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User documentation for Binkley 2.60 XE ======================================== Binkley 2.60 original version is (c) Vince Perriello and available at 2:2474/400. Filenames: B???_260.ZIP (??? = DOS, OS2, W32 or SRC). Modifications were done by (in alphabetical order) : Mike Burgett, 1:215/705 (MB) Paul Edwards, 3:711/934 (PE) Carsten Ellermann, 2:2432/215 (CE) Tobias Ernst, 2:2476/418 (TE) Carlos Fernandez Sanz 2:341/70 (CFS) Rudolf Heeb, 2:2464/44 (RH) Juergen Loh, 2:2448/823 (JL) Martin M. Pedersen, 2:238/45 (MMP) Michael Reinsch, 2:2474/14 (MR) Tom Schlangen, 2:2450/10 (TS) Matthias Tichy, 2:2433/955 (MT) Thomas J. Waldmann, 2:2474/400 (TJW) This BT-XE version is named BT 2.60XE9612240000 This is date and time of creation ^----^^--^ of this compiled version. Please refer to this version string if you speak of this modified version. To be short, we abbreviate this as BT-XE below... Standard disclaimer: regard this as BETA/GAMMA software. We can NOT guarantee that this software has no bugs (but we use it ourselves on our own risk). So if you use it, use it on YOUR own risk, too ... If you have any problem with this BT-XE version, please contact us! Also, if you are a programmer and doing BT source code modifications / enhancements / bugfixes, too, please also contact us and work together with us on this great project! Please read this: Traps & Pitfalls when switching from older / other Binkley versions =================================================================== - Modem responses are parsed cAsE-sensitive now, so "Ring" in your Binkley.Cfg will NOT match any longer a "RING" sent by the modem !!! Make sure to have your ModemConnect (and all other Modem... response settings) / NoFilter statements EXACTLY, case-sensitively matching your modem's responses - You have either to do a FULL domain setup (Domain, DomainKludge, Address z:n/n.p@domain) OR do not use domains AT ALL (no Domain, no DomainKludge, only Address z:n/n.p). If you don't REALLY need domains, I advise you NOT to use domains at all (it will look nicer and you will have less trouble). - Please delete your BINKLEY.S?? files (in Binkley or TaskDir directory) before installing a new version of BT-XE. If necessary, please also delete BINKLEY.A?? and BINKLEY.D??. Tip from Hauke Hagenhoff, 2:2453/1030 ===================================== COM.SYS: When using the original serial-port-driver for OS/2, COM.SYS, you will need to configure the port using the MODE command for having BinkleyTerm work all right. The following setting is recommended: MODE COMx:yyyyy,N,8,1,,TO=ON,XON=OFF,IDSR=OFF,ODSR=OFF,OCTS=ON, DTR=HS,RTS=HS,BUFFER=ON (you need to enter this as ONE line!) Where x is the COMx:-port to set and yyyyy the desired port speed. Most important are the IDSR and ODSR-settings, if they are wrong, BT won't work properly. BUFFER=ON is to switch the FIFO-buffer on. History ======= Attention: Please read this section completely and thoroughly or you will run into problems!!! BTXE XR1 =-=-=-=-= Bug fixes --------- RH: No system crash at requests of PW-protected files without password. MMP: fixed: buffer for screen not flushed I don't think the distributed version of Binkley had this bug, as IBMC was treated specially. But Watcom had the same problem as IBMC. The number of minutes left is written to the screen through a file which is buffered. This fucks up the display, if the buffer is not flushed because the other status information was written directly to the display bypassing the buffer. Now the buffer is flushed for both the IBMC and the Watcom versions. MMP: Fix for ISDN caller ID using ZyXEL 2864I When RING was seen and Binkley was about to send the answer string, it would wait until the modem became silent for a fraction of a second. In this delay, Binkley would read characters from the modem, and silently throw them away. The caller ID on ISDN lines was lost in this way! This is fixed, and input from modem in this period, is now logged as usual. Setting RingWait to 2, would also have solved this particular problem, but there is no need to wait. MMP: Changed config file parser The parser used to identify keywords would recognize "CostLogThingy" as "CostLog"; i.e. allowing the input word to be longer than the keyword. This may sound okay, but it means that you cannot have two keywords where the first is a prefix of the other. Also, you cannot define variables on the command line where the name matches a keyword. This is changed now, and the parser requires the words to be of equal length. MMP: Source code fixes important to Watcom C only 1. Watcom C uses buffered output as IBMC does, and this caused problems with display updates while transferring files in terminal mode. The real problem is that buffered writes are mixed with unbuffered display output. The work-around for the IBM compiler has been adopted for Watcom (flushing buffers). 2. The signal stuff used to handle Ctrl-C/Break didn't work with Watcom. This seems to be a Watcom problem; signal(SIGBREAK,SIG_IGN) is broken. The solution is to use signal(SIGBREAK,handler) instead, letting handler() reinstall itself on SIGBREAK and do nothing else. TJW: Fixed Hydra buffer management bug This caused memory corruption in original BT 2.60 release. In OS/2 on my system this bug showed as funny attributes on the upper "windows" of BT screen. But the effects may have varied widely depending on compiler and system ... TJW: Error message for "COM0?.SYS" changed to "COM.SYS" TJW: Wrong HPFS file timestamp used Fixed bug caused by using wrong HPFS file timestamp in SCD/EVT and file update request handling. Now, the "last file modification" timestamp is used. Before, "last file access" timestamp was used - which was definitely WRONG for HPFS. This caused problems on HPFS only, because FAT file system does not have multiple different file timestamps like HPFS (file creation, last file access, last file modification). TJW: Zoomed outbound view "Age" bug fixed Weird ages of some thousand days were displayed - fixed! TJW: Fixed cosmetical problem with password failure msg "Trash" at end of PW: "His='', Ours='XXXXXXXX<trash>' TJW: FREQ response packet fixes: - time string had incorrect printf format - time string had incorrect FTS format (should be 2 blanks in the mid!) - put in session password into freq response packet as packet password (well, this isn't correct in every case, but better than no password at all). - put in destination NODE address, too. This was forgotten ... New features ------------ CE: AKAs Maximum number of AKAs raised from original 25 to BT-XE value of 100 AKAs. CE: New function "ConditionalPoll" Multi-AKA and boolean operation support implemented by Thomas Waldmann. ConditionalPoll (also known as "FreePoll" from Arjen G. Lentz, who invented this in his mailer XENIA) allows an Uplink (you) to reject a call from a Downlink, if there is less mail for him than the configured minimum. This function will only work with ISDN or a modem that reports the caller ID in the "Ring" string. It's possible to list up to 100 ConditionalPoll entries. How it does work: the downlink will call you, Binkley gets the caller-ID (eg. "RING 57313340"), searches ALL ConditionalPoll entries for matching addresses and checks if the condition (minimum outbound size for this AKA) says "reject call" or "accept call" for each AKA. The exact condition is: if outbound size <= MinSize * 1024 then reject. MinSize = 0 rejects a call only if there is really NOTHING (0 bytes) on hold. Each result (accept=TRUE or accept=FALSE) is evaluated (together with the result of previous calculation for this number) with the according boolean operation "AND" or "OR" to calculate the total result. The boolean operation listed with the first configured ConditionalPoll entry matching a specific number does not care, you can use "Or" or "And" - it makes no difference. If total result is TRUE, call will be accepted. If total result is FALSE, call will be rejected. To reject a call Binkley sends the string configured with "Reject" to the modem. To accept a call, Binkley sends the answer string (normal behaviour). For downlinks who want to make a file request or send an important crash mail immediately, Binkley builds a zero byte size file in the outbound called "*.TRX" for each user. If the downlink gets a "call reject", he/she can call again within MaxDeltaT seconds and the call will be handled normally. To configure the function use: Accept call of 07142980031 if size for 2:2474/405>=100KB or 2nd call within 30 seconds: Or/And AKA [3..5D] MinSize[KB] MaxDeltaT[s] Phone ConditionalPoll Or 2:2474/405 100 30 07142980031 Accept call of 07142980032 if (size for 2:2474/403>=20KB or 2nd call within 30 seconds) *AND* (size for 21:492/4003 >= 10KB or 2nd call within 20s): Or/And AKA [3..5D] MinSize[KB] MaxDeltaT[s] Phone ConditionalPoll Or 2:2474/403 20 30 07142980032 ConditionalPoll And 21:492/4003 10 20 07142980032 Accept call of 07142980032 if (size for 2:2474/403>=100KB or 2nd call within 30 seconds) *OR* (size for 21:492/4003 >= 50KB or 2nd call within 20s): Or/And AKA [3..5D] MinSize[KB] MaxDeltaT[s] Phone ConditionalPoll Or 2:2474/403 100 30 07142980032 ConditionalPoll Or 21:492/4003 50 20 07142980032 You may configure up to 100 such ConditionalPoll lines. Dependant on your ISDN adaptor and configuration, you maybe should leave out the leading "0" (national calls) or "00" (intl calls). To reject a call, define once: Reject <Modem command string|> For a ZyXEL Elite 2864I use: Reject ATH1|ATH0| For ELINK 310 use: Reject AT\\K| ATS21.2= (shows caller number after RING - tested with EPROM 1.36) For ELINK 301 use: Reject AT\\K| (since EPROM version 2.20 of 11.5.94) AT\O5 (show caller number after RING, since v2.12) Restriction for ELINKs: until a ROM is released which supports a "Call rejected" response code, you will only be able to reject incoming calls, but not to treat being rejected yourself (you will just receive "NO CARRIER" if you are rejected). You may configure a very LOW MaxDeltaT value to handle this (not nice, but possible) - see also binkley event file A= parameter. But your links should be aware that they will flag you undialable if they dial too often without getting a connection. CE: New keyword "ModemReject" to identify a rejection response from the modem. CE: New keyword "AfterCallOut" to send an AT???-command to get a cause value from ISDN adapters like ZyXEL 2864I. There are two different ways to see if a call is rejected: 1) The ISDN adapter sends "Busy/Cause=34Be" in one line. 2) You send an AT??? command and get an answer like "Cause = Call reject". For 1) you need only "ModemReject <Rejectstring>", for 2) you need the Rejectstring and "AfterCallOut <Lines> <AT command>". AfterCallOut needs a number of lines (of output caused by AT command) and an AT command which leads to a report with the cause value. After a rejected outbound call, all mail to this AKA will change to NORMAL flavour. Now you have an easy way to ping your Uplink, if he knows the feature of Freepoll<tm>/ConditionalPoll. ModemReject will only work with automatic call not with manual calls! For ZyXEL 2864I i use "AfterCallOut 9 ATI3|" and "ModemReject Call reject". For CFOS you need only "ModemReject /Cause=34Be". For ELINK, there is no such possibility until now. MT: New config verb "ReInitTime" This lets you specify the time between modem initializations. ReInitTime 10 -> init the modem every 10 minutes. Valid range for this setting is 1 .. 10 only. If you specify 0, you will get 1 minute. If you specify >10, you will get 10 minutes. This is due to a restriction in BT's timer routine and may be removed in a later version of BT-XE. MT: New config verb "ReadHoldTime" This lets you specify the time between automatic outbound rescans. ReadHoldTime 10 -> rescan outbound 10 minutes. Valid range is 1... MT: Support for external request processors (ERPs) with SRIF To use this, specify in Binkley.Cfg: SRIF e:\maxfrq\maxfreq $s The $s parameter will be replaced by the SRIF filename by BT-XE. The SRIF file will be called "SRIF.Txx", xx=TaskNumber in Hex. Known limitations: The external SRIF erp is only invoked in an EMSI/WaZOO session. Also when JANUS is used, the SRIF ERP is not invoked. This may be changed in the near future. The generated SRIF is compatible with the SRIF 1.01 Standard. But not all of the optional statements are included. I tried it also with MaxFreq 1.00 wb2 ERP only, so i cannot guarantee that also other ERPs work with Binkley. MaxFreq needs in his config a Mailer statement. Since it is not (yet) allowed to specify Binkley, i use Cantaloup };->=> Have much fun, and please test carefully. RH: New config verb "ShowAlive" Generates a file I_ALIVE.xx (xx=Tasknumber) in the "Flags" directory. If the file exists, nothing is done except checking it for existance. If it does not exist, it will be created by BT-XE. Check for existance is done each minute. So external programs can check if BT-XE is alive by deleting this flag file and waiting if it is re-created in a minute. If BT-XE terminates, it deletes the flag file itself. RH: Enhanced user dialogue with Alt-G (get file[s]) BT-XE will show destination system name after you entered dest address. RH: Enhanced user dialogue with Alt-S (send file[s]) BT-XE will show destination system name after you entered dest address. If you enter a wildcard filename, it will use the first matching file. If no (matching) file is found, Alt-S remains in filename input mode and you can try again. No unrecognized typos any longer! With Win32 version of BT-XE, "\" works with german Windows NT, too. RH: Enhanced user dialogue with Alt-S/Alt-G After asking "More requests"/"More sends", the same address is used again if you answer "y". To specify a new address, enter "o" for (o)ther node. RH: Enhanced user dialogue with Alt-S (send file[s]) Support filename expansion like 4OS2/4DOS using TAB for expansion. Example: type on my machine: c:\d<TAB>\bi<TAB>\HR<TAB><TAB> get on my machine: c:\dowork\binkley\HR0418021.DOC MMP: Implemented support for environment variables If a sequence of letters, digits, and underscores are enclosed between %'s, it is no longer handled as a comment, but as an environment variable. Otherwise, % is still handled as a comment. Also, the configuration file parser now allows configuration verbs to be indented. (TJW had implemented support for environment variables, too). MMP: Conditional inclusion of lines based on the task number If a line begins with a decimal number, it is compared with the task number as set by the TASK environment variable (e.g. TASK=n on command line). This somehow offers the same functionality as [Common] and [Task n], but is simpler to use for single line differences. Example: 1 Init |AT&FZ| 3 Init ATZ|~~ATH0S27=17| MMP: Added new keyword "PutEnv" If this is used, there string following it is put into the environment. Variables set in this way will be visible to Binkley itself, and by programs spawned by it; e.g. SPAWNBBS.CMD. Example: PutEnv BBSHOME=f:\bbs PutEnv PATH=%BBSHOME%;%BBSHOME%\bin;%PATH% StatusLog %BBSHOME%\bt\bt%TASK%.log CostLog %BBSHOME%\bt\costlog%TASK%.log MMP: "SpawnInit" keyword This keyword specifies a command that should be executed as part of the first-time initialization. Example: SpawnInit su %PORT% lock %BAUD% The command is executed only once, in the moment when the command is encountered in the configuration file. Binkley does not even store the command in memory. This keyword can save you for a batchfile, and can use environment variables set in the configuration file. You may use multiple SpawnInit commands to start multiple commands. Attention: Do *NOT* use SpawnInit to directly run processes which stay resident - this can cause file handle inheritance problems. See also options of OS/2's "start" command. MMP: "MailFlag" keyword If this is specified in the configuration file (no arguments), and "Flags" is also specified, Binkley will create a file called "BTMAIL.IN" in the flags directory when mail has been received. MMP: "TimeSync" keyword Followed by an address and a MaxDeltaTSeconds value, it specifies that the clock should be set to after an EMSI session (without password error) with the node specified (using TRX) - if the time difference is not more than MaxDeltaTSeconds seconds. Example: TimeSync 2:238/28 60 So time will get synced to time of 2:238/28, but only if difference is within 60 seconds to our own time. Tip: setting MaxDeltaTSeconds to e.g. 3700 (more than 1 hour) lets you do summer / winter time zone switching automatically. MMP: "LocalLog" keyword If this keyword is specified (no arguments), Binkley will write its log information (both the normal log, and the cost log) to a log file in the same directory as BINKLEY.Dxx etc. When Binkley exits, and at the end of a session, Binkley will move the contents of the local file to the file specified in the configuration file, but only if it is able to. The log file specified in the configuration file will no longer be continiously opened by Binkley, and can safely be accessed by other programs. If Binkley is not able to write to the specified log file, the log entries just stays put in the local file until Binkley is able to move it. The local log files are called (xx is the task number): BINKLEY.Cxx (Local Cost Log) BINKLEY.Lxx (Local Status Log) MMP: "Respawn" command line argument If this is specified, Binkley is automatically respawned in the unexpected event that Binkley would trap (memory access violations etc). This wan't work on DOS, but does under OS/2, and may work with other real operating systems too. The way this is accomplished is quite simple: We now have two processes running for each Binkley. The first Binkley process spawns the other, the normal Binkley, and monitors if it exits regularly. If so, the first Binkley terminates itself with the errorlevel of the second Binkley. If not, it just respawns the second Binkley. The mechanism requires that the environment variable _BINKLEY_EXIT_ is _NOT_ set when Binkley is initially started. Binkley checks if this variable is set, and if so, assumes it is the second (normal) Binkley. If it is not set, Binkley will set it itself, and spawn the second Binkley. _BINKLEY_EXIT_ is set to the filename BINKxxxx.XIT, where xxxx is the first Binkley's process ID. The second Binkley creates this file on a normal exit, and the first Binkley checks if it can delete it. If not, it didn't exist, and the normal Binkley must have died irregularly. MMP: Environment variables on command line Implemented TW's idea of setting environment variables on the command line. If an argument contains a '=', it is put into the environment. Example: bt32 TASK=3 Remark of TW: The TASK=n argument on BT32.EXE command line is a MUST HAVE in this version of BT-XE ! Don't use TaskNumber in Binkley.Cfg! You MUST change your BAT / CMD files !!! MMP: Built the language file into the EXE file If there is no language file, Binkley now reads the language file from the EXE itself. The language is simply appended to the EXE followed by the file size (two bytes). BTLNG now can do this. Example: btlng32 patch bt32.exe binkley.lng Attention: You should NOT use an old *.LNG file nor an *.LNG file at all if you want to have standard (english) messages - they are built-in in the EXE now! MMP: "ShortCostLog" keyword Binkley's costlog contains a log of useful information that easier to monitor than the status log. However, this log is ment for human reading, and not very easily handled with utilities like grep, awk, (REXX?) etc. So i have invented a ShortCostLog keyword. If it is used, the CostLog will be written in another format. The argument to ShortCostLog is a format string specifying this format. The format string can contain literal characters and macros. A macro is prefixed with '$', followed by an optional length, and ended with a character specifying what kind of information to write. If the optional length begins with '0', the information is zero-padded; otherwise it is space-padded. The following macros are defined: $# TaskNumber $$ The $ character $< Newline $A Node address $B Baud rate $C Size of biggest file sent or received $D Seconds used to transmit biggest file ($C) $E Total number of errors $H Hour $I Number of inbound files $J CPS of inbound files $M Minute $O Number of outbound files $P CPS of outbound files $S Second $T Total number of files $U Total CPS $V Size of biggest file received $W Seconds used to receive biggest file ($V) $X CPS of biggest file received ($V) $Y CPS of biggest file send or received ($C) $b Abbreviated month $c Cost $d Day of month $f Number of errors when receiving files $g Number of errors when transmitting files $i Size of inbound files $j Efficiency of inbound files $m Month $o Size of outbound files $p Efficiency of outbound files $s Seconds of session $t Total size of files $u Total efficiency $v Size of biggest file sent $w Seconds used to send biggest file ($v) $x CPS of biggest file sent ($v) $y Year without century The format string can be left out in which case it defaults to: $02y$02m$02d $02H$02M$02S $# $14A $6B $4s $4c $8i $8o $8C $4Y Which produces log entries like: (removed unnecasary spaces) Biggest file Date Time Task Node Connect Sec Cost In Out -size -cps 960328 132222 1 2:238/9 28800 29 0 6036 9903 9896 3298 960328 132539 1 2:238/54 28800 105 0 0 230517 223554 3287 You can also use ShortCostLog to produce comma separated files which can be imported directly into a spreadsheet or a database. TJW: Activated priority control The originally released EXE didn't control priority, but worked EVER at priority Normal/0. This is too low, if you have other "heavy" processes running on your system. ISDN transfer rates dropped to below 5000 CPS in such cases (normal: 7000..7800 CPS) on my system (P133,32MB). I set the appropriate compiler switch and re-activated the priority control. Also, I enhanced priority control via environment variables. You may now influence priorities using these environment variables: This is the default: This is as without priority control: SET REGULARPRIORITY=R31 SET REGULARPRIORITY=R0 SET MODEMPRIORITY=F31 SET MODEMPRIORITY=R0 SET JANUSPRIORITY=T31 SET JANUSPRIORITY=R0 SET HYDRAPRIORITY=T31 SET HYDRAPRIORITY=R0 Syntax: ...PRIORITY=<class>[delta] class: R = Regular (2) F = Foregroundserver (4) T = TimeCritical (3) delta: 0 = normal .. 31 = high (default, if not specified) Do experiments with these values! The defaults needn't to be the best values for YOUR system and high priority needn't be better than low priority. TJW: The BINKLEY.DAY and .SCD are renamed to BINKLEY.Dxx and .Sxx (xx=TaskNumber). TJW: Multiline configuration via single Binkley.Cfg and Binkley.Evt files! [Common] and [Task x] in single Binkley.Cfg / .Evt make multiline operation possible with one single Cfg and one single Evt file. You needn't use this nice feature if you don't want to. Operation should be possible with the same config / event files as in orig. BT 2.60 release without usage of these "sections", because the implicit default section at top of each config file read (or included) is "[Common]". BUT: you MUST use TASK=n commandline argument in ANY case. [Common] ; settings in this section are read by all tasks. ; ... [Task 1] ; settings in this section are read by Task 1 only. ; all other tasks ignore these settings like if they were "blind" ... [Task 2] ; settings in this section are read by Task 2 only. ; all other tasks ignore these settings like if they were "blind" ... [Common] ; settings in this section are read by all tasks. ; ... If you specify a setting first in [Common] and afterwards the same setting in [Task x] (or vice versa), behaviour of BT-XE in Task x is the same as if you specified these settings twice in this order using original BT 2.60. If you include another config file using "Include" statement, state (read settings or not) is treated locally to each file and restored after return from reading that file. E.g.: [Common] ; settings here are common for all tasks Include Task1.Cfg <- may have [Task x] and [Common] sections, too. ; settings here are common for all tasks, regardless of Task1.Cfg contents. TJW: Using TaskNumber for BBS/EXT exits This is now handled like in Binkley 2.60 release (again). Review your CMD / BAT files if you used former BT-XE versions !!! BBS exits: %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 DTErate ConnectRate COMhandle Time2NextEvent Modem-String EXT exits: %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 DTErate ConnectRate COMhandle Time2NextEvent n Modem-String This is NORMAL Binkley parameter layout again (no additional parameter as in former betas of BT-XE). If you need the TaskNumber in this context, just get it out of %TASK% environment variable (which is defined by BT-XE if you invoke it with BT32.EXE TASK=n). TJW: "Hydra1st" config verb Behaviour without Hydra1st: Standard - like until now. If a caller says to be able to do Janus, he will get Janus protocol - even if he could also do Hydra. Behaviour with Hydra1st: Hydra is preferred. If a caller says to be able to do Hydra, he will get Hydra protocol - even if he could also do Janus. TJW: Enhanced Screen Layout / Colors: - Extended color settings (like BT-EE now! ;-) There are 2 more colors (configured after the normal 2.60 colors) now for windows frame title text and frame color. See sample configs ... - TaskNumber in top left corner - Port and Baud switched position - broader Recent Activity and Hold Window - with mail "Age" display in Hold Window - one screen row more than before (there are 25, not 24). Therefore one row more in Recent Activity window. TJW: Implemented "MakeDir" config verb This creates outbound directories needed for BSY flags. Also, it removes empty outbound directories. TJW: RecentyActivity-Buffer is saved to and restored from disk file Binkley.Axx. BTXE 9606132330 (XR2 bugfix release) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bug fixes --------- Fixed cosmetical problem with Elapsed: xx:yy:zz A trailing blank overwrote the window frame Fixed cosmetical problems with Zoomed Outbound view: EE colors and headline Fixed SRIF extension (wrong) .Txx to (correct) .xx (xx=TaskNo/Hex) Fixed cursor position when shelling or entering terminal mode Added Hydra key to "native_protocols". Until now, you were not able to select Hydra in terminal mode ... Fixed "main outbound removal" bug when using "MakeDir". If there is an outbound without "." in its filename then just let it be - even if it's empty. Fixed ShortCostLog $m Fixed cursor positioning to end of screen Fixed saving of recent activity window It is now saved on all exits, not only on Alt-X exit TJW: fixed >2GB bug Changed free space limitation from 2GB to 128GB (please test this! ;-) TE/TJW: Fixed % character Usage of % character in modem commands is now possible (see below). Priorities Assured that answering and in/outbound sessions run at MODEMPRIORITY With ZedZap, session were running at REGULARPRIORITY until yet. Now, session run at least with MODEMPRIORITY (or with JANUS/HYDRAPRIORITY). Bugfixes to SRIF SRIF now (finally!?) correctly states which system is listed and which is protected. Bugfixes to FreePoll Fixes for dialtry's bug while using FreePoll TJW: Fixed *.REQ bug If a session was aborted, *.Rxx files kept lying around and the next caller got all the stuff he did not want. Especially long distance links were quite unhappy with that, if the requested stuff was large. Now BT-XE deletes the <inbound>\<address>.R<task> request files for ALL your own addresses at the end of the session. Removed additional "newline" in Binkley.Log after SPAWN and ext. protocols. Additional newline is only printed at start of BT. This was maybe only the case in some internal betas ... Fixed bug that TimeSync was not executed if mail was received. Moved call for TimeSync direct to end of session. Mail exits etc. will be done *after* TimeSync now. Fixed SRIF response file naming (correct e.g.: outbound.zzz\NNNNnnnn.QLO) Should work together with function request programs now. Fixed SRIF session data in Yoohoo / FTSC sessions If you had a EMSI session and after that a Yoohoo session with a SRIF freq, wrong data was put in the response packet (Sysop name, site, mailer). Fixed some bugs in ShortCostLog output routine TJW: fixed "NoPickup" bug If you had NoPickup in your config and called a remote system using Bink 2.60 (XE or original, doesn't matter) to send some stuff, the remote Binkley terminated the session immediately without even receiving your stuff. New features ------------ Enhanced CPS log entries (with lower .. upper CPS rate for each xfer) Debug messages for creating / removing outbound directories Added "Rescanning" status msg while outbound rescans Source code: replaced all TABs by SPACEs for easier DIFF/RCS/CVS handling Changed hydra crc table allocations from dynamic to STATIC Wrong config verbs Added delay if wrong config verbs are read, also added filename and line number to error message. SRIF The SRIF file now also contains a "Password SECRET" (if SECRET is the actual PW in protected sessions) line. This line is only present on PW protected sessions. Log files The logs are closed when spawning to allow other programs to include their logs in the main log. TE: Support for a PROBOARD fileindex Rather than scanning your whole hard disk for each file request, information can now be taken directly from your Proboard configuration, so that a) you don't have to set up a huge OKFile and b) file request is accelerated considerably, allowing for filerequest from CDROM. Perform the following steps to set up Proboard support (this works much like the configuration of a Maximus fileindex): Add the following lines to your Binkley.Cfg: PBAreas <Proboard Fileareaconfig> The Proboard Filearea configuration file is usually named "FILECFG.PRO" and located in your Proboard system directory. Example: PBAreas e:\mailer\pb\filecfg.pro FileSec <level> KnownSec <level> ProtSec <level> In Proboard, you use "levels" (numbers from 1 to 255) to set up which users are allowed to access which files. In BinkleyTerm, calling systems area classified as unknown (->FileSec), listed in your Nodelists (->Knownsec), and those with a session password (->ProtSec). Here you can set up the correspondence between the two security mechanisms. If you, e.g., enter KnownSec 30, then every system which is listed in your nodelist may freq from file areas with a security level of 30 or below. You should always have a FileSec statement, while the two others are optional. OKFile <okfile> You normally already have this statement, where <okfile> is the path and name of a text file containing your magics and filearea paths. Now edit your OK-File. Leave the magics there, but remove all normal pathnames. Instead, enter the following line: *<Proboard Fileindex> The Proboard file index is usually named FILESIDX.PB and located in your Proboard system directory. Example for a OK-File with PB-support: @FILES e:\mailer\filebase\filelist\ALLFILES.ZIP @UNISCHED e:\mailer\filebase\fidosoft\UNISWB05.LZH @NODELIST e:\mailer\nodelist\nodelist.lzh *e:\mailer\pb\filesidx.pb Please note that you must not use MaxAreas and PBAreas at the same time! Only one of these keywords should occur in your Binkey.Cfg. - Also note that you should run PBUTIL FI at least once a day in order to keep your fileindex up to date. As the Proboard fileindex is not fully documented, this feature is experimental. I have tested this with PB 2.12 and PB 2.15. If you have problems with future Proboard releases, please contact me via netmail. TJW: Loglevels Negative LogLevels do the same as positive ones, but only log to disk if Carrier detect is true. TE/TJW: Changed config file parser (; and % character treatment) '%' has a VERY ambiguous semantics: - It can prefix a "rest of line"-comment (if it is at 1st non-white-space column position in the config line). - It can designate the start/end of an environment variable reference. - It can be used simply as "%" character. We resolve this the following way: 1. If first non-white-space char, it is a comment. e.g.: "%comment" or " %comment" 2. If there are some characters between 2 percent signs try to evaluate an environment variable of this name. e.g.: "%TASK%" or "%task%" or "%What_Ever!%%What_Else?" If there are no characters between two "%" ( = "%%"), use it as a single "%" character. e.g.: "Init AT%%B%%C %%D" -> "Init AT%B%C %D" If the environment variable is not defined, just copy the name of it. e.g.: there is not variable "NOTDEF" defined. "%NOTDEF%" -> "NOTDEF" 4. If there is only a single "%" in the whole line, also use it as a single "%" character. e.g.: "Init AT %B" (no other % in this line) -> "Init AT %B" BTW: %WHATEVER%%TASK% - this is valid and interpreted correctly 1 2A B (two environment variables). This is no problem with the %% at pos 2 and pos A - because first %WHATEVER% is evaluated (and consumes both % at pos 1 and pos 2). Afterwards, %TASK% is evaluated ... ';' is a bit WEIRD, too: It can be a "rest-of-line"-comment or a literal character. We resolve this the following way: 1. If first non-white-space char, it is a comment. e.g.: ";comment" or " ;comment" 2. If there is a sequence "<white space>;;", then don't begin a comment, but just read it as "<white space>;". e.g.: "AT ;;XY" -> "AT ;XY" 3. If there is a sequence "<white space>;" (and no ";" following), it is a comment. e.g.: "Init ATZ| ; init the modem" 4. In any other case, just read it as ";" - no comment. e.g.: "AT;XY" -> "AT;XY" TE: Workaround a problem when scrolling the Recent Activity window The appropriate keystroke combinations Ctrl+UpArrow, Ctrl+DownArrow are nonstandard and do not work in some DOS environments. You may now alternatively use Ctrl+RightArrow and Ctrl+LeftArrow (which should work everywhere). Note: If Scrolling continues refusing to work, increase the size of the backscroll buffer by using "RecentActivityLines 300". This should only be a problem in the DOS version. TJW: Priorities Lowered default JANUSPRIORITY and HYDRAPRIORITY values to F31 (was T31 yet) and default MODEMPRIORITY to F15 (was F31 yet). Added possibility to set Idle priority (be careful with setting prio to low). You may influence priorities using these environment variables: This is the default: This is as without priority control: SET REGULARPRIORITY=R31 SET REGULARPRIORITY=R0 SET MODEMPRIORITY=F15 SET MODEMPRIORITY=R0 SET JANUSPRIORITY=F31 SET JANUSPRIORITY=R0 SET HYDRAPRIORITY=F31 SET HYDRAPRIORITY=R0 Syntax: ...PRIORITY=<class>[delta] class: I = Idle (1) R = Regular (2) F = Foregroundserver (4) T = TimeCritical (3) delta: 0 = normal .. 31 = high (default, if not specified) Changed M_BYTE_SUMMARY to show KB size instead of Byte size Changed update_status() Changed janus/hydra update_status() to show min:sec instead of minutes for time remaining until completion of file transfer (ETA). Cleaned up STATIC variables and made some dynamic - saves DOS memory ... CE: "ChangeMailTo <flavor>" This is used for changing mail flavor to CRASH, DIRECT, NORMAL or HOLD after an rejected outbound call. The default is the change to Normal flavor. TJW: Implemented xHydra / RH1 hydra This modified Hydra (which identifies in EMSI with RH1 flag) does file requests ONLY in the 1st transfer "batch". Mail packets and all flow file attaches are sent in the 2nd batch - while you already get the requested files from the other system! Until now, this was only possible with Janus - now you can do this with Hydra, too! So just send your filelist along with your filerequests if the other system supports RH1 / xHydra, too. Until now I know of these xHydra mailers: BT-XE ;-), Xenia and Maindoor If xHydra is used, this is shown via "Session method: xHydra". Modified output of AKAs Until now there were 3 AKAs per line. Now the AKA: lines are "filled up" with AKAs as it fits on the screen (assuming 80 chars width). Added message "Rejecting human caller" if BBS caller tries while a MO event Added message for FreePoll / ConditionalPoll "Accepting <nodenr>. First call. ..." to avoid user confusion if a link calls the very first time using Freepoll (no TRX file present in outbound). Removed warnings from BTLNG RH: Enhanced user dialogue with Alt-G (get file[s]). BT-XE will now show destination address and system name after you entered dest address. You can now enter up to 3 filenames password flavor before the question "More Yes/No/Other" border you. RH: Enhanced user dialogue with Alt-S (send file[s]). BT-XE will now show destination address and system name after you entered dest address. RH: ShowAlive The file I_ALIVE.xx is now generated also at transfer via Hydra, XModem, ZModem, Janus and Fax-Receive. Changed freepoll volume compare to use "reject if size <= MinSize*1024" This means if you configure MinSize=0 only calls with really NOTHING on hold will be rejected. Until now, configuring 0 made no sense (size < 0 ?). BTXE 9610090130 (XR3 gamma release) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bug fixes: ---------- File privilege levels for FREQ Changed file privilege levels from "(unsigned) word" to "(signed) short" for file requests. So the "level problems" of XR2 should be history now. Last Call Display If incoming call failed (connect and nothing more) and last call before was e.g. FAX, "last: FAX" was shown. This should be "Inc-Fail" now. This is also shown at begin of an incoming call as long as the session state is unknown. Fixed BTCTL/BTUTIL for use without PrivateNet (point fake net) BBSBATCH Bugfix for all lines creating BBSBATCH.* at the same place. BBSBATCH.* is now renamed to BBSBATxx.* (xx = Tasknumber in Hex) Fixed scheduler bug Scheduler was not working correct with events on a specifiy day of (any) month like with: Event All 00:00,0,1 00:00 F ... but there are yet bugs left... Fixed minor bug in async_os.c ("in" and "out" were swapped in OS call) Fixed wrong month in ShortCostLog output Fixed (?) file sharing for IBM C++ Dynamic Events Fixed dynamic events - a forced rescan is now done before a dynamic event can end - to ensure that there is really no more mail to send. Fix for DOS SpawnInit EMSI bugfix If a system sent x:y/z.0 and x:y/z.p EMSI AKA dupe check did not work correctly (point addr was not compared and so a "false dupe" was removed from AKA list of remote system). Made internal FREQ processor OKFILE parsing more "robust" If you had multiple blanks between filespec and password in your OKFile, like in c:\*.* !SECRET Binkley didn't process this as you intended it to do. Everybody could freq out of c.\*.* without using a password. This worked correctly: c:\*.* !SECRET Now Binkley doesn't care about AMOUNT of blanks between filespec and password any more. This parser part was completely rewritten - be careful and test this ! Versions compiled for different CPUs show CPU type in announce string Misc. cosmetical fixes New features ------------ TJW: BE CAREFUL! Changed [section] statements. See [Expression]. TJW: [Expression] [%Task%==1] use section if environment variable TASK equals 1 [%ENVVAR1%==%ENVVAR2%] ... if env. var. ENVVAR1 equals ENVVAR2 [%MODEM%==ZYXEL] ... if env. var. MODEM equals ZYXEL [%PORT%!=2] ... if env. var. PORT is not equal to 2 [Common] or [True] use section in any case [Ignore] or [False] ignore section Obsolete style (not supported any longer): [Task 1] TJW: New and powerful cost calculation scheme. See "CostCPS", "CostTimeCorrection" and "Cost Event" for details. Adapt your Binkley.Evt ("L" flag) and your nodelist compiler setup or you WILL run into problems !!! TJW: New keyword "CostCPS" This sets the estimated CPS rate for cost calculations related to "L" event flag. Default is 1024 CPS. CostCPS 1500 ; could be used for lines connecting at 14400bps CostCPS 3000 ; could be used for lines connecting at 28800bps CostCPS 7000 ; could be used for ISDN X.75 lines with 64000bps Additionally, the connect and session overhead is added for cost calculation. TJW: New keyword "CostTimeCorrection" With this you can configure the time in seconds that your modem / adaptor needs to connect and also session overhead for cost calculation. First value is the time in s (costing money) before you get a "CONNECT". Default is 5s. For ISDN you might want to configure a lower value. For very bad lines you might want to configure a higher value. Second value is the session handshake overhead in s used for calculations for "L" event flag (before dialing out). Default is 5s, too. If you connect to very fast or slow handshaking mailers, you might want to configure a different value. You should change the default values to typical ones for your system. The defaults are just "better than nothing", but too low for analogue modems and too high for ISDN adaptors. E.g.: CostTimeCorrection 13 4 This gives a connect overhead of 13s and a session overhead of 4s (analoge connect with V.32bis on good line, BT-XE to BT-XE). E.g.: CostTimeCorrection 1 2 This gives a connect overhead of 1s and a session overhead of 2s (ISDN connect with X.75, BT-XE to BT-XE). TJW: "Cost Event" - a new Event type with flag "!=" This new event type is used similar to normal "Event", but describes costs involved with your outbound calls at different daytime, weekdays etc. There can be ONLY such a cost definition in such an event, nothing else! Such a "cost event" does NOT interfere with other event definitions. The cost vector can include up to 16 comma separated entries, but there MUST NOT be any blanks between them. You need not specify all 16 entries, you need only to specify the ones you really use (c0,c1,c2 if you only use 3 cost indices). Event <days> <start time> [<end time>] !=<c1>,<c2>,..,<c16> ^------------------------------^ ^----------------^ meaning as like in other events cost vector The cost index used for a connection is reported after connection as "Seconds: ... Tariff: <cost index> ... System: ...". Example 1 for Germany (used with EuroCost and CostUnit 12): Event All 00:00,12,24 05:00 !=2400,0600,0360,0360,0600,0090,0090,0054 This means that on December 24. from 00:00 until 05:00 the "cost vector" is 2400, 600, ... (meaning that cost index 1 (city zone) has unit lengths of 240 seconds, cost index 2 (50km zone) has unit lengths of 60s etc.). You have to compile the "cost index" into V7 nodelist index (cost field). Binkley then uses this "cost index" as index into the "cost vector" of the active CostEvent. "cost index" is 1-based (!), 0 means no/unknown cost!!! You have to define the cost vector in 1/10 seconds (unit length). CostUnit is the amount of money a unit costs (12 [Pf] in Germany). So if you call somebody on Dec. 24 at 03:00 who has cost index 3 compiled into the V7 cost field by your nodelist compiler, Binkley will calculate with unit lengths of 36 seconds (360 * 0.1s). Example 2 for US (NO "EuroCost" and NO "CostUnit"): Event All 00:00 24:00 !=10,20,40,80,160 [Sorry, I don't have ANY information about US cost structure, so this is just an example with not realistic numbers] This means that on every day between 0:00 and 24:00 the "cost vector" is 10,20,...,160 (meaning that a minute shortest distance costs 10 [cents or whatever] and a minute longest distance costs 160). You have to compile the "cost index" (1 is nearest, 5 is farest in this example, up to 16 is possible) into V7 nodelist index (cost field). Binkley then uses this "cost index" as index into the "cost vector" of the active CostEvent. "cost index" is 1-based (!), 0 means no/unknown cost!!! So if you call somebody (on any day, any time) who has cost index 3 compiled into the V7 cost field by your nodelist compiler, Binkley will calculate with costs of 40 [cents, whatever] per minute. Here, for interested audience, the calculation method. If you aren't interested, you can skip to next feature ... Cost calculation algorithm for outbound calls (inbound: cost==0) : StartTime = StartTime - CostTimeCorr_Connect (the modems need some worthy time before CONNECT !) get CostIndex (1..16) from V7 nodelist RealCost field find CostEvent matching StartTime and get ActualCostVector set return value Cost = ActualCostVector[CostIndex] !!! EuroCost (unit based cost calculation) : Time = StartTime set Time to StartTime Ttimes10 = 0 set 1/10s timer to 0 TotalCost = 0 set TotalCost to 0 while Time < EndTime do as long as connection was TotalCost = TotalCost + CostUnit spend one CostUnit Ttimes10 = Ttimes10 we get this time for + ActualCostVector[CostIndex] one CostUnit Time = StartTime + Ttimes10/10; afterwards we have this time find CostEvent matching Time and get tariff information for update ActualCostVector new Time return TotalCost as total cost this is what we spent No EuroCost (minute based cost calculation) : Time = StartTime set time to StartTime TotalCost = 0 set TotalCost to 0 while Time < EndTime do as long as connection was TotalCost = TotalCost spend amount of money + ActualCostVector[CostIndex] one minute costs Time = Time + 60s we get 1 minute for it find CostEvent matching Time get tariff information for and update ActualCostVector new Time return TotalCost as total cost this is what we spent I hope this is the correct way to do it. If it is NOT correct like this, please let me know !!! Don't forget to adapt your "L" flags in Binkley.Evt !!! With L flag, Binkley will calculate costs before calling out: It will assume a 1KB/s transfer rate (default, you may modify this by specifying CostCPS, see above) to estimate session length. Then it calculates real cost (in your currency) for this session at this time and decides depending on L flag condition if it should dial out or not. You can use this to send short crash mails immediately and delay crash mails with file attaches to some later event with cheaper costs. For a cost saving setup in Germany you could use L=12 (meaning L<=12) on most of your events - except event at cheapest time 02:00-05:00, for this event you should NOT do cost restrictions or BT-XE will not dial out at all if costs are too high even at cheapest time. This will cause BT-XE to delay a crash mail until cost is <=12 ("Pfennige") or until event with no cost restriction or "H" flag. Added '$' as mail status char for mail not matching cost setup (L event flag) MMP: New format char for ShortCostLog: $r $r gives "remote's costs" for inbound calls (like $c gives your own costs for outbound calls). MMP: Changed default ShortCostLog format to include remote costs: $02y$02m$02d $02H$02M$02S $# $14A $6B $4s $4c $4r $8i $8o $8C $4Y This produces log entries like: (removed unnecasary spaces) Biggest file Date Time Task Node Connect Sec Cost RCst In Out -size -cps 960328 132222 1 2:238/9 28800 29 0 24 6036 9903 9896 3298 960328 132539 1 2:238/54 28800 105 0 96 0 230517 223554 3287 Added optional size parameter to *.REQ entries old *.REQ format new *.REQ format file1 file1 $12345 file2 file2 $100000 file3 file3 $1000000 ... ... The value after $ is the size of the file to request in bytes. This is used for cost calculation only, so an approx. value does the job, too. Size value is optional, if no size is given, 1 is assumed. In the REQ file transmitted to remote side, size information is filtered out, of course. RH: Changed Alt-G (get files) dialogue to make input of $size possible Changed "Tariff:" to show cost index New ShortCostLog format character $z for Cost Index 0 = no cost 1.. = cost index into cost event's cost vector TJW: Shared outbound Files related to that (all located in FlagDir): BTRESCAN.FLG This global flag for all lines works different from BTRESCAN.nn: Each line monitors this flag and if a line notices a change in the modification timestamp of this file, the line initiates an outbound rescan. If the file did not exist, but suddenly appears, a rescan is done, too. If there is no change or the file does not exist, nothing happens. For users of XenObm: This behaves very similar to XMRESCAN.FLG, so it should work pretty good now with XenObm regarding rescan flag! BTRESCAN.BSY This global flag is generated at start of an outbound rescan / reread of any line and deleted after the line finished rescanning / rereading outbound. While this flag is present, no other line will begin an outbound rescan/ reread, but a line attempting to begin an outbound rescan / reread while this flag is already present will "remember" to do the rescan later by creating BTRESCAN.## for itself. BTRESCAN.## will be deleted immediately after creation of BTRESCAN.BSY. This will lower system load (especially in networks and multiline systems) by avoiding multiple lines rescanning / rereading simultaneously. BTRESCAN.DMP The first binkley task who decides to do a new rescan writes rescanned data into BTRESCAN.DMP (saying "Rescanning"). If this file is not older than "ReadHoldTime" minutes, the other lines will just read this dump file (saying "Reading"). TJW: Language.Txt This is a mixed language file with English, Startrek and German language. Lines with English text are prefixed by "E", lines with Startrek text are prefixed by "S", German is prefixed by "G" and common lines are prefixed by "*". TJW: BTUTIL Integrated BTCTL and BTLNG into one new single tool named BTUTIL. This saves about 53KB EXE size in total. Invoke BTUTIL without parameters to see usage. TJW: BTUTIL Modified BTUTIL to accept mixed multiple-language language source files. BTUTIL LNG key E language.txt english.lng BTUTIL LNG key S language.txt startrek.lng BTUTIL LNG key G language.txt german.lng It is possible to use BTUTIL LNG without "key X" parameter to process old language files. TJW: Language file No support for external language file any more as this was a popular problem source. You MUST patch your LNG into the EXE using BTLNG patch, if you want to have something different as standard english language. Merged in BTPE 4.00, 4.01 and 4.02 diff of Paul Edwards See btpe_402.txt for details. TS/TJW: misc. source fixes and cleanups Date and Time Changed date / time display to 96/06/24 Mon 23:59 format. This is neither european nor US format, but simply logical ;-) RH: made BT-XE compile for Win32 again using Visual C++ No hydra support and no timesync support yet. RH: First implementation of Lookup functions Works with ALT-S (Send File), ALT-G (Get File), ALT-P (Poll Node) and ALT-M (Manual Poll) If you enter a sysopname and the sysop has more than one line, you see a node entry select window now and you can choose the node to use for the selected function. Don't use wildcards as * and or ? - use only part of names - they are working as wildcards. So "R Heeb" will find "Rudolf Heeb or "Rudi Heeb". You can also use the last name only. Waldmann finds all Waldmann, not only Thomas. :-) If you enter both (firstname AND lastname) lastname is nor interpreted as wildcard. If you enter one name only, it is using it as wildcard for lastname. Examples: "R Heeb" finds Rudi Heeb, Rudolf Heeb, Renate Heeb. "R Heeb" does NOT find Rudi Hee, Rudolf Heebermann. "Hee" finds Rudi Heeb, Rudolf Heeb, Renate Heeb, Rudi Hee, Rudolf Heebermann, Elke Heess ... "T Wald" does NOT find Thomas Waldmann "T Waldmann" finds Thomas Waldmann Be aware that if you use only one or two characters, there will be many entries to be found. Many entrys -> much time and much memory needed! Please try it, and report any errors and whishes to Rudolf Heeb. RH: Enhanced Alt-S (Send) and Alt-G (Get) Dialogs Those dialoges now also take addresses not listed in nodelist. So you can put files on hold for or do file requests from unlisted nodes/points respectively. TS: Visual progress metering bars Implemented visual progress metering bars for Janus/Hydra/Zmodem in Wazoo/Emsi sessions. TS: Visual progress metering bars Moved progress meters to new window overlapping outbound window while in Wazoo/Emsi sessions. Added magic check for reading Binkley.Axx dump files. Should help avoiding crashes with trashed dump files. Recenty Activity Scrolling Maybe improved recenty activity scrolling performance a bit by aligning each line on a 4 byte boundary for video modes with a column count that is a multiple of 4, too (e.g. 80 or 132). Extended timesync to use EMSI addresses TJW: Hydra chat If you have a hydra session, you might use chat mode now (if the other side is capable of chat mode, too - some mailers tell you this with a message displayed as "HCON: remote has chat capability (bell enabled/disabled)" or similar). To enter chat mode on your side, hit "Alt-C". Two windows "Local" and "Remote" will appear, shrinking "Recent Activity" - I strongly(!) recommend 80*50 video mode for this (mode co80,50) - with 80*25 you will have only 2 lines as chat window(s). At this moment, your side will transmit a string to the other side notifying that you entered chat mode (and also two bell characters to wake up the remote sysop). If remote sysop is not awake yet, you may send some more bell characters using Ctrl-G (the same is possible if remote sysops calls you for chatting if you have enabled the chat sound with the "Gong" keyword in Binkley.Cfg). To send text to remote side, simply type it in. All text entered on the remote side will appear in your "Remote" window. To leave chat mode hit Alt-C again. Chat mode will automatically be left at end of the session if one side leaves chat mode (or even did not enter chat mode). Also, there is an input timeout, so don't sleep while chatting. Please report any problems or incompatibilities with chat mode, especially to other mailers. TJW: new keyword "NoHydraChat" You can disable Hydra Chat capabilities using this keyword. JL: Added "Sorted Outbound" The 'Pending Outbound Mail' is sorted by Domain / Zone / Net / Node / Point. Sendable mail is still on the top. Outbound on HPFS drives was already sorted even without this feature - but FAT users [DOS] will now be happier, too. TJW: "Hydra1st" keyword dropped This was dropped after XE2 release and is no longer a valid config verb. For explanation see "ProtocolPreference" keyword. TJW: "ProtocolPreference" keyword This made "Hydra1st" keyword obsolete. Binkley 2.60, 2.60 XE1 and XE2 were NOT fully FSC-0056 (EMSI specification) conform yet (well, it worked, though ;-). Old / wrong behaviour: 1. Caller system sends all protocols (HYD,JAN,ZAP,ZMO) it can do. 2. Called system (BT) chooses a protocol with fixed preference order JAN,HYD,ZAP,ZMO (BT 2.60 orig) or HYD,JAN,ZAP,ZMO (XE and Hydra1st) - no matter in which sequence the protocols are transmitted (preferred) by caller. New and correct behaviour: 1. Caller system sends all protocols it can do in order of preference: It sends e.g. HYD,JAN,ZAP,ZMO if it can do them all and prefers Hydra as 1st choice, then Janus as 2nd choice, ZedZap as 3rd choice etc. 2. Called system chooses the FIRST protocol out of the transmitted protocol preference string which it is itself capable of. If ZAP,JAN,HYD,ZMO is received and it can do ZAP, it will choose ZAP, doing the 1st choice protocol. If JAN,HYD,ZAP,ZMO is received and it can't do JAN, but HYD, then HYD will be done, doing the 2nd choice protocol. With ProtocolPreference you can set what YOUR own Binkley will send in EMSI if you call out to another system. Default preference sequence (if you don't specify this keyword): HYD,JAN,ZAP,ZMO (if Hydra is implemented in your Binkley version) or JAN,ZAP,ZMO (if no Hydra is implemented in your Binkley version) With NoJanus, NoHydra, NoZedZap etc. the corresponding protocols will be left out of the default ProtocolPreference string, of course. If you specify "ProtocolPreference HYD,ZAP,ZMO" your Binkley will tell remote side on outgoing calls that it prefers HYDRA as 1st choice, then ZedZap as 2nd choice and ZMO as last choice and that it can NOT do anything other. ATTENTION: Be aware that the user defined ProtocolPreference string is ========= transmitted "as is", there are no checks if it is valid or if it does comply with your other settings! So DON'T use this keyword if you don't know what you're doing. If you call out and the other side does not answer with the first available protocol in YOUR ProtocolPreference although remote side is capable of doing it and also has not disabled it, the remote side is NOT fully FSC-0056 compliant and you should notice the software author of that. TS: DOS only: announcement of the fossil in use. TJW: new keyword "ReadLog" If you spawn other programs from Binkley which generate a binkley style log, you can read this log into Binkley's screen (and log). The log specified with "ReadLog" is DELETED after it is read and incorporated into Binkley's log. e.g.: ReadLog c:\bt\1\bink_add.log ^ redirect all other bink style logs you want to include to that location MMP: "MaxBusyAge" keyword. Followed by a number of minutes, it specifies that Binkley should ignore .BSY files older than that. This can be used to automatically make a node dialable even if he has an old .BSY file laying around. This can happen if Binkley for some reason didn't clean up after a session; i.e. the system is rebooted. It will also handle the situation where Binkley (god forbid) traps, and is respawned using the "Respawn" command line argument. Example: MaxBusyAge 240 MMP: "SpawnNoOK" keyword Followed by a command, it specified that the command should be executed if the modem does not respond OK to the initialization string in unattended mode within half a second. If your modem is too slow to respond OK, you can add a number of tildes to the initialization string. This feature is useful for detecting if a modem has hung itself, and notify the sysop, or with the right software and hardware turn the modem off and on again. MMP: "Quick" modifier for "AfterMail" keyword Using "AfterMail Quick <command>", Binkley does not spend unneccesary time on modem initialization. This is useful if the AfterMail command is very quickly. On my system i can run the aftermail in about the same time, as it take Binkley to initialize the modem. Also, without "Quick" a caller can be so unlucky, that the modem is reinitialized when he calls in. MMP: "CacheHold" keyword This enables caching of the outbound, and speeds up rescanning. The usage is: CacheHold <level> [Stat]. <level> specifies the amount of caching, and can take the following values: 0 No caching and Binkley scans as usual. 1 Directories are cached. Using this, Binkley only need to read the directories once when scanning the outbound. 2 Flow files are kept in memory. Using this, Binkley does not need to reread flow files that has not been changed. On my system CacheHold reduces the average rescan time from approximately 2.70 seconds to 1.30 using 29 KB cache. However, the memory requirements and improvement in speed will differ from system to system. Add "Stat" to the line, and it will be logged how the rescanning performs. Use "CacheHold 0 Stat" to log the performance without caching. MMP: Added the ability to freeze Binkley. When Binkley sees BTFREEZE.xx (xx is the hexadecimal task number) in the flags directory, it deletes the file, and creates BTFROZEN.xx instead. Then it lowers the DTR signal, and waits for BTFROZEN.xx to disappear. When it disappears, the modem is reinitialized. This feature is useful for freezing Binkley when compiling nodelists in the background. New keyword "EMSIbanner" for debugging purposes If you put this in your Binkley.Cfg, Binkley will send a banner string (+ Address ... using ...) *before* sending **EMSI_INQ - this helps with some remote COM I/O systems which fail within the first few received bytes. New commandline verb "Debug" Does the same as "Debug" in config. Added mailstatus character to zoomed outbound view (-*x>$...). TJW: new keyword "IPC" With this, you define the directory which Binkley will use to write Max 2.x compatible IPCxx.BBS (xx = tasknumber in Hex) files into. E.g: IPC h:\Max\IPC\ The IPC files will contain "BinkleyTerm 2.60XE" as user name and some information about Binkley's state, e.g. "Waiting for Call or Event". If you do not use IPC keyword, Binkley will NOT write IPC files. MB: Maximus 3.x MCP support (OS/2 version only). (Thanks to Mike Burgett for writing and Bob Juge for sending, merged in by TJW) Just define the same path with MCPpipe statement of Binkley as in MCP statement of Maximus, e.g.: MCPpipe \pipe\maximus\mcp If you do NOT want to use MCP just do NOT define "MCPpipe" in your config! Then use SM (session monitor of Max 3.x) to view line status. MCP.EXE *MUST* be running on startup of BT-XE to use this feature. You must also have MCP32.DLL in LIBPATH to run this version of BT-XE (even if you don't use MCP). Both is part of Maximus 3.xx package (but can also be used without having Maximus installed). Remark of TJW: Due to file handle inheritance problems, automatic start code for MCP.EXE was removed. So you have to start MCP.EXE before BT-XE or MCP will not work. You must *NOT* start MCP using SpawnInit - this would cause problems. Use this a SINGLE time in your CMD file (startup.cmd e.g.) before you invoke any BT-XE task using MCP: MCP.EXE . <pipename> <number of tasks> server e.g.: detach MCP.EXE . \pipe\maximus\mcp 16 server Be sure that you have set MAXIMUS environment variable before this command. Directly after starting MCP it's a good idea to start SM.EXE to *use* MCP. Do NOT start SM.EXE with SpawnInit. Changed janus.c to create JANUSREQ.R%02x in flagdir TJW: new keyword "TaskPath" You can specify a separate directory for BINKLEY.?xx files with this to keep your Binkley directory clean. Defaults to Binkley directory. e.g.: TaskPath c:\bt\task\ TJW: Changed order of config file reading old: binkley.scd -> binkley.evt -> binkley.cfg new: binkley.cfg -> binkley.scd -> binkley.evt This was necessary for TaskPath to be known before searching binkley.scd/sxx. Today at a glance Changed "Today at a glance" to show Mail/BBS/Fax calls ("M/B/F") - also changed alignment and moved it to language.txt Messages changed message "File requests declined" to "Remote doesn't allow file requests now" Fossil Annoncement DOS only: makes fossil announcements configurable by using the language file. this is way better than hardcoding them into the executable. The language file is readily prepared to detect and announce the following fossils: ADF (AnDan), BNU, cFos, DrComm, FCI, Opus!Comm, VX00, X00 To add a new/other fossil, do the following: Look in the language file (LANGUAGE.TXT) for a line which reads like this: *LVX00:VX00,X00:X00,BNU:BNU,CFOS:cFos,OPUS:Opus!Comm[,...] This line is composed of pairs of strings. each pair contains a search string and an answer string separated by a colon, e.g.: OPUS:Opus!Comm Where `OPUS' is the string to look for in the internal fossil signature id string, and `Opus!Comm' is the string that will be output to the screen and logfiles. You simply add the new/other fossil search/answer string pair at the end of the line (preceeded by a `,'), but please mind that: - The search string has to be in upper case, while the answer string may be in upper/lower/mixed case. - Search- and answer strings must not contain any of the characters: ` ' (blank/space), `,' and `:'. - You have to use a search string which definitely designates a fossil you look for. therefore the search string `VX00' has to come before search string `X00', because the other way round (`X00' first, that is) the answer string for `X00' would be output for both `X00' _and_ `VX00' ... Include keyword Reduced stack space needed for "include", so you can do more "nested" includes now. Worked HydraCom 1.09d changes into hydra / hydra chat source Alt-C is now used for entering (and exiting) Hydra chat mode. Clearing "Today at a glance" is done with Alt-D now. Hydra protocol now also works with long fnames correctly (OS/2 only). Long filenames are NOT supported in BT yet except in hydra protocol. Modem command character translation "." -> "," removed So you can specify commands likw AT+FCLASS=2.0 now without having to "escape" the dot. You MAY, of course, continue using AT+FCLASS=2\.0 ... The only translations happening now are: "|" -> output CR character "v^" -> lower/raise DTR "," -> pause 1s "`" -> pause 0.1s "-" -> don't output anything If you don't want them, prefix them by an "escape" character which is: "\". RH: ShowAlive The file I_ALIVE.xx is now generated also in terminal mode while waiting for key strokes and while transfering with XModem and ZModem (UPload/DOWNload). Also, I_ALIVE.xx is generated while the user does an input (nodenumber, systemname, filename and so on). Yes, there are people needing more than 1 minute to enter a nodenumber. :-) TJW: OS/2 only: Window Titles BT-XE uses an undocumented OS/2 call to set the window title of its own window to "BT-XE #<TaskNumber>: <Action>" (default). "Action" is the same as in Maximus' session monitor (if you use MCP). TJW: New keyword "WindowTitleFmt". This is used for setting the format string of window titles. Default is: WindowTitleFmt BT-XE #%%d: %%s (you have to specify %% to get the single % as result or BT will crash) You can use this to set different format, like: WindowTitleFmt BT-XE #%%d USR V.34: %%s But don't make the title format too long or it maybe won't function correctly if it doesn't fit into title area of window. Further, you HAVE TO use first %%d AND second %%s ! You can also use WindowTitleFmt with NO format string specified to DISABLE "set window title" calls: WindowTitleFmt IPC: "Snoop" defines the Snoop pipe - NOT the MCP pipe (OS/2 only) "MCPpipe" defines the Maximus MCP pipe (OS/2 only) "IPC" defines the directory for IPCxx.BBS (all platforms) You can use ALL now, if you want. BTXE 9612240000 (XR4 gamma release) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bugfixes -------- TJW: Language file Binkley never used language file strings M_PRESS_ESCAPE and M_NO_BBS (but hardcoded english text "Press escape to enter BBS" and "Doing mail only ..." if you did not specify it in your Binkley.Cfg). Fixed. TJW: Removed $xxxxx size information on janus outbound requests TJW: Made BTRESCAN.BSY semaphore file more safe This fixed sharing problems under DOS TJW: Rescan Initial rescan with BTRESCAN.FLG touched before starting BT-XE should work now. TJW: BTRESCAN.DMP Further, btrescan.dmp's timestamp is set to the BEGIN time of the rescan. TJW: Added missing "/" into EMSI mailer / version / compiler info TJW: Bugfix for deleting old bsy files There was a problem with networked PCs having slightly different times, giving "negative" ages. TJW: Fixed dynamical events A real rescan will be forced before a dynamic event can be terminated (and now it will wait for it to *really* happen, even if outbound is temporarily "locked" by btrescan.bsy). TS: (TS110409) fossil detection fixes / enhancements TJW: Bad Calls Binkley stored an "int" into "bad call" files (2 bytes for DOS and 4 bytes for OS/2) what may have lead to problems when mixing DOS and OS/2 versions using the same outbound. Now 4 byte "long" values are used for both versions. TJW: Fixed cosmetical bug with missing blank in IPC file TJW: Fixed "powerdialing of a node" BT-XE should honour now your A=xx event setting TJW: Fixed cost restriction bug with sized requests TS: 2 diffs with display stuff CFS: OS/2 only: Replaced DTR raise/lower code. It now works with CFOS's -kx switch. TJW: Fixed bug in Send_WaZoo routine That lead to problems with file request at FD/IM systems (or maybe also with other ZedZap mailers) if the file request *.REQ file was sent without other mails or files. TJW: Fixed EMSI capability bug If there was no bidirectional session or no BiDi* or Janus* stuff in config, Binkley said that it is able to do Hydra/Janus although it was NOT. Result: "No common session protocol- fallback to FTS-1" on BT's side, Hydra or Janus on other side. TS: DOS version only bugs fixed: - if used without vfossil, Binkley/BTXE always used only 25 screen rows, regardless on the real number of screen rows available. now BTXE is able to determine and use the real number of available screen rows without a vfossil being loaded. - if used without a vfossil, the cursor could be seen even if the screen was `blanked'. now the cursor is disabled/enabled exactly as a loaded vfossil would do. - if used without vfossil, only 23 rows where used under certain conditions. hopefully ;-) fixed unknown / SIJO / TJW: - there was a problem (access violation because of NULL pointer) if Hydra received [and discarded] a too long packet. Should be fixed. New features ------------ CFS: MODEMCID string string=last data coming from the modem before caller-id. If used, caller-id is logged. e.g.: MODEMCID ID= for a connect string such as: CONNECT 64000/ARQ/ID=3782005/EAZ0 BT-XE would log: Got CID: 3782005 This keyword is required for the next one. CFS: BANNERCID phone banners Sets a custom banner for caller-id calls. * is allowed as wildcard. First match wins: BANNERCID 07492226912951 Hi, Hauke! BANNERCID 0749* Woa! A call from Germany... If no match, the banner specified using BANNER (Tracing your call...) is used. CFS: STRINGREP string replacement Replaces a string for any other. Replacement only takes places at screen and log writes. I've written this to change the cryptic cause numbers from CFOS for more appropiate text. e.g.: STRINGREP /CAUSE=34B9 /Out of order so : NO CARRIER/CAUSE=34B9 becomes NO CARRIER/Out of order CFS: New keyword NOHUNDREDTHS per request in the BINKLEY support echo. If used, 1/100s of seconds won't be logged any more. TS: C replacement for DOS ASM stuff TJW: New, optional event "name" field: You can now specify: Event "Event name up to 32 chars" All 20:00 ... instead of: Event All 20:00 ... The string will be used in "next event" display and at start of event. TJW: Cost vector now may have 32 entries (thanks to german Telekom) TJW: Window Titles Changed function for setting OS/2 window title to the more simple and maybe also "more official" function Win16SetTitle MR: If a config file could not be found you will get an error message. MR: New makefile for Watcom C 10.x for the OS/2 and DOS versions. MR: Made some minor changes to be able to compile and use the Watcom exes. MR: Increased BINKLEY.BAN buffer to 2K for OS/2 MR: new xe_user.doc layout TS: DOS only: new config statement `NoANSITrash' using this statement makes only sense with dos versions under certain conditions (see below) and will be simply ignored by the os/2 version. if you use the BTXE dos version without a vfossil loaded AND without an ansi-driver loaded AND do not intend to redirect screen output to another com-port (e.g to drive an external ansi terminal additionally hooked to your main machine) then you can use the `NoANSITrash' config statement to suppress some some ansi escape sequences which typically will show up on the last screen row and when exiting the mailer. there is no reason to use this config statement if: - you use OS/2 - you have either an ansi driver or a vfossil or both installed - you intend to redirect screen output to an ansi terminal hooked to another comport of your machine CFS: OS/2 only: new keyword "SIOmode" Uses an alternate DTR raise/lower code that works with CFOS's -kx switch (SIO emulation). SIOmode | Method to raise / drop DTR -----------+----------------------------------------------------- used | DosDevIOCtl / ASYNC_SETMODEMCTRL / DTR_ON | DTR_OFF not used | MaxComm.DLL / ComSetDCB / MODE_DTR_CONTROL TS: updated FTSCPROD list in language.txt Known bugs / limitations / things to be done: ============================================= - LocalLog is buggy ? Reason unknown yet. DO NOT USE EXCEPT FOR DEBUGGING. - "CacheHold", "CacheHold 1" and "CacheHold 2" are buggy, outbound disappears except MainZone after you do an Alt-P <MyAka> in the mailer and reappears after a rescan on ANOTHER line. DO NOT USE EXCEPT FOR DEBUGGING. "CacheHold 0" shows NO erroneous behaviour. - Delete outbound *.REQ at end of SUCCESSFUL session (50% implemented yet). - After Hydra xfers in terminal mode, there are some hydra protocol sequences trashing the screen. Also not new, but should be fixed. - Clean up fsent / f_sent / END_BATCH stuff for ZModem. There are problems with ifcico after a request at BT: END_BATCH isn't sent by BT most probably because fsent stuff is confused ... Also check respond_to_filerequests and invoke_srif and WaZoo_Callback. [TJW961128 Remark: this is maybe partially fixed, Send_Wazoo fix] - This one is not a Binkley, but a FastEcho problem (I can't comment on FE, so I just quote some bug reports sent in by FastEcho users): FE (or at least SOME version of FE) deletes BTRESCAN.* - including BTRESCAN.DMP and BTRESCAN.BSY. This problem has to be fixed by FE author (maybe by only deleting BTRESCAN.??).