Acorn User: China/Acorn User China CD-ROM (UK) (Disc B)/Acorn User China CD-ROM (UK) (Disc B).bin/BARNET/FREENET/POOLE/CHANGES-

Text File | 1996-01-13 | 10.3 KB | 238 lines

1.24    Removed two small internal memory leaks in logging.

    The server now requests a user name for each connection as it
    used to do before I broke it.

1.23    Telnet server debugged.  I wasn't able to test it with anything
    except FreeTerm and UNIX telnet clients behaved differently.
    It now handles echo properly.

1.22    BASIC support library for CGI programs included, along with many
    examples explaining its use.  Functions and procedures are
    provided to ease error handling and implement forms, and there
    are other procedures to provide an abstract interface to the
    special features of DeltaNet CGI programs.

    Please read the Problems section of the manual - I have become
    aware of a couple of problems associated with loading new
    versions of ROM modules after the computer is started up.

    FTP server should work properly with the ANT FTP client for users
    other than anonymous.  The client was getting a bit upset that it
    could see where in the directory tree it was, but couldn't get up
    to the root directory.  Now, normal users behave as anonymous
    users did - ie. the home directory appears to be the root
    directory.  I considered many ways of sorting the problem, and
    this seemed the only viable solution.  The only things this
    affects are the CD and PWD commands of the FTP server.

1.21    Telnet server added ... and it still only uses 120k!!

    User information includes a 'shell' option which, if set, allows
    the user to log in by telnet, if they also have a password defined.
    A shell of 'cli' specifies that the standard command line interface
    should be used.

    Anyone connecting to the telnet port will be presented with a login
    prompt.  After three failed logins, the connection will be closed.
    If the user successfully logs in, the appropriate shell will be
    started as a separate task and its output will be sent to the user.

    The telnet server translates many VDU codes to the vt100 terminal
    escape sequence equivalents, as well as mapping vt100 key codes for
    the arrow keys back to the RISC OS codes.

    The standard shell, like that provided by task windows, cannot be
    quit by any command, so I have written a utility, which is run by
    the command 'logout' (an alias in the !Run file) which will kill
    it.  Naturally, closing the connection also kills the shell.

    Obviously, running a telnet server can be a security risk and you
    should read the !Help file thoroughly before enabling the new
    server.  In particular be aware that any user with a 'shell' field
    and a password in the user data can potentially do absolutely
    anything to your machine.  I advise that you don't allow more than
    one user to use the telnet server and to make that user you.

    HTTP logging quirk fixed.

1.20    The !Configure file is gone and a configuration dialogue box is
    available.  The first time you run DeltaNet you will need to set
    up the configuration, but should not need to re-do everything when
    you upgrade to later versions.  The configuration window is shown
    automatically if the config file is not present or is out of date.

    The file or directory fields of the configuration window can be
    filled in by dragging objects to them.

    There is now a quit prompt, showing the number of active
    connections, and if you _do_ quit while there are connections still
    active, the connections are now closed.

    As you will have noticed, I have inverted this file so that the new
    information is at the top.

1.19    Major changes to logging - hopefully the server won't now spend the
    majority of its time writing the log files and reverse-resolving
    names.

    All log messages are now recorded in memory and only written to
    disc every five minutes.  A log window can be displayed which is
    automatically updated.  New log messages are saved to disc every
    five minutes, and messages are discarded from memory after an hour.

    Host names are looked up only when the log window is displayed or
    the messages are written to disc.  Hopefully, the lookups can be
    multi-tasking one day, but for the moment, if it hangs, ESCAPE will
    interrupt the lookup and the numeric form of the address will be
    used.  You may need to press ESCAPE many times if you have more
    than one name server configured (this is a problem with the InetDB
    module, not with DeltaNet).

    !Run file now actually checks for a TCP/IP stack!  If you get some
    Can't assign requested address errors, you probably have a TCP/IP
    stack but have not configured it (which is probably because you
    have the Acorn module in ROM, but didn't double-click !Internet).
    I guess this is all very obvious, but you never know.

1.18    Software modified to make upgrading easier for registered users.
    From version 1.18, new versions can be turned into registered
    copies by copying a 'RegData' file from your old registered copy.
    If registered users have a pre-1.18 version, they should email me
    for a registration file.

    The changes mean that registered users can carry on downloading new
    versions from the FTP sites without having to ask for a new
    registered copy.

    Minor bugs introduced in 1.17 fixed.

1.17    Now possible to limit the number of anonymous FTP users, and also
    the number of HTTP connections.  The limits are set by system
    variables defined in the !Configure file.  More details can be
    found in the !Help file within !DeltaNet.  If you are upgrading    an
    earlier version, you should make sure your !Configure file sets    all
    the appropriate variables.

1.16    Filetype recognition of files uploaded to FTP server using code
    from my !DiscEdit program.  Files uploaded in ASCII mode typed as
    text, others identified by contents.  About 50 filetypes supported.

1.15    Changed data connection open message to say whether it is a BINARY
    or ASCII mode connection.

    FTP server should give a faster response to lots of commands in
    quick succession (for example from a web browser).

1.14    Web CGI programs can now send headers.  If the system variable
    DeltaNet$CGIHeadered is set by the program, the server reads
    headers from the output of the CGI program and appends a few of    its
    own.  If the program sets DeltaNet$CGIRelocate to a URL, the server
    will send a relocate reply automatically, using the address in the
    variable.  More details are in the !Help file.

    To be consistent, the system variable for the CGI query string is
    now called DeltaNet$CGIQuery - apologies if this break's anyone's
    code!

    Any problems with this (or with other parts of the Web server as
    it has been re-organised), let me know.

1.13    I haven't the time to fix all the bugs that would get into this
    version, I'll go straight on to 1.14!

1.12    Changed reply code for CWD to 250.  The RFC is inconsistent, but
    everyone else uses 250 so I'm doing the same - especially since
    Lynx does not display the continuation messages otherwise.

    Internal re-organisations and general tidying-up.

1.11    Removed an optimisation in 1.10 which has caused some connections
    not to time out under certain circumstances.

    Licence file supplied with expanded tabs - someone expanded them
    themselves and DeltaNet doesn't really like people changing the
    Licence file.

    !Run file changed to work with RISC OS 3.6.

    Made use of the send low water mark to eliminate any time spent
    blocked waiting to write data.

    Hopefully the program will now work better with freenet and SLIP -
    I was rather relying on a feature which, while present in Acorn
    TCP/IP, is not yet implemented in freenet.  Symptoms were the
    computer apparently locking up for tens of seconds at a time.  The
    solution is only a temporary one and I really need Tom Hughes to
    implement the feature I want.  Users may notice problems with very
    large directory listings when using FreeNet.

    Section on recommended software added to help file - people have
    had problems through using old versions of Acorn TCP/IP and
    freenet.  (You should have FreeNet 1.00 or Acorn TCP/IP 4.07).

    [ you should now use FreeNet 1.01 which cures the problem above ]

    FTP server tries to send a .welcome file down the control
    connection when anonymous users have logged in, and a .message
    file when anyone changes to a particular directory.  In RISC-OS,
    these files are called /welcome and /message and must be readable
    by anonymous users.  If they are not present, no messages are sent
    (obviously).

    The continuation messages are disabled if you log in with a '-'
    preceding the password, as for most other FTP servers.

1.10    Fixed memory leak in socket event dispatcher along with a few other
    bugs which could cause problems under some unlikely circumstances.

    STAT command reports version correctly.

    Possible bug in handling of errors in CGI scripts possibly fixed!

1.09    SITE CHMOD implemented

1.08    Hopefully fixed a problem with LIST on passive data connections.

    Anonymous password verification slackened.  Passwords like joe@ are
    now accepted.

    Access on default AnonFTP directory changed to WR/R from WR/WR.
    People probably didn't notice that the directory was writable and
    probably left it that way.  I have now also put template pub and
    incoming directories in there with appropriate permissions.

    Finger user@host produces a more UNIX-like output.

1.07    Individual servers can be disabled from the !Configure file. More
    details in the !Configure and !Help files.

1.06    Minor fixes to FTP error logging.

1.05    Changed PORT limit to 1000 since some (broken) clients seem to
    think that they can start there.

1.04    List now takes some UNIX ls options in order to behave better when
    dealing with wierd clients that assume that its a UNIX machine at
    the other end.

    Stopped allowing clients to specify ports below 1024 when changing
    the default port.  This would have allowed them to send files to
    mail servers etc. on any old machine, using the FTP server to cover
    their tracks.

1.03    Passive mode data connections supported.  I don't have access to
    any clients which use this, so Fresco users please tell me if it
    works.

1.02    Fixed lack of logo in announce window.  Quite why ResEd displays
    it correctly but after re-booting it disappeared is beyond me.
    Anyway, it's back now.

1.01    Fixed idle time in finger output.

1.00    First general release.

****    By popular demand, this file has turned the other way up - recent
****    changes are now at the top!