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LYME TIC processor for RemoteAccess 2.50 Version 2.0 Released 10 Aug 1997 By Pab Sungenis Copr. 1995, 1997 EMPIRE Software Another Shareware Offering --------------------------- INTRODUCTION TO VERSION 2.0 --------------------------- I really can't believe it's been 20 months since the last release. Since version 1.1 of Lyme was released, my life has literally turned itself on its head. New job, new responsibilities, and sickness and death in my family. But somehow, through it all, I found time to make major changes to the program. A considerable speed increase and the addition of downlink capabilities are among the major changes that I think you'll like in this new version. There are other commands and options people asked for which I have not yet had time to try. I hope to work these into an upcoming version. Sorry, but I decided I had to get this one out finally. Thank you all for being so patient while waiting for this version, I hope it was worth the wait. ------------ INTRODUCTION ------------ LYME was written to implement a number of features I, as a SysOp, wanted to see in a TIC processor, and to correct a number of problems that existed in the processor I was using before. In addition to the standard features found in most processors, Lyme offers a number of 'extras' including.... * Support for ALLTICS/*.ZIC files * Built-in 'Ticket' message generation * Selective killing of unwanted file areas * Easy set-up and operation * Ability to use LDESC long description fields in TICs * Support for .RAR file compression * Up to 1,024 file areas in a single config file * Ability to feed files to up to 25 downlinks Plus, Lyme is fully integrated with RA 2.50, allowing you to make changes to your RA file areas, and have those changes immediately used by your TIC processor. Lyme is easy to install, easy to set up, and even easier to use. If you've been using another processor, give it a try. I think you won't be disappointed. ----- SETUP ----- Extract all files to your RA directory, or another directory of your choice. A sample configuration file, with comments, is included in the archive. Lyme uses a simple text file for its configuration. The first non-comment line of the file (in other words, not beginning with a semicolon) must be the path for your files and TICs. All other lines of the file may be either commands or file area definitions. * COMMANDS: All command lines begin with an exclamation point. Commands supported by Lyme are: !DIZ ON|OFF This command allows you to specify whether FILE_ID.DIZ files will be imported into your file database. Lyme will extract FILE_ID.DIZ from files compressed using PAK, ARC, LZH, ZIP, ARJ, and RAR compression. (Note: You must have the appropriate utilities -- PKUNZIP.EXE, LHA.EXE, etc. -- in your search path. If you do not, Lyme will not be able to use FILE_ID.DIZ from files of that type.) The default is ON. !LDESC ON|OFF This determines whether or not LDESC long description lines will be imported into your database. Some FDN's use these lines to provide long descriptions for uncompressed files (such as PCBoard PPE's) and self- extracting EXE's. The default is ON. Note: if you have both !DIZ ON and !LDESC ON in your configuration file, the FILE_ID.DIZ will take precedence over any LDESC lines. !TICKET mbase name If you include this command in your config file, Lyme will generate a "Ticket" message in the specified message base, addressed to the specified name. The message will list all files which were imported, the file area they came from, and a short description of the file. This allows you to see, at a glance, the files that have arrived on a given day. !ORPHAN KEEP|KILL This controls Lyme's treatment of orphaned TIC files (i.e.: TICs which arrive without their matching files). If you choose KILL, the orphaned TIC files will be deleted. The default is KEEP. !UNKNOWN KEEP|KILL This controls Lyme's treatment of TICs which belong to file areas not specified in your configuration file. If you choose KILL, the TIC and file will be deleted. The default is KEEP. !ALLTICS filespec This allows you to specify a filespec to search for which may contain a number of .TIC files (and, optionally, files included in the bundle) compressed into one file. This command allows you to change the default filespec (ALLTICS.*) to another if your provider uses a different file- name. (For example, Allfix's PACK ALL command creates bundles named *.ZIC) !CRC ON|OFF This command will check the file contents against the CRC value in the .TIC file, to make sure that the file has not been corrupted in transit. This will slow down processing somewhat, but is worth it if you want to make sure your files are intact. The default is OFF. !VERIFY ON|OFF This command will check the file after it has been copied into your file area, to make sure that the new file matches the CRC value in the .TIC file. Again, this slows down processing, but adds an extra level of safety against corruption. Default is OFF. All other non-comment lines are assumed to be file area definitions. The format for these lines is as follows: areaname areanum|KILL The 'areaname' is the name of the file area as specified in the TIC files. (Wildcards are allowed.) 'Areanum' is the number of the file area (as defined in your RA configuration) the file should be imported to. You may also specify 'KILL' as your import area. Any files arriving from that area will be deleted. This feature is most useful for users of satellite delivery systems (such as Planet Connect) where you cannot unlink individual areas. Sample area definitions: ;Import SDN text to area 37 1-TEXT 37 ;Import RA Distribution to area 1 RAD* 1 ;Kill any Amiga files ADS* KILL NOTE: There are several !Commands that pertain to downlink feeding. Since not everyone is going to be feeding downlinks, these commands have been set off in their own section of this file. See "FEEDING DOWNLINKS" below. ---------- USING LYME ---------- To run Lyme, simply type: LYME [filename] where 'filename' is the name of the configuration file to use. If none is specified, Lyme will use LYME.CFG for its configuration. Lyme will first read your CONFIG.RA, MESSAGES.RA and FILES.RA files to get its bearings. Next, Lyme will unpack any ALLTICS files found in your TIC directory. Each TIC will then be read, and Lyme will check for the appropriate file. If the file is not found, the TIC is an orphan and will be treated as such. If the file exists, Lyme next checks the area it arrived in against the areas in your configuration file. If it is in an unknown area, it will either be deleted or ignored depending upon your use of the !UNKNOWN command. If the file is compressed and you have not used the !DIZ OFF command, Lyme will check for and extract the FILE_ID.DIZ from it. Next, Lyme will copy the file to the proper directory and create an entry in that area's database for the file. If the file already exists in that area, or if a file matching the TIC's 'Replace' field (if any) exists, Lyme will overwrite the entry for that file with the new one. After all TICs have been processed, Lyme will close its log file (LYME.LOG) and, if you have used the !TICKET command, generate a 'ticket' message. ------------------------------ USING LYME WITH PLANET CONNECT ------------------------------ The advent of Fidonet delivery by satellite has meant many changes in the way things used to work. Many 'traditional' methods (including RAID messages and individual TIC files) are either impossible or too inefficient to be used over the satellite. Many of the new features in Lyme were designed to work with standards set by Planet Connect and other satellite services. This section will help you configure Lyme to use these features and work best with these services. * ALLTICS.* -- Lyme will automatically decompress and use any ALLTICS format files found in your TIC path. There is no need to process these files manually; remove any lines from batch files that decompress ALLTICS. * UNKNOWN AREAS -- Most services will add file areas regularly, and you may wake some morning to find a number of files you hadn't expected are sitting on your drive. I suggest that you do not delete unknown areas automatically, but instead use KILL options to delete file areas you know you do not want. You can then check these new areas, to see if you want to import them or not. * ORPHANS -- I strongly advise you to not delete orphaned TICs. Since the ALLTICS method means that all TICs arrive at once instead of in matched pairs with their accompanying files, you may still be receiving the actual files when your BBS starts tossing. You may also have a file trashed on the first pass but have it received correctly later. Instead you should occasionally manually erase leftover orphans. Lyme's defaults are configured to work best with satellite delivery. For optimum use, do not override them with !ORPHAN or !UNKNOWN commands. -- USING LYME WITH PC AND TVAGENT If you want to import the TVLIST files into your BBS through Planet Connect, LYME makes it easy. Simply copy your LYME.CFG file to TV.CFG, delete all area definitions but TVLIST, change the .TIC directory to the directory your TVLIST files land in, and change the !ALLTICS specification to TVLISTTK.ARC. Then simply add LYME TV.CFG to your 'event' when Planet Connect's cycle is complete. ----------------- FEEDING DOWNLINKS ----------------- The main addition to this new version is the addition of downlink capability to Lyme. Originally, I had intended Lyme to only be an end-of-the-line program, which just imported .TICs into a BBS's file database. However, a lot of people began asking if they could use Lyme to feed files they received to other BBS's. The addition of downlink capability allows you to do this. You do not need to use any of these downlink functions if you do not want to; Lyme still works well as an end-of-the-line program. But for those who wanted it, here is how to go about it. Before adding downlinks to your configuration, you must tell Lyme a few things about your system: !ADDRESS xxx:xxx/xxx.xxx This is YOUR address, the address that the Raid utility will look for messages addressed to it at, and the address that will be included in all hatched .TICs and all Seenby and Path statements in .TICs. !UPLINK xxx:xxx/xxx.xxx password robotname This is the address of your file feed, the password you use to add and drop file areas, and the name you send all add/drop commands to. For example: !UPLINK 1:266/73 PAB LYME This would set up my system as your uplink, with the password "PAB" and "LYME" as the robot name. Most programs (with Allfix being a notable exception) will accept or look for RAID as the file area add/drop robot. Lyme will as well. !NETMAIL path This is the path (trailing '\' please) to your front-end mailer's *.MSG message base. !HATCH path This is the path where you want all .TICs you hatch out placed. It should be in your mailer's outgoing files area. This command is for people (like myself) who have separate directories for incoming FDN files and outgoing files. ** Now that you've told Lyme about yourself, it's time to tell it about your downlinks. For each system that will be receiving files through you, create a LINK command as follows: !LINK xxx:xxx/xxx password path alltic SysOp Where: xxx:xxx/xxx is the address of the downlink. Points allowed. PASSWORD is the Raid and .TIC password for this system. The downlink's SysOp may change it through Raid. Please alert your links that for security purposes, the password is CASE SENSITIVE. PATH is the outgoing path to store all outgoing files, .TICs, and ALLTICS files for this system. Each system MUST have its own path, since there will be a lot of duplicated file names. ALLTIC is the desired compression for ALLTICS files. Compressors currently supported by Lyme are ZIP, ARJ, ARC, LZH, and RAR. If the system does not want to use ALLTICS files, then this should be TIC, and all .TIC files will be sent individually. I suggest you start each system off with TIC, and let them change this if they wish. SYSOP is the SysOp's name for this downlink. All file attaches will be sent to this name. Examples: !LINK 1:266/73 password E:\RA\OUTBOUND\266-73\ RAR Pab Sungenis !LINK 1:266/12 tick E:\RA\OUTBOUND\266-12\ TIC Barry Geller !LINK 100:100/0 gnet C:\GNETOUTB\ ZIP Darryl Pierce Once your downlinks are configured, they may start adjusting their configuration, and adding and dropping areas, by sending messages to LYME (or RAID) at your address. Place LYMERAID.EXE in your Lyme directory, and run it every time you check incoming netmail. It will automate the entire process. Be warned: LYMERAID, by necessity, rewrites your configuration files. Your comments will all be moved to the top of the file, followed by ! commands, then downlinks, then areas. This is not a bug, it is necessary to keep track of everything. If you want to add or delete areas for a particular downlink by hand, you may do so. Simply add the address (preceded by a @) to each area they want to receive. For example: NODEDIFF 3 @1:266/74 @100:100/0 You may leave off the zone and net information for any nodes. Lyme will then assume they are in the same net and/or zone as you. For example, if I'm at 1:266/73, and 1:266/901 wants to hook up to an area, I can just add @901 as the address. Passthrough areas should be noted by just the area tag and downlink addresses, leaving out the filebase number. EP_ASCII @1:266/74 Downlinks are processed before the file is processed locally, allowing you to link systems to areas that you KILL. Also, if a downlink requests an area that is currently covered by one of your wildcard definitions, LYMERAID will copy your information for that wildcard to the new entry. All areas added by LYMERAID will be at the very beginning of your area definitions. ** The HATCH utility is basically an extra little nicety, rather than part of the downlink system itself. It allows you to create .TICs to send files out to particular file areas. It's designed to use your LYME.CFG file for much of its information, so keep it in and run it from your Lyme directory. Hatch may be run in two ways: interactive or command-line. Simply typing HATCH with no parameters will use the interactive mode, prompting you for all information it needs. This is the easiest way to do it. The command-line option is mainly there for people who hatch out files on a semi-regular basis, and want to automate the process. It's also handy for those command-line junkies like myself, who find it's easier to type everything as parameters. The usage for the command-line mode is as follows: HATCH \path\filename [repl [xxx:xxx/xxx [area [descript]]]] Where: \PATH\FILENAME are the full path and filename of the file to hatch. REPL is the name of the file to replace with the new one. For example, LYME20.RAR will supersede LYME110.RAR on systems that carry it, so I would have on my command-line: HATCH \IM\FILES\LYME20.RAR LYME110.RAR AREA is the area tag to hatch the file to xxx:xxx/xxx is the address to hatch the file to DESCRIPT is a one-line description for the file. Any information you leave off the end of the command line will be prompted for in interactive mode. If you want to hatch files out to particular FDNs often, you may want to save yourself time by creating the file HATCH.CFG. This allows you, when using interactive mode, to automatically assign that area tag to a particular address, and also include a hatch password for that area. A HATCH.CFG file is a text file, with one line for each area, in the format: area xxx:xxx/xxx password For example, from my own (passwords changed to protect the innocent!) RAD_UTIL 1:135/71 REMOTE RAD_MAIL 1:135/71 REMOTE PC-UTILS 1:3615/50 OBSOLETE ------------- IN CONCLUSION ------------- Lyme is released under the Shareware concept. If you use the program and like it, you are strongly encouraged to register it. No fee is required to register the program, but donations are not refused. Registrations, along with all comments, questions, and hate mail may be sent to me via one of the following methods: Internet: pab@cnx.com Netmail: Pab Sungenis 1:266/73 Snail: 1349 Roosevelt Blvd., East Vineland, NJ, 08361 We also offer a Fido echomail area called EMPIRE for support of Lyme, Shut Up And Run The Mail, OLMS Answering Machine, my GIGO utilities, and EMPIRE Doorware. For information on connecting to this area, send netmail. It's also available as an Internet mailing list, E-Mail for details. Thanks, and enjoy the program. Pab Sungenis