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| | | The Telegard Utilities | | Copyright 1990-1991 by Martin Pollard. All rights reserved. | | | Version 1.40 | | Release Date: 15 Dec 1991 | | ___________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS ___________________ Introduction .................................................... 1 AUTOPOST - Automatic Message Posting Utility .................... 3 DELEMAIL - Orphaned Email Deletor ............................... 5 FILES2TG - FILES.BBS to Telegard Converter ...................... 6 MSGPACK - Message Base Packing Utility .......................... 7 NAMEFIX - NAMES.LST Rebuilding Utility .......................... 8 ONETIME - One-Time Caller Deletor ............................... 9 REALNAME - Alias to Real Name Conversion Utility ................ 10 TG2FILES - Telegard to FILES.BBS Converter ...................... 11 ZEROUSER - Deleted User Entry Eraser ............................ 12 ____________________________________ BORING (BUT NECESSARY) LEGAL STUFF ____________________________________ WARRANTY This package is provided as-is, without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, and is only guaranteed to occupy disk space. In no event will the author be liable to you or anyone else for any damages, including (but not limited to) any lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of, or inability to use, this package. In short: You're on your own. If it works for you, great; if not, or if it breaks something, c'est la vie. As the saying goes, "Use it at your own risk, but if it breaks, *YOU* have the pieces." COPYRIGHT This package is provided at no cost to you. However, it is NOT public domain; it is copyrighted by the author. You may dis- tribute this package freely, so long as all files in the dis- tribution archive remain intact, without any changes or modifi- cations. The distribution archive is in ZIP format; however, you may convert the archive to any format you choose, so long as the above requirements are met. CREDITS All brand and product names referenced in this document are trademarks, registered trademarks, or copyrighted works of their respective holders. The Telegard Utilities - Version 1.40 ______________ INTRODUCTION ______________ What are The Telegard Utilities? In the grand tradition of The Norton Utilities, The Telegard Utilities is a collection of small programs designed to make maintaining your Telegard bulletin board system (BBS) a little bit easier. Since they are all so small, releasing them as individual programs would be a waste; therefore, they have been collected into this package. (All utilities require Telegard version 2.7 for proper operation; they WILL NOT work with earlier versions!) The following programs are included in this version: AUTOPOST Writes a specified text file as a message in a specified message base. Useful for automated posting of system news, notices, or conference rules (for conference moderators). DELEMAIL Deletes "orphaned" Email messages (i.e. messages to/from users that have been deleted or that no longer exist). FILES2TG Reads the contents of a FILES.BBS (or FILES.CAT) file located in the download directory of a Telegard file base and converts each entry to corresponding entries in the appropriate *.DIR files. Useful for SysOps running file distribu- tion systems (such as FidoNet's SDS). MSGPACK An alternative to Telegard's built-in message base packer, faster and more flexible (can pack all bases, or a single specified individual base). NAMEFIX Reads the USER.LST file to recreate the NAMES.LST file (which is an alphabetical list of all active users on the BBS, used to quickly find user names and numbers). ONETIME Scans the USER.LST file and removes all users who have only called once (i.e. the "first called" and "last called" dates are the same). REALNAME Overwrites all of the aliases in the USER.LST file with the users' real names. Useful if a SysOp, who had been previously running an alias- oriented system, decides to convert his system to real names only. - Page 1 - The Telegard Utilities - Version 1.40 TG2FILES The inverse of FILES2TG, this program reads the Telegard *.DIR files and creates FILES.BBS files in the appropriate download directories. Useful for creating listings of files in all areas. ZEROUSER Completely erases all deleted entries in the USER.LST file. This is primarily for esthetic purposes, and to eliminate confusion on the SysOp's part (it makes it easier to identify deleted records). All programs are written in C, using Borland's Turbo C++ compiler, for lightning-fast processing. - Page 2 - The Telegard Utilities - Version 1.40 ______________________________________________ AUTOPOST - AUTOMATIC MESSAGE POSTING UTILITY ______________________________________________ AUTOPOST will take a specified text file and store it as a message in any specified Telegard message base. Many uses for this utility come to mind; for example, moderators of FidoNet (or FidoNet-style) conferences can use AUTOPOST to automatically post the conference rules at certain intervals (usually once per week, or once per month). This relieves the SysOp from having to do it manually, from within Telegard... all he/she has to do is place the AUTOPOST com- mand line in a batch file, and -- with appropriate commands and events defined -- the system will take care of this tedious chore automatically! The text files that AUTOPOST will use must not exceed 160 characters per line, and cannot be larger than 32,000 bytes in size. Lines longer than 160 characters will be split, and files greater than 32,000 bytes will be truncated. Telegard color codes may be used, though plain text is recommended. To use AUTOPOST, you must be in the main BBS directory. The command syntax is: AUTOPOST boardname filename ["subject"] where: boardname The name of the message base. It must be de- fined in the BOARDS.DAT file (Message Base Editor) in order for the program to work. Note that AUTOPOST will NOT allow you to post a message in a base marked for private messages! filename The name of the text file to be inserted as a message. Partial or complete pathnames may be used, as conforming to the MS-DOS specification for pathnames. (In other words, use the full name if the file is in another directory; other- wise, just the filename will do.) "subject" Text that will be used for the subject (title) of the message. QUOTATION MARKS MUST BE USED TO SURROUND THE TEXT, OTHERWISE THE PROGRAM WILL ONLY PICK UP THE FIRST WORD! (The quotation marks themselves are not used.) This is an optional parameter; if not used, the text "Message posted by AUTOPOST" is used for the subject. - Page 3 - The Telegard Utilities - Version 1.40 AUTOPOST reads the first user record from USER.LST and uses that person's name for the addresser ("from"). (The first user record is usually the SysOp.) The addressee ("to") is set to "All." If the anonymous setting for the specified base is set to "forced anony- mous," the message will be saved as an anonymous post. Otherwise, it will be a normal (non-anonymous) post. AUTOPOST will automatically insert an identifier into the message text. If the specified base is designated for local messages, a line is inserted at the beginning of the text: * Message posted via AutoPost X.XX If the specified base is designated for EchoMail or GroupMail, a PID kludge line is inserted at the beginning of the text: ^aPID: AutoPost X.XX which can be viewed by turning on the display of kludge lines (via the "K" command) when reading messages. ("X.XX" is the current version of the program in both cases.) - Page 4 - The Telegard Utilities - Version 1.40 ___________________________________ DELEMAIL - ORPHANED EMAIL DELETOR ___________________________________ DELEMAIL will examine your private message base (EMAIL.BRD) and delete any "orphaned" messages (i.e. messages to/from users that have been deleted or that no longer exist). Since Telegard no longer does this automatically once a user is deleted, you should use DELEMAIL after you delete one or more users from your system. (You can also use it as a daily maintenance event, especially if you use a utility that automatically deletes users based on their last logon date.) Note that DELEMAIL will *NOT* update the user records to reflect deleted messages (i.e. it won't subtract from a sender's account the total number of private messages sent, and it won't adjust a recipient's account to reflect the new number of Email messages waiting). This isn't a big drawback, however, and it won't impair the operation of the BBS. To run DELEMAIL, you must be in the main BBS directory. Simply type: DELEMAIL and it will do the rest. There are no command line options. If DELEMAIL deletes a message, it will display the message number being deleted, as well as the from/to information. When finished, DELEMAIL will report the number of messages it deleted. - Page 5 - The Telegard Utilities - Version 1.40 ____________________________________________ FILES2TG - FILES.BBS TO TELEGARD CONVERTER ____________________________________________ FILES2TG will read a FILES.BBS (or FILES.CAT) file in the download directory of each Telegard file base and convert the entries to entries in the appropriate *.DIR files. This utility is useful for persons running file distribution systems (such as SDS or SDN!Works) or receiving files through GroupMail's group files option (refer to the documentation for SEA's GROUP program for more details on group files). To run FILES2TG, you must be in the main BBS directory. Simply type: FILES2TG and it will do the rest. There are two command line options avail- able with FILES2TG: -K Normally, FILES2TG will delete the FILES.BBS (or FILES.CAT) files when it has completed its operation. This option will instead preserve those files. -Unnnn By default, FILES2TG will insert the words "Software Distribution System" when *.DIR entries are created. This option will allow you to instead specify which user should be listed as the one who uploaded the file (usually this will be user #1, the SysOp). Files that are not in the *.DIR file will be added by FILES2TG. Files that are in the *.DIR file as well as the FILES.BBS (or FILES.CAT) file will be updated by FILES2TG with the corrected information. If a file is listed in the FILES.BBS (or FILES.CAT) file, but is not present in the download directory, FILES2TG will mark the *.DIR entry as "offline" with a file length of 0. If a file is listed in the FILES.BBS (or FILES.CAT) file, and is present in the download directory, but is marked as "offline" in the *.DIR file, FILES2TG will mark the *.DIR entry as "available" with the correct file length. - Page 6 - The Telegard Utilities - Version 1.40 ________________________________________ MSGPACK - MESSAGE BASE PACKING UTILITY ________________________________________ MSGPACK is an alternative to Telegard's internal message base pack- ing facility. Not only is it faster, but it can be used to pack all bases at once, or a single base (specified on the command line). Also, it will not pack a message base if it contains less than the number of maximum messages defined for that base and no deleted messages, or if it does not contain any messages at all (in other words, it is an "intelligent" packer). To use MSGPACK, you must be in the main BBS directory. Simply type: MSGPACK and it will do the rest. Each base being packed will be displayed in the middle of the screen, with a status display on the left. Packing consists of two phases: The scanning phase, which examines the base's files to determine which messages should be removed, and the actual packing phase. (To let you know how far along the pack- ing phase is, a percentage is displayed.) If you wish to abort the packing operation, press the ESC key. Note that MSGPACK will not escape immediately; rather, it will try to finish packing the current base, and abort before it begins the next one. If you wish to pack an individual message base, specify the base's filename (do *NOT* add the .BRD or .MIX extensions!) on the command line. For instance: MSGPACK TREK will pack only the message base whose filename is TREK (case is not significant). Note that MSGPACK derives much of its speed from storing the index records in memory (allowing a much faster search process). If there is not enough memory to hold the entire index, the program will skip the base, leaving it unpacked. In this instance, you will have to use Telegard's internal packing function to pack that base. - Page 7 - The Telegard Utilities - Version 1.40 ________________________________________ NAMEFIX - NAMES.LST REBUILDING UTILITY ________________________________________ NAMEFIX will read the user names from all valid entries in the USER.LST file, sort them alphabetically, and use them to create a new NAMES.LST file. (Telegard normally does this when a user is added or deleted, but -- aside from the fact that Telegard's process isn't 100% reliable -- using NAMEFIX is good for periodic mainte- nance, especially in a daily event batch file.) To run NAMEFIX, you must be in the main BBS directory. Simply type: NAMEFIX and it will do the rest. There are no command line options. When finished, NAMEFIX will report on the number of valid user entries it found (i.e. users that haven't been deleted). Note that NAMEFIX derives its speed from placing all user records (more specifically, the user names) in memory, allowing for a much faster sorting process. If there is not enough memory to hold all the user names, NAMEFIX will abort, leaving the current NAMES.LST file unchanged. - Page 8 - The Telegard Utilities - Version 1.40 ___________________________________ ONETIME - ONE-TIME CALLER DELETOR ___________________________________ ONETIME will read all valid entries in the USER.LST file and delete the callers that have only called once (i.e. the "first called" and "last called" dates are equivalent). To run ONETIME, you must be in the main BBS directory. Simply type: ONETIME and it will do the rest. When finished, the program will report the number of users it deleted. IF ANY USERS WERE DELETED, YOU MUST RUN NAMEFIX TO REBUILD THE NAMES.LST FILE! This is required to maintain proper operation of the BBS! Note that ONETIME is not discriminatory; it will delete ANY entry that indicates a one-time caller. In some cases (such as users that have called and not yet been validated) this is not desirable; thus, you should use OFFLINE manually, not in an automated process, so that you can take any necessary steps to prevent valid users from being deleted. - Page 9 - The Telegard Utilities - Version 1.40 __________________________________________________ REALNAME - ALIAS TO REAL NAME CONVERSION UTILITY __________________________________________________ REALNAME will cycle through all valid records in USER.LST, overwrit- ing each users' aliases with their real names, and rebuild the NAMES.LST file. Admittedly, this utility serves a very rare pur- pose, but for those SysOps who wish to convert their systems from alias-oriented to real names only, it's much needed. To run REALNAME, you must be in the main BBS directory. Simply type: REALNAME and it will do the rest. There are no command line options. When finished, REALNAME will report on the number of valid user entries (i.e. users that haven't been deleted) it converted. Note that when it comes time to rebuilding the NAMES.LST file, REALNAME -- like NAMEFIX -- derives its speed from placing all user records (more specifically, the user names) in memory, allowing for a much faster sorting process. If there is not enough memory to hold all the user names, REALNAME will abort, leaving the current NAMES.LST file unchanged. Beware of this, since if this happens, the NAMES.LST file will be invalid! I suggest making a backup copy of your USER.LST file before attempting to run REALNAME... just in case. - Page 10 - The Telegard Utilities - Version 1.40 ____________________________________________ TG2FILES - TELEGARD TO FILES.BBS CONVERTER ____________________________________________ TG2FILES converts Telegard's *.DIR file directories into standard FILES.BBS files (used by Opus, QuickBBS, and other BBS programs). This will allow you to make use of utilities designed for use with FILES.BBS files. (The original *.DIR file is unchanged.) To run TG2FILES, you must be in the main BBS directory. Simply type: TG2FILES and it will do the rest. There are no command line options. TG2FILES will display each file base being converted. The FILES.BBS file is placed in the download directory specified for each base. If the program cannot create the FILES.BBS file (for instance, if the download directory is on a CD-ROM drive), the base is skipped. The FILES.BBS file will look like the following: +------------------------------+ | Telegard BBS Current Release | +------------------------------+ TG27-1.ZIP Telegard BBS version 2.7 [1/2] TG27-2.ZIP Telegard BBS version 2.7 [1/2] TG27DOCS.ZIP Telegard BBS version 2.7 documentation The message base title is 80-column centered. Each line consists of the filename (padded to 12 columns with spaces), two spaces, and the file's description. This is the de-facto standard format for the FILES.BBS file, and should be usable by almost any program that uses the FILES.BBS format. - Page 11 - The Telegard Utilities - Version 1.40 ______________________________________ ZEROUSER - DELETED USER ENTRY ERASER ______________________________________ ZEROUSER will cycle through the USER.LST file and completely erase all deleted user entries. This is desirable for both esthetic (makes them easier to identify in Telegard's user editor) and secu- rity purposes (deleted users will not be able to log back on using their old information if something goes wrong). To run ZEROUSER, you must be in the main BBS directory. Simply type: ZEROUSER and it will do the rest. There are no command line options. When finished, ZEROUSER will report on the number of deleted user entries it erased. (NAMEFIX should be used after ZEROUSER is used, just in case.) User entries erased by ZEROUSER can be identified as having the words "PURGED USER" in the user name field. All other fields are completely erased (i.e. character fields are set to null, numeric fields are set to zero, and all flags are reset). - Page 12 -