Release notes. This file contains brief notes on the difference between successive releases. V7.20q a bugfix release. - Certain errors which can occur in FBB compressed forwarding weren't being handled properly. - The timezone function was not working properly. It did not correctly figure out the date of the end of DST in North America or in Europe and probably got it wrong elsewhere too. V7.20p - If there is a disconnect for any reason (or sysop types ^F) while receiving a compressed FBB forward, the system got hung up and couldn't recover. This has been fixed. - The reject.btn file could only have 30 entries and if there were any more a bug in the program made it read in the 31st one over the top of in core data which would give totally random crashes. The number has been increased to 100. - If you use transparent mode (which includes FBB compressed forwarding) then you must have the CD line connected betwen the computer and TNC. This allows the system to detect a disconnect in transparent mode. - Apparently if you try FBB-style forwarding with an MSYS BBS, the MSYS can send a single hex character as a checksum during the proposal stage. C-BBS has been modified to handle this. - The cursor is now turned on when the sysop talks to a port as well as when a user tries to talk to the sysop. V7.20o - By default, C-BBS adds ".NOAM" to calls ending in .USA or .CAN in the states.mb file. This apprently causes problems for some users and so there is now a -c argument added to 'mb' when it starts up which makes C-BBS use ".NA" instead. - The maximum nesting depth of forwarding files is now 8. - The cursor now shows up when a user does a talk to the sysop. Remember that at this point, you are typing directly to the TNC so it is the TNC's editing of characters which takes effect. V7.20n - Three new forward script commands added: L n Loop from here to the next N command at most n times. Loops cannot be nested. N Test how many times the Loop has been executed and if it has been done n times then fall through, otherwise go back to the preceding L command and repeat the loop. W t Wait for t seconds and then continue to the next script command. Also, the existing 'R' command has been modified so that if the R finds the specified string then if the R is inside a loop, the loop is exited. If the R does not match the current string then, if inside a loop, the following Next command is executed and script between the R and the Next are ignored. See the file newscript.doc. - Fixed bug that made the BBS only send one message at a time when sending to an FBB system. For some strange reason this bug showed up more on Kickstart 1.3 than on V2.04. - The -t argument was clearing the 8th bit even when in transparent mode. - The BBS was not going into transparent mode on a forward if it was called by a system. - Changed the way the audio device is handled. C-BBS was opening the device when it started and keeping it open all the time. Now it only opens the audio device when it needs to generate a beep. - Send *** Done to any system other than FBB so that they disconnect the link properly. V7.20m - Fixed bug that sends garbage if a user downloads a file on a transparent port. V7.20l - Fixed a bug in rexxhostlib. But could not get it to recompile as a library so have had to incorporate the rexxhost functions as a normal part of the 'mb' and 'sysop' programs. Therefore, LIBS:rexxhost.library is NOT used any more. - Modified 'fx' so that it uses the new rexxhost code. Even with the bug fixed, 'fx' is still a useful program for reading large amounts of output from a C-BBS command ... e.g. "LL 100". - SYSOP has been modified so that more than one can run at a time. Their port names are the single non-zero digits 1 to 9. If you don't specify a port number when you start up a SYSOP (e.g. -p2) then it will assign the next free number to itself. - 'fx' has also been modified to include a '-pD' so that you can specify which copy of SYSOP you want it to send the AREXX command to. - code has been added to the rdmult() routine so that there is a pause between each message. - The output from the help command now uses the pause routine. - The AREXX GO command will return a null result if it succeeds but will return the error string "ERROR" if the addressed SYSOP is already busy. - Various routines modified so that 8 bit data will be handled better. - FBB forwarding modified so that if the port is transparent, it will be forced into transparent mode even during an ASCII forward. - When characters are sent to the window, the program replaces any control character by a DEL character so that the screen won't go into a strange font if binary data is sent to the screen. - The commands %l and %z can be placed in the tnc.on, tnc.off and in the 'P' part of any forwarding file. These two commands are used to create a TNC command which sets the current date and time in the TNC. - Add a Qx command to SYSOP which will allow an AREXX script to tell SYSOP to send a quit command to 'mb' on port x. - Added a -yNAME argument to the 'mb' program. This will set the name of the forwarding script to the specified "NAME" instead of the default "FWD.MB". V7.20k (No major changes - documentation has not been changed) - Modified the order in which software interrupts are handled to try to prevent the BBS locking up when the sysop types Control-E. - Modified the code so that all strings sent to the console are stripped of any chars that can cause the screen to change mode or lock up. V7.20j - Linefeeds were being removed from files when using any Download command or the Info command. - There was a bug in the LS command which has been fixed. - The program was not keeping proper track of the monitored and logged-in callsigns in the files calls.mb and mon.mb - A message addressed TO a valid callsign but with a blank BBS field, will be forwarded to a BBS if the TO callsign appears in the BBS's collection list in the forwarding script. - There is a bug that has been in C-BBS for some time (in the original IBM version). During a scripted forward, C-BBS sends a Connect command to the TNC and then it waited for the cmd: prompt before it started to look for the *** CONNECTED message. The problem is that some TNCs do not send a cmd: prompt when they have NEWMODE ON. Since you must have NEWMODE ON the program would hang in the forwarding script. This problem is time dependent because the code only waits 2 seconds for the cmd: prompt. So if your TNC does not send a cmd: prompt but it takes longer than 2 seconds to receive the *** CONNECTED message, then things will still work. The program does not wait for the cmd: prompt any more. V7.20i - It was not sending a message to a BBS if the @BBS field in the message was blank. V7.20h - Only change was to fix an error in the FBB forwarding. If a message was addressed to a callsign but did not have an @bbs field the message would not be sent to another BBS even if the callsign was in the distribution script for that BBS. V7.20g - The only change between 7.20f and 7.20g is to fix an error in the way that the program sends ASCII files to an FBB system. It was sending the first batch of files and then disconnecting before the other end had sent a prompt. V7.20f - The problem with FBB compression has been fixed. You can now forward compressed files of any reasonable size to an FBB system. The ability to turn off FBB compression with the #C option has been retained for those who either have problems with transparent mode, or who have problems with people who don't know the difference between 'compressed' data and 'enciphered' data. - A new program 'fx' is included to let you talk to SYSOP using AREXX and get the results of a command printed to a file which can then be further processed in the AREXX script (see fx.doc in the docs.lzh archive). V7.20e - There are changes to the config.mb file from previous V7 versions. - Compatibility with FBB forwarding has been added although sending large compressed files will not work properly. By default, the config.mb file on the distribution has option #C turned off, which turns off the use of FBB compression. - A serious bug has been fixed which would cause 'mb' to crash for no apparent reason. It was actually caused when the program monitored a packet that was more than 200 characters long and the symptoms varied depending upon how much the packet exceeded 200 chars. - Although CBBS can handle a phone line and it will forward to other CBBS systems over the phone, it CANNOT forward to an FBB system on the phone yet. I am working on adding that feature. V7.00e The only change from version 7.00d to 7.00e is to fix a bug in the code that logs the system off when a user says 'B'ye on a telephone line. The ATH0 command should now make the modem hang up. V7.00d - add code to check for loss of carrier on phone line. Plus other fixes to make the phone line work. - fixed semaphore bug which would prevent execution of 'GM' or 'GU'. - mbuser.index file is now in T:, not ram:. - add code to prevent echoing of control characters to console when monitoring. Some control codes cause the screen to mess up. V7.00c If you are still running a V6 version of CBBS then the structure of mail.dat has been changed in V7 and you must use the mbconv10 program to convert your mail.dat to the new format before trying to run the new 'mb' (see the V7.00a NOTES). If you already have V7.00a installed then you only need to copy over the files which have changed. The files and programs which have changed are: mb sysop locker states.mb It is particularly important that you replace 'locker'. - Since the release of V7.00a I have managed to get CBBS to handle multiple serial ports. This new feature is documented in the file cbbs-multi.doc. However, the multi-port code has been implemented such that users who only have one port won't have to make any changes to their system other than to replace the new programs and files listed above. - I have also added code so that the BBS will handle a telephone modem provided that the modem's commands are HAYES compatible. See the file phone.doc for more details. The phone can be used on a single or multi port system. - The code allows the user to put the device unit number and name at the end of the port descriptor line in config.mb V7.00a Version 7.0 of the mailbox code now uses a new structure for the MAIL.DAT file. So you must run MBCONV10 before loading the mailbox. Place MBCONV10 in the same directory as your messages (usually cbbs/msgs). Then run the program and you will have a converted MAIL.DAT file located in your cbbs/msgs subdirectory. You can then copy the file cbbs/msgs/mail.dat into your cbbs/files directory. If you have your MAIL.DAT file in some other subdirectory you can use something like "MBCONV10 HF/BBS" with command line arguments. That will place the mail file in the HF/BBS subdirectory. Make sure you make a backup of your old mail file in case something goes wrong. This version of the CBBS mailbox will only work with a converted mail file. It will halt operations if it sees the wrong mail file when it loads. Also the older versions of CBBS will not load with the converted mail file. So make sure you have a backup of your old Version 6 'mb' program and MAIL.DAT file. If all else fails, you can use them to bring 6.7X CBBS back up by just copying them back onto your system. Make sure you use the new MBRESTM as it is different from the old one. You MUST also add the number of days you want to keep BID's in the config file. If you forget, on the first BID compress cycle, you will lose all the current bids, and have them transferred to the BID.TMP file. If you do a bid compress again, then you will lose all your bids.. So make sure you add to the config file, the number of days you want to keep bids.. It is on the same line as (Max # of calls in of forwarding mail list) in the lower half of the config file. You must also ADD three lines to the config. These are for the Entering of the QTH by the user... So you add YES (Prompt QTH) and then later on in the config you add the "*** Please Enter NQ......" and " NOT your callsign......".. So you add three lines in the proper places and also add the number of days for BIDS... Some features: New Command "XB" puts the bbs back online after a manual forward. BULLETIN.MB is now changed to BULLETIN.A, BULLETIN.B, ETC. It is now related to the port that a user connects on. You can have the same or different files for each user port. On the AMIGA, only BULLETIN.A in your cbbs directory would be valid. If this file exists it is printed out each time a user logs in. All the special abbreviations (such as $A etc.) that are valid in a configuration file can also be used in the bulletin file. A new log program is included.. MAKELOG by NK3T does a nicer job of sorting and listing information for the sysop. This program is NOT currently available for the Amiga as the source was not included on the V7.00 distribution disk. Sysop listing using the ';' will now show where you got the message and where it is forwarded to. Doing a LK ; will show more information about each message. "<TOBBS" FROMBBS is where the message came from; TOBBS is where you forwarded the message. When a user does a listing command, if there are more than 24 headers in the list, the user will get the pause line, and listing will be halted until the user answers, "Any key to continue, Q to quit". Only listing commands are checked for pauses. When a user reads a traffic message, he will be given the option after reading the message to either take the traffic or not. If the user answers "Y", the traffic message will be killed, and if enabled a Service message will be created. A new listing command for sysops and users. "LS WHAT" will scan the headers for a match and list them. The TO, FROM, BBS, BID, And TITLE fields are scanned. The BID.MB file is now compressed automatically when the mail file compress is done. The amount of days to keep bids is placed in the config.mb, and your BID file will be renamed to BID.TMP, and a new BID file created with bids no older that the number of days in the config.mb.. A powerful forwarding command using "XI BBS CALL" allows forwards to BBS with any match of CALL in the mail file. Meaning that if you want to forward a message, that is NOT in the list of calls for a bbs, you can do so with this command. OR if the band is weak and you wish to forward out a message first, you use the message bbs in CALL, and the mailbox will forward out this message first, before going thru the list of calls in the forward file. After the forward of any match to CALL, the normal list of calls in the forward file takes over, and forwards out what needs to be forwarded. The mailbox now prompts the user for his QTH. The QTH is added to the user's record and you also have the ability of editing the user's QTH.. Also the QTH is added to the WP response. Another common problem was that the user could enter his own call for his home bbs. This is no longer permissible and the user will get prompted to enter the callsign of a full time bbs. Adding the word HUSER to the hold section of the config will cause all local user entered bulletins to be placed on hold. Only local users who enter bulletins will be placed on hold. This hold is not visible to the user but will not allow the bulletin to be forwarded out, or be visable to other users, until the sysop manually changes the hold to normal. __________________________________________________________________________