BBS in a Box 3/BBS in a box - Trilogy III.iso/Files/Tele/Internet/UUPC 3.1b25 Folder/Documentation/3.0 beta-test history & notes

Text File | 1992-02-10 | 21.5 KB | 432 lines | [TEXT/ALFA]

  uupc 3.0 documentation notes [beta testing release]
-----------------------------------------------------
  written by Dave Platt <[e-mail]>


  This package contains a beta-test version of uupc 3.0 for the
  Macintosh.

  This distribution contains the first draft of the "how to install
  it" notes I've written up, in anticipation of the full uupc 3.0
  general release.  I would very much appreciate your comments and
  suggestions.  The files are in the "Documentation" folder.  The
  "Protocol notes" and "Modems and cables" files touch on some
  advanced topics, and you should read the other files before
  tackling these.

  The beta version has the following changes (and perhaps others
  I've forgotten to mention):

* 3.0b30: set default memory partition size to 250k (down from the
  384k of 3.0b29, but up from the 200k of earlier releases). Fixed
  a bug introduced with the large-packet support; the 'g' protocol
  should disconnect after 20 consecutive errors, not 20 errors in
  any one session. Connections which terminate prematurely due to
  file I/O problems will result in a "failed session" status being
  stored in the status file, thus allowing the HoneyDanBer-style
  fallback to work in this case as well as after failed calls.
  Fixed a bug in the 'f' protocol retry logic.  Increased size of
  buffers used during protocol startup, to prevent stack trashing
  and subsequent crashes if remote site sends garbage and disconnects
  during the handshaking sequence.  Fixed bug in timeout-recovery
  code which could stomp on memory and hang Mac.  Fixed dialer so
  that calling "All sites" doesn't initiate a slave-mode INCOMING
  call.

* 3.0b29: added support for large packets in the 'g' protocol (up
  to 256 bytes per packet).  Added error-checking code to the
  rdata() routine so that disk I/O errors during file reception will
  result in a "copy failed" status.  Added support for extra serial
  ports which have shadow drivers (port 'c' opens device .Cin/.Cout,
  'd' opens .Din/.Dout, etc.).  Added code to execute pending
  inbound jobs in the queue at the beginning of a queue run as well
  as at the end, to ensure a timely queue-flush if a previous uupc
  session aborted.  Changed name format of inbound-rnews files to
  "rnews.mmddyy.hhmmss.xxx" to make it clearer what's in these
  files).

* 3.0b28: fixed the serial-port timeout code to permit read
  timeouts of greater than 32765 ticks...  this bug was preventing
  SLEEPTIME values of 6 minutes or more from working properly when
  uupc was waiting for an inbound call to arrive.  Added a Sam
  Kinnison filter to the expect-string matcher...  it will now
  report "match failure" after 3k bytes of input even if a timeout
  hasn't occurred, to detect situations in which the modem or remote
  host is sending a steady stream of gibberish.  Added support for
  38400- and 57600-bit/second serial connections.  Modified
  primitive "rnews" command to copy the inbound file to the spool
  directory in binary mode rather than text mode, to allow for
  support of compressed newsbatches.

* 3.0b27: after placing a call, sending outbound files, and
  receiving one or more inbound files, re-check the spool directory
  when the remote site offers to hang up...  if new outbound files
  have appeared while we were receiving, decline the hangup offer
  and go back to the send-files phase.  This _is_ a multitasking
  system, after all!

* 3.0b26: fixed a bug in scandir() introduced in 3.0b25.  Changed
  the example configuration file to use Macintosh-style pathnames
  rather than Unix-style ones.

* 3.0b25: modified scandir() so that it compares only the first
  seven characters of the remote host's name with the corresponding
  characters in a C.  file's name.  This allows outbound files to be
  sent to systems whose names are longer than seven characters.

* 3.0b24: allow a Quit command (or a Shutdown or Restart from the
  Finder) to terminate a wait for an inbound call.

* 3.0b23: added the ability to shut down the Mac after placing a
  set of calls.  To invoke this feature, launch uupc by double-
  clicking on a uupc call-initiator file whose name ends in the
  string " -Shutdown" (the "S" must be capitalized).  For example, a
  file named "need -Shutdown" will place a call to any sites which
  are scheduled to receive calls, or which have work pending; uupc
  will shut down the Mac after the end of the last call in the
  sequence.

* 3.0b22: fixed yet another bug in the Mac-format-path handler
  which prevented spool folders from being handled properly, if the
  spool directory was "aimed" at a disk other than the one on which
  the uupc/pcmail programs resided.  NOTE: do not use partial
  pathnames in Macintosh format (":dir:dir")...  these are always
  interpreted according to the Macintosh semantic (they're relative
  to the current directory), and the current directory changes as
  the programs run.  Bad Things occur...

* 3.0b21: modified the THINK C ANSI file I/O library so that it
  doesn't flush volume buffers to disk when closing a read-only
  file.  This fix reduces disk-chattering and improves performance;
  it shouldn't have any other effect on the program.  Also fixed a
  hairy bug which caused the b20-revision directory-building code to
  create two partially-complete hierarchies of directories if the
  "diskname:dir:dir" format was used.

* 3.0b20: the other-disk code in b19 could access existing (hand-
  created) folders on other disks, but could not create such folders
  on-the-fly.  Fixed.

* 3.0b19: fix the directory-locating code to permit folders on
  other than the default (application) volume to be used.  Folders
  on other disks should be specified using Mac HFS notation (as
  "diskname:dir:dir:dir") rather than in Unix pathname format (using
  "/dir/dir/dir").

* 3.0b18: fix the "rnews" command so that it doesn't go into an
  infinite loop, processing the same rnews command over and over and
  over.  Internal reorganization of how pcmail.c is handled.

* 3.0b17: minor bug-fixes, a full description of which I no longer
  recall.

* 3.0b16: the time-of-day field in the INCOMING entry in the
  Systems file is now used to specify those times during which uupc
  will accept incoming phone calls.  You are now required to have an
  entry of this form if you wish to accept calls in slave mode... it's
  no longer optional.  You may have two or more INCOMING entries,
  with different time criteria, if you wish.  If you invoke slave
  mode (or full-autopilot) at a time of day when incoming calls are
  not allowed, uupc will inform you of this fact and go to sleep for
  a few minutes, rather than camping on the phone.  You can now
  control the amount of time that uupc sleeps between schedule runs,
  and the amount of time that it camps on the phone waiting for
  incoming calls, by setting a SLEEPTIME string in your
  configuration file to the number of minutes that you wish the
  program to sleep.

* 3.0b15: increase size of printmsg buffer so that a very-long
  line in the Systems file doesn't blow the stack and crash the
  program if debugging mode is turned on (level 5 or above).

* 3.0b14: don't go into an infinite loop if a D.  file mentioned
  in a C.  workfile does not exist or cannot be read.  If the file
  doesn't exist, assume that it was sent during a previous session
  (which was, presumably, aborted before the workfile was completed)
  and continue normally.  If any other I/O error occurs, terminate
  the session.

* 3.0b13: add a "-quit" option (accessible only by burying the
  option in the name of a double-clickable launch file).  Add an
  "Open a call file..." command to the File menu, thus allowing
  call-configuration files to be double-clicked from the Finder even
  if uupc is already running.

* 3.0b12: allow debug level to be set to any value between 0 and
  10, not just 0, 1, and 5.

* 3.0b11: fix an uninitialized variable in the "time;retry"
  parsing code for the Systems file, so that the HDB exponential
  backoff feature works reliably.  Honor the existing debug level
  when initiating calls from the "Call" menu, rather than forcing
  the debug level to 0.

* 3.0b10: the real (I think!) fix for the alias-file-parser
  crashes on Mac Plus machines (amazing it didn't crash on other
  machines as well!).  Now supports Systems-file entries which
  mention hosts whose name is longer than 7 characters.  "Cancel
  call" command will now terminate the call at the end of the
  current work-file (if sending) or after the end of the current
  file transfer (if receiving).  Updated sample Systems file to
  correct errors, clarify the "evening" and "night" time periods,
  and reflect the changes to the 'g' protocol negotiation.

* 3.0b9: changed alias-file parser in an attempt to eliminate
  crashes on Mac Plus machines.  Modified 'g' protocol negotiation
  so that it will negotiate a 3-packet window by default (like uupc
  2.x) rather than a 7-packet window (like earlier 3.0 betas).
  7-packet negotiation can be enabled by specifying 'g7' in the
  protocol field of a Systems-file line.

* 3.0b8: another small bug in the 'g' protocol error recovery code
  bites the dust.  Fixed the launch-from-a-file code so that it
  enables the menus properly.  Fixed the level-9 debug code to
  display the expect strings and pending input.

* 3.0b7: modified long-alias-line parser to keep the alias string
  in a relocatable handle rather than in a malloc() string, to
  reduce risk of memory fragmentation.  Modified 'f' protocol packet
  reader to accept data from the serial port in big chunks if the
  data arrives quickly enough; this should increase 'f' protocol
  efficiency with fast modems, and/or leave more CPU time for other
  processes.  Rewrote startup processing to allow uupc to place a
  call to any neighbor site(s), or initiate automatic or slave mode,
  based on the name of the document(s) from which uupc was launched.
  Extended the "expect" string parser to permit the match strings to
  contain escape strings: \s (blank), \r (return), \n (newline), \t
  (tab), or \\ (a single backslash).

* 3.0b6: "Hey, Rocky! Wanna see me pull a 'g' protocol error
  recovery algorithm out of my hat?" "But that trick _never_ works!"
  "This time for sure! One! >NAK< Two >NAK<....." [The 1.11h engine
  needed a few small changes to avoid excessive NAKs,
  retransmissions, and session closures.] Added support for systems
  whose names are 8 characters or longer...  uupc now sends the full
  nodename during handshaking, rather than only the first 7
  characters (but you can override this by adding a SHORTNAME
  resource string to your settings file), and takes care to compare
  only the leading 7 characters of it's peer's name during the
  handshake.

* 3.0b5: added a "call as needed" mode (per schedule, or if work
  is waiting) in addition to the Full Metal Autopilot mode (which
  does the same, and also awaits incoming calls between times).
  Modified autopilot mode to ensure that inbound files received
  during the call-out phase are processed immediately (rather than
  after a five-minute-sleep awaiting an inbound call).  Imported
  Drew Derbyshire's latest g protocol state engine from
  UUPC/extended 1.11h.  Fixed remote-login shell to support "dumb"
  inbound connections (no modem handshaking or chat script...
  requires a carriage return to elicit the login prompt) as well as
  inbound connections initiated via the INCOMING alias (no carriage
  return required to get the prompt).

* 3.0b4: yet more fixes to slave mode and the remote-login shell.
  Modified mailer code to support long aliases, of up to 255
  addresses (each line in the aliases file may be no more than 250
  characters or so...  signal continuation by ending the line with a
  '\' character).  Reduced the maximum length of an "rmail" command
  which will be executed on a peer system to 128 bytes, to avoid
  blowing uux command buffers.

* 3.0b3: more fixes to slave mode (improved login-shell, less
  likely to be confused by line noise or leftover stuff from the
  modem chat sequence).  Fixed the code which rejects a remote
  system's attempt to send or receive files to/from directories
  other than ~/; the wrong response code was being sent, and some
  Unix uucp systems would drop the line as a result.  Tweaked serial
  I/O code to avoid reporting spurious timeouts when juggling
  processes under MultiFinder or System 7.

* 3.0b2: fixes slave mode (I'd broken it).  Added code to keep
  from crashing when certain events occur on machines that don't
  have the new Sound Manager.  Changed error-recovery process in 'g'
  protocol engine to comply with recommendations made in DECUS
  paper.

  Changes since 2.1:

- It has a real Macintosh menu-and-dialog-box front end, courtesy
  of Gary Morris at Telesoft, who sent me the complete source code
  for his "2.3" version of uupc.  I've added a "Call" menu for
  convenience.

- It's MultiFinder friendly [Gary Morris].

- It has a cron-like call scheduler [Gary again].

- It will no longer lose mail if the destination mailbox is being
  held open by another application...  the spool files are kept
  rather than being discarded, and the rmail command will be
  re-executed during the next run.  [Sak Wathanasin]

- It honors the "time" field in the System file, so you can
  restrict the placing of calls to some of your neighbors to those
  times when the phone rates are low [Gary Morris again].

- It allows you to specify some port setup information for use
  when handling incoming calls in slave mode (via a pseudo-neighbor
  named INCOMING, in the Systems file).

- It supports anonymous uucp access, if you wish...  simply add a
  pseudo-neighbor called ANONYMOUS to your Systems file, and it will
  accept calls from any uucp system in the world.

- It supports an "automatic" or "background" or "unattended" or
  "autopilot" mode (I haven't settled on a name).  In this mode, it
  will place outbound calls whenever there's work to be done, or
  when the schedule file says to call.  Between outbound calls, it
  will answer inbound calls from other systems and run in slave
  mode.

- It implements a HoneyDanBer-style exponential backoff algorithm
  for retrying calls to systems that it couldn't reach before.
  After one failure, it waits 5 minutes...  after two, 10 minutes...
  after three, 20 minutes...  and so forth, up to a maximum of 23
  hours.  You can override this algorithm by specifying an explicit
  retry time in the "time" field (e.g.  "Any;10" says that calls can
  be placed at any time of day, and retried after ten minutes).  The
  backoff and explicit-retry times apply during calls to "all
  sites", "sites with work pending", "scheduled sites", and
  "autopilot mode".  If you tell uupc 3.0 to dial a specific site,
  it will do so even if the retry interval has not run out.

- It allows remote sites to request the sending of files from the
  anonymous-uucp directory ("~/filename").  It's also capable of
  requesting that a neighbor send it a specific file (I haven't yet
  written any user-agent code which would place such a request in
  the uupc spool directory...  but if one is there, it should handle
  it OK).  [Code adapted from the UUPC/extended 1.1.1c software
  package....  many people worked on this.]

- It implements file-transfer security...  any neighbor's request
  to send a file anywhere other than the standard spooling directory
  or the "~/" uucppublic directory, or to upload a file from
  anywhere other than these places, will be rejected.  No such
  restrictions exist for transfers initiated by uupc itself.
  [Adapted from UUPC/extended 1.1.1c]

- A new configuration string ROUTEVIA can specify a comma-
  separated list of neighboring sites to which uupc (and pcmail) may
  route mail if so requested by the user (or by an "rmail" command
  on an incoming mailgram).  Mail to sites not on the ROUTVIA list
  will be passed to the MAILSERVICE neighbor as was done before.
  This is a long way from being a 'smartmailer', but it's enough to
  allow uupc 3.0 to act as a half-vast uucp forwarder...  perhaps
  it's a 'not-entirely-dim mailer'?

- The uucp 'g' protocol now supports a window of up to 7 packets,
  and will negotiate downwards to a smaller window if its peer
  requires.  [UUPC/extended]

- The uucp 'f' protocol is now supported.  This protocol is
  designed to run over X.25 PAD connections; it also works pretty
  well over MNP and V.42 modem connections.  The connections must be
  nearly-error-free, and flow-controlled; they don't need to support
  8-bit data.  uupc 3.0 activates XON/XOFF flow control when you use
  this protocol...  you must tell your modem to do likewise in the
  dialing string.  [Piet Beertema, CWI, Amsterdam, Sep 1984]

- The serial-port routines now use non-blocking ("asynchronous")
  writes, so that uupc can be writing one packet at the same time
  that it's preparing the next one or processing ACKs.  This leads
  to a substantial improvement in throughput at high speeds...  I
  _think_ this will have fixed the incompatibility between uupc and
  Telebit modems.  Somebody PLEASE test uupc 3.0 with a Telebit
  modem in spoofing mode, and tell me how well it works (or
  doesn't)!

- I've added a rather crude dialer called VADIC, which works with
  a Racal-Vadic VS212 modem (thoroughly non-Hayes-compatible).  The
  dialer works fine; I haven't used it since I got a better modem
  and put my Vadic back on the shelf.

- The Hayes dialer is no longer limited to operation at 1200 and
  2400 bps, but can be used with higher-speed modems as long as they
  accept a Hayes-compatible "AT" command set.  It works fine, for
  example, with a USRobotics Courier HST Dual Standard modem using
  V.32 at 9600 bits/second.

  You must specify the modem's serial-port data rate in the Systems
  file... it's no longer intuited to be 1200 or 2400.  ALL lines in
  the Systems file are now one field longer, as they all include a
  line speed as well as a "phone number" field.  Put a "-" in the
  phone number field for direct-connect entries.

- You can add additional characters to the "AT" command string
  which is used for the initial modem handshaking.  To do this,
  specify a dialer of "HAYES+whatever".  For example, "HAYES+&M0B0"
  will request the Hayes dialer, with a handshake of "AT&M0B0"
  (which tells a Dual Standard modem to use V.32 mode without MNP).
  You can use this capability to specify the modem's operating mode,
  assure that the response codes will be Hayes-compatible, and so
  forth.

- When you write the expect/send string pairs in the Systems file,
  you can specify strings which (if received) will cause uupc to
  immediately abandon the attempt to connect and close the serial
  port.  To do this, type the string you expect (_do_ want to
  receive), a bullet (ASCII 165, hex A5, option-8 on US-keyboards,
  [here represented as an asterisk]) the string which should
  trigger an abort (_don't_ want to receive), a space, and then
  the string you want to send in response to the expected string.
  For example if you're expecting a "Login:" prompt, and wish to
  disconnect immediately if a "Not available" message arrives
  instead type "Login:*available" as the string-you-expect-to-receive.
  If you wish, you can append several abort strings...  e.g.
  "Login:*available*down" will proceed normally if the string
  "Login:" arrives, and will immediately disconnect if the strings
  "available" or "down" are received instead.

- The Hayes dialer makes use of this abort-string feature; it will
  immediately abandon a dialing attempt if the modem returns a BUSY
  or NO CARRIER response.  The abort strings are buried in the
  source code; if you want to change them you'll have to recompile.

- uupc 3.0 will permit you to list several different phone numbers
  for a neighbor's uucp system.  Simply duplicate the neighbor's
  line in your Systems file, and edit the second and subsequent
  lines to suit.  You can specify different line speeds, and
  different chat sequences, if it's appropriate to do so.  uupc 3.0
  will try these lines in sequence until it establishes a
  connection.  It will _not_ establish multiple connections to a
  neighbor during any one session...  if, for example, it gets
  through on line #2, it will not dial line #3.

- uupc 3.0 is more domain-aware than uupc 2.1.  If you've set up
  the DOMAIN and NODENAME string in your profile, then uupc 3.0 will
  "recognize" the following address formats on incoming mail:

      user                   user@domain
      nodename!user          user%domain
      nodename!domain!user   domain!user


  Mail which arrives with any of these address-styles in its
  envelope will be delivered to "USER" on your machine.  uupc 2.1
  recognized only the first and last of these forms (I think...
  perhaps only the first!) and would "bounce" domain-addressed mail
  back out to your MAILSERVICE neighbor.

- I've added a bunch of status messages to the uucp engine, and
  reworked some of the inter-layer flags so that the engine exits a
  bit more gracefully in the face of protocol errors, line hangups,
  and so forth.

  uupc 3.0 seems quite capable of keeping a V.32 modem busy, as long
  as the system at the other end of the phone line is able to keep
  up with packets arriving at 9600 bps.  The throughput is quite
  good...  sending data to an otherwise-unloaded SparcStation-1,
  using a 7-packet 'g' protocol, I got throughputs of 885
  characters/second of real user data.  The theoretical limit is
  somewhere around 887 or 888, I think...

  Please send problem reports, suggestions, polite letterbombs, and
  so forth to me via email at "[e-mail]".  I'll
  get back to you as fast as I can.

  Thanks! Happy beta-testing!


  Jan/29/1992