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1991-11-18
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Spoint Version 1.00/b
A Simple Pointmail Processor for Hudson Messagebases
Copyright (C) 1991 by Conrad Thompson. All rights reserved.
USER GUIDE
1 Licensing Information
Spoint is free, absolutely free. If you find Spoint useful,
pass it along to somebody who might also benefit from it.
Spoint may be distributed freely, provided no fees are made
in any form, other than the cost of media on which it was
distributed. Also, Spoint should only be distributed in
this original archive. Modifications this the archive are
considered a violation of this license.
1.1 Warranty
Spoint is provided "as is," totally devoid of any kind of
warranty or guarantee, expressed or implied. Spoint is
guaranteed to do nothing whatsoever, nothing other than
occupy diskspace. If Spoint will not work for you, I'm
sorry, but as I said before, it doesn't have to if it
decides not to.
In no event will Conrad Thompson be liable to any user of
Spoint for any damages or any untoward effects caused by
this program, including any lost profits or monies or
damaged equipment, or any other incidental or consequential
arising out of the use or misuse or inability to use this
program. Use Spoint at your own risk.
1.2 Something to Bear in Mind
This is only a beta version, still in the developmental
stages. It has not been extensively tested. All the really
dangerous bugs seem to have been weeded out, but there could
still be some hangers-on, so to speak.
2 System Requirements
■ An IBM PC compatible with at least 256K.
■ MS-DOS or PC-DOS 3.00 or higher.
■ A hard drive with some free space.
■ A Hudson (QuickBBS, RemoteAccess or SuperBBS) messagebase.
(Spoint will create the files if they aren't there.)
■ A mailer. FrontDoor, preferably.
2.1 Suggestions
■ GoldEd (currently at version 2.31p).
■ A disk cache. (Spoint's already pretty fast, but, hey,
what can a little more speed hurt?)
■ SPAZ 1.50 for unpacking ARCmail bundles.
■ FrontDoor 2.02
3 Introduction
Spoint is a fully point-aware echomail handler for points
or leafnodes (systems that don't have any children) that
use Hudson messagebases. Although there are many products
capable of handle points in this environment, they can be
extremely difficult to configure and use if you're not
well-versed in the rudiments of echomail. With Spoint
you really only need to know two commands, TOSS, to import
mail, and SCAN, to export. Spoint doesn't sacrifice
flexibility at the expense of simplicity, though. There are
functions available that allow you to accomplish just about
anything you would want to do with a point, but they are
entirely optional. In short: Pointing with full-featured
juggernauts is hard. Spointing with Spoint is easy.
(See section 9 for Quick Installation.)
4 The Control File
Spoint's control file, by default named SPOINT.CTL, should
be a regular text file with no special format codes or
anything annoying like that.
Spoint will look for its control file in the current
directory. If the control file is not there, Spoint will
look for it in the path specified in the SPOINT environment
variable.
This file is free-form. That is to say, what you assign to
a keyword does not necessarily have to be one space away
from it. Also, keywords and their assignments are not case-
sensitive. Semicolons (;) are used to indicate that the
text on that line is a comment, and, accordingly, Spoint
will ignore that line.
NOTE: DO NOT USE TRAILING BACKSLASHES (\) IN PATH
ASSIGNMENTS!
A sample control file, named SPOINT.CTL, is included with
this archive. You can edit it to reflect your system's
setup.
4.1 Control File Keywords
4.1.1 ADDRESS <zone>:<net>/<node>.<point>
This is your network address, which should be the same
as your bossnode's plus a pointnumber he has assigned.
For instance, if your bossnode's address is 1:3603/20,
and he has assigned you pointnumber 112, this keyword
should read 1:3603/20.112 Spoint uses this to know
how to stamp your mail.
This keyword is required.
4.1.2 BOSSNODE <zone>:<net>/<node>[.point]
This is your bossnode's full network address, the same
as your address minus the point. Spoint uses this to
know where to send your mail.
This keyword is required.
4.1.3 FAKENET <zone>:<net>/<node>[.point]
If you or your bossnode is not using point-aware
mailer like FrontDoor, this should indicate your full
fakenet address. However, if both of you are using
point-aware mailers, you should omit this keyword.
This keyword is optional.
4.1.4 ARCCOMMAND <archiver> [switches] <%a> <%f>
This is the program that compresses your ARCmail
packets. If this program lives in one of the
directories specified in your PATH environment
variable, there is no need to add path info.
If the program requires a command-line arguments in
order to either create or add to an archive, you
should indicate that.
Examples: arca %a %f
arc a %a %f
pak a /C %a %f
pkarc a %a %f
(Check the reference manual of whatever archiver you
plan to use.)
%a Specifies where Spoint should expand the
name of the archive to be added to or created.
%f Specifies where Spoint should expand the
file(s) to incorporate into the archive.
NOTE: ARC 5 is the current Fidonet standard for
compressed mail. Unless you and your bossnode have
settled on an alternative, always make sure you're
sending out ARC-type archives.
This keyword is required.
4.1.5 NETMAIL <path>
This is the directory where your system keeps netmail
(*.MSG) files.
This keyword is required.
4.1.6 HUDSON <path>
This is the directory where your system keeps its
Hudson-style messagebase files (MSG*.BBS).
This keyword is required.
4.1.7 INBOUND <path>
This is the directory where your system will put
inbound mail packets (*.PKT).
Please note: Spoint WILL NOT unpack ARCmail bundles.
Utilities like SPAZ and POLYXARC can handle this much
more efficiently. You should set up your batch file
to call one of these programs before passing to
Spoint. (See section 11 for an sample batch file.)
This keyword is required.
4.1.8 OUTBOUND <path>
This is the directory where you want Spoint to put
outbound ARCmail bundles (E.G., "dcd8ffb3.mo1").
This keyword is required.
4.1.9 LOGFILE <[path]filename>
This is the file to which you want Spoint to write its
log information. On my system, I have this set with
the same name as FrontDoor's log, so that I can look
at both of them at once. The log format looks
somewhat similar to FD's, too. If this keyword is
omitted, no log will be kept.
This keyword is optional.
4.1.10 PASSWORD <password>
If either you or your bossnode is paranoid, you can
use this keyword to indicate the password you'd like
to use for your packets. If a packet's password
doesn't match the one you've specified, the packet
will be renamed to BADPASSW.nnn.
If you're going to be using passwords, make sure that
yours is identical to your bossnode's.
Note: With passwords, only the first seven (7)
characters are significant. They are also non-case-
sensitive.
This keyword is optional.
4.1.11 TEARLINE <string>
Specifies an alternative tearline. If you don't use
this keyword, Spoint will never use a tearline unless
you use the -T switch. Then it will use the default
tearline, I.E., "--- Spoint 1.00/b". (See section 7)
This keyword is optional.
4.1.12 HISTORY
The presence of this keyword in the control file tells
Spoint that you'd like to keep a comprehensive history
of what comes in and goes out of your echomail con-
ferences. (See section 10 for more detailed info on
the history file.)
This keyword is optional.
5 Commands and Switches
For simplicity's sake, Spoint has only two commands, TOSS
and SCAN. All of Spoint's switches are optional, so you
really only need to be familiar with the commands, all TWO
of them. The switches--not the commands--can be set with
either a hyphen (-) or a slash (/).
5.1 Syntax
SPOINT <TOSS|SCAN> [-cshtie] [-d<KB>] [-f<areas>]
[-a<control>] [-l<tosslog>]
The commands and switches can be given in any order,
and they are not case-sensitive. For example . . .
SPOINT TOSS -s -c -lEcho.log
SPOINT /C /LECHO.LOG /S TOSS
. . . both mean the same thing.
5.2 Commands
5.2.1 TOSS
This command causes Spoint to look for packet (*.PKT)
files in the directory pointed to by the INBOUND
keyword (see 4.1.7). If any are found, Spoint will
extract the echomail messages they contain and put
them [the messages] into your Hudson messagebase (see
4.1.6). If everything goes okay, Spoint will delete
the packet(s) when it has finished tossing.
You should run Spoint with this command whenever you
receive mail from your bossnode.
5.2.2 SCAN
This command causes Spoint to scan your Hudson message
base (see 4.1.6) and look for any unsent echomail. If
it finds any, it will create an ARCmail bundle and
fileattach for your bossnode.
If your editor creates a file called ECHOMAIL.BBS,
scanning will be almost instantaneous.
You should run Spoint with this command after you
enter new echomail.
5.3 Switches
5.3.1 -A<filename>
Specifies and alternate control file other than the
default SPOINT.CTL. This is useful if you have more
than one bossnode.
5.3.2 -C
Marks all bundles generated as priority crashmail.
5.3.3 -D<kb>
Specifies the minimum about of free disk space, in
kilobytes, required to continue. Example, -D1000.
5.3.4 -E
Tells Spoint NOT to use ECHOMAIL.BBS to look for
unscanned mail. Since Spoint will have to search
through each and every message in your messagebase,
this can be quite slow. Spoint looks for ECHOMAIL.BBS
in the path pointed to by the HUDSON keyword.
5.3.5 -F<filename>
Specifies an alternate areas file other than the
default AREAS.BBS.
5.3.6 -H
Marks all bundles generated at hold-for-pickup. Be
careful. Your mail will never get out unless your
bossnode calls you.
5.3.7 -I
Causes Spoint to ignore the netmail area for this run.
This is useful if you have stray echomail in the
netmail area that you do not want imported.
5.3.8 -L<filename>
Used in conjunction with the TOSS command, this
switch causes Spoint to make a list of all the areas
it tossed mail to on this run. This is useful for
reply-linking.
5.3.9 -S
Causes Spoint to strip SEEN-BYs off the bottom of all
inbound messages. Most good readers will hide these
anyway.
5.3.10 -T
Causes Spoint to use its tearline instead of PID,
which stands for Product IDentification and is hidden
from view. This switch is redundant if you already
have the TEARLINE keyword (See 4.1.11) set.
6 The Areas File
The areas file, like the control file, should just be plain
ASCII. The format is pretty simple.
A sample areas file is included with the archive.
<#> <AREATAG> [FORWARD-TO]
;
; Sample AREAS.BBS file
;
1 POINTS n/a
2 C_ECHO n/a
3 NET_DEV n/a
4 FDECHO n/a
5 WRITING n/a
;
;
. . . etc.
6.1 Areas File Format Breakdown
As with the control file, semicolons indicate
comments. The file can contain up to 200 area
definitions.
6.1.1 #
The number of the messagebase where you want messages
from the conference referenced by AREATAG placed.
6.1.2 AREATAG
The name, non-case-sensitive, of the conference. All
incoming echomail messages will have this name in
their text, so it's important that the names match.
When that name is encountered, that message will be
tossed into the area referenced by #.
6.1.3 [FORWARD-TO]
Where Spoint is concerned, this argument is ignored.
Spoint sends all mail to your bossnode anyway, so this
is unnecessary. It's a holdover from the traditional
areas file format.
7 Tearlines and PIDs
By default, Spoint will always attempt to put its PID in a
message it's packing up. If a PID already exists and/or you
have used the -T switch, Spoint will use a tearline instead.
It will never use a tearline unless you specify by using
this switch or have used the TEARLINE keyword in the control
file.
If you are going to use the TEARLINE keyword, please be
conscientious. Don't make your tearline annoying or goofy.
This facility was implemented for people who like to show
what kind of mail-processing setup they've got going. You
know, like "--- FD 2.02 & Spoint 1/b" for somebody using
FrontDoor 2.02 and Spoint 1.00/b.
8 Files that Spoint Uses
Spoint's "Must-have" Files :
????????.CTL Control file (default SPOINT.CTL)
????????.??? Areas file (default AREAS.BBS)
Spoint's Optional File :
ECHOMAIL.BBS Index for unscanned echomail,
created by most if not all message
editors, including FrontDoor's FM.
Files that Spoint creates :
????????.??? Logfile. Name is user-specified via
the LOGFILE keyword in control file.
BIGMSGTM.$$$ Created when Spoint handles a
message bigger than its buffer
allows, I.E., 18K. Unlinked when
finished.
SPOINT.HIS (If HISTORY keyword present in con-
trol file.)
Hudson Messagebase Files*:
MSGHDR.BBS Message header info.
MSGIDX.BBS Message header index.
MSGINFO.BBS Message info.
MSGTOIDX.BBS Username-to index.
MSGTXT.BBS Message text.
(* Spoint will create these if they don't already exist.)
9 Quick Installation
1) Unpack all the files from the distribution
archive, which you've probably already done.
2) Edit SPOINT.CTL and AREAS.BBS to reflect your
system's setup.
3) Make sure CONFIG.SYS has FILES set to 25 or
higher.
And you're ready to roll!
10 The History File
If you have placed the HISTORY keyword in your control file,
Spoint will keep a detailed account of echomail traffic,
both inbound and outbound.
To read this file, you'll need an external program called
SPHIST.EXE, which is included in the distribution archive.
Simply invoke SPHIST.EXE at DOS's prompt, and it will print
out a list of echomail activity, including messages in and
out, average messages per day, and total kilobytes in and
out for each echomail conference.
Spoint will write this file to the directory specified in
its environment variable. If one is not specified, Spoint
will write it to the current directory. SPHIST.EXE works
the same way, except it never writes to the history file.
11 A Sample Batchfile
Used with FrontDoor 2.02 and GoldEd 2.31p. This is really a
skeleton of what you'll need, but it should help you to get
started if you're don't have any experience making batch
files.
------------------------------------------------------------
echo off
:start
e:
cd\fd
fd
if errorlevel 121 goto golded
if errorlevel 120 goto unpackmail
if errorlevel 10 goto shutdown
goto start
:golded
e:
cd\golded
golded
if errorlevel 4 goto packmail < GoldEd returns errlvl 4
goto start if new echomail entered.
:unpackmail
e:
cd\fd\file < INBOUND directory
spaz -f \fd\file < Spaz unpacks bundles
spoint toss
goto start
:packmail
e:
cd\fd
spoint scan
goto start
:shutdown
echo FrontDoor down.
------------------------------------------------------------
12 Closing Matter
If you've found a bug or are interesting in getting a copy
of the C source code or just want to acknowledge your
appreciation/hatred of my work, send me netmail at
1:130/29.106.
Thanks for using Spoint!