-= CNET AMIGA PROFESSIONAL BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM V4.12 =- Continued development by Ray Akey and Todd H. Knight. Now coded by Ray Akey under the auspices of ZenMetal Software. NOTE: Please check out the AmigaGuide (.guide) version of this file. It contains a little more info than the text-only version. Future releases will contain a .guide version only. First, let me give a gracious and heart-felt thanks to Ken Pletzer for making CNet Amiga what it is today, and for giving Todd and myself the opportunity to continue CNet's development in the same direction as planned by himself but with an expanded outlook. Under our wing, CNet will also have a new outlook towards even more network integration and Internet connectivity. Also planned under the ZenMetal moniker is multi-tier support, from the current Fidonet and C-Link connections to "Zen/Metal internet support" and worldwide dealer support. Also, please allow me to thank all those who have remained patient with Escom/Amiga Technologies, (and now Viscorp) and the Amiga when others were jumping ship - developers and users alike. Also to those who stuck by CNet when Ken had no time for support in the same magnitude to which you/we had become accustomed. Those who know me, know of my unwavering dedication to development for AmigaDOS, Workbench and CNet Amiga. This very premise will not change for quite a long time to come. ...to quote a line from one of my favorite movies, "They're heeeeeeeeeere!" Ray. (Now, on to the meat of things..) Changes/fixes for v4.24 (beta) ------------------------------ NOTE: Since the inception of CNet/4, a change was made to log IDs, which Ken pletzer did not make us (sysops & ZenMetal alike) aware of. Log IDs above 407 were no longer used. Log ID 408 was previously the ReadGFile log ID. No longer, ReadGFile was grouped into log ID 405 (ReadText). Shortly after we (ZenMetal) acquired CNet Amiga, I (Ray) added an "Execute" log to CNet which was given the previously unused log ID of 408. This execute log will contain information about any DOS activity which is performed by the AmigaDOS command executor (for developers, the Execute() function). This is the reason your old ReadGFile log contains what would seem to be extraneous information. So, please change log ID 408 to "Execute" and note that log ID 405 is used for GFile/Text reads. 1. 3.X_to_4.X was not resetting the "magic" value for mail when converting. 2. "Short Description" lines text was being partially rendered into the left hand border of the Config window in Limits. 3. MailVerify was still sending receipts (RPT:) when items were viewed. 4. Invalid characters ("?#/" etc.) were being allowed for handle/real name. 5. Version strings are now updated for bugfixed executables and partial releases. 6. Mail is now sorted so that new mail is at the TOP of the list during mailread. 7. First version of the CNetC Telnet client "CtelNet". Requires additions to BBSTEXT lines 2196- CtelNet may be added to BBSMENU (as is shown in !bbsmenu_stock) and may also be added to text/door lists and others. Remember that CtelNet is a CNETC door. You must use MCI door type 2 (ie. {#4cnet:doors/internet_support/ctelnet}) or choose CNetC door type when adding as an online door. Text/Doors: You may specify two args here. HOSTNAME/IP and/or PORT ie. title: Telnet to The Gnomes Guest House filename: cnet:doors/internet_support/ctelnet args: gnomes.org 23 when the user entered the number for this door item, he/she would telnet to gnomes.org (The Gnomes Guest House). note that the port number is OPTIONAL even if a host is specified. CtelNet uses port 23 as default telnet port. BBSMENU: Args may also be specified here (everywhere command section example shown). ie. TVRB |{#2cnet:doors/internet_support/ctelnet vrb.com 23} if the user entered TVRB at any CNet prompt, he would telnet to vrb.com (Virtual Reality BBS). note that the port number is OPTIONAL even if a host is specified. CtelNet uses port 23 as default telnet port so if you are required to use a port number other than 23, you MUST specify the required telnet host port number. "RUN" command: You may run CtelNet from the CNet RUN command. You can use any of the following commands.. run;cnet:doors/internet_support/ctelnet run;cnet:doors/internet_support/ctelnet HOSTNAME run;cnet:doors/internet_support/ctelnet HOSTNAME PORT Once ctelnet is running (a TCP/IP stack must be running), use "?" to get a menu of the available options/commands. Here are the menu commands in a short summary, as seen in the systext:menu/ctelnet file: Quit Close current connection if connected, and exit telnet Open Connect to a remote site List List of popular/pre-configured telnet sites Close/Bye Close site currently connected to STATus Current status of telnet environment Display display operating parameters ? This menu file Other BBS Commands such as WHO, CHAT, FEEDBACK, MAIL etc, are also available. MAINTENANCE COMMANDS AH Add a new host to the telnet host list EH Edit a currently existing host NT Set/enable NetTrace file for debug output 8. Users who did not have access could see the titles of items within "List" type subboards. 9. New PortData extension (z->PDE) added to prevent GETUSER values in PortData/MainPort from shifting as new variables/structures are added. This new structure will be mainly used for internet features/structures but may also be of use for other new/internal BBS features. MainPort may get a similar extension at a later date. Some minor getuser shifting MAY be apparent in this release. Note that to access this new extension, the FIRST getuser digit must be "3". ie. 1=PortData (struct PortData in ports.h) 2=MainPort (struct MainPort in ports.h) 3=PortData extension (struct PortDataExtension in ports.h) The first feature to benefit from this new data structure is the newly completed CNetC telnet client.. Please see ports.h and telnet.h for more info. Changes/fixes for v4.23 (beta) ------------------------------ I have been notified that the "Interface Type" Setting may appear to have a bug but it really does not. When a user first uses EP to set the interface type, a garbage value may exist in that variable and some invalid text may appear in that setting. Once the user sets, his interface type this garbage will not appear again. Please have your users (even the ones who like the "new way" of CNet/4) set their Interface Type to clear any garbage that may exist in this variable. 1. NEW MESSAGE pointers are now being saved properly (fixed bbs executable previously released seperately). 2. Return receipt mail now does not return a receipt when in VERIFY mode. 3. Fixed cnfingerd bug where if "skip idle ports on WHO display" was selected, cnfingerd did not exit and used excessive CPU cycles. 4. Fixed FILE_ID.DIZ bug that caused previous description to be imported on other files/items that do not contain a FILE_ID.DIZ. 5. Fixed SUPERUSER display in WHO. 6. Fixed various _plan, _plan_sq and _select3 saving to incorrect location. 7. File SHORT descriptions are now stripped of trailing newline characters before saving (no more blank lines between items during browse/scan). 8. Optimized mail-task saving of new mails to reduce "MailCheck" wait at login and speed up mail header initialization of saved mail items during Mail Read. 9. First incarnation of REPAIR_MAIL, a utility similar to REPAIR_SUB but this one repairs user mailboxes. This utility is to be ran during maint hours, or any time you (the Sysop) wish, that recovers mail from corrupted mailboxes/folders and packs mailfiiles to reduce user wait-time during mail header initialization. ie. during MailRead and "Scanning for new/old mail at login." New command "RRM" added to the end of stock BBSMENU section "1; Maintenance Commands." 10. When sending feedback, users are no longer allowed to set mail flags (ie. Freq, Copyself, etc,..) just before entering the editor. 11. NNTP Options screen added to subboard VDE to allow configuration of NNTP variables. 12. NNTP Subboard Type setting added to NNTP options in subboard VDE. Don't forget to run the executable "VDE" in any CLI/Shell to update your system VDE files. Current settings for NNTP Type are: SUSPEND: Causes NNTPGet to skip the subboard and not scan or import new news from your NNTP host. FULL IMPORT: NNTPGet imports article headers and message body to your system. Future Types: Connect for Body, Connect for Header/Body and Mailing-List. More on these types when they are implemented. 12. NNTP Max Dupes setting added to NNTP options in subboard VDE. NNTP Max Dupes is the number of NNTP IDs to buffer for NNTP duplicate message checking. If you set this value to 200 dupes, then 200 IDs will be buffered. IDs may be up to 256 characters in length so please use a reasonable value for Max Dupes. Only one dupetable will be loaded at any instant so you don't have to worry about each dupetable taking up RAM. A simple calculation: MAX RAM FOR DUPETABLE = 256*MAXDUPES Therefore, if you set 200 as a value for maxdupes, 51200 bytes (51.2k) of memory MAXIMUM will be used while importing NNTP messages, if the dupetable is full. The buffered ids are variable length so the dupetable may vary in size but they will never exceed the guidlines set out in the MAX RAM calculation given above. 12. Enforcer hit removed from NNTPGet startup. 13. Changes to BBSText lines 2191-2195 for NNTP VDE support. Curly braces {} on lines 2193-2195 are required for future expansion of NNTP Type. 14. Carrier check added to "TO:" and "CC:" prompt of mailsend. 15. Feedback at login no longer allows a return receipt to be requested. 16. CNet/3 to CNet/4 all-in-one conversion program completed. Users upgrading from CNet/3 (3.05c or higher) only have to run ONE executable to upgrade to CNet v4.22. 17. Completed CNet Install script (initially for CNet/3 by Bob Maple with previous changes by Jim Selleck) to be used with CNet/4. 18. Edit Mail now saves changes. 19. Mail Forward Alias re-implemented. A single mail alias of "+" allows your incoming mail to be CARBON COPIED to another user or network address. Note that you are currently allowed only one mail forward alias. If you specify more than one, the first instance will be used. This will change later to alow multiple carbons. Mail Forward Alias Examples ALIAS NAME ADDRESS ============ ============ ================= + Ray Akey @1:246/74 ...the above alias will cause your received mail to be also sent to "Ray Akey@1:246/74" ALIAS NAME ADDRESS ============ ============ ================= + rakey @netrover.com ...the above alias will cause your received mail to be also sent to "rakey@netrover.com" ALIAS NAME ADDRESS ============ ============ ================= + 125 ...the above alias will cause your received mail to be also sent to the local user with account number 125. 20. File/Byte credits are no longer added or subtracted if a user has unlimited file/byte credits priviledges. (set unlimited setting in Edit Account "PRIVILEDGES" VDE). 21. READ MESS TO Handle/Name fixed to include searching in network messages. 22. PowerQuote feature of mail quoting does not munge message anymore. 23. mail alias bbstext change in line 2139. 24. A yank-task bug that arose first in Perspective's CNet v4.0, which caused subboards to NOT be yanked was found and fixed (thanks to Neil Palumbo for sitting on a dial-in port until 5am with me to hash the problem over. :). This bug may or may not have fixed the problem some sysops are having with yank CRASHING. Please let me know if this does or does not remedy yank crashing problems. Also, to aid in future yank-task bug investigation, yank-task is now capable of being executed in a CLI/Shell and displays verbose information about the current yank job. If you find yank is giving you a problem, "break" the currently running yank-task from any CLI/Shell and then run yank in a CLI/shell and observe it's output. ie. yank-task for extended verbosity, use: yank-task 1 3rd party door coders: DO NOT assume that physical subboard 0 is the ROOT (ie. main) subboard parent. To find the root subboard Scan the subboard list by accessing myp->Subboard[x]. The root subboard/object is designated by bit 64 of the Marker variable being SET. ie: if(myp->Subboard[x].Marker & 64) { /* first subboard in root/main list found */ printf("Found first object in main list: %s\n", myp->Subboard[x].Title); } 25. cnfingerd was not creating directory systext:cnfingerd if it did not exist. Changes/fixes for v4.22 (beta) ------------------------------ NOTE: You ** MUST RUN UUCPREPAIR ** before using this version of CNet Amiga. Most people having problems with mail receipt is due to the UUCP ID being one character too long and UUCPRepair has been designed to trap and repair this case. You, the sysop, will be prompted to verify the new UUCP ID to be used. Many users may not have this problem but those with long names (last names) will most certainly be affected. You can either run UUCPRepair before installing this version or you may run it after installiation, as long as it is ran ASAP. UUCPRepair can be used at any time and will not cause any problems if ran more than once. If fact, we recommend that it be used MONTHLY to check and repair any invalid UUCP IDs. Coders: There exists a small mismatch in the headers for NewMailFolder (in mail.h) and KeyElement4 (in users.h) where the lengths are 10 and 11 respectively. Please assume a length of **10** for NewMailFolder.OwnerID and UserData.UUCP where the actual UUCP ID is 9 bytes in length terminated with a single NULL (\0) byte. 1. vde files are no longer included in the CNet distributions. From now on, you must use the AmigaDOS executable called "VDE" to create your system VDE files. Simply enter the command CNET:VDE in any CLI/Shell to have your VDE files created. Make sure you first copy the "VDE" command from this distribution archive to your CNET: directory! 2. Fixed bug in ranges using MESS BY "" where only messages written by LOCAL users were recognized even if network messages contained a user named . 3. Arj fingerprint in Toss changed to 60 ea 2c 00 1e as the old fingerprint wasn't recognizing all arj archives. 4. ARexx SETMAILSUBJECT is once again working. 5. The user subboard/message Interface is now configurable between the old 3.x style and new 4.x style in Edit Preferences (EP). If CNet/3 type is chosen, CNet acts like 3.x in that entering a number X while in a subboard causes the user to be placed in subboard X in the current tree/level. Users must use Rx (where x is an item number) to read a post/item. if CNet/4 type is chosen, CNet uses the new format in that by entering a number X, CNet will display to the user item X in the current subboard. Users will be required to use /x (where x is a subboard number in the current subboard tree/level) to move to a new/different subboard. To add this capability, changes have also been made to BBSTEXT lines 1173, 1175, 1184, 1187-1189, 1192 and 1202. No BBSMENU changes are required. See the included !bbstext_stock for an example of the new/changed lines. The file systext:new/interface is a file containing an explanation of this feature of CNet. NOTE: If the file SYSTEXT:NEW/INTERFACE does not exist, the user will not be asked for an interface preference and your system will not sport a 3.x emulation mode. All users will be forced to use the 4.x style message/subboard interface. 6. Fixed "Reply to ?" in netmail carbon copied from the base. 7. Added "PowerQuote" to mail quoting. If a user selects "QUOTE=YES" in the mail flags just before entering the editor to reply to a mail item, PowerQuoting is used. CNet's PowerQuoting features a "smart" quoting system which will NOT prepend XX> to already quoted lines. Therefore, you don't end up with a bunch of XX> XX> XX> or XX>XX>XX> text filling up the editor. Only previously unquoted lines will receive the "quote specifiers" which are made up of either the first two letters of a user's name/handle or the first initial of the user's first and last name in his handle or real name. PowerQuoting does word wrapping before adding the "quote specifiers" therefore reducing text fragmentation. PowerQuoting will also be added to CNet's regular Line/VisEd quoting (.Q and CTRL-X Q respectively) at a later date. 8. "Superuser" flag was not being shown properly in the WHO display. 9. A finger daemon is now included with CNet Amiga. To use this finger daemon, you must configure your inetd to spawn the CNet finger daemon. We have not yet looked at Miami but for AmiTCP, you need only do the following: - edit amitcp:db/inetd.conf - Delete the current "finger" line from that file. - replace it with the following finger daemon command: finger stream tcp dos bin - CNet:cnfingerd If you don't keep your internet doors/support files in CNET:, please remember to change the "CNET:" path, in the cnfingerd command above, to the proper path where your cnfingerd resides. Miami and other TCP/IP stack users, please consult the related documentation, for the software you are using to connect to your ISP, for the proper inetd configuration details. 10. BBSTEXT changes: lines 2166-2189 added 11. Bug where CNet "lost" a user when his access was changed due to low balance fixed. Changes/fixes for v4.21 (beta) ------------------------------- ***** You must run the maintenance upgrade program "421" in any DOS CLI/Shell. This must be done with CNet completely shut down! 421 is a fix to upgrade some mail header variables which needed expansion when the subboard structures were changes but didn't get this attention at that time. (3rd party coders: the "UniqueBase" variable of MailHeader4 has changed from 21 bytes to 75 bytes in length) 1. New CNetC door "UUCPRepair" for checking if any UUCP IDs are out of spec. When ran as a CNetC Door, will scan your users' UUCP IDs and generate error information about the invalid UUCP id and then prompt you for a new UUCP id for each user with an invalid UUCP id. Invalid UUCP ids can result in failure to receive mail and other system messages so, be sure to run this door. 2. Transpose not saving changes made to user accounts during transpose fixed. 3. Using ranges when using SCAN (ie. S2-) during mail read was not working properly. Fixed. 4. MailRead now should not produce "item corrupted" messages unless a mail item is truly corrupt. 5. "GO MAIN" and using a colon (:) to go to main menu from within subboards now work correctly. 6. CNet now has a dedicated background process for testing and transforming files immediately after users upload files. In EL, under "File Testing" and "File transform" there is now a "Background" setting in addition to the previous, AMaint, Immediate, and None settings. If you get garbage and not "BackGround" in your VDE display, then make sure you have updated your BBSTEXT to include the new text in the newest !stock_bbstext.. When someone uploads files to your system, the background test transform will occur immediately without prompt, if you have set the subboard for background test/transform. If someone enters "TE" or "TR" and have access to those commands, they will be given a choice whether test/transform is done by the background file-server (file-task) or to perform and output test/transform results immediately. file-task should be located in or copied to your root CNET: directory. NOTE: even if you do not wish to have background processing of tests and transforms, you should EL all subboards and verify that your File test and file transform settings are correct. Todd (Electropig) and I noticed that some of our Aminet mirror subboards were being transformed/tested even though they were set to NONE. The values have shifted slightly internally so unless you want subboards, that were not supposed to have test/transform enabled, to be tested/tx'd at amaint, be sure to EL all subboards. Don't forget that you can mass EL by using EL x-y to edit groups of subboards.. 7. Mail-read expanded to notify the user and re-read the list of mail items when new mails are received if the user is currently reading his mail. Be aware that this won't happen if they are sitting at the mail-read prompt but if they SCAN, read, edit or perform any command, their mail item list will be updated. This is checked before AND after the mail-read prompt is displayed. Later, it will be expanded to update even if the user is sitting at the prompt, with no activity.. 8. Fixed bugs where ports were not closing if a user was dumped while "close port?" was set and, closing a port while a user was online dumped the user but the port did not close. 9. Mail-bouncing re-implemented in mail-task. If a mail cannot be delivered, the originating user's message will be returned with an explanation as to why the message could not be delivered. 10. DIZ ADD now implemented. The format for DIZ extraction and ADD is as follows: THE DIZ EXTRACT COMMAND ======================= an example for LHA: lha x %s %s for programs capable of displaying FILE_ID.DIZ to an amigados shell: DIZ_utility >FILE_ID.DIZ %s In the above (and in ALL diz extract commands in config/archivers), - the first %s is replaced by the full path/filename of the file that was uploaded or adopted. - the second %s is replaced by the actual text "FILE_ID.DIZ" - all extraction/processing occurs in a dtempX directory in the directory specified in the "Arc Examine Temp" path in config/paths. That is, CNet will change directory (CD) to the dtempX directory before executing your extract command. The 'X' in dtempX is replaced by the current port number. ie. If RAM: is set as your arc examine temp and you have just uploaded a file on port 1, DIZ processing will occur in "ram:dtemp1/". - For DIZ processing utilities that are capable of redirecting their output directly to an amigados shell/cli, you can use the command "DIZ_EXTRACT_PROGRAM >FILE_ID.DIZ %s" where DIZ_EXTRACT_PROGRAM is the actual path/filename of the DIZ extract utility. In this case, the second %s, as noted above, can be left out. THE DIZ ADD FORMAT ================== In config/archivers is a DIZ ADD command string. In this string you place the command used to add a FILE_ID.DIZ description to the archive being described. By definition, this is where you put the command used to add a FILE_ID.DIZ to the file currently being described. An example for LHA (others are similar and the %s's mean the same thing) DIZ ADD FORMAT ============== dh0:c/lha r %s %s OR dh0:c/lha r %s FILE_ID.DIZ The FIRST %s is replaced by the full path and filename of the file that a FILE_ID.DIZ is being added to. The SECOND %s is replaced internally with the text FILE_ID.DIZ and may be ignored if you use the second example. 11. Mail that was/is marked as URGENT/HIGHPRI is now reset to regular priority when it has been read. 12. Mail-task has been updated to use true file-notification. Instead of checking to see if mail has been filed every 10 seconds, it only scans mail:cnetoutbox when a new item has been filed. This does 2 things: 1) reduces CPU time during idle periods where no mail whatsoever is received. There no need for file-system activity during these periods. 2) provides IMMEDIATE delivery of mail when received. 13. Some minor code fixes in mail-task that may have caused mail, addressed to "SYSOP", meant for the msgs-to-sysop folder to be saved to the sysop feedback folder instead. Don't forget the command "VS" to view messages addressed to "SYSOP." The VS command is the only SYSOP mail command that doesn't exit if the msgs-to-sysop folder is empty. This allows you to change folders and view newuser and feedback folders interactively. Changes/fixes for v4.2 (beta) ------------------------------- 1. Copies of mail placed in SENTMAIL are no longer flagged as "new" mail. 2. An invalid GO argument now displays the text in "systext:menu/go" and prompts CNet to ask the user if they would like to see a list of valid GO arguments for objects/areas that they have access to (changes to BBSTEXT lines 336 and 339) 3. ReadArgs template to toss was missing /S so PKTONLY arg returned "bad arguments. Fixed. 4. Short description lines expanded to 2 characters in config/limits. Note the max of 16 lines. Be aware that most file_id.diz processors only support 12 lines. 5. DRop/JOin outside of subboards fixed. 6. Cron bug fixed where the invoke type (ie. Immedite-UDump etc,.) could not be changed after an event was added/saved. Requires the newer cnet.library included in this beta package. 7. Killing of CopySelf mail (saved from the date of this beta install forward) will no longer be deducted from the System Activity Monitor (SAM). Please note that CURRENTLY saved SentMail is not affected by this fix so your mail counts may be slightly wrong until all previous items in user "sentmail" folders are killed. That is, copyself mail saved previous to your installing of this beta will still be deducted from the SAM. Please consider running the COUNT maintenance door when you run amaint to correct the SAM variable(s) until you are fairly sure all old sentmail is killed. 8. Upload resume fixed. 9. Subboard VDE problem with "Other defaults" fixed. 10. FIRST INCARNATION OF "NNTPGET", the new direct NNTP usenet news import utility for CNet/4. Please note that for this first release if you do not use the "NEW" argument, NNTPGet WILL NOT get any news from your ISP. The NEW argument is, for the time being, REQUIRED. When the SINCE argument is implemented, one of NEW, SINCE or GETACTIVE will be required, but not all at the same time. Please read the following IN ENTIRETY to avoid configuration problems. NNTPGet currently requires AmiTCP/IP. It may also work with Miami and/or MultiLink but this has not been verified. If someone would please let me know about the latter two, it would be much appreciated and if it does not work with those, I will look into adding support for those TCP stacks.. NNTPGet is designed to directly import usenet news items directly into your CNet message base, from your Internet Service Provider. Before you run NNTPGet, there are a few things to note: i) The "Go Keyword/Arg" for the usenet/UUCP newsgroup in your subboard EL must be the exact name of the newsgroup as found in the list of newsgroups supplied by your ISP. This list can be retrived by NNTPGet and will be explained later. ii) The "Part0/CD/Net" has a few restrictions if you are using NNTPPost (which will later be replaced with another ZenMetal CNet support utility). If you are going to use NNTPPost to post usenet news from your system, you will need to create an assign of UUNEWS: which will be the base path that articles will be placed when they are received. EXAMPLE: NEWSGROUP NAME AS FOUND IN THE ACTIVE NEWSGROUPS LIST: comp.sys.amiga.programmer IN CNET SUBBOARD EL: TITLE: csa.programmer (you can use anything you want here) DATA DIR PATH: Base0:csa.programmer (again, use any path you need for the cnet data files) PART0/CD/NET: uunews:comp/sys/amiga/programmer GO KEYWORD/ARG : comp.sys.amiga.programmer ****OR**** comp/sys/amiga/programmer NETWORK: UUCP ... all other subboard VDE option are at your discretion. NNTPGet accepts some command line arguments when it is ran: N=NNTPSERVER/K,P=NNTPPORT/K,N=NEW/S,I=SINCE/K,A=GETACTIVE/S Explanation of arguments (all optional): NNTPSERVER: This is the name of the NNTP server for your ISP. for example, my ISP has a domain of netrover.com and their NNTP server has a hostname of NEWS.NETROVER.COM. In this case, I use: nntpget n=news.netrover.com Please contact your ISP to find out it's news server's hostname. NNTPPORT: Defaults to 119 which is the usual NNTP news port but may be used if your ISP uses another port number for security reasons. NEW: switch to tell NNTPGet to get only new news since your last session. If you have not ever done a news import using NNTPGet, it will get all new news since the last 30 days. SINCE: (not yet implemented) specify a date string and NNTPGet will get only the news posted since that date. GETACTIVE: tells NNTPGet to receive the list of currently available newsgroups from your ISP. It is stored as UUNEWS:ACTIVE so be sure to assign UUNEWS: somewhere on your system. Most UUCP/NNTP utilities use this directory to save news in a heirarchical format (aka NESTED DIRECTORIES - each directory used as a newsgroup with news items within) for incoming news. The ACTIVE file is in ASCII format and can be read with any text reader or editor. If you do not specify an NNTPSERVER, NNTPGet will look for the environment variable NNTPSERVER. So you may set this to assure that NNTPGet uses this as a default by entering "SETENV NNTPSERVER " and then "copy env:NNTPSERVER ENVARC:" to assure that it is saved and set when your system is reset/rebooted. Changes/fixes for v4.13b (beta) ------------------------------- 1. SENTMAIL folder and "CopySelf" are now re-implemented. mail-task will generate a "copy" of the sent email/netmail in the user's SENTMAIL folder if the CopySelf flag is enabled when writing a new mail. 2. "Last Msg Serial" in subboard VDE expanded to allow 9 digits. 3. various fixes for UUNEWS and Toss/ifido importing of items with long area/newsgroup subdirnames. 4. The entry in the Logs section of Config, titled "MaintLog" was changed to "ReadLog". Still retains a log ID of 216. 5. New "RL" (ReadLog) menu command added to the maintenance menu section of BBSMENU. This allows you to create/alias your own unique LOG reading commands of simply enter "RL" and you are prompted for a log name to read. Note that the path to the log is not entered, only the actual filename of the log. CNet assumes a path of "sysdata:log/". An example of creating a log alias has already been provided in BBSMENU. Look for the alias "LA" in !BBSMENU_STOCK which is defined as follows: LA~RL amaint 6. Toss, IFido and the mail server now filter MCI from Subject and From/To fields. 7. Last Message Serial number in "EL" VDE is no longer a large 9 digit number (time stamp). QWK requires that this number be 8 digits or less. (this is the reason QWK replies were being filed as posts) To avoid QWK/YANK problems in the future, please do a GLOBAL "EL" and set this number to some median number such as 4000 or thereabouts for all subboards. Do not be concerned if there is currently a 9 digit number in that field, reset it to some 4 digit number anyways. CNet message filing wil set the "Message ID" to be this number +1 and then increment it each time a message is saved. If you delete all items in a subboard, reset this Last Message Serial to 0 and CNet will begin message numbering according to that number. Be aware that QWK uses the Message ID number when filing responses, so try not to change it often or at all once reset, or posts/responses may not get linked properly. 8. Repair_sub is now working again and must be located in your cnet:doors/ directory. 9. Cron now has an option to run and/or close the port, that an event is destined to execute on, at the time of event execution. There are three options: IGNORE: If the port is loaded already, the event runs as scheduled. If the port is not loaded, the event is skipped, RUN: If the port is loaded, the event runs as scheduled. If the port is not loaded, control loads the port, the event is executed and on completion of the event, the port remains loaded. RUN/CLOSE: If the port is loaded, the event runs as scheduled. If the port is not loaded, control loads the port, the event is executed and on completion of the event, the port is closed. **NOTE**: If RUN/CLOSE is enabled and the port is already loaded at the time of event execution, the port will still be closed after the event executes. 10. Changed minutes.tenths-of-minutes display of next pending event (in SYSINFO window of control) to hours, minutes display. 11. Repair_sub now allows a "renumber" argument to force mandatory renumbering of MessageIDs. Try this method if your yanks/QWKs are failing (ie. no messages yanked) and you know there are new messages. Also, please do not use the "renumber" argument too often as messages from old QWK packets that users have yanked previously to your renumbering may not get filed properly and could be filed as new posts rather than responses. This argument should be used only as a last resort (ie. if your "LasMessageSerial" for any subboard exceeds 8 digits). 12. mail-aliased "account ranges" no longer include deleted accounts (which were denoted by a Handle/RealName of '!') 13. mail-alias [K]ill command was TOO powerful. Prompts for Name and address added to Kill Alias command. Alias killing is based only on the "filled-in" prompts. That is, if you leave one or two of the prompts blank, only aliases with fields matching the remaining information are killed. You can still mass kill aliases by entering only the "Alias" part of the mail-alias. If all three are left blank, NO mail-aliases are killed. 14. PKTONLY argument added to toss which can be used to quickly process netmail and areafix requests only. This can be used to quickly respond to areafix requests from remote systems by using the syntax TOSS PKTONLY in your TURNAROUND command for trapdoor and other mailers that support this style of quick answering of areafix and netmail messages while the remote system is still connected. There would be no need to wait for callback to get replies to your areafix request as they can be now processed and answered immediately. 15. Fingerprint added to Toss for decompression of packets compressed with ARJ. Don't forget to add .ARJ to your ARCHIVERS section of config if you wish to support ARJ. Be sure to use "ARJ e %s" for the Extract Format. NOTE: a future beta/release of CNet will have the capability for you to define your own archiver "fingerprints" in CONFIG/ARCHIVERS so you don't have to wait for new versions of CNet to support newer/popular compression formats.. 16. AMaint sports four new arguments/options that are specified on the command line of cron, in your BBSMENU or wherever amaint is executed from: NOUSERPURGE: tells amaint not to do a user purge NOBASEPURGE: tells amaint not to do a message/file area purge nor adopt orphans (if configured to adopt orphans at maint) NOBBSPURGE: tells amaint not to weed old items in the BBSLIST. CURRENTDATE: tells amaint to use the CURRENT DATE and TIME for the "Post Date" of newly adopted items. If this option is not present, amaint uses the AmigaDOS date of the file being adopted. To set an amaint event using any of these, use the following example as a guide for the COMMAND in your CRON configuration for amaint: cnet:doors/amaint nouserpurge nobbspurge NOTE: These args cannot be specified at CNET prompts. They must be added in the CRON/BBSMENU command. 17. AMaint now looks for descriptions in the files.bbs file specified on line 634 of BBSTEXT when a new file is adopted by amaint. If there is a %s in line 634, AMaint will (as usual) look in the current subboard for the specified files.bbs file or, if there is no %s in line 634, AMaint will use the discrete path specified (ie. "DOWNS:files.bbs" rather than "%sfiles.bbs") for those who like to keep their files.bbs descriptions in a single location/file. 18. AMaint now searches newly adopted files for an existent FILE_ID.DIZ and uses that description, rather than the files.bbs description, if present. 19. FILE_ID.DIZ processing is *partially* functioning as of this beta. Only the EXTRACTION of DIZ descriptions is functioning at this time. Other options are in progress but many people have voiced their concerns about getting fixes for current bugs so I felt that at least having the extraction of DIZ working at this point, will suffice until the next beta. Please make sure you have a valid command configured for your "DIZ Extract" command in config/archivers. an example for LHA: lha x %s %s for programs capable of displaying FILE_ID.DIZ to an amigados shell: DIZ_utility >FILE_ID.DIZ %s In the above (and in ALL diz extract commands in config/archivers), - the first %s is replaced by the full path/filename of the file that was uploaded or adopted. - the second %s is replaced by the actual text "FILE_ID.DIZ" - all extraction/processing occurs in a dtempX directory in the directory specified in the "Arc Examine Temp" path in config/paths. That is, CNet will change directory (CD) to the dtempX directory before executing your extract command. The 'X' in dtempX is replaced by the current port number. ie. If RAM: is set as your arc examine temp and you have just uploaded a file on port 1, DIZ processing will occur in "ram:dtemp1/". - For DIZ processing utilities that are capable of redirecting their output directly to an amigados shell/cli, you can use the command "DIZ_EXTRACT_PROGRAM >FILE_ID.DIZ %s" where DIZ_EXTRACT_PROGRAM is the actual path/filename of the DIZ extract utility. In this case, the second %s, as noted above, can be left out. 20. Transpose bug fixed where new privs were not binding after a transpose. 21. BBSTEXT line 2143 is now used to set file patterns for files that are NOT to be auto-adopted at maint. The pattern is any AmigaDOS wildcard pattern. Each pattern must be separated by SPACES. TABs are not allowed on this line, nor is MCI. EXAMPLE AMIGADOS FILE PATTERNS: #?.readme means not to adopt files with an extension of ".readme" file.bbs means not to adopt any file called "files.bbs" (#?.lha|#?.zip) means NOT to adopt lha and zip files ~(#?.lha|#?.zip) means to only adopt lha and zip files The default in v4.13b's bbstext is as follows: #?.readme #?.ads files.bbs using the default noted above keeps amaint from auto-adopting .readme, .ads and files.bbs files. Changes/fixes for v4.13a (beta) ------------------------------- 1. limits in bbsechos were not expanded in v4.13. You must run the upgrade utility "413a" to convert cnet:bbsechos to cnet:bbsechos4. 2. Longer event "command" strings caused the stack to be corrupted due to some "lingering" CNet 4.0 defines. Fixed. (no BBSMENU/TEXT changes for this small bug-fix release) Changes/fixes for v4.13 (beta) ------------------------------- NOTE: You must be sure that all ports & control are not running and then run the maintenance program "413" before using this version. The 413 upgrade executable will convert your sysdata:subboards3 to the new sysdata:subboards4 format. Your subboards3 file will not be deleted so that you may still run older CNet releases if you need to. Also note that some BBSTEXT/MENU changes were made for this release. Be sure to use a text-changer or text "diffing" program to find and change/update your bbstext/menu. 1. Mail Aliases are once again implemented. Multiple mail aliases are possible for a single "Alias" to support "group mail" so you may define a single alias for many users by entering their names one at a time, but using the same "alias" when prompted for an alias. Also, you may use aliases for local (ie. belonging to the same system) users as well as network addresses by simply NOT specifying an "address" but only the user Name and Alias. Note that ALL aliases still pass through access filters so, just because a user has a "network address" defined in one of his/her aliases does not mean that the mail will be sent. If the user does not have network access, then the user's network mail alias will not be valid. 2. Only "Immediate-NoDump" events were working in v4.12d. Fixed. All types should now work and the "Next Event" field of Control's System Info screen should display the time of the next valid event. 3. OLM's to maint users stating feedback was received, were actually New user applications and vice versa. Fixed. 4. NMAIL to new users sometimes went to NEWUSER (VN) and the new user application was lost. Fixed. 5. MailSend (MS) now accepts a valid CNet RANGE of accounts. For example, Entering "MS 1-50,75" now allows sending mail to accounts 1 through 50 including account 75. NOTE that you cannot mix and match account ranges with network addresses and user handles/names. For account ranges to work, you must use only valid NUMERICAL account ranges. 6. Related to number (5.) above, local Account ranges are now allowed in mail aliases. To define a local group of users in a mail alias, simply set your alias up similar to the following example: ALIAS NAME ADDRESS ============ ============ ============= Range1 1-50,75 [leave blank] Therefore, entering "MS range1" would send mail to accounts 1 through 50, while including account 75. 7. Subboard Unique Dirname and paths have been expanded to 3x the previous length, with unique dirname having a new maximum of 75 characters rather than the previous 21 characters. Data path has been expanded to 95 characters from it's previous 40 character limit. 8. Added "VS" command to View Sysop Mail which are mail items in the Msgs-To-Sysop folder of the SYSOP mail directory) The Msgs-To-Sysop folder contains messages that are simply addressed to "SYSOP". These SYSOP messages are usually carbon copied from network echos when unsavvy users address their messages to "SYSOP". They are placed in Msgs-To-Sysop to reduce mailbox clutter in your (sysops) real mail folders. However, CNet DOES support LOCAL mailing to "SYSOP" and these mails are also placed in Msgs-To-Sysop. NOTE: Items in the msgs-to-sysop folder are counted as FEEDBACK so if your "VF" (View Feedback) command returns empty and you still have a non-zero feedback counter, check mail-to-sysop using your "VS" command before reporting this as a bug. 9. IUUMAIL bug fixed, where imported mail was directed to the wrong mailbox. 10. The same bug that plagued IUUMAIL was found in TOSS and IFIDO. All fixed. 11. Fixed "checkable" control menuitems (no new users, sysop is in, etc..) 12. Fixed amaint problem of deleting the same users over and over again. 13. systext:vde/subboard has been altered, the subboard VDE has been reorg'd and the following new FILE_ID.DIZ processing configuration variables exist for EACH subboard: DizTypes: Archive types to allow diz processing on. 0-31 are allowed and match the type in the "Archivers" section of config. ie flag 0 = the first archiver, flag 2 = the second archiver etc,. DizSave: settings: 1 = Save Edited Diz = save/replace edited diz to archive 0 = Don't Save Diz = don't save/replace diz to archive UseSentBy: settings: 1 = Add sent-bys = add sent-bys to description/diz 0 = Ignore sent-bys = don't add sent-bys to diz/description DizEdit: settings: 1 = Diz Edit = allow DIZ editing by user 0 = No edits = no user diz edits NOTE: Due to my having to release this beta prematurely, the DIZ processor is not yet functional. I will address the significance of the DIZ settings and provide example DIZ strings for config when the DIZ functions are implemented, most likely in one of the next two beta releases. Changes/fixes for v4.12d (beta) ------------------------------- pre-notes: please be patient with these things. The mail system re-write was a large undertaking and these things are bound to pop up in something so diverse as the new mail system. The new system is ultimately more powerful than the old one and allows easy internal feature expansion. Once fixed, these bugs should not ever resurface. I am attacking them as fast and furious as possible. Please let me know if there are any more residual mail bugs ASAP. Also this release was much delayed so as to assure that events are 100% bug-free. There were many problems with the way Perspective's CNet AMIGA v4.0 handled events and these did not become apparent until 4.11 when I had events working "in principle" although they were very buggy because of the time handling code (ie. the many many ChangeDirs to your CNet partition and "env:". You may still see the odd CD to env: but that activity has been reduced by over 800%. 1. This is once again a full package as the libraries have changed and version/revision numbers for the libraries have changed. cnet.library and cnet4.library are now correctly numbered (v4.3). From this point on, any changes that do not require a complete distribution archive will be placed online (at The Metal Shoppe first) as single executables to save LD sysops phone charges. 2. mail-task problem caused lockups. Fixed. 3. Added "send mail to ... Is this correct?" prompt after TO and CC filled in. 4. Related to above, FTN (fidonet) netmail "TOs" and "CC's" are now expanded to the full remote user and system name for verification by user. 5. UUCP/FIDO mailsend access was not being checked before allowing mailsends to network addresses. 6. Toss/XFido problem that added some extraneous characters to outgoing msg headers fixed. 7. Toss problem that duped addresses on replies, fixed. (ie. Ray Akey@1:246/74@1:246/74) Old mail may stil "look" broken when you reply but new mail is imported fine. 8. Online maint users now receive notification (System OLM) when feedback or new user applications are received/filed. 9. Quoted text (via the flags you set before entering the editor) during mail reply appeared below the user's signature. Fixed. It now appears above the user's signature. 10. Cron has been updated to include settings for a "start date and time" which now gives the capability of "postdating" events to start sometime in the future. 11. Cron received "repeat" settings for Days, Hours and Minutes. These settings are use, for example, to cause and event to be repeated every x days, y hours and z minutes. Examples: DAYS=0, HOURS=1, MINUTES=0 to have an event repeat every hour. DAYS=1, HOURS=0, MINUTES=0 to have an event repeat every 24 hours. DAYS=0, HOURS=1, MINUTES=30 to have an event repeat once every hour and 1/2. DAYS=1, HOURS=6, MINUTES=0 to have an event repeat every day and 1/2. Alternatively, you can specify, for example, 48 repeat HOURS and Cron will adjust the days, hours and minutes accordingly... You can also specify a "start date" as some date in the past and Cron/Control will bring the date up to the current date (if the event is a "repeat event") automatically, assuring that the "repeat time" is strictly followed. If you specify a date in the past (ie. 08-Jan-78) for an event that is not repeated (ie. no repeat days, hours or minutes set) the event will simply be deleted. Please keep this in mind when adding "predated" events. 12. Added sysdata:log/events log to allow sysops easy verification that events have or have not been executed. coming: Mail-Aliases (as a few have noticed) are not yet re-implemented but should be for the next beta. They will be more powerful than the previous aliases used in versions 4.0-4.10 and will allow full editing, deletion and addition. Aliases will be allowed for ANY mail address.. Local, Fidonet, internet etc,.. These also will pass through the "Access filter" to be sure a user cannot, for example, send fido alias mail if he/she does not have fido mail access. I had intended to have Mail-aliases in this release but let's face it, you guys needed a fix for your lockup problems before Mail aliases were resumed. Mail-aliases will FOR SURE be back in for the next beta (v4.12e). FILE_ID.DIZ support. v4.13 or v414 should have DIZ support fully implemented (or at least functional anyways). I'm sure more diz options/features will be added over time. The old subboard name restrictions are being lengthened (someday REMOVED altogether, but not yet) to allow longer Usenet newsgroup names to be used. The subboard conversion program is already written and tested but I have some work to do in converting existing code to allow/use the longer names and also adding/altering the VDE for the new DIZ options. If you have suggestions for the DIZ processor, please get them in NOW if you want to see them in the first DIZ beta release. Changes/fixes for V4.12c ------------------------ REMEMBER: This IS a PUBLIC (4.x registered users only!) beta. If you aren't up for a little bit of testing and a few possible bugs here and there, then please do not install this beta until initial reports are in from those who are willing/able to beta this release. 1. Getuser offsets had inadvertently shifted in v4.12b. They are now back to normal and are once again compatible with getusers previously used in MCI and ARexx doors. Some getusers may change in the future but not nearly as drastically as they mistakenly did in v4.12(a). 2. Code added to prevent CNet from popping up "please insert volume xxx" system requesters when a file/directory cannot be found. 3. "move read items to trashcan" prompt only appears when there is already read items in inbox, feedback or newuser boxes. 4. "empty trashcan?" prompt only appears when there are messages in trashcan. 5. User login macros are now all executed BEFORE the "main menu" appears. 6. The "412" upgrade executable in v4.12b did not work properly on systems that used a small stack size as it was created using some previous Perspective Software wrapper code. This has changed and stack size is no longer a factor for the 412 upgrade executable. 7. The license window is no longer "activated" when it opens. 8. Count was not counting any of the mail, feedback or newuser applications. Fixed. When count is processing mail directories, an asterisk is printed when a FOLDER is found, and a period is printed when an actual mail/feedback or newuser application is found. 9. Ifido bug fixed where many posts/responses were chained to the end of other messages. 10. OLM save to mail was broken. Fixed. 11. Added "NET" command to mail read, to display information about the system from which netmail was sent. NET command added to the end of BBSMENU section "7; Mail Read" to enable this command. Also added display lines to the end of bbstext for this feature. Changes/Fixes for v4.12b ------------------------ (limited beta release - only released to a few beta-testers to avoid mass hysteria re: bugs :) CHANGES ------- 1. A completely new/re-written event scheduler! Gone is the CBase event-schduler previously introduced in the 4.x series by Perspective Software. The command CRON is now used to schedule your CNet events. It is very simple to use and features a font-sensitive interface. Please be aware that some large fonts may corrupt the display. ZenMetal recommends a size 16 or less font for your Workbench SCREEN font. This is the font that CNet/CRON uses for it's interface. In the future, if problems arise for some sysops, if a font larger than size 15 is used for your WB screen font, Cron will default to using an 8 point CNet font. Please let me know if the current CRON gives you any display problems. This is CNet's first font-sensitive configuration editor and, if it goes over well, all other local GUI editors will be converted to a font sensitive interface. The only field/attribute that may seem cryptic about the new cron (and the old config event scheduler) is the "valid" setting. This field holds the amount of time (HH:MM) that the event will remain valid, past the "start time" of the event. That is, if the current time is greater than the start time PLUS the valid time, the event will be skipped. If the current time is greater than the start time (but less than the start time PLUS the valid time) the event will be executed. Once executed, the event should not be executed again until the next day set (via the DAYS checkboxes). if anyone comes across any problem where a single event is being executed more than once per day (if enabled every day), please notify ZenMetal ASAP. Note that the "Name" of the Event is an identifier. that is, CNet really does not use this field. It is for your recognition only, but each event MUST have a Name unique from other Events. You cannot have two events named AMAINT, for example. If you need amaint to run twice a day, call one "Amaint1" and the other "Amaint2". 2. A bug crept in v4.11 in which the "W" command did not work properly in File bases. It did not allow editing of short file descriptions. This has been fixed. 3. The mail subsystem has a new filing system. It looks almost like the old 4.x system from the user/sysop point of view but it is much more efficient and unlike the CMail-based mail system, the new one does not "grow" in size, never to be reduced. As soon as a mail item is killed, you relinquish almost all hard drive space that was allocated for that item. There will soon be a "Repair_Mail" utility to do much the same as the Repair_Sub utility does for your message/file bases. It will clean up old text and headers that, for some reason, didn't get deleted. There are some subtle visual changes that you'll notice as time passes. Also, Feedback and Newuser mail goes to mail:users/SYSOP/FOLDERS/#?. This allows you and your CoSysops to switch between reading feedback and newuser mail by simply changing folders. Multiple TO's and CC's are now 100% implemented and, when you enter the editor, after selecting the appropriate flags for your mail item, the FIRST recipient recieves name/handle expansion, in that his is the name listed in the "To:" line at the top of Vis-Ed and the line editor. The other recipients are still valid but are not expanded. It would not be worth the trouble to lose a line of Vis-Ed display just to print the names of ALL the recipients. Especially when CNet now allows up to 200 characters for "TO:" and 200 characters for "CC:". I think the list of expanded names would get rather large, even larger than Chesty Morgan. ;) Mail is now "distributed" rather than simply saved. That is, upon saving an item, you will be notified that CNet is "dispatching" a copy of the mail to each user who was listed in the "TO" and "CC" fields that you specified. At this point, all users' names will be expanded to their name, handle, or network address, whichever applies to the type of mail being sent. Currently (as a holdover from Perspective's v4.0-v4.08), mail-task searches for pending mail-requests every 10 seconds. You will (if you use Eddy Carrol's SnoopDOS or some other system activity monitor) notice CNet looking for something called ENV:TZ.. This is something that SAS/C uses to dicern your timezone. The timezone setting is the number of hours from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Do not concern yourself with this as I have not altered any of the time functions and Ken (Pletzer of course) did not take this into account when coding CNet's time functions. If you set a time zone for your system, CNet will most likely calculate your local time incorrectly...unless you are living 0 hours from GMT :) These things will be changed in the future. In the future, when mail is saved, mail task will be notified that there are pending items waiting to be processed so that they may be processed as quickly as possible. Known mail/folder bug(s): When mail-task files a new item in a folder while you are reading/scanning mail items in that folder, CNet does not update the mail listing until you quit mail-read and re-enter <> change folders and then change folders AGAIN to go back to your inbox. The item is SAVED but it just doesn't appear in your "header listing" until you quit mailread or change folders. This will be fixed for v4.12c. I wanted to get this release out to put an end to the "lost mail" problem so I felt that this is only a small oversight rather than a "bug" in the true sense of the word. 4. Much other internal optimization of code to speed up Toss and other areas of CNet. The event scheduler is going to receive still more optimization for the next release. I mainly rushed this out the door before further optimization so as to give Sysops a chance to get their events running again. Also, the new event system does not currently have a "repeat" attribute. That is, events that must run many times during the day will either have to be entered more than once (ie. for network mail polling, you may want to set up events to poll every hour.. For this, you will be required to set up 24 seperate events). This is only a temporary problem as "repeat" hours and minutes will be re-implemented in an upcoming release. 5. MCI code ; has been added to allow comments in MCI scripts and BBSTEXT. Note that some BBSTEXT lines still do not allow MCI. Generally, the ones that already have MCI in them are safe. Please netmail/email me if you are unsure about certain lines. Some of the new changes are already commented using the format: {; this is a comment} ^ | CTRL-Q Special Notes: For the v4.12b release ONLY, Mail-Aliases have not yet been coded back in. It's an easy thing to insert into the code but I just want to get the initial beta of the new mail filing system tested and completely up to snuff. Mail-Aliases will return in v4.12c. Also, the newer quoting style (you know..the quoted text UNDER your reply?) is gone but the former 3.x quoting method is still completely active (CTRL-Q in Vis-Ed and .Q or /Q in Line-Ed. If any of you want it back, this is also simple to add back in. Just let me know if you want it. I chose to remove it temporarily as many of you (and myself also) didn't like it. But if you want it back in.. 6. Count was not counting any of the mail, feedback or newuser applications. Fixed. When count is processing mail directories, an asterisk is printed when a FOLDER is found, and a period is printed when an actual mail/feedback or newuser application is found. 3rd Party Developers -------------------- A CNet Developer's Kit will be released in the hopefully near future. The Subboard structures need some attention before I can/will release any of the header files. Also, SOME getusers have changed. If any of your getusers no longer work, don't panic, just let me know in either the fidonet CNET_BBS, C-Link CLINKCNETAMIGA, any of the ATechNet CNet echos or by EMail/netmail and I will reply with the correct getusers to use for this version. (I expect Dotoran will be the first to contact me :) ...anyways, there is much, much, MUCH more to come! We still have some bugs to swat now that the events and Mail are "seemingly" settled. Let me know ASAP if you have any bugs that weren't yet reported, especially those relating to the new mail-filing system or the new "CRON" event editor or events that won't run, etc,. Now that the really major things are fixed, the small bugs (ie. IFido's infamous "import everything into one message" problem, etc) can be tended to and then on to NEW FEATURES that I've been talking about while implementing the new mail and event systems.. Until the next release.. ENJOY! -Ray Changes/Fixes for v4.11 ----------------------- Please be aware that this release does NOT fix many of the bugs reported thus far. This release is mainly to give you a stable 4.11 so that you can at least have an operational system up and running. The next release will fix many more bugs reported since ZenMetal acquired CNet AMIGA. Changes and fixes are outlined below. NOTE: YOU MUST FIRST INSTALL THE NEW LIBRARIES FOUND IN THE "SYS" SECTION OF THIS DISTRIBUTION AND THEN RUN THE 411 EXECUTABLE CONVERSION PROGRAM BEFORE RUNNING VERSION 4.11. The conversion will set UUCP ID's according to item (5) below. "411" is an AmigaDOS executable that you must run from a Shell or CLI process. ALSO, IMMEDIATELY AFTER YOU RUN 411, YOU MUST LOGON TO YOUR BBS AND IMMEDIATELY RUN THE CNet/C DOOR "BASE0:DOORS/POINTERS" so that your users' handle/UUCP/phone pointers are updated. If you get the message "could not open mailbox (-1)" before running pointers do not be alarmed as "pointers" will cure that. Please be aware that the SYSOP's UUCP id will be altered also. If you wish to change it, please do so after running pointers. 1. IFIdo/XFido now have their own logs in sysdata:log rather than logging their activity to sysdata:log/maint. 2. bbstext lines 781 & 782 changed to allow insertion of mail processing programs such as SuperTags to work on the _EdBuff file before it is saved. Any programs that wish to operate on the _EdBuff file for mail items, should be added to bbstext line 781. 3. Functions added to CNet.library: short FileExists(char *filename); /* checks if file exists */ void CreateMailDir(char *uucpid); /* creates user's mail directory if non-existant */ 4. User mail directory names are once again the same as their UUCP id. 5. UUCP ID can now only be changed by the SYSOP via "EA" to avoid user abuse. Please note that users wityh "full remote maint" can change their own UUCP ID. By default, CNet sets new users' mailbox names according to the following algorithm (UUCP ID is limited to 8 characters MAXIMUM): first character = first initial of FIRST name next 7 characters = first 7 letters of LAST name, or less if last name is shorter than 7 characters. the string is converted to LOWER case as the UUCP ID is created. So, CNet would set UUCP IDs as the following examples show: First Name : Ray Last Name : Akey resultant CNet UUCP ID: rakey First Name : Todd Last Name : Knight resultant CNet UUCP ID: tknight First Name : Jack Last Name : Nicholson resultant CNet UUCP ID: jnichols The name is then checked with all other UUCP ID's currently in use and if a duplicate is found, the LAST character is replaced with a numeric digit of ascending order. 6. BMaint altered so that it will create "nested" or hierarchical directory structures. To do this, the "unique subboard name" prompt now allows the forward slash (/) ie. To create an aminet/biz/misc mirror, simply use the following information. Title to appear on list: Miscellaneous Business Soft. Name Used On Disk (unique): aminet/biz/misc Path to subboard data files: base0:aminet/biz/misc/ This also allows your users to enter "GO aminet/biz/misc" to get to that subboard. 7. Began removing CNet's dependancy on AmigaDOS commands (ie. delete, makedir, etc..) All base directory structures are now created using pure C function calls. 8. Added check for lost QWK/Yank packets when users login. Previously, packets may have been lost in the event of software failures etc,.. 9. "_atemp" file is no longer getting packed into yanked email QWK packets. Changes/Fixes for v4.1 ---------------------- 1. CNet/Control now has possible two iconified states. If Workbench is loaded, Control iconifies to an AppIcon. If the AppIcon cannot be opened, the old "Perspective C" window will be used. 2. Related to the above, the default AppIcon imagery is the "Perspective C" image. You can have your own icon imagery used for the AppIcon if you create and save your icon as CNET:AppIcon.info. Included in this distribution is a file called CNetAppIcon.info. Copy it to CNET: as AppIcon.info to use it. It is a nice 3d-looking AppIcon image for CNet. 3. Added appicon position setting to Config's "Display" settings. Click on the "Appicon" cycle gadget to open a small "Move me!" window. Place the window where you want your CNet/Control Appicon to appear when iconified and then click again on the same button (now having the text "Close position window") to save your icon position. The appicon is immediately notified of your changes and moves to it's new location. 4. CNet/Control menus were altered slightly to allow for easier future expansion. The changes are mostly in the visual ordering of the menu items. Please be aware that some menu items received new Amiga-key equivalents/short-cuts. 5. Fixed bug in "Missing" that popped up "please insert volume udbasex:". This was a hold-over from the days when CNet used a UDBaseX: assignment. (addendum: this problem was also simultaneously corrected by Mr. Pletzer in the v4.08 public release) 6. Missing no longer attempts to check non-file/message list objects. (addendum: this problem was also simultaneously corrected by Mr. Pletzer in the v4.08 public release) 7. GO argument is now displayed when a user enters a subboard. 8. Fixed bug that caused problems when attempting to run a port while that port is already running. (ie. "run bbs port 3" while port 3 is already loaded). 9. CNet no longer pops up requesters when moving files from subboard to subboard and the destination partition becomes full. CNet simply states that the file could not be moved. SOME THINGS TO BE AWARE OF FOR THE FUTURE ----------------------------------------- Note: 4.0x-registered sysops that registered with PERSPECTIVE Software will be charged a small transfer fee ($50 US dollars) when v4.5 is released. V4.5 will have different keyfiles as well so, once again, you will have to contact us for your key. We'll give details on that in a future release. Faxes have already been set up for this purpose. A CNet demo will be made available although, technically, the current release should function as a demo without the keyfile. There is an official support network set up between each of the support BBS' mentioned below. You may make bug reports, suggestions, get current pricing information and make constructive complaints about/for CNet Development in the "ATechNet" subboards located in the CNet Support area of those bulletin board systems. We are, however, still monitoring Fidonet CNET_BBS, C-Link CLINKCNETBBS and the internet CNet Mailing List. To get on the internet CNet Mailing List, send internet (or gated fidonet) email to cnet-request@megalith.miami.fl.us and place the text "SUBSCRIBE" (without the quotes) in the body of the message. If you have any immediate concerns or complains, please netmail your query to one of the following network addresses or contact one of the support systems mentioned in the "Bug Reports/Support" section and we'll get back to you ASAP: Ray Akey@1:246/74.0 rakey@netrover.com Todd H. Knight@1:246/90.0 thknight@netrover.com Main Development/Bug Reports/Support/Key-Registration ----------------------------------------------------- Metal Software/The Metal Shoppe BBS Attn: Ray Akey 411 Bridge Ave. Windsor, ON Canada N9B 2M3 BBS: (519) 256-0278 (519) 255-7378 Main Sales/Support/Suggestions/Bug Reports ------------------------------------- Zen Computing/FreeSpace:Negative BBS Attn: Todd Knight 100 Erie St.S. Leamington, ON Canada N8H 3B3 BBS: (519) 322-0450 Auxiliary (U.S.) Sales/Support ------------------------------ The Rat's Edge BBS Attn: Neil Palumbo --- Amiga, C=, Commodore and Amiga Technologies are trademarks of Escom/AG. SAS/C is Copyright (c) 1988-1995 SAS Institute, Inc. CNet Amiga is copyright ZenMetal Software.