Description of CrashMail's built-in AreaFix =========================================== What is AreaFix? ---------------- AreaFix is a feature present at most FidoNet nodes, either built-in in the tosser or as a stand-alone program. AreaFix allows you to connect and disconnect to echomail areas, change your password and change some other things in your configuration without asking your feed/boss to do it for you. How do I use AreaFix? --------------------- You communicate with AreaFix using netmail messages. The message header of a message to AreaFix should look like this: From: Johan Billing To: AreaFix Subj: [] ... --- is your private AreaFix password that you need to make sure that nobody else alters your configuration. Your AreaFix password is assigned by your boss/feed, so you may have to ask him about a password. [] are extra commands that you can send to AreaFix. Currently there is only one switch: -l or -q Send list of all areas This switch is only here to be compatible with other AreaFix programs. It is recommended that you use the %-commands described later instead. "---" marks the end of an AreaFix message. NOTE: The name doesn't necessarily has to be AreaFix, your boss may have configured CrashMail to use other names instead. What commands can I put in the text? ------------------------------------ Change connected areas: [+]areaname[,R=] Connect to an area. The '+' is optional. If the R option is specified after the area, that number of old messages in the area will be rescanned and sent to you. -areaname Disconnect from an area =areaname[,R=] Update an area. This is useful if you want to rescan an area you are already connected to. Special commands %HELP Send this text %LIST Send list of all areas %QUERY Send list of all linked areas %UNLINKED Send list of all unlinked areas %PAUSE Do not send any echomail until a %RESUME is sent %RESUME Send echomail again. These commands can be very handy if you are away for a few weeks and don't want to get any echomail. %PWD Changes your AreaFix password to the new password specified after the command. %COMPRESS Changes the packer used to compress your mail to the packer specified after the command. Send "%COMPRESS ?" to get a list of packers. %RESCAN All areas that are added or updated after this line will be rescanned, that is all old messages in those areas will be sent to you. This can be very dangerous since you don't know how many messages you will get, so in most cases, it is better to use the R option when adding/updating areas instead. Examples: --------- R20_TRASHCAN Connect to R20_TRASHCAN %LIST Send list of areas R20_AMIGA,R=50 Connect to R20_AMIGA and get the last 50 messages in the area. %PWD xyzzy Change your AreaFix password to "xyzzy". %COMPRESS ZIP Change your compression method to ZIP. %PAUSE Turn off echomail for a while %RESUME Turn on echomail again =R20_AMIGA,R=100 Get the last 100 messages in R20_AMIGA (if you are already connected to the area) A few words on rescan --------------------- Messages that are rescanned won't look exactly like they originally did because of the way they are stored locally. Please think of that when reading them. For example, these things can be changed: o The character set of the message may be changed. In some cases, the original character set can be found in the "^a_CHRS" control line, but not always. o The address in the Origin line may have a "@fidonet" or another domain name added. o A program name may have been added after the tearline ("---"). o All control lines ("kludges") are in the beginning of a message regardless of where they originally were. This only happens if your uplink uses a UMS messagebase. You can easily tell if a message has been rescanned, just look for the ^aRESCANNED control line.