabled), but will never export to it.
This is intended primarily for use with systems which use
XRS or an equivalent program, with which users may upload
and download their mail, thus becoming "fake points" of the
system.
- Origin Address
Pressing F1 while editing an area will allow you to choose
the address to use in the Origin line of the message.
You will be presented with a window containing a list of
all the addresses defined in the "System Addresses" menu;
select one of these.
This address will also be used in the PATH line of the echo
message, as well as in the list of SEEN-BYs.
Note that only the net and node numbers will be placed in
the SEEN-BYs and PATH lines; the use of zone and point
numbers is not accepted. However, IMAIL is able to parse
zone and point information from these lines, if found.
- Seen-Bys
Pressing F2 while editing an area will allow you to choose
one or more addresses to add to the SEEN-BY line for that
area.
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If you do not select any addresses, then the one specified
as "Origin Address" will by default be used.
Note, as above, that zone and point numbers will not be
placed in the SEEN-BY lines generated by IMAIL.
- Export List
Pressing F3 will bring up the Export List Manager. Here,
you may specify up to 60 systems to which this echo will be
exported.
e. Node Export Manager
The Node Export Manager is used to specify information regarding
the systems to which you normally export mail, including which
program will be used to compress outbound mail for the system,
as well as what type of file attach to generate.
The editing keys are the same as those used in the Echo Area
Manager, so for more information, refer to that section.
1) Address
Here you specify the address of the system. The Zone, Net and
node are required. If no point is specified, it will default
to 0.
2) Password
If specified, this will be the password that the system will
use when requesting areas or information from Area Link. If
no password is specified, the system may not request any
areas, even if one or more groups have been enabled.
For more information on Area Link, see Chapter 7.
3) Groups
List the Groups to which the system may have access. Up to 26
may be specified.
A system must have a Group enabled in order to be able to
request a link to any echo area which is part of that Group.
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4) Direct
If this flag is set to 'Y', ARCmail generated for this node
will be marked DIRECT. In other words, it will not (and
cannot) be routed. If it is set to 'N', it will not be marked
as DIRECT, and thus can be routed via other systems.
It is STRONGLY recommended that echo mail NOT be routed, so
if the node is your echo mail feed, it is best to mark it as
Direct.
Note that any systems not defined in the Node Manager will
not have their mail marked DIRECT.
5) Remote Maint (R)
Registered users of IMAIL may allow systems to carry out
changes in the links for other systems. These changes may be
made via AreaLink, using the %FROM meta-command (see Chapter
7. section b.).
In order to enable a node to make these changes for other
systems, this field must be set to 'Y'; the default is 'N'.
6) Status
Pressing F1 while editing a node's information will allow you
to change the file attach status. By default, this is
"Normal", but you may select one of:
Normal No status
Hold Hold message for pick up
Crash Send message Crash
7) Program
If you press F2 while editing a node's information, you will
be able to select the program to use for mail compression. A
list will appear, containing the programs you defined in the
"Compression Programs" menu,
If you make no selection, by default the first program in the
list will be used.
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8) Capability
The Capability describes the other system's mail processor.
Currently, two type are defined:
Stone Age
Type 2+
The first type of processor is not able to recognize the zone
and point information in message packet headers. The second
type does, and makes use of this information. IMAIL is an
example of the second type.
Set this field according to the capability of the system's
mail processor, if known. If you are unsure, leave the field
set to "Stone Age".
For more information on the capability word, refer to the
FTSC documents FSC-0039 and FSC-0048. See also FTS-0001.
These documents may be available near you; otherwise you
should be able to file request them from 1:1/20.
f. Pack Routing
In this menu you may specify default routing for the PACK
command (see Chapter 6. Section d.); in other words, you may
specify that net mail for one or more systems be compressed in a
packet addressed to another system, from which (presumably) the
mail will be forwarded on.
The menu is composed of two columns: "Route Via", and "Routed
Systems".
Put simply, net mail for any of the systems given in the second
column will be compressed into a packet addressed to the system
given in the first column.
If no systems are listed in the "Routed Systems" column, IMAIL
will simply look for and compress mail for the "Route Via"
address.
To edit these entries, position the cursor on the desired row
and press <ENTER>. You will then be able to edit the "Route Via"
address. Once finished, another <ENTER> will automatically take
you to the list of "Routed Systems", which you may modify
individually.
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IMSETUP supports the use of the "ALL" macro when specifying the
"Routed Systems". This macro may be used in place of the net,
node or point fields (the zone should always be given). For
example:
27:All All net mail messages addressed to
systems in Zone 27
27:1331/All All net mail messages addressed to the
nodes in Zone 27, Net 1331
27:1331/100.All All net mail messages addressed to the
points of node 27:1331/100. Note that
this is equivalent to:
27:1331/100 By default, IMAIL will pack net mail
messages for a point via its boss
node. If you wish to indicate only
certain points, you will have to
specify them explicitly:
27:1331/100.1 This will pack messages for point 1 of
the system 27:1331/100 via the node
specified in the "Route Via" column.
If you do not specify the Zone, IMSETUP will use the Zone as
defined in your primary address.
Note that if you are a "boss" node, net mail to your points will
never be pack routed unless explicitly specified (see the last
example above). So if your address is 2:230/41, and you wish to
pack net mail for your points via 2:230/40, you will need to
have "2:230/41.All" in the list of Routed Systems.
g. Import/Export
Registered users of IMAIL have available to them a series of
import and export functions. These are listed below.
1) Import Areas.Bbs
With this function, you may import the information contained
in an AREAS.BBS file. This file must conform to the standard
used by QuickBBS/QEcho systems. In other words, the
recognized format is:
<board number> <area name> <export list>
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The board number should be between 1 and 200. Alternatively,
it may be the letter 'P', in which case, the area will be
marked as Passthrough.
The area name is the name of the echo area, and may be in
lower case or upper case; it will be converted into upper
case when imported.
The export list is the list of systems to which you will be
feeding the echo. If no zone is specified, it will default to
your primary zone. However, both the zone and net numbers are
"sticky", which means that if specified, they will be valid
until changed. For example:
2:310/11 12 13
means that you will be exporting to 2:310/11, 2:310/12 and
2:310/13. Point numbers may also be specified. Thus this
function actually recognizes a superset of the QEcho format.
Note that the first line of the file will be ignored, and
anything on a line following a semi-colon (';') will also be
discarded. Therefore, the file may contain any number of
comments.
If the board number and/or the area name are already defined
in IMSETUP, you will be asked if you wish to overwrite the
area information, or create a new area. In the second case,
you will be prompted for a new board number.
Once the Areas.Bbs file has been imported, go to the Echo
Area Manager and edit the comment field, the Origin line, the
Group and the SEEN-BY addresses, and any other information
you wish to change.
This function is available in unregistered copies of the
program also.
2) Export Areas Config (R)
With this function, you may export part or all of the
information regarding the echo areas you have defined.
Specify the Groups for which you want information exported.
A file is created containing all the information pertaining
to each area, and ordered alphabetically by area. This may be
used for your own reference, or to send to other systems.
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3) Create Areas.Bbs File (R)
This option allows you to create an Areas.Bbs type file,
which may then be used by other programs.
Note that the first line of the generated file will contain
information about your system, and the second will be a
comment.
The format of the generated file is the same as that
recognized by the Import function (see above). However, the
system number are always given in full form
(Zone:Net/Node.Point).
4) Export Group List (R)
Selecting this function will generate a file containing a
list of all echos ordered by Group.
The data consists simply of the area name and comment.
5) Export Nodes Config (R)
This will create a file containing all the information on the
systems defined with the Node Manager.
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6. IMAIL COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
Once you have configured the program via IMSETUP, you are ready to
use IMAIL. There are three separate commands or functions
"contained" in IMAIL, and they are invoked via the command line.
The syntax used to invoke IMAIL is:
IMAIL TOSS | SCAN | PACK | ALNK | /?
The switch ? may be prefixed with a dash (-) or a slash (/); IMAIL
will recognize both. If no command is given, IMAIL will display a
help screen, and return to the DOS prompt.
Here is a description of the commands.
a. /? - Help
This will cause IMAIL to display a brief summary of its command
line options on the screen. Any other commands will be ignored.
b. TOSS - Toss Incoming Mail
This enables IMAIL's TOSS function. This will search your
inbound files directory for mail and toss it into your QuickBBS
or RemoteAccess message base; net mail messages will end up in
the net mail subdirectory, while echo mail will be put into the
correct message area.
The TOSS function will automatically forward any echo mail to
other links, as well as net mail messages, if you have not
specified that it is not to forward net mail. Outgoing mail is
automatically compressed, and a file attach message generated.
Unregistered copied of IMAIL will have a kludge line added to
all forwarded messages, thus slightly increasing the size of the
outgoing packet.
Note that IMAIL TOSS will return an ERRORLEVEL of 1 if it has
processed net mail messages. This fact can be used to
selectively call IMAIL ALNK only if net mail messages have been
received.
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1) /B - Check Bad Message Board
Use this switch is you wish to force IMAIL to check messages
in the Bad Message Board. This will override the
configuration setting (see Chapter 5. section a.).
What will happen is this: if an echo message is found, IMAIL
will search to see if it belongs to an area defined in your
Areas file (IMAIL.AR); if the correct are is found, the
message will be moved to the correct board.
Please note that if you are tossing dupes into the Bad
Message Board (rather than having a separate board for them),
then any dupes found will also be moved. This option is
useful in those cases in which your echo feed has "turned on"
an area which has not yet been defined in your areas file.
2) /N - No AreaLink
Normally, after TOSS has processed incoming messages, it will
call AreaLink to process any requests. For those systems
which do not have downlinks, or which prefer to run AreaLink
separately, this may be disabled.
Simply run TOSS with a /N command line parameter, as given
below:
IMAIL TOSS /N
and AreaLink will not be invoked.
c. SCAN - Scan for Outgoing Mail
This enables the echo/net mail SCAN function. The QuickBBS (or
RemoteAccess) message base will be searched for outgoing net and
echo mail, exporting it to packets.
If the messages are echo mail, a packet will be generated for
each of the downlinks listed for the area; for net mail, a
single packet will be created, destined to the addressee of the
message.
If the destination system is listed in the Node Manager, the
appropriate compression program will be called to compress the
packet; otherwise, the first program listed will be used (by
default, ARC).
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1) /N - No default pack routing
By default, IMAIL SCAN will pack route any net mail messages,
according to the information given in IMSETUP (see Chapter 5.
Section f.).
If for any reason you do not wish to pack route the net mail
messages exported by SCAN, specify the /N switch on the
command line. Then all net mail messages will be packed to
their real destination.
Due to space and time considerations, IMAIL SCAN does not
permit the same flexibility of net mail pack routing as does
IMAIL PACK. To achieve this flexibility, EXPORT the net mail
with IMTHINGS (see Chapter 9. Section a.) and then run IMAIL
PACK.
d. PACK - Pack Net Mail Messages
This calls IMAIL's packer. The IMAIL Net Mail Message Directory
will be searched for outgoing net mail messages, which will be
compressed into ARCmail compressed files according to the
information given on the command line, and specified in IMSETUP
(see Chapter 5. Section f.).
Note that this command operates only on MSG style messages. Net
mail messages in the quickbbsQuickBBS message base will be pack
routed by the SCAN command, and default routing will be applied,
unless the /N switch is given (see below).
The syntax of the PACK command is:
PACK [z:n/nd[.p] [[...] VIA z:n/nd[.p]]] [/N] [/C] [/H]
(The square brackets enclose optional elements.) 'z:n/nd.p'
represents a network address in the usual form:
zone:net/node.point
where the point field is optional. If not specified, messages
addressed to point of the given system will be packed along with
the mail for that system. If you are a "boss" node, net mail for
your points will never be pack routed via another node, unless
explicitly forced with the ".ALL" macro (see below).
As with IMSETUP, the net, node and point fields may be replaced
with the 'ALL' macro. If you omit the zone field, the zone
defined for your primary network address will be used by
default.
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If more than one system is given on the command line, then there
MUST be a 'via' node; that is, a system for which all the mail
for the preceding systems will be packed. Therefore, a command
such as:
IMAIL PACK 24:ALL 25:ALL 27:27/1
is not valid, and IMAIL will complain. Similarly, remember that
if you write
IMAIL PACK ALL
you are specifying more than one system, in which case, there
must be a 'via' node.
When run PACK will scan the command line for routing commands
and act on them, after which it will process the default routing
commands given in IMSETUP, which means that you may override the
defaults. If no parameters are given on the command line, IMAIL
will simply act on the defaults.
For example, the command:
IMAIL PACK 24:ALL 25:ALL VIA 27:27/1
will collect any outgoing messages for all systems in zones 24
and 25, as well as messages for 27:27/1, and compress them into
a file attach for 27:27/1.
Please note that by default mail for points will always be
routed via the boss system. Therefore the commands
IMAIL PACK 2:230/41.ALL
and
IMAIL PACK 2:230/41
are equivalent. In both cases all mail for the system 2:230/41
and any of its points will be compressed into the same file.
As another example, you may specify:
IMAIL PACK ALL VIA 27:27/1
If your primary zone is 27, this will pack all outgoing mail for
systems in zone 27 via the system 27:27/1.
If you are a "boss" node (that is, you have points), net mail
for points can only be pack routed explicitly. For example:
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IMAIL PACK 27:1339/103.ALL VIA 27:1339/103.1
This applies also to default pack routing. Also note that it
applies only to 4D addressing (addresses which use the point
number); fake net addresses will not be checked, so care should
be taken that net mail destined to a fakenet address is never
pack routed out of your point net.
Messages which are file attaches, file requests, update
requests, or which have the IMMediate or DIRect status will
NEVER be packed.
1) /N - No default pack routing
If for any reason you wish the PACK command to ignore the
defaults given in IMSETUP, suffix the switch /N to the
command line. In this case, IMAIL will simply process the
command line.
Note that the command
IMAIL PACK /N
effectively tells IMAIL to do nothing, since no route
commands are given in the command line, and the /N switch
tells IMAIL to ignore the defaults.
2) /C - Pack Crash Messages
If you want IMAIL to pack messages marked with Crash status,
specify the /C switch on the command line.
Otherwise, IMAIL will by default NOT pack Crash messages.
3) /H - Pack Hold Messages
If you want to pack messages marked as Hold along with
"normal" messages, specify the /H switch on the command line.
Normally, IMAIL will not pack messages with the Hold bit set.
4) /? - Help
If you do not give IMAIL PACK any parameters, or if you
specify the /? switch, IMAIL will display a brief summary of
its options.
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e. ALNK - AreaLink
This parameter calls the IMAIL AreaLink function to scan the net
mail message area for requests. For more information on how
AreaLink works, see Chapter 7.
Please note that the AreaLink function is automatically invoked
after every run of the TOSS command, unless you specify the /N
(No AreaLink) switch.
f. Other Information
1) Packet Compression
In all cases, IMAIL will check the amount of free disk space;
if it finds that less that 50Kb remain, it will compress all
packets created before making new ones. This should help ease
situations where disk space is at a premium.
Otherwise, IMAIL will normally create all outgoing packets
before beginning to compress them. This is done so as to
speed up the program.
2) New Echo Areas
When TOSS finds echo mail in areas that are not defined in
the Area Manager, it will toss them into your Bad Message
board. It will also create a file called IMAIL.NE which
contains the name of the area, and the system from which you
received the echo mail. (Registered copies will also generate
a message to the Sysop, stating which new areas were received
and from whom).
The next time you run IMSETUP, if this file is present, you
will be asked if you wish the areas to be added
automatically. If you reply affirmatively, the areas will be
created, and the sending system will be added to the export
list. Note that it will still be necessary to edit the new
areas to define the board number and group.
If you have "Check Bad Message Board" enabled, the next run
of IMAIL TOSS will move the echo messages from the Bad
Message Board to the area defined. Alternatively, you may
force this by running TOSS with the /B switch (see Chapter 6.
section b.).
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7. AREALINK
AreaLink is a function which allows other systems to request echos
from your system without the need for you to manually insert them
in the areas' export list. It is similar in function to AreaMgr
(which is part of TosScan), or to AreaFix.
What happens is this: a system sends a message addressed to IMAIL
on your system. Instead of the subject, he places a password. In
the body of the message will go the list of areas to which the
other system wishes to be linked, or areas which he no longer
wishes to receive. The system may also request information from
IMAIL by including one or more of the supported meta-commands.
In order to be able to use AreaLink, a system must be defined in
your Node Manager (See section e. of Chapter 5.). When the request
is processed by Area Link, it will check that the password given on
the subject line of the message matches the one defined in the node
manager.
Also, AreaLink will only allow a system to request areas belonging
to one of the groups to which he has access.
a. Format of the Request
As outlined above, a request to AreaLink takes a specific
format. Here is an example:
From: John Doe on 27:4339/0
To: IMAIL on 27:27/0
Subject: password
------------------------------------
+Z27.SYSOP <= Request to add area
+SIG.OP <= Request to add area
-SIG.PENPAL <= Request to remove area
%query <= Request for active areas
%list <= Request for available areas
%rescan <= Request to rescan new areas
All names, the password, area names and meta-commands may be
given in any combination of upper and lower case.
As can be seen, in order to request that an area be added, the
name of the area must be prefixed with a plus ('+') sign,
whereas to have a area removed, it must be prefixed with a minus
('-') sign.
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The first character on a line MUST be one of '+', '-' or '%'.
(The last of these three characters denotes a meta-command; see
section b. below.)
Note that requests may be addressed to:
IMAIL
AREALINK
AREAFIX
AREAMGR
AreaLink will recognize any of the above "names".
Optionally, the message may end in a tear line ('---'), followed
by any text (usually a message to the sysop). In this case, the
request will not be deleted. If the message contains no tear
line, it will be removed once processed.
Besides this, the message may contain meta-commands.
b. Meta-Commands
IMAIL supports several meta-commands in AreaLink requests. These
are:
1) %ALL
The %ALL meta-command may be used to link or unlink all areas
available to the requesting system. It is used in one of two
ways:
+%ALL Links all available areas
-%ALL Unlinks all linked areas
This meta-command may be combined with the "normal" link
requests to form a request for all areas except one or two
specific ones (or vice versa). For example:
+%ALL
-SIG.JUNK
will link all areas available except for the SIG.JUNK echo.
Note that if %RESCAN (see below) is given in the same message
as a +%ALL, all the newly linked echos will be rescaned.
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2) %FROM (R)
On registered copies of IMAIL, the %FROM meta-command will
allow another system to make requests "on behalf" of a
different system. This is particularly useful for remote
maintenance of someone else's system. In order to do this,
the system must be enabled via IMSETUP (see Chapter 5.
section e.).
The format of the meta-command is
%FROM <full node number>
where the address must include the zone and point fields of
the system which will be linked (or unlinked).
Note that the password (subject) of the message must be
correct for the system SENDING the message, not for the
system for which the changes will be made. The generated
reply will be send, again, to the system which sent the
request, not to the one for which the changes were made.
3) %LIST
The %LIST meta-command will have AreaLink reply with a list
of all the areas available to the requesting system. In other
words, those which are marked as Active, and which belong to
a group listed as available for that system.
4) %QUERY
If the message contains this meta-command, AreaLink will
reply with a list of currently active echos for the
requesting system
5) %RESCAN
This meta-command will allow a node to request that IMAIL
send all old mail in the areas requested. For example, if a
system requests to be linked to the SYSOP echo, and places a
%RESCAN meta-command in the message text, IMAIL will link the
system, and then scan your message base for any messages in
this area, and send them to the requesting system.
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All the exported messages will have the same SEEN-BY lines as
they normally would, thus (hopefully) preventing duplicates.
However, the messages will be exported only to the system
requesting the rescan, not to all linked nodes.
Note that if you have set the Allow Rescan option in IMSETUP
to "no" (see Chapter 5. Section 4)), then the rescan request
will be ignored.
c. AreaLink Replies
When it has processed a request, AreaLink will generate a reply
message to the system who sent the request. This message will
contain the list of echo areas added and/or removed for that
system, as well as query and list information, if indicated.
The message will be marked as Kill/Sent (ie it will be deleted
once sent) unless you have configured IMAIL to keep them (see
Chapter 5. Section 4)).
d. Forward Link Requests (R)
Registered users of IMAIL may define one or more systems as
uplinks, specifying the name of a file containing a list of echo
areas available on those systems.
If a system requests an echo area not currently available on
your system, AreaLink will search the files specified for the
required echo. If it is found, it will generate a request to the
given uplink. At the same time, it will create a file called
IMAIL.NE which will be read the next time you run IMSETUP. If
IMSETUP finds this file, it will ask you if you wish to add the
new area to your configuration. IMAIL.NE is the same file used
to store information regarding new echos that have arrived at
your system (see Chapter 6. section b.).
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8. AUTOMATIC MESSAGE REPLIES (R)
If enabled via IMSETUP (see chapter 5., Section a., para 5)), IMAIL
will generate automatic replies for messages that have remained
unread for more than the specified number of days.
Generally, IMAIL will submit a standard message. However, if
specified, it can use a special text file when it generates a
message. This text file may contain one or more macros, of the
form:
%macro%
They are explained below. For a sample text, see the file included
in the distribution archive. Please note that if a macro is
enclosed in double quotes, it will NOT be parsed, but simple
repeated as it is.
a. %of%
Your first name, as defined in IMSETUP.
b. %ol%
Your last name, as defined in IMSETUP.
c. %os%
Your primary system address.
d. %df%
Destination user's first name.
e. %dl%
Destination user's last name.
f. %ds%
Destination user's system address.
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g. %mt%
Time of the message for which the reply is being generated.
h. %md%
Date of the message for which the reply is being generated.
i. %at%
Current time.
j. %ad%
Current date.
k. %dy%
Number of days for which the message has been "sitting" unread.
l. %im%
IMAIL signature.
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9. IMTHINGS
IMTHINGS is a program containing additional utilities for use with
IMAIL. It is used giving it a command and additional parameters,
which vary according to the command given.
For example:
IMTHINGS KILL /B2
will mark as deleted all messages in board 2.
For more information, see the descriptions of the individual
commands below.
In most cases, the commands may be abbreviated to one or two
letters; for example
IMTHINGS KILL
may be given as
IMTHINGS K
However,
IMTHINGS STAT
must be abbreviated to
IMTHINGS ST
since the SEND command also begin with the letter 'S'.
a. EXPORT - Export Net Mail Messages
This function allows net mail messages to be moved from the
QuickBBS net mail board to the net mail directory, in MSG
format. This is particularly useful with regard to net mail pack
routing (see Chapter 6. Section d.).
The function takes no parameters. It will scan the message base,
looking for net mail messages that are destined to other
systems, and are marked as Local. Messages which have already
been sent will be ignored.
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Any messages which are exported from the net mail board will be
marked there as Sent, and if required, as Deleted. A
corresponding MSG file will be created in the net mail
directory.
b. IMPORT - Import Net Mail Messages
The IMPORT function allows you to import net mail messages from
the net mail directory into the QuickBBS message base. This is
necessary is you wish to allow the users of your BBS to read net
mail addressed to them.
This command has no parameters. It will scan the net mail
directory for net mail messages addressed to one of your AKAs,
and if found, import them into the net mail board. Once
imported, the MSG file will be deleted.
NOTE: net mail messages which are also File Requests or Update
Requests will not be imported. However, File Attach messages
will. So to avoid problems, it is best to run IMAIL TOSS before
IMTHINGS IMPORT.
The INDEX command is run automatically after IMPORT has
terminated.
c. INDEX - Rebuild index files
The INDEX command will rebuild the message base index files
(MSGIDX.BBS, MSGTOIDX.BBS and MSGINFO.BBS) from the MSGHDR.BBS
file. Use this if for any reason you suspect that one or more of
these files have somehow become damaged.
Note that INDEX is run automatically after the following
functions:
IMPORT
MOVE
SORT
The INDEX function has no command line parameters.
d. KILL - Delete messages from an area
The KILL command allows you to mark as deleted some or all
messages in a specified message area. Note that KILL does NOT
pack the message base. Use IMTHINGS PACK for this.
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The syntax of the command is:
IMTHINGS KILL /A<areaname>
/B<board>
/D<days>
/N<number>
/O
/P
/U
1) /A<areaname>
If specified, the /A switch should be followed by the name of
one of the echo areas, as given in the Area Manager. If this
switch is used, then the /B switch should NOT be given.
NOTE: If you specify the /U switch, this switch will be
ignored.
2) /B<board>
If specified, the /B switch should be followed by a message
board number. In this way, it is possible to "act" on message
board not defined in the IMSETUP Area Manager (for example,
local message areas). If the /B switch is used, then the /A
switch should NOT be given.
If you do not specify one of /A or /B, then KILL will act on
ALL message boards, unless the /U switch is given (see
below).
3) /D<days>
This allows you to specify that KILL should keep messages
younger than the given number of days. If the switch is not
used, then IMTHINGS will not check the date of the message.
Note that if the /U switch is given, the /D switch will be
ignored.
4) /N<number>
If this switch is used, KILL will leave the specified number
of messages in the base, marking the rest as deleted.
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Note that if neither /N nor /D are specified, then KILL will
mark ALL messages in the designated board as deleted, unless
the /U switch is given (see below). If both are given, the
KILL will ensure that both criteria are met, in which case it
may leave less than <number> messages in the area if it finds
"old" messages.
5) /O - PACK with Overwrite
If the /O switch is given with the /P switch (see below),
PACK will be run in overwrite mode. For more information on
the PACK command, see Section h.
Note that the /O switch has effect only if used with the /P
switch; it will be ignored otherwise.
6) /P - Run PACK after KILL
If you specify the /P parameter, KILL will automatically run
PACK if any messages were marked as deleted. This can be used
with the /U parameter, or with any of the others.
In order to PACK the message base in overwrite mode, specify
also the /O switch (see above).
Note that once the message base is PACKed, no messages can be
recovered.
7) /U - Use Default Information
This parameter tells IMTHINGS KILL to use the information
given in IMSETUP to determine how many messages to kill. It
will operate on all boards defined in the Areas Manager,
leaving the given numbers of messages in the board, or
deleting all messages older than the given number of days.
PLEASE NOTE: if you use the /U switch, the /A, /B, /D and /N
switches will be ignored if also specified.
e. LINK - Link Messages in Message Base
In order to update the links between the messages and their
replies, run IMTHINGS LINK after each arrival of echo mail, or
at least once a night.
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LINK scans the message base, looks for messages with similar
subject lines, and from them, creates links for each message,
which point to the previous message in the chain, and the next
message.
Note that the case of the subject line is significant; thus
"Echo mail" and "Echo Mail" will not match when creating links.
However, any leading "re:" will be stripped before a search is
performed.
There are no command line parameters; link will operate on the
entire message base.
f. MOVE - Move Message Area
The MOVE command allows you to move all the messages from one
board (or area) to another. The syntax of the command allows you
to specify the source and destination areas either by board
number or by area name (if it exists).
IMTHINGS MOVE /SA<src area> | /SB<src board>
/DA<dst area> | /DB<dst board>
Please note that all messages moved will be marked as LOCAL, so
that they will not be SCANned out again by mistake, thus
creating confusion in the network.
The INDEX function is run automatically after MOVE has
terminated.
1) /SA<src area>
If you know the area name as specified in IMSETUP's Area
Manager, you may use this switch. If you use this switch,
then do NOT use the /SB switch.
For example:
IMTHINGS MOVE /SASYSOP /DB12
will move all messages from the SYSOP are to board 12 (which
might be a local board).
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2) /SB<src board>
If the source board is local, it will have no area name; so
specify the board number using the /SB switch. If you use
/SB, then do NOT use /SA.
3) /DA<dst area>
You may specify the destination area name with this switch.
It is used in the same way as /SA. If you use the /DA switch,
then do NOT use /DB.
4) /DB<dst board>
If the destination board is local, it will not be defined in
the Area Manager; so you may specify the board number. See
above for an example of its use. If you use this switch, then
do NOT use /DA.
g. NOTIFY - Send list of linked echos
The NOTIFY function will send a list of the echos for which
systems are linked to your node. It will generate a net mail
message to each system which is linked to at least one echo area
on your node, requesting that the list be checked for accuracy.
h. PACK - Compress message base
When you delete a message, it is not actually removed from the
base, but rather is just marked in a special way (thus it is
possible to "undelete" them - see the RECOVER command below).
PACK will allow you to remove from the message base those
messages marked as deleted, thus recovering unused disk space.
Optionally, it is also possible to have PACK renumber all net
mail messages.
The syntax of the command is:
IMTHINGS PACK /B
/C
/O
/R
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PACK will also search for, and delete, any cross-linked messages
it finds in the message base, if the /C switch is specified (see
below).
PACK will update the USERS.BBS file (if it is found) as well as
LASTREAD.BBS (this file keeps track of the last messages read in
each message area).
1) /B - Keep backup
If you specify this switch, PACK will not delete the backups
it made of the five files which comprise the message base.
2) /C - Check for cross-linked message
If this switch is specified, PACK will check for and delete
any messages which are cross-linked (in other words, which
have the same message number, or share the same space in the
MSGTXT.BBS file). Note that this will degrade performance
significantly.
3) /O - Overwrite
Use this switch if you have limited disk space (less than the
size of the MSG*.BBS files); it will force PACK to overwrite
the message base while compressing it. Use great care when
specifying this switch, since a power loss could easily
destroy the entire message base.
4) /R - Renumber
Giving the /B switch will have PACK renumber all net mail
messages.
i. POST - Post message in echo area
The POST function will allow you to post a message in an echo
area. It is particularly useful for posting echo message
statistics, for example.
The syntax of the command is:
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IMTHINGS POST /F<filename>
/A<areaname>
/B<board>
/W<to_who>
/S<subject>
1) /F<filename>
The /F switch is used to specify the name of the text file to
post as the message. This file should be a simple ASCII file,
containing no special control characters. This parameter is
required.
2) /A<areaname>
To specify the name of the echo area in which to post the
message, use the /A switch. The name of the area may be given
in upper or lower case, or any combination of the two. If you
use this switch, do NOT use the /B switch.
3) /B<board>
Use the /B switch to give the number of the message board in
which to post the message. If you use this switch, then do
NOT use the /A switch.
4) /W<to_who>
You may optionally specify the name of the person to whom the
message is addressed. If this parameter is omitted, the
message will be addressed to 'All'.
If the /W parameter is used, the name should contain no
spaces; replace the spaces with underscores: /WFabiano_Fabris
5) /S<subject>
You may also specify the subject of the message with the /S
switch. If this parameter is omitted, the message subject
will be 'News'.
If you do use this parameter, the text following the switch
should contain no spaces; replace them with underscores. For
example: /STest_message_#1
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j. RECOVER (R) - Unerase messages
The RECOVER command will allow you to "undelete" messages in
your message base. Naturally, it will only work if you have not
PACKed the base.
By default, RECOVER will "undelete" messages found in any
message area, prompting you at each message. However, you may
specify that it look for messages in a specific area, and that
it automatically recover all deleted messages it finds.
The syntax of the command is:
IMTHINGS RECOVER /A<areaname>
/B<board>
/U
1) /A<areaname>
If specified, the /A switch indicates the name of the echo
area to search for deleted messages. If given, then the /B
switch (see below) should NOT be given.
2) /B<board>
If specified, this switch indicates the board to search for
deleted messages. Giving the board number allows you more
flexibility, since local message areas are not defined as
echo areas, and therefore have no name - the /A switch cannot
be used. If you use this switch, the /A switch (see above)
should NOT be given.
3) /U - Automatic Mode
Automatic mode. If this switch is given, RECOVER will not
prompt you at each message. Instead, it will "undelete" all
messages it finds (if /A or /B are specified, only messages
in the specified message area will be recovered).
k. SEND (R) - Send a file
The SEND command invokes the IMAIL Robot. This will allow you to
send a file to another system, much like any other Robot
program.
This command is available only in registered copies of IMAIL.
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The syntax of the SEND command is:
IMTHINGS SEND /F<filename>
/A<address>
/W<to_who>
/T<text>
/C | /H
/D
/K
/E
/Y<days>
/1-10
If the parameters are given correctly, and the required file is
found, a file attach message will be generated in your Net Mail
directory. The parameters are explained below.
This command is available to registered users only.
1) /F<filename>
Indicates the full pathname of the file to be sent. This
parameter is required.
If the filename contains wildcards, only the first matching
file will be sent.
2) /A<address>
Specifies the destination address of the file. This parameter
is required.
The address should contain the zone, otherwise the zone of
your primary address will be used by default.
3) /W<to_who>
You may optionally specify the name of the person to whom the
file is being sent. If this parameter is omitted, the message
will be addressed to 'Sysop'.
If the /W parameter is used, the name should contain no
spaces; replace the spaces with underscores: /WFabiano_Fabris
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4) /T<text>
This optional switch allows you to specify the name of a text
file to be used as the "body" of the file attach message. If
omitted, the message will have no text.
5) /C - Crash
Mark message with Crash status.
This option is mutually exclusive with the Hold option below.
6) /H - Hold
Mark message with Hold status.
This option is mutually exclusive with the Crash option
above.
7) /D - Direct
Send message Direct. This means that in no case will the
message be routed via another system. It may be used together
with the /C or the /H option.
Use this flag only if your mailer supports the FLAGS DIR
kludge.
8) /K - Kill/Sent
Marks the message as Kill/Sent. In other words, once sent,
the message will be automatically deleted from your Net Mail
directory. Otherwise, it will remain, but be marked as Sent.
9) /E - Delete/Sent
Marks the message as Delete/Sent. This will cause the mailer
to delete the file once it has been sent.
Use this flag only if your mailer supports the FLAGS KFS
kludge.
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10) /Y<days> - Newer than
Indicates that the file must be newer than <days> for it to
be sent.
This is useful for sending nodelist files, as you can then
specify a wildcard in the filename, and indicate that the
file be sent only if it is newer than, say, 6 days.
11) /1-10 - Alternate AKA
Tells IMAIL to use one of your AKAs instead of your primary
address when generating the outgoing message, where the
number indicates the AKA as listed in IMSETUP.
l. SORT - Sort the Message Base
The SORT function will sort the message base by message date.
What it does is to read in the MSGHDR.BBS file, saving the
message number and time stamp. The list thus created is sorted,
and then the MSGHDR.BBS file is rewritten, following the order
of the new message numbers.
Note that the SORT command destroys the message links, so it
automatically runs INDEX and LINK once it has terminated.
m. STAT - Generate Statistics Report
The STAT function allows you to generate a report of the echo
mail traffic on your system.
During each run of IMAIL's TOSS and SCAN functions, IMAIL keeps
track of how many messages were imported and/or exported. The
STAT function of IMTHINGS will generate a summary of this
information to the file specified in IMSETUP (Echo Stats Log
File).
The syntax of the STAT command is:
IMTHINGS STAT /K
1) /K - Keep Statistics Information
After every run of IMTHINGS STAT, the internal counters will
be zeroed, so each run will generate statistics accumulated
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since the previous run. This unless the /K switch is
specified, in which case, the internal counters will not be
modified, and running totals can be generated.
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10. AN OVERVIEW OF ECHOMAIL
Information derived from FTS-0004.
a. What is Echo Mail?
Echo Mail is a technique which permits several nodes in a
network to share messages. All systems sharing a given echo see
any messages entered into the echo by any of the participating
systems. This can be implemented in such a way as to be totally
transparent to the users of a particular system. In fact, they
may not even be aware of the network being used to move their
messages about from node to node! This has its disadvantages
also - most users who are not educated about Echo Mail do not
realize the messages transmitted cost MANY sysops money, not
just the local sysop. This is an important consideration in Echo
Mail and should not be taken lightly. In an echo with 100
systems as participants the cost per message can get quite high.
b. How it Works
In general, the process is:
1. A message in entered into a designated area on a FidoNet
or compatible system.
2. This message is "exported" along with some control
information to each system "linked" to the echo through the
originating system.
3. Each of the receiving systems "import" the message into
the proper Echo Mail area.
4. The receiving systems then "export" these messages, along
with additional control information, to each of their links.
5. Return to step 3.
The method is quite simple - in general. Of course, following
the steps literally would mean messages would never stop being
exported and transmitted to other systems. This obviously is not
desired as the network would quickly become overburdened. The
information contained in the 'control information' section is
used to prevent transmitting the same message more than once to
a single system.
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c. Echo Mail Message Control Information
There are five pieces of control information associated with an
Echo Mail message. Some are optional, some are not. Normally
this information is never entered by the person creating the
message, but rather is added by the program which is responsible
for the exporting of the original message. The following control
fields determine how Echo Mail is handled:
1) Area Line
This is the first line of an echo mail message. Its actual
appearance is:
AREA:CONFERENCE
where CONFERENCE is the name of the echo. This line is added
when a conference is being "exported" to another system. It
is based upon information found in the configuration file for
the designated message area (in the case of IMAIL, this file
is IMAIL.AR). This field is REQUIRED by the receiving system
to "import" a message into the correct Echo Mail area.
Note that IMAIL will not handle echo mail messages which
"kludge" this field by putting a ^A character in front of it;
these messages will be tossed into your net mail directory.
Note also that you may not have two areas defined with the
same area name; this would create cross-linked messages,
which are a potential source of duplicates.
2) Tear Line
This line is near the end of a message and consists of three
dashes (---) followed by an optional program specifier. This
is used to show the first program used to add Echo Mail
compatible control information to the message. The tear line
generated by IMAIL looks like:
--- <a small product-specific banner>
This field is optional for most Echo Mail compatible
processors. Some systems will place this line in the message
when it is first created, but it is normally added when the
message is first "exported."
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3) Origin Line
This line appears near the bottom of a message and gives a
small amount of information about the system where it
originated. It looks like:
* Origin: The Home of IMAIL (27:1339/103)
The " * Origin: " part of the line is a constant field. This
is followed by a banner which should in some way identify the
system which originated the message. The complete network
address (27:1339/103 in this case) is added by the program
inserting the line. This field is generated at the same time
as the tear line, and therefore may either be generated at
the time of creation or during the first "export" processing.
4) SEEN-BY Lines
There can be many SEEN-BY lines at the end of Echo Mail
messages, and they are the real "meat" of the control
information. They are used to determine the systems to
receive the exported messages. The format of the line is:
SEEN-BY: 132/101 113 136/601 1014/1
The net/node numbers correspond to the net/node numbers of
the systems having already received (or "seen") the message.
In this way a message is never sent to a system twice. In an
Echo with many participants the number of SEEN-BY lines can
be very large. This line is added if it is not already a part
of the message, or added to if it already exists, each time a
message is exported to other systems. This is a REQUIRED
field, and IMAIL will not function correctly if this field is
not put in place by other Echo Mail compatible programs.
5) PATH Lines
These are the last lines in an Echo Mail message. They appear
as follows:
^APATH: 132/101 1014/1
where the ^A stands for Control-A (ASCII character 1) and the
net/nodes listed correspond to those systems having processed
the message before it reached the current system. This is not
the same as the SEEN-BY lines, because those lines list all
systems the message has been sent to, while the path line
contains all systems having actually processed the message.
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d. Methods of Sending Echo Mail
To this point the issue of how Echo Mail is actually sent has
been glossed over entirely. The phrase has been, "the message is
exported to another system." What exactly does this mean?
Thom Henderson (from System Enhancement Associates) came up with
the original ARCmail program. Having previously written the ARC
file archiving and compression program, he knew the savings
achievable by having all of the Net Mail messages placed in .ARC
format for transmission. As a by-product, the messages no longer
appeared in the net mail area, but were included in a file
attached to a message. In this way the tremendous number of
messages generated, and the phone bill problems were both
solved.
IMAIL builds the ARCmail files during export, and unpacks them
during import. This way messages are exported directly to
ARCmail style file attaches, and imported directly from ARCmail
style file attaches.
e. Topology
The way in which systems link together for a particular Echo is
called the "echo topology." It is important to know this
structure for two reasons:
1) It is important to have a topology which is efficient in the
transfer of the Echo Mail messages;
2) It is important to have a topology which will not cause
systems to see the same messages more than once.
Efficiency can be measured in a number of ways; least time
involved for all systems to receive a message, least cost for
all systems to receive a message, and fewest phone calls
required for all systems to receive a message are all valid
indicators of efficiency. Users of Echo Mail compatible systems
have determined (through trial and error) the best measure of
efficiency is a combination of all three of the measurements
given above. Balancing the equation is not trivial, but some
guidelines can be given:
1. Never have two systems attempting to send Echo Mail to
each other at the same time. This results in "collisions"
that will cause both systems to fail. To avoid this, one
system should be responsible for polling while the other
system is holding mail. This arrangement can alternate based
upon various criteria, but both systems should never be
attempting to call each other at the same time.
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2. Have nodes form "stars" for distribution of Echo Mail.
This arrangement has several nodes all receiving their Echo
Mail from the same system. In general the systems on the
"outside" of the star poll the system on the "inside". The
system on the "inside" in turn polls other systems to receive
the Echo Mail that is being passed on to the "outside"
systems.
3. Utilize fully connected polygons with a few vertices.
Nodes can be connected in a triangle (A sends to B and C, B
sends to A and C, C sends to A and B) or a fully connected
square (all corners of the square send to all of the other
corners). This method is useful for getting Echo Mail
messages to each node as quickly as possible.
All of these efficiency guidelines have to be tempered with the
guidelines dealing with keeping duplicate messages from being
exported. Duplicates will occur in any topology that forms a
closed polygon that is not fully connected. Take for example the
following configuration:
A ----- B
| |
| |
C ----- D
This square is a closed polygon that is not fully connected. It
is capable of generating duplicates as follows:
1. A message is entered on node A.
2. Node A exports the message to node B and node C placing
the SEEN-BY for A, B, and C in the message as it does so.
3. Node B sees that node D is not listed in the SEEN-BY and
exports the message to node D.
4. Node C sees that node D is not listed in the SEEN-BY and
exports the message to node D.
At this point node D has received the same message twice - a
duplicate was generated. Normally a "dupe-ring" will not be as
simple as a square. Generally it will be caused by a system on
one end of a long chain accidentally connecting to a system on
the other end of the chain. This causes the two ends of the
chain to become connected, forming a polygon.
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f. Why a PATH line?
The PATH line stores the net/node numbers of each system having
actually processed a message. This information is useful in
correcting the biggest problem encountered by nodes running an
Echo Mail compatible system - the problem of finding the cause
of duplicate messages. How does the PATH line help solve this
problem? Take the following path line as an example:
^aPATH: 107/6 107/312 107/528 107/312 132/101
This shows the message having been processed by node 107/312 on
more than one occasion. Based upon the earlier description of
the 'information control' fields in Echo Mail messages, this
clearly is an error in processing (see Section b. entitled "How
it Works"). This further shows node 107/528 as the node which
apparently processed the message incorrectly. In this case the
path line can be used to quickly locate the source of duplicate
messages.
In an Echo with many participants it becomes almost impossible
to determine the exact topology used. In these cases the use of
the path line can help a coordinator of the Echo track any
possible breakdowns in the overall topology, while not
substantially increasing the amount of information transmitted.
Having this small amount of information added to the end of each
message pays for itself very quickly when it can be used to help
detect a topology problem causing duplicate messages to be
transmitted to each system.
g. Gating of Echo Mail
Until recently, the only network which made use of the methods
described above was FidoNet. However, new networks have
appeared, and the problem of sharing Echo Mail between these
networks arose. (To avoid ambiguity, the term "domain" was
introduced to distinguish between networks such as FidoNet and
SIGnet.)
Sharing (or gating) of Echo Mail presents technical problems.
Put simply, the network addresses which are valid in one domain
may not appear in the messages of another domain.
The reason for this is that, if we consider only the net and
node fields of a network address (many mail processors are not
able to handle the zone and point fields), there is a high
possibility that a given address exists in another domain.
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With net mail, this problem may be solved by enforcing the
requirement that inter-domain mail be sent directly to its
destination, or at least, to a gateway system.
With Echo Mail, the problem is more complex, due to the
information contained in the SEEN-BY and PATH lines (as
described above). These lines contain network addresses, and are
needed to prevent duplicate rings.
However, a strategy has evolved which will allow Echo Mail to be
gated.
Above all, only ONE system should be allowed to gate Echo Mail
between domains. This may be done on a world-wide or Zone-wide
basis. This system will be responsible for receiving the mail
from one domain, and feeding it into the other.
This is not enough. Due to the possibility of duplicate network
addresses, all SEEN-BYs and PATH lines should be removed during
the gating process. This explains why only one system should be
allowed to gate Echo Mail.
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11. KLUDGE LINES USED BY IMAIL
For the more technically minded, there follows an explanation of
the various kludge lines that IMAIL may place in messages.
A kludge line is generally defined as any line preceded by a ^A
(Control-A) character, and may be found either before the message
text itself, or after it.
a. INTL
The INTL kludge is used in net mail messages only. It indicates
that the message is destined to a zone which is different from
the one in which it originated.
The format of the INTL kludge is:
^AINTL <dest zone:net/node> <orig zone:net/node>
IMAIL will use this kludge to try to determine zone addresses,
as well as adding it to net mail messages it generates. Note
that in multi-domain environments (ie, systems which belong to
more than one domain, and thus more than one zone), IMAIL will
put an INTL kludge in ALL net mail messages it generates, even
if the destination and origin zones are the same.
b. TOPT
To TOPT kludge is used in net mail messages only. It is used to
indicate that the message is directed to a point system, rather
than a "normal" node.
The format of this kludge is:
^ATOPT <dest point>
where <dest point> is the point component of the address. For
example, a message addressed to 2:310/11.22 will have:
^ATOPT 22
while the message header will contain the address 310/11.
Please note that IMAIL supports the "extended" message header,
which contains not only the net and node addresses (as per
standard), but also the zone and point field. However, since not
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all software support this header format, the TOPT and FMPT
(below) kludges are added whenever necessary, and used when
examining inbound messages.
c. FMPT
The FMPT kludge is used in net mail messages only. It is similar
to the TOPT kludge, except that it is used to indicate that the
message originate from a point system.
The format of this kludge is:
^AFMPT <orig point>
where <orig point> is the point component of the address of the
system originating the message.
d. EID
The EID is used only in Echo Mail messages. IMAIL does NOT add
this kludge to echo messages. It was 'invented' mostly for
reasons of dupe checking, but IMAIL will use other methods for
this purpose.
The format of the kludge varies; according to the specification
proposed by Jim Nutt, it may be:
^AEID zddd nnnccccc
where z is the zone modulo 16, ddd is the net modulo 4096, nnn
is the net modulo 4096, and ccccc is a message serial number.
The serial number is generated using the low order word of the
Unix time stamp shifted left 4 bits, with a nybble counter
appended.
e. MSGID
A MSGID kludge is used in all messages, be they net mail of echo
mail messages. They are automatically added by IMAIL when it
generates messages (Automatic Reply, Nofoward warning, etc), and
used in duplicate checking.
The format of the MSGID follows the specification proposed by
Jim Nutt, which is:
^AMSGID: zone:net/node[.point]@domain xxxxxxxx
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where zone, net, node and point are the address of the
origination system, and domain is the domain of the originating
system (eg. FidoNet, SIGnet, etc). xxxxxxxx is a serial number
which is derived from the originating system's address, a Unix
time stamp, and an internal counter.
IMAIL will automatically supply the domain by deriving it from
the zone number. If the zone number is not recognized, no domain
field will be added.
f. REPLY
The REPLY kludge is simply a copy of the MSGID of the message to
which you are replying. IMAIL does not generate this, except in
the case of an Automatic Reply, but it will use it in reply
linking.
The format is as for MSGIDs:
^AREPLY: zone:net/node[.point]@domain xxxxxxxx
g. PID
The PID (Product ID) is appended by IMAIL to all messages it
generates. Following the specifications given by Joaquim
Homrighausen, the format of the kludge is:
^APID: <product> <major version> [<serial number>]
For example, IMAIL 1.2 would generate the kludge as follows:
^APID: IMAIL 1
h. FLAGS
This kludge is present in net mail messages only, and is used by
many mailers to give more information on how the message should
be treated. It is followed by one of more modifiers; some of the
more common ones are listed below.
1) DIR
Indicates that the net mail message should be sent direct to
its destination; it will NEVER be routed.
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IMAIL allows you to specify whether mail should be marked
DIRECT or not. See the description of the Node Manager
(Chapter 5. Section e.)
2) IMM
Indicates that a message should be sent immediately. IMAIL
will never use this, and will always ignore it.
3) TFS
Truncate File when Sent. This is found only in file attach
messages, and indicates that the file should be truncated
when sent. ARCmail file attached generates by IMAIL will have
this flag set.
4) KFS
Kill File when Sent. This is found only in file attach
messages, and means that the mailer will delete the file once
sent.
Please note that ARCmail file attaches should NOT use this
flag. If the ARCmail file is deleted, the next time IMAIL
generates an outbound compressed file for a system, chances
are that it will have the same name as the last one sent (if
the file is generated on the same day, at least). If it is
then sent out to the system, and that system has not yet
processed the mail it had previously received, there is the
possibility that the file will be refused, overwritten, or
discarded.
5) CFM
Confirmation Receipt Request. This flag is set if the sending
system wishes to have an acknowledgement that the message was
read. As such, IMAIL does not intercept this flag; it is up
to the message editor to handle it.
6) RRQ
Return Receipt Request. This flag is set if the sending
system wishes to have an acknowledgement that the message was
received by your system.
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Currently, IMAIL does not recognize this flag, since the
message header itself defines a similar bit. If the bit is
set, a registered version of IMAIL will automatically
generate a reply to the sending system.
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12. BATCH FILE EXAMPLE
The example given below is designed for systems running QuickBBS,
with FrontDoor as a mailer. It should be easy to modify for other
setups, but I can only write from my own experience.
Please note that IMAIL is written specifically for mailers which
make use of the file attach concept of mail transfer. Therefore,
mailers such as Binkley will not work correctly with IMAIL. I made
this choice because the method adopted by Binkley is NOT standard
(please refer to the FTS and/or FSC series of documents for more
information), and I currently have no intention of supporting it.
ECHO Off
:START
CD C:\QBBS
FD
IF ERRORLEVEL 99 GOTO CLEAN
IF ERRORLEVEL 50 GOTO UNPACKMAIL
IF ERRORLEVEL 40 GOTO LOCAL
IF ERRORLEVEL 33 GOTO LOAD_2400
IF ERRORLEVEL 32 GOTO LOAD_1200
IF ERRORLEVEL 31 GOTO LOAD_300
IF ERRORLEVEL 10 GOTO OUT
IF ERRORLEVEL 6 GOTO ERROR6
IF ERRORLEVEL 5 GOTO ERROR5
IF ERRORLEVEL 4 GOTO ERROR4
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO ERROR3
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO ERROR2
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO ERROR1
GOTO START
:LOAD_300
QUICKBBS -B300 -E0
GOTO START
:LOAD_1200
QUICKBBS -B1200 -E0
GOTO START
:LOAD_2400
QUICKBBS -B2400 -E0
GOTO START
:LOCAL
QUICKBBS -L -E0
GOTO START
:CLEAN
rem Message Areas Maintenance
IMTHINGS KILL /D10 /N50
IMTHINGS PACK
GOTO START
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:UNPACKMAIL
IMAIL TOSS
IMAIL PACK 24:all 25:all 26:all via 27:27/1
GOTO START
:ERROR1
CLS
ECHO *** Internal Error *** Programming Error
GOTO OUT
:ERROR2
CLS
ECHO *** External Error *** Missing File
GOTO OUT
:ERROR3
CLS
ECHO *** Insufficient Disk Space ***
GOTO OUT
:ERROR4
CLS
ECHO *** Modem not Responding ***
GOTO OUT
:ERROR5
CLS
ECHO *** Unable to Init Modem ***
GOTO OUT
:ERROR6
CLS
ECHO *** FOSSIL Error ***
:OUT
ECHO System .... Down!
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13. MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION
a. Files Maintained by IMAIL
IMAIL and IMSETUP create and maintain several external data
files. Generally it is NOT a good idea to delete these unless
you wish to rebuild your configuration from the beginning.
Of these files, all those containing IMAIL's configuration
information (ie, all those whose name begins with IMAIL) should
reside in the directory from which IMAIL is run, or, if you have
set the IMAIL environment variable, in the directory it points
to.
IMAIL.CF Basic IMAIL configuration information,
including network addresses, Pack Routing and
so on.
IMAIL.AR Contains the definitions of the echo areas. If
this file is deleted, ALL echo area
information will be lost. This file is updated
by AreaLink, if necessary, and is usually
maintained via IMSETUP.
IMAIL.AX Index file of the echo area information. This
file is maintained and updated both by IMSETUP
and IMAIL. It may be deleted (in which case
IMSETUP will recreate it), but all echo mail
statistics information will be lost.
IMAIL.ND This file contains the information defined in
the Node Manager.
IMAIL.DP Data base of information used to catch
duplicate messages. This file may be deleted,
but then you risk missing incoming dupes.
IMAIL.NE Created when unknown echos arrive at your
system, or when a Forward Link Request is
generated. After running IMSETUP, this file is
deleted.
????????.$I$ A packet file (????????.PKT) that was being
processed by TOSS. You should only find these
files if there was a system crash during a
TOSS. In order to process it, simply run IMAIL
TOSS again.
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b. Exit Codes
Should an error occur while IMAIL or IMTHINGS are running, both
programs will exit with an error, and set the MS-DOS ERRORLEVEL
environment variable. This may be tested in a batch file, and
acted upon. Listed below are the ERRORLEVELs returned by IMAIL
and IMTHINGS.
ERRORLEVEL Meaning
0 No error
1 IMAIL TOSS processed net mail
2 IMAIL TOSS imported echo mail
243 Command line parameter error
244 IMAIL.CF not found
245 IMAIL.AR not found
246 IMAIL.ND not found
247 Error opening file
248 Error reading file
249 Error writing file
250 Error in IMAIL.CF
251 Bad version of IMAIL.CF
252 File not found
253 Memory allocation error
254 Insufficient disk space
255 Unknown error
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14. IMAIL DISTRIBUTION SITES
a. Registration Sites
1) Headquarters
Intuition / SIGnet Zone 27 Administration
System: SIGnet 27:27/0
1200/2400 CM/MO 27:1339/103
+39-427-938827 FidoNet 2:230/41.22
Snail Mail: Fabiano Fabris
Via Zardini 19
33090 Sequals (PN)
Italy
2) Europe
IMAIL Support & Distribution Europe
System: SIGnet 27:27/100
9600 HST CM 27:1331/4000
+31-10-4151910 FidoNet 2:285/503
Snail mail: Maurice Leeflang
W. de Zwijgerstraat 37-A
3043 VB Rotterdam
The Netherlands
3) North America
IMAIL Support & Distribution N.A.
System: SIGnet 24:24/7777
9600 HST CM 24:24/0
+1-604-421-1721 FidoNet 1:153/1025
EGGnet 99:99/25
Snail mail: Jamie Penner
c/o Modern Electronics
293 East 11th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
Canada V5T 2C4
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b. Support Sites
1) Austria
Andreas Levenitschnig SIGnet 27:1343/1
FidoNet 2:2/527
2) Sweden
Andreas Birgerson SIGnet 27:4346/200
FidoNet 2:200/407
3) Switzerland
Roger Mella FidoNet 2:300/682
4) U.S.A.
Jim Louvau SIGnet 26:26/102
26:1515/5
FidoNet 1:290/4
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══ INDEX ══
Area Line, 55 IMTHINGS KILL, 42
Area Manager IMTHINGS MOVE, 45
# Days, 21 IMTHINGS PACK, 46
# Messages, 22 IMTHINGS POST, 47
Active Status, 19 IMTHINGS RECOVER, 49
Area Comment, 19 IMTHINGS SEND, 49
Area Name, 19 IMTHINGS SORT, 52
Board Number, 20 Compressing Message Base, 44,46
Export List, 23 Configuration Files
Group, 21 IMAIL.AR, 68
Keep Seens, 21 IMAIL.AX, 68
Origin Address, 22 IMAIL.CF, 68
Origin Line, 20 IMAIL.ND, 68
Passthrough Areas, 20 Cross-linked Areas, 19,20,55
Secure Mode, 20 Cross-linked messages, 47
SEEN-BY Addresses, 22
Tiny Seens, 21 Deleting Messages Sel, 21,22,42
XRS Address, 22 Direct ARCmail, 24
AreaLink, 35 Domain Names, 8
Forward Link Requests, 38 Dupe Message Board, 11
Invoking, 30,34
Meta-Commands, 36 Echo Gating, 59
Remote Maintainance, 24,37 Echo Mail
Replies, 38 Area Name, 55
Request Format, 35 Control Information, 55
AreaLink Meta-Commands, 36 Gating, 59
ALL, 36 How it Works, 54
FROM, 37 How Sent, 57
LIST, 37 Origin Line, 56
QUERY, 37 PATH Lines, 56
RESCAN, 36,37 SEEN-BY Lines, 56
AreaLink Options Tear Line, 55
Allow Rescan, 12 Topology, 57
Forward Link Requests, 12 What is it?, 54
Keep Receipt, 12 Echo Statistics, 52
Areas.Bbs Environment variable, 2,5,7,68
Export to, 28 ERRORLEVELS, 69
Import from, 26 IMAIL TOSS, 29,69
Automatic Message Replies, 39 Exporting Net Mail, 41
Bad Message Board, 11,13,30,34 Fakenet Addresses, 8
Fakenets
Command Line Options and Pack Routing, 33
IMAIL, 29 FLAGS Kludge
IMAIL PACK, 31 CFM, 64
IMAIL SCAN, 30 DIR, 63
IMAIL TOSS, 29 IMM, 64
IMSETUP, 7 KFS, 64
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RRQ, 64 EID, 62
TFS, 64 FLAGS, 63
Forward Link Requests, 12,38,68 FMPT, 62
INTL, 61
IMAIL MSGID, 62
ALNK, 34 PATH, 56,59
Exit Codes, 69 PID, 63
PACK, 31 REPLY, 63
SCAN, 30 TOPT, 61
TOSS, 29
IMAIL Robot, 49 Linking the Message Base, 44
IMAIL.AR, 68 Log Files
IMAIL.AX, 68 Echo Statistics, 10,52
IMAIL.CF, 68 IMAIL, 9
IMAIL.DP, 68 Log Level, 10
IMAIL.ND, 68
IMAIL.NE, 34,38,68 Message Area Rescans, 12,37
Importing Net Mail, 42 Moving Message Areas, 45
IMSETUP MSGID Kludge, 62
AreaLink options, 11 MSGID Kludges, 8
Compression programs, 16
Decompression programs, 16 Net Mail Board, 10
Domain names, 8 Net Mail Message Subdirectory, 9
Echo areas, 17 Networks, 6
General Configuration, 7 New Echo Areas, 34,38,68
Import/export, 26 Node Manager
Node Manager, 23 Address, 23
Other parameters, 13 Capability, 25
Pack routing, 25 Direct, 24
Subdirectories, 8 Groups, 23
System addresses, 7 Password, 23
IMTHINGS, 41 Program, 24
EXPORT, 41 Remote Maintainance, 24
IMPORT, 42 Status, 24
INDEX, 42 Notifying of Linked Echos, 46
KILL, 42
MOVE, 45 Origin Line, 20,56
NOTIFY, 46 Outbound Subdirectory, 9
PACK, 46
POST, 47 PACK Switches
RECOVER, 49 Crash Messages, 33
SEND, 49 Hold Messages, 33
SORT, 52 No Default Pack Routing, 33
STAT, 52 Packet Compression, 34
Inbound Subdirectory, 9 Packing Net Mail Messages, 31
Installation, 5 PATH Lines, 56
INTHINGS Points
LINK, 44 and Pack Routing, 26,31,32
Fakenet addresses, 8
Kludges, 61 SEEN-BYs & PATHs, 22
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Posting Messages in a Board, 47 Net Mail, 9
Outbound Files, 9
QBBS/RA System Subdirectory, 9 QBBS/RA System, 9
System Addresses, 7
Rebuilding Index Files, 42 System Requirements
Recovering Deleted Messages, 49 Hardware, 5
Software, 5
SCAN Switches
No Default Pack Routing, 31 Tear Line, 55
Scanning Echo Mail, 30 TOSS Switches
SEEN-BY Lines, 22,56 Check Bad Message Board, 30
Sorting the Message Base, 52 No AreaLink, 30
Subdirectories, 8 Tossing Echo Mail, 29
Inbound Files, 9
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
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