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1994-08-30
|
46KB
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860 lines
//// / / ///// //// //// //// //// ///// ////
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / Software -- AutoFile History
///// / / / / / / / / ///// / /// / / Copyright David J. Thomas
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 1992, 1993, 1994
/ / //// / //// / / / / //// ///// /////
To be done: o Pass through areas (Terry May)
o Prevention of file forwarding if key words contained in
description (James Partner)
o Check FIL for the file before allowing file to pass
o Inclusion of ZIC, LIC, AIC support
o Use of netmails to forward files using Jetmail-specific flags
(optional)
o Group-type duplicate detection
o Turbo: file access level to be set at file echo level (Ed Lynch)
| -- Bug (Karl Foley)
|File reports had 0 size listed in file reports.
| -- Bug (Dave Meaker)
|Some PC systems reported PW in TIC files instead of Pw. AutoFile accommodates
|these now.
+--- 30 Aug 94 -- Version 1.08 - 82217 bytes
| -- Important Change
|From this version onwards, the GNU General Public License will apply to
|AutoFile. The sources are therefore distributed along with the program
|itself. The AUTOFILE.GFA source code is distributed with this release.
| -- Change
|The CRC-16 code has been made machine code. This will help more with MakeDiff
|later, when that release is out.
+--- 7 Jan 94 -- Version 1.07 - 86946 bytes
| -- Bug
|*.TIC files that were renamed to *.TXX were not later renamed to *.TOK. Fixed.
| -- Bug
|Only the first *.TOK file was found. Fixed.
| -- Change
|The key code has been changed. I will issue everyone with a new key, of the
|format xxxx-yyyyyy, xxxx being letters and yyyy being the serial number; this
|key will be presented in the form of a Key statement in the control file. It
|will also be necessary to include your name, in the form of a Name statement
|in the control file, and you must have specified this in exactly the same way
|that you have requested for your key.
| -- Bug (Daron Brewood)
|The HATCH file was not being processed according to specifications.
| -- Bug
|The log was not being written. This should be fixed now.
| -- Bug (Keyop Troy, John Carolin)
|The number of times a file was downloaded was not being set correctly by
|AutoFile. Hopefully :-) it should now work :-) hi John ;-)
| -- Bug (John Carolin)
|Some of the new keys didn't work properly. If you get a problem with your key,
|please let me know about it and I will try to solve the problem ASAP.
+--- 6 Jan 94 -- Version 1.06 - 89087 bytes
| -- New feature
|Any file that cannot be imported due to lack of space has its corresponding
|TIC file changed in extension to TOK. TOK files are not checked, since they
|have already been checked once, so this speeds things up whilst allowing you
|to free up more room on your download directories without having to rename
|TICs to get them processed.
| -- Bug (Al Petersen)
|The minus sign, or hyphen (-) wasn't accepted in area names when using
|AutoFile's own hatch feature. I suspect that since Al has now discovered
|AutoShell, he probably won't notice this bug fix :-) Incidentally, if anyone
|out there doesn't know about AutoShell, it makes a pretty good shell for
|AutoFile, but sometimes features of AutoFile are missing from AutoShell.
| -- Change
|Logging should now work a bit better. All lines are sent to screen, and if
|they are longer than 80 characters then they are split over to the next line.
| -- Change
|The default word recognised by AutoFile for automatic file echo attach/detach
|is now FILEFIX.
| -- Change
|ProBBS's configuration file formats changed since the release of 1.05. The
|formats are not expected to change any further before beta testing of ProBBS
|begins. AutoFile has been modified to take into account of the changes, and
|has been extensively tested in consultation with John Carolin (author of
|ProBBS).
| -- Known bugs
|AutoFile has sometimes closed its log early when using the ProBBS
|configuration. I'm looking into this, but can't see where the problem lies at
|present. However, the program still works normally.
|TOKs still seem to be completely checked, even though they have already been
|checked, and I'm not sure that they are all detected at once properly. Again
|this shouldn't cause too many problems.
| -- Note
|I couldn't release this formerly as a beta version as I would normally have
|done, because I didn't have the time to do so. Development on this program
|will slow for the next six months or so, since my final two terms at
|University are coming up and I will not have time to continue program
|development. Apologies about this, but note that development will continue as
|long as there is demand for it, after my exams finish.
+--- 10 Nov 93 -- Version 1.05 - 88083 bytes
| -- Bug (Daron Brewood)
|It was impossible to use file echoes which had areanames with numbers in.
| -- Bug (several)
|Registrations were not acknowledged; the program said "Unregistered" in all
|netmails.
| -- New feature
|AutoFile is the first ProBBS-ready program to hit the streets! If you decide
|to run ProBBS in the future, AutoFile will easily be tailored to suit. You
|only need to insert the new config line "ProBBS <path_to_BBSINFO.DAT>" and
|AutoFile will do the rest.
|Please note that you cannot use this feature at the same time as TurboFIL.
+--- 4 Oct 93 -- Version 1.04 - 87264 bytes
|This release needs ALL keys issued with serial numbers from 1000 onwards to be
|updated. Please do not install this version of AutoFile if you have not
|received an updated key, but instead, contact the support board.
| -- New feature
|File echo names can now contain more than eight characters. No limit is now
|applied. However, any echo names that contain more than eight characters may
|cause problems with some other TIC file processors, so the use of such names
|is NOT recommended. If you are using echo names with more than eight
|characters then the StopDup feature will not function for those areas. I need
|to get this release out, and haven't time to get it working for long area
|names.
| -- New feature (Daron Brewood)
|It is now possible to quit the program without sending a file through file
|echoes when the SEND option is used.
+--- 16 Aug 93 -- Version 1.03beta (Restricted Release)
| -- New feature
|AutoFile now supports automatic use of magic names for BinkleyTerm users.
|There are a few new keywords to supoprt the feature:
|Okfile <filename> [<password>], where <filename> is the path and name to your
|Binkley-compatible Okfile, and <password> is an optional password to be added
|to Magics written into the Okfile specified. With this, a new Okfile will be
|written out including the new magic name, which will replace any existing one.
|AutoMagic <magic_name>, which should be used after an AutoSend line, and will
|specify a magic name for files automatically sent.
|The HATCH file specification now includes a new optional fourth entry, namely
|the magic name. It may be included or not, but do not forget that all HATCH
|file specifications should end with the string --- on an otherwise empty line.
|When locally hatching a file, the user will now be prompted for a magic
|filename.
|A keyword Magic has been introduced in the TIC file to support this feature.
|Note that this could cause crashes to software that does not support it, but
|such software would not be compliant to FSC-0028. This is the reason for this
|release being restricted. Please let me know if any problems occur with other
|people's software.
+--- 17 Jul 93 -- Version 1.02beta (Restricted Release)
| -- Bug (Lots of people)
|Netmails were not being given the correct flags. This should now be fixed. The
|flags will include Pvt, K/Snt and Local. Crash or Hold may also be present,
|depending on which flags are set for the outgoing node.
| -- Bug (Daron Brewood)
|An attempt was made to process deleted, but not received, FileFix requests.
| -- Bug (Daron Brewood)
|The program terminated abnormally on discovery of a FileFix request using the
|wrong password.
| -- Bug (Forgotten)
|FileFix requests using the wrong password were returned with the wrong address
|in the "From:" field.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|Default file report template was not found in some instances.
| -- New feature (Terry May)
|'Send /? for Help' line included in FileFix responses where help was not
|originally requested.
+--- 28 Jun 93 -- Version 1.01
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|Hatching a file into a secondary area failed to add crucial details to the TIC
|and FLO files written out. Due to this bug, version 1.0 was not supplied to
|the net, hence this release is a full release rather than 1.0. Apologies to
|the few that did actually obtain 1.0 from me.
| -- Bug
|Reporting the size of a hatched file failed; the file size was written in as
|0.
| -- New feature
|FileFix checking speed has been considerably increased, to the point where an
|option to disable checking is no longer required.
+--- 27 Jun 93 -- Version 1.0
| -- New feature (Daron Brewood)
|Reporting options for number of files and origin node number of files. The
|REPORT lines of a file reporting template may contain %o, which will be
|expanded to the node number of the originating node. If a file is hatched
|locally, your first address in the zone given by the first address to hatch to
|is used, or the default zone if no nodes are specified. The SUBJect, HEADER,
|REPORT or FOOTER lines may contain %n, which will be expanded to the number of
|file hatches reported in the block.
|The default file reporting template now encloses the origin node number
|parameter %o, but to use the number of files hatched %n you must develop your
|own template.
| -- Bug (Carsten Brockman)
|The subject line of the netmail sent with a file still contained some of the
|path to the TIC file, or in some cases just digits. This should be fixed now.
+--- 20 May 93 -- Version 1.0 PR (The first Non-Beta Release)
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem, Terry May)
|In some instances, specifically when processing TIC files, the CRC was
|calculated correctly but the program placed 0 in each outgoing TIC file.
| -- Change
|The logging priority of some text lines has been changed.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|A GEMDOS internal error has hopefully been eradicated.
| -- Bug
|"Replaces" lines in TICs were never acted upon, even if "Replace-Del" was
|included in the control file.
| -- Bug
|Small error in information output in response to "autofile ?" rectified.
| -- New feature
|AutoFile will now exit with errorlevels 0-3 or 99. 99 indicates "autofile ?"
|was used, otherwise bit 0 indicates netmail was written, and bit 1 indicates
|that echomail was written.
+--- 1 May 93 -- Version 0.25<beta> (Restricted Release)
| -- New feature
|I've added support for the environment variable MAILER. If MAILER is found in
|the environment and no AUTOFILE.CTL exists in the current working directory,
|AutoFile will search the directory specified by the MAILER environment
|variable for AUTOFILE.CTL.
+--- 22 Apr 93 -- Version 0.24<beta> (Restricted Release)
| -- Bug (Me, Ben Van Bokkem)
|The Size of TICked and FLEad files was reported as 0 bytes.
| -- New feature
|Duplicate file prevention has now been added. The syntax of the new statement,
|'StopDup', is 'StopDup [<path>]' where <path> is an optional path
|specification where the .DUP files will be stored. The information stored
|about each file is its name and CRC-32, so files with the same name can still
|be processed, as long as they are different.
| -- New feature
|Where secondary areas are used, there is no real need for the file to exist on
|the BBS in two areas. Also there is no need for two descriptions. The file
|copy to secondary areas has been discontinued.
+--- 21 Apr 93 -- Version 0.23<beta> (Restricted Release)
| -- Bug
|If more than one report of an echoed file was required, the second and later
|reports did not contain descriptions.
| -- Bug
|If not enough space was available to move a file, AutoFile still reported its
|arrival.
+--- 20 Apr 93 -- Version 0.22<beta> (Restricted Release)
| -- Bug
|Sometimes, 'empty' messages were written, which caused LED to assume that no
|more messages were in the base, and Jetmail was exporting messages with no
|From, To, Subj field, nor mail text. Hopefully no more problems should result.
+--- 18 Apr 93 -- Version 0.21<beta> (Restricted Release)
| -- Errata
|The default filename for file reporting info is REPFILE.TPL, not REPAREA.TPL.
|Sorry guys!
| -- Bug
|If a TIC file was not processed correctly (due to an error in the TIC), then
|no other TIC files would be looked at and the program would abort with error
|-25.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|If, in a report, the default Report line was used then its template was not
|properly terminated by a LF, so a full stop appeared before the footer.
+--- 17 Apr 93 -- Version 0.20<beta> (Restricted Release)
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|AutoFile was detecting the presence of a file in a FIL file, but it was
|proceeding to append to it anyway. Hopefully this has now been fixed.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|Error -33 (File not found) appeared when trying to hatch a file.
| -- Bug
|When hatching a file, the report would not contain a filename.
| -- Bug
|When locally hatching a file, the report(s) would not be written.
| -- Bug (Many)
|When locally hatching a file, the description would not be appended to
|FILES.BBS. Hopefully this is now fixed.
| -- Bugs
|Quite a few more bugs were present in the earlier releases of today, which I
|don't think I need to go into. It should suffice to say that all of the bugs
|I've found have been eliminated. Now it's your turn, guys :-)
+--- 17 Apr 93 -- Version 0.19<beta> (Restricted Release)
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem, Daron Brewood, Mark Matts)
|If the AUTOFILE.CTL contained any lines with three or more parameters,
|AutoFile was bombing out. This was a slight omission caused by me being
|extremely tired at about 0300am :-(
+--- 17 Apr 93 -- Version 0.18<beta> (Restricted Release)
| -- New feature (Joerg Spilker)
|You can now use Version 3 BinkleyTerm files, with Base-36 filenames. This
|means that you need not specify a private net number for your points, if you
|include the "Base36" keyword in AUTOFILE.CTL and use BT version 3 or higher.
| -- Bug
|The importing of FLE files was not reported in Rep_Area.
| -- New feature (Joerg Spilker)
|The syntax of RepArea keyword has changed, it is now as follows:
|RepArea <echomail_area_path> <groups> [<template file>]
|The groups keyword specifies which area groups are to be reported in the echo,
|using the format supplied in the template file. None of the defaults have been
|changed, but AutoFile will search for REPAREA.TPL rather than REPAREA.CTL if
|the template file name has not been specified.
|You can now have up to sixteen RepArea statements, giving AutoFile more
|comprehensive file reporting options than anything else available!
| -- New feature
|More comprehensive checking of AUTOFILE.CTL now takes place. If you have any
|lines in AUTOFILE.CTL with a lower number of parameters than is required, then
|AutoFile should terminate with a list of all such errors.
+--- 16 Apr 93 -- Version 0.17<beta> (Restricted Release)
| -- New feature (Terry May)
|AutoFile can now recognise either upper or lower case file echo names, and
|the search for the file echo from the list of names is now case independent.
| -- New feature
|In order that AutoFile may keep within FTSC standards, file echo names can be
|longer than eight characters but only the first eight characters are
|significant.
| -- New feature
|A dramatic speed improvement now occurs when AutoFile has no TIC/FLE files to
|process. Also a more logical arrangement, as follows:
|If AutoFile has nothing to do (there are no TIC/FLE files waiting to be
|processed, and nothing is being hatched) then there is no need at this stage
|to check for FileFix messages, a normally time-consuming activity. However, if
|it does have something to do, AutoFile immediately checks for any FileFix
|netmails that may have come in, and processes them before sending the file(s)
|through the echoes.
|If you would prefer that AutoFile checks for FileFix messages anyway, include
|FILEFIX on the command line. You will also have to include the name of every
|other process you need completed as usual.
| -- Code change
|AUTOFREE is no longer a valid statement in AUTOFILE.CTL.
| -- New feature
|To get details of File control operation (FileFix), the user may now specify
|any of the following in addition to "-I": "/I", "-?", "/?". In case anyone
|wishes to use "Requestfix" support, this will be added soon, and can be
|invoked by placing a / before the request filename. AutoFile itself will use
|this feature to request files that are missing, if required, at a later date,
|though I believe that file requests are a much better alternative for the
|purpose of obtaining files from a system.
| -- New feature
|You may now specify more than one inbound area. All must be specified by the
|"Inbound" statement, on separate lines (each line starting with "Inbound",
|followed by the path). Each inbound area will be treated with equal priority.
+--- 28 Mar 93 -- Version 0.16<beta> (Restricted Release)
| -- New feature (Kevin Osborne)
|AutoFile will now check for the existence of a file, before adding its name
|into the FIL file and updating the number of files available counter. Note
|that this does not yet work for standard FILES.BBS files, but this may be
|added soon.
| -- New feature
|The "File Supply Advice" subject line of the netmail sent along with a file
|has been updated to show the name of the primary file, followed by the name of
|its respective TIC/FLE file, if present.
| -- New feature (Joerg Spilker, amongst others)
|Reporting of files received in an echomail area should now be possible, using
|the following extra command for this version:
|RepArea <echomail_area_PATH>
|The name of the echomail area must NOT be used as the parameter; the path
|should be used instead.
|All areas are reported at present. You can make a new file, if you wish,
|called REPFILE.CTL with the following format:
|FROM <from_field> Default: AutoFile
|TO <to_field> Default: All
|SUBJ[ECT] <subject_field> Default: New Files
|[HEADER <header_field_line>] (any number of Header lines)
|Default:
| The following files have been received:
| .
|[REPORT <report_field_line>] (any number of Report lines)
|Default:
| %f (%e): %s bytes
| \d \
| \d \
| .
|[FOOTER <footer_field_line>] (any number of Footer lines)
|Default: none
|[ORIGIN <text_to_appear_after_Origin:_> Default: none
|The report lines are expanded as follows:
|%f is replaced with the filename
|%e is replaced with file echo name
|%s is replaced by the size of the program in bytes
|%d is replaced by the complete description
|\d...\ is replaced by as much description as will fit in \d...\, the program
|tries to split the description up so that the line will terminate with a
|space.
|The report, header and footer lines are expanded as follows:
|Any empty line will not be included in the echomail report. Any line whose
|contents are one single point (.) will be replaced by a blank line.
|The REPFILE.CTL file does not need to be used. The intention is that in future
|it will be possible to have many such REPFILE.CTL's given different names.
+--- 26 Feb 93 -- Version 0.15<beta>
| -- Note
|I know I have promised everyone that I'll have added a reporting facility for
|files going through the file echoes via an echomail area for this release.
|However, this will take a certain amount of time. Please accept this interim
|release, which fixes various important bugs and also adds a few new features.
|The following will be added for 0.16<beta> (at least):
|* The echomail reporting of files facility
|* The use of Base 36 filenames for BinkleyTerm-ST users (optional)
| -- Bug
|The wrong file number was being written to *.FIL files, this should now be
|corrected. AutoFile will read and update the CONFIG.DAT file, or issue an
|error report if it doesn't exist.
| -- Code reduction
|Since a product has been released that allows for the updating of bad TIC
|files, the section of code I started writing to handle this has been deleted.
| -- Update (IMPORTANT)
|The commandline format has now been modified, and made more intelligible. The
|following are the new commands:
|? - Display this list (exclusive of others)
|auto[x] - look for auto hatches [using autosend line x of control file]
|filefix - look for messages to Filefix etc
|hatch - look for HATCH file, and process if present
|report - send out a report to all your filefixable nodes
|search - search for incoming TICs/FLEs
|send - hatch a file locally (exclusive of others)
| -- New feature (Ed Lynch)
|If you are using Turbo and you wish to specify the contents of the Uploader
|field, you can now specify FilUpload <string> and the string will be used as
|the text of the uploader field. Note that this is truncated if it exceeds 30
|characters. The default is "AutoFile Automated Upload", as before.
| -- Change
|Password logging of TIC files now only occurs when running AutoFile in Debug
|mode, which should aid security.
|File information has now been rationalised, and the following fields of text
|will be logged whether the file comes through the file network, or is locally
|hatched, unless otherwise specified (note that the order of the lines is
|unspecified, and also that there is no blank after the colon):
|FArea:<area>
|[FCRC:<hex_crc32>]
|FDesc:<desc>
|FFrom:<from_node_number> (not when locally hatched)
|FName:<filename>
|[FOrigin:<origin_node_number>]
|[FRelease:<release_info>]
|[FReplaces:<replace_filename>]
|FSize:<dec_size_in_bytes>
|(The following lines are only logged in Debug mode, and only for files passing
|through a file network)
|[FCreatedBy:<created_by_line>]
|[FPath:<node_file_has_passed_through>]
|FPw:<password>
|FSeenby:<seenby_node>
|These will always be in a block on their own, and will require loglevel 5 to
|produce (except for those that are created in Debug mode, where Debug logging
|is required).
| -- Code reduction
|I don't think anyone was using the Free code (which deleted files if there was
|not enough free space for new ones), and certainly I never received any
|feedback about this, so future versions will not contain this code. It's
|inappropriate for inclusion in AutoFile anyway.
+--- 16 Jan 93 -- Version 0.14<beta>
| -- New feature
|Replace lines can now be processed, with automatic deletion of old files to
|which this file is an update. Include Replace-Del in your control file, and
|any file that matches the name in any TIC file in any "Replaces" statement
|will be deleted. NOTE that more than one "Replaces" statement can exist in a
|TIC file, and ALSO that wildcards ARE allowed. At present, AutoFile will not
|delete any occurrences in FILES.BBS of the filename.
| -- New feature
|I didn't like the prospect of a wildcarded Replace entry, so I've put code in
|to inhibit this; I may include a control file statement to allow them in the
|future, if demand exists for such a feature.
| -- New logging
|Seenbys will be logged if Debug is specified. This is to solve a problem that
|has occurred when routing files to a specific system.
| -- Bug (James Partner)
|If two files come into a file echo with an attached secondary area, the second
|one would not be hatched into the secondary echo if both were processed during
|the same running of AutoFile. Should be fixed now.
| -- Debug feature
|If RenUsedTics is used in the control file, processed TIC files and FLE files
|will be renamed to *.TPR and *.FPR, respectively.
| -- New feature
|AutoFile will now support Turbo *.FIL files. If you use these, AutoFile will
|write to a *.FIL file _instead_ of a FILES.BBS file if it exists. The record
|that will be placed in the corresponding FIL file will have the following
|characteristics:
|(a) The language field will be set to "Unknown"
|(b) The percentage rating will be set to 50
|(c) The file will be marked as ASCII if it has a .ASC extender, else it will
| be marked as Binary
|(d) The "uploader" field will be set to "AutoFile Automated Upload"
|If a corresponding *.FIL file is not found, then AutoFile will write a
|FILES.BBS in the download area instead. To use this facility, use the command
|"TurboFil <path_to_*.FIL_files> [<access_level>]" in AUTOFILE.CTL. The default
|access level is zero.
| -- Bug (this may have been reported by several)
|AutoFile FileFix reports with -L and also connect/disconnect areas should
|respond with an accurate list of connected echoes now, as opposed to the
|previous versions which kept data in a memory cache without updating and used
|this data. The cache is still there, but changing an area now correctly
|flags out any entry for the cache file.
| -- Bug (James Partner)
|Files through 90_NEST were not being sent to 90:4/0, the reason for this was
|that the checking routine found 90:104/0 when it was looking for 4/0 (this
|search must be done just in case anyone runs non-zone aware software). I
|thought I had accounted for this possibility, but this had not been done.
|AutoFile may be a bit slower as a result, but it now checks for terminators
|so 90:104/0 is replaced by <cr>90:104/0<cr> and the search is for <cr>4/0<cr>
|internally.
|A note about zone-awareness: It is not possible to know the zone number if it
|is not specified. As a result, if an address is encountered that does not have
|a specified zone number, it is assumed that the address means all zones.
|Therefore, if a node 1:250/100 were to place 250/100 in a TIC file, the file
|can never be sent to 2:250/100, 90:250/100, 100:250/100, etc. To counter this
|problem, you are advised to use zone numbers, and future versions of AutoFile
|may well require it.
| -- New feature
|If a netmail is written by the program (and hence the exporter should be
|invoked) AutoFile will now exit with errorlevel 1, otherwise it will exit with
|errorlevel 0.
+--- 29 Nov 92 -- Version 0.13<beta>
| -- Bug (Mark Butler)
|If the Zone statement for the zone which a TIC file is to be written for is
|specified, and the addresses are NOT in the same order as specified in
|BINKLEY.CFG (this only applies to BinkleyTerm setups), then the following
|situation could arise:
|Conditions: 1) Address to send the TIC file is not of the default zone. 2) A
|correct Zone statement for that zone is specified, and does not include an
|extension.
|Problem: AutoFile was writing the ?LO file in a directory with an added
|extension, if that directory existed. If it did not exist, then the program
|would abort, either with error -33 (file not found) or -34 (path not found).
|What AutoFile does now is that it will only add an extension onto the zone
|path if the information has come from the Hold statement, and if the Zone
|statement has been used then the path will remain untouched.
| -- Bug (James Partner)
|Secondary Areas were simply not working. It is hoped that with this release,
|the problems with secondary areas will no longer be present. Also there have
|been changes to this side of the code, as follows:
|AutoFile will now leave all SeenBy-lines in when it hatches a file into
|another file echo because a secondary area was specified. This will cause a
|reduction in file duplicates, but it must be noted that if two or more nodes
|take two echoes, both of which are linked, then they must be linked at both
|systems. The file is only transferred once, in the correct echo, when this is
|done properly. For example, say there is a UK host for EST and a USA host for
|the same, they are also connected to various ADN echoes. We will consider
|ST_BINK and EST_BINK here:
| UK Host USA Host
| ??? <-> | ST_BINK | <--------------> | ST_BINK |
| | EST_BINK | <-> UK Nodes | EST_BINK | <-> USA Nodes
|It is obviously prudent to ensure that no other link between the UK and USA
|for those file echoes then takes place, to avoid duplication loops, which may
|occur for the same reasons as they do with echomail (with a closed polygon of
|connections); and where the files are being transferred between different
|networks, both the UK and the USA nodes should agree to one echo which they
|can both send and receive through (e.g. the USA Host should not send to the UK
|Host EST_BINK if the UK Host is sending to the USA Host ST_BINK, unless both
|file echoes use the same network; it is recommended that only one echo is used
|for the purpose of file transfers between the hosts, anyway). In the above
|example, both hosts have ST_BINK set up with secondary echo EST_BINK, and
|transfer files between each other in this network, and they also have EST_BINK
|set up later on, where only nodes from their own country are linked, and no
|link extends between the two hosts for EST_BINK.
|Note that it is now possible to successfully specify a 'ring' of secondary
|areas, so that files coming in any of the areas are hatched automatically into
|all of the others. AutoFile stops itself from hatching a file in an echo twice
|under these circumstances.
| -- New feature
|It is now possible to use "FixName <name>" and AutoFile will look for more
|names in the "To" field of netmails, when searching for FileFix-style
|messages. This can be used more than once if necessary. The case does not
|matter. Example:
|FixName Raid
|FixName FileFix
| -- Bug (James Partner)
|When sending out to secondary areas, the primary areaname was used in all TIC
|files. Now (hopefully!) fixed.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|Dates in the TIC file were out by one month. Those in the Path lines were one
|month higher than they should have been.
+--- 14 Nov 92 -- Version 0.12<beta>
| -- New feature
|If AutoFile requests come in without a valid password, AutoFile will now
|respond to these and indicate that the wrong password was received from the
|node/point.
| -- Bug
|Description field is now properly limited to 80 characters in the local Hatch
|routine.
| -- Bug
|Information on the last area, in the last line, of the control file, was not
|being read correctly. This is now working.
| -- Bug (Paul Baker, Mark Butler)
|AutoFile was not sending out to points if 4D addressing was used when a file
|goes through the system, although if a file was hatched directly then there
|was no problem. Now fixed.
| -- Apology
|There is quite a bit of unenabled code for fixing failed TIC files. This will
|not work at present. Sorry for that, but people want a fixed version ASAP and
|therefore I have to release the program ASAP. The size of the program is a bit
|bigger than it otherwise would have been.
+--- 8 Nov 92 -- Version 0.11<beta>
| -- Bug
|TICs and FLEs were being created, even if a file was not moved into the
|correct area (due to lack of space) with the original TIC being deleted. Now
|the TIC is simply renamed to BAD (to prevent it being re-processed).
| -- Bug
|Passwords had to be presented in the same case as that of the copy in your
|control file, i.e. "Auto" != "AUTO". This is now fixed, and runs to the usual
|password specification where mixed case can be used ("Auto" == "AUTO").
| -- New feature
|Previously, if no description was specified in a TIC or FLE (or an empty
|description was specified), then the TIC or FLE would be renamed to BAD. Now,
|a description is created, simply "Description not specified". This is also
|passed on to downlinks.
| -- New feature
|Bad FLE files will now be renamed to FBD and bad TIC files to TBD. There is a
|new error-checking system which allows you to search for files that didn't
|process correctly, and find out the reason why. This will be added soon.
| -- Bug (John Carolin)
|The-Box .IF files were being written when .HF files should have been,
|resulting in TB polling it's downlinks.
| -- New feature -- EXPERIMENTAL ONLY
|AutoFree <space> can be used to automatically get rid of old files when new
|ones come in. The way it does this is as follows:
|1. It looks for files in each file area specified on the partition which has
| run out of space.
|2. Read-only (software write-protected) files are ignored. FILES.BBS and
| FILES.BAK are also ignored if present.
|3. The files are deleted in order, from the oldest to the newest, except that
| large files which are a couple of weeks newer than the old files have
| precedence. A value is interpreted for each file, the lower the magnitude
| of 'value' the more valuable the file is. This is the sum of the age of the
| file (in hours) and 168*the base-10 logarithm of the size of the file
| (which works out to one week for every order of magnitude).
|ALERT! You *MUST NOT* run this option unattended at present. I cannot
|guarantee the option, and I don't think it works properly at present. It was
|introduced at this stage because I need more space! There will be a file-move
|option introduced in the future, where files are moved to another directory.
| -- Bug (reported by Everybody!)
|Point addresses can now be used! It results in 4D TICs containing the actual
|addresses, but it does now work. I'll get round to adding 3D support soon
|(this is more complicated, because files sent to nodes must not contain any
|of your private point numbers in the SEEN-BYs, PATHs are OK though).
| -- New feature
|Netmails can now be sent along with files, if the Advise statement is used in
|the control file. These will have Local Pvt K/Snt and either zero or one of
|Hold/Crash as appropriate.
+--- 8 Oct 92 -- Version 0.10 (first release version)
| -- New feature
|AutoFile now requires an AUTOMAGI.KEY file to work properly. People that
|already have an AUTOMATI.KEY or MAKEDIFF.KEY should rename this to
|AUTOMAGI.KEY, or make a copy if running a release of MakeDiff prior to 1.10.
|Demo keys last for 28 days only, and are available by using AMKEYREQ, the
|AutoMagiKey Requestor to dial The Dream Machine and interface with it. The
|program is available from The Dream Machine (+44-222-341713) or other sources.
+--- 30 Sep 92 -- Version 0.09<beta> (restricted release)
| -- Bug
|If a message to AutoFile has a NULL in it, the program will look for an area
|with the name NULL (which cannot possibly exist). Since the area doesn't
|exist, the "........does not exist" is added to the response, but LED stops
|reading the netmail at a NULL. This was affecting messages to AutoFile without
|a tearline (---) in them.
| -- Bug
|AutoFile parsing was still not quite working properly, in distinguishing
|between spaces and LF's.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|Trying to connect to an area that you were already connected to, caused your
|entry to be added a second time. Now AutoFile reports, correctly, that you are
|already connected. For a similar reason, the program did not allow nodes to
|disconnect from echoes.
+--- 27 Sep 92 -- Version 0.08<beta>
| -- New feature
|It's possible to write utilities that automatically hatch files into echoes
|now. AutoFile will, by default (if a commandline is specified, the 'c'
|parameter is used for this purpose) check for a "HATCH" file in the current
|working directory. If this is found, it should have the following format:
|<Full file path and name>
|<Area>
|<Description>
|[Undefined additional information]
|---
|etc...
|It must be terminated by an end-of-line sequence. This allows AutoFile to
|send files automatically.
|If a program uses this feature, it should look for the file first, and if
|it exists, append to it, since it may already have been written by another
|piece of software.
|MakeDiff will shortly be using this feature of AutoFile to provide a way of
|including various details in the nodelist description issued.
| -- Bug (John Carolin)
|*.HF and *.IF files weren't being written out properly.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem, Daron Brewood, Flemming Nielsen)
|Errors in the handling of 'AutoFile' messages (^A lines read verbatim) fixed.
+--- 24 Sep 92 -- Version 0.07<beta>
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem, Daron Brewood)
|If StatusLog didn't exist in Debug mode, the program wouldn't run, it would
|exit with error -33 (File not found).
| -- Bug (Daron Brewood)
|-L didn't work in 0.06.
+--- 22 Sep 92 -- Version 0.06<beta>
| -- New feature
|Limited privatenet support. The FLO file written out will have the privatenet
|number in the case of sending a file to a point.
|Specify the PrivateNet for each address as the second parameter in the Address
|line, separated from the address by a space.
| -- New feature
|Two flags on the subject line of 'AutoFile' messages can be specified, these
|being -I (for information, i.e. help) and -L (for a list of file echo
|connections).
| -- Change
|AutoFile checks for messages to 'AutoFile' rather than 'FileFix' now; in
|later versions there will be a control that allows you to specify what
|AutoFile will recognise and act upon (e.g. Raid, FileFix). Case is
|independent.
| -- New feature
|Area descriptions can be supplied using the 'Local Desc' parameter under
|an area. These are shown to fixable nodes.
| -- New feature
|To manually hatch a file, you can no longer use the command line. Call
|AutoFile with parameter 'h' to hatch a file.
| -- New feature
|Switches on the command line: '?' displays a list, and asks for a keypress;
|'a[n]' searches for possible files for automatic hatching [using the nth
|'AutoSend' parameter only]; 'f' searches through netmail for messages
|addressed to AutoFile; 'r' sends a report to all fixable nodes of what echoes
|are being carried, and which can be obtained; and 's' searches for files in
|inbound. Default operation is as for 'autofile afs' if no command line is
|specified.
+--- 19 Sep 92 -- Version 0.05<beta>
| -- New feature
|FileFix! A major enhancement. To use this, you must define the Netmail path
|in the control file with "Netmail <path_and_name>", usual style, leaving off
|the extension.
|You can have up to 500 Fix lines in the control file. The format is as
|follows:
|Fix <node> <password> <area_groups> <flags>
|<node> is the number of the node to which the FileFix access applies to.
|<password> is the word that they must specify on the Subject line (either
|upper or lower case, it doesn't matter). <area_groups> is explained below.
|<flags> is the list of flags added after a node that is to be connected to
|an area, for example IOH would set inbound file access and outbound TICs
|put on hold for the node.
|The area groups that a node can access are given by the area_groups parameter
|(which MUST be there, if you don't need area groups then just leave it as *).
|This must be matched up to the area group of the file echo when connecting or
|disconnecting. There is now a new statement that can be included immediately
|after Area to specify this, called "Local Group" which must be followed by one
|character. If this is not in an area description, it is assumed that any node
|listed in the Fix lines can connect to that area.
|Don't try it with points. It still won't work. I haven't implemented the code
|to handle points yet.
+--- 18 Sep 92 -- Version 0.04<beta>
| -- Incompatibility with STick (Ben Van Bokkem)
|It doesn't like 4D addresses in TIC files! Now changed to 3D where possible.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|"From" node not always in Seenby's in TIC/FLE file. Now rectified.
+--- 12 Sep 92 -- Version 0.03<beta>
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|Release date showed one month after what it should have been showing, in TICs
|created from hatched files.
| -- "Bug" (Ben Van Bokkem)
|No Path line was causing both ACS and STick to barf, in hatched files.
| -- "Bug" (Ben Van Bokkem)
|Some TIC files created by ACS had their password terminated by a CR but no LF,
|AutoFile corrects for this now.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|The control file was not always found when getting data for an area, should
|be fixed now.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|When hatching a file into an echo, any wildcards specified were copied into
|the "File" lines of any TICs/FLEs written out. Not sure if that one is fixed,
|but it might be!
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|When hatching a file, the Release line of the TIC file had a blank line after
|it.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|The program sometimes reported "File does not exist" even when the file did
|exist, in Hatch mode.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|When moving a file to replace another file on the same logical drive, error
|-36 (Access denied) was reported. This will now only be reported if the target
|file is software write-protected.
+--- 10 Sep 92 -- Version 0.02<beta>
| -- Bug
|If a node is listed with just two dimension address in the list as the first
|file, then files hatched into the node were not recognised. Also, the node
|searching routine had an escape at exactly this position, which caused a bus
|error. The two problems were linked.
| -- Bug
|When writing FLE files, the program was hanging, sending the first Seenby line
|to the FLE file until program reset.
| -- Bug (reported by Ben Van Bokkem)
|Upon hatching a file, all nodes after the first were ignored. This was due to
|a debug line left in the code at that point, causing program execution to
|terminate prematurely.
| -- Bug
|Logging problem where lines having more than 69 characters in them were
|causing the program to hang.
+--- 9 Sep 92 -- Version 0.01<beta> -- Initial AutoFile release
|Preliminary Documentation for Betatesters:
|AutoFile reads a control file named autofile.ctl. The name is fixed at
|present, and cannot be changed. What it expects in the control file are the
|following statements:
|Address <zone>:<net>/<node> - of which up to 16 can exist; this specifies
| a list of addresses. Point numbe
| supported yet. It is advised that the zone number be included.
|Inbound <protected_inbound_path> - path to your protected inbound directory,
| which will be scanned for TIC files (and FLE files if AutoFile is set up to
| do so).
|[Zone <zone> <holding_area>] - path to a Binkley-style holding area for the
| zone identified, this allows domain support if you don't have two domains
| using the same zone. The domains should not be specified in the control
| file.
|[Hold <holding_area>] - default Binkley-style holding area string, if you
| don't run domains then this is all you need. Also applies to The-Box
| systems, and specifies the holding area for these. If a Zone parameter is
| included for the relevant zone, then the Hold statement is disregarded.
|[Bink|The-Box] - specifies mailer type, and hence the format of the files
| placed in the holding area.
|TicDir <TIC_storage_path> - where TICs and FLEs will be kept until they've
| been sent. They should not theoretically be placed in the hold directory as
| this is reserved for the mailer control files.
|[Flea] - if included, causes AutoFile to search for FLE files in the inbound
| as well as TIC files. Does not need to be included to export FLE files.
|[StatusLog <log_path_and_filename>] - The name of the status log. If it is
| included, then you must also include
|[LogLevel <1-5>] - specifies the amount of logging. 1 is small, 5 is all :-)
|[Debug] - Report diagnostic information, send this to log, and flush the
| buffer after every log report.
|[Use4D] - Use 4-dimensional addresses in TICs. (FLEs use 2D addresses only.)
|[AutoSend <wildcard_path> <area> <desc>] - any files in the wildcard path will
| be moved into the appropriate area, and automatically hatched with the
| specified description.
|Area <path> <primary_name> [<secondary_name>] - specifies the name of an area,
| and the path where it's files are kept. Lines following have the following
| format:
|[<zone>:]<net>/<node> <password> [C|H][IO][T|F] - indicates that the node
| specified is connected to the echo, with the specified password. C indicates
| that files are to be crashed to the node; H indicates that they are to be
| put on hold. An absence of these flags indicates that the files are placed
| as 'normal' wait files. I/O indicates that files are to be accepted (input)
| from the node, and/or sent (output) to the node. T will prevent any
| accompanying TIC or FLE file (but note that the password must be specified),
| and F will send a FLE file instead of a TIC to a node.
|Note that you can support points, but only by using 3D kludges at present;
|also there is no filefix at present. I am writing software to convert your
|STICK.CTL or ACS.CFG/FILEECHO.BBS into an AUTOFILE.BBS, but this is proving to
|be a long delay, so I want to get this out tonight.
|To hatch a file into an echo: Use following commandline:
| <file> <echo name> <description>
|First two parameters cannot contain spaces. This will probably change in the
|future.
|My apologies that the program is so scrappy at the moment, but there's nothing
|I can do about that; I have to get it out.
|There are undoubtedly MANY bugs in this program, and I cannot hope to find
|them all myself, so PLEASE let me know of any as soon as you can. By
|betatesting the program, you have agreed to do this. A similar licencing
|agreement exists as with MakeDiff.