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Text File | 1994-12-05 | 31.2 KB | 679 lines

Welcome to GEcho 1.11+ ---------------------- This is a bug fix release for GEcho 1.10+, which may only be used by and distributed to registered users. You should read the documentation GECHO.DOC and especially the license and disclaimer before using this software. Your use of GEcho is your agreement with this license and disclaimer and your release of the author from any form of liability or litigation. Installation ------------ GEcho 1.11+ is distributed in GE_111R.ZIP, which should contain the following four files: README.1ST The file you're reading now WHATSNEW.111 What is new in version 1.11+ GECHO.111 Password protected ZIP file which contains the GEcho 1.11+ files. The case-sensitive password is "BUGFIX". FILE_ID.DIZ Description In ZIP file To install the files on your hard disk, simply run: PKUNZIP -sBUGFIX GECHO.111 <directory> Example: PKUNZIP -sBUGFIX GECHO.111 C:\FD Because of the password protection, you will need PKUNZIP 2.04g or later. You should see the text "-AV" displayed after every file that is unzipped and at the end the screen should look like: Searching ZIP: GECHO.111 Inflating: C:/FD/GECHO.DOC -AV Inflating: C:/FD/GECHO.EXE -AV Inflating: C:/FD/GECHO.386 -AV Inflating: C:/FD/GSETUP.EXE -AV Inflating: C:/FD/GE_DOC.GEX -AV Inflating: C:/FD/FTSCPROD.GE -AV Inflating: C:/FD/AREAMGR.HLP -AV Inflating: C:/FD/MBUTIL.EXE -AV Inflating: C:/FD/MBUTIL.386 -AV Inflating: C:/FD/GCONVERT.EXE -AV Authentic files Verified! # DBT927 Gerard J. van der Land If you do not see this, the files may have been damaged or tampered with. In that case, do not use the files and get a fresh copy from a distribution site. Converting/Upgrading -------------------- If you are upgrading from any other version of GEcho, such as the shareware version 1.00 or 1.10, or registered version 1.00+, 1.01+, 1.02+ or 1.10+, or if you get an "Incompatible AREAFILE record size" or "Incompatible NODEFILE record size" error message, run "GSETUP Pack" to convert the database files. If you get a "System file revision level mismatch" or "Incorrect version number" error message, run GSETUP to update SETUP.GE. If you are upgrading from GEcho 1.01+ or 1.02+, make sure that you delete GECHO386.EXE, GE386.EXE and MBU386.EXE. This version has many added and enhanced features compared to previous versions. Please read the following information very carefully, as you will have to (re)configure some settings in GSETUP. To accommodate the new features, some menus have been reorganized or added. Please read WHATSNEW.111 for additional information about new features and bug fixes in version 1.11. The memory requirements and switches of the compression programs may have been changed. You can run GSETUP -Update to copy the default settings over your current settings. To enter your personal registration keys, export the message from the registration site with the registration keys to a file with the name GECHO.KEY and run "GSETUP Keys" from the command line. GSETUP will then enable you to import the registration keys from GECHO.KEY. GSETUP ------ * The way the PgUp/PgDn and Home/End keys work in GSETUP is now more logical. * Added Convert command to both GSETUP and MBUTIL. With GSETUP Convert you can select which Hudson and/or *.MSG areas you want to convert to JAM format. With MBUTIL Convert you can convert the areas selected in GSETUP, or manually convert one Hudson or *.MSG area. MBUTIL will delete the messages which have been converted, and update the Area format and Base name in AREAFILE.GE. * You can now import/export netmail, copy personal mail, and move Sent/Rcvd netmail to Hudson, JAM and *.MSG areas. - GEcho will treat any *.MSG area of "Netmail" type, except the main netmail directory, as an area from which netmail should be exported. This means that GEcho will also place a High Water Mark in these areas (1.MSG). - Make sure that the "Path" of your netmail area in the Area manager is identical to the "Netmail" path in the Pathnames menu. - If there are messages in your *.MSG Sent/Rcvd netmail directory which have the Local status but not the Sent status, they will be exported, and then moved again, but this time without the Local status, so this problem with only happen once. - Netmail is only imported to and exported from *.MSG and JAM netmail areas by GEcho, not by MBUTIL. System data ----------- * The number of AKAs has been increased from 11 to 32. * The "Message base" path has now been split up in three separate paths: "Hudson base", "JAM base" and "User base". * The "Sent netmail", "Rcvd netmail" and "Personal mail" paths have been removed from GSETUP, you must specify an existing *.MSG area if you want to store these messages in *.MSG format. However, the Rcvd/Sent netmail areas no longer have to be on the same drive as the "Netmail" path. * In the "Pathnames" menu you can now specify an "Inbound PKTs" path. If you do this, GEcho will store decompressed mail packets in that directory rather than storing them in the current directory. * GSETUP will now check more invalid pathname combinations. Not allowed are: Inbound mail = Outbound mail Inbound PKTs = Outbound PKTs Secure mail = Inbound mail and PKTs or Outbound mail and PKTs Outbound mail = Outbound PKTs if Mailer type = D'Bridge * The "Compression utilities" menu has been renamed to "External utilities". Support for the UltraCompressor II (UC2) and RAR compression formats was added. The default settings require RAR version 1.52 or later. You can now specify a "PKT" program that is called before every packet that is tossed or only before the first packet that is tossed from each decompressed mail file. In the "Switches" field you can specify a '@' character, which is expanded to either the full path to the packet or the full path of the directory. For each compression program you can now specify if it should be available with the %COMPRESS command. * A few items have been moved to the new "External utilities options" menu and a few were added, such as a decompression range for the serial number of compressed files (0-9, 0-F or 0-Z) and redirection of the screen output of the external utilities to the NUL device. Miscellaneous ------------- * Added support for InterMail 2.22 semaphores. Dropped the /BSY: support for InterMail semaphore mode. This means that you should NOT let GEcho process mail while InterMail is running, until you get version 2.22. {+} * In the "Global options" menu you can now specify that GEcho should create busy flags when FrontDoor, InterMail or BinkleyTerm semaphore mode has been selected, to prevent the mailer from calling nodes while GEcho is updating their compressed mail files. However, this will also mean that the mailer will abort the mail session when that node calls you (that's why this is optional). * In the "Global options" menu you can now also specify the BBS type you are using. This is used to determine what type of user file and user index you are using, which is only needed for Hudson message base renumbering and netmail Import/Export. If your type is not among the possible choices, select the one that is most compatible with your BBS software. If you do not have a Hudson message base or a user file, you do not need to worry about this setting. * In the new "GEcho limits" menu you can specify the maximum number of areas and nodes. You can have up to 6500 areas and up to 5000 nodes. Do not set these values higher than needed, as it will unnecessarily waste memory. You can also specify the number of nodes per area here, which replaces the "[entries]" parameter of GSETUP Pack. The maximum number of connections per area has been increased from 350 to 500. Do not set this value too high, as it will unnecessarily waste disk space and decrease speed, because more bytes have to be read of each area record and less area will fit in the area cache, described next. * In the "GEcho limits" menu you can also specify the maximum amount of memory that GEcho can use for a new feature: the area cache. This can improve the tossing speed quite a lot, especially if you're not using a disk cache. * In the "GEcho options" menu you can now specify if you want GEcho to write you "Notification" messages about packets that were renamed to .BAD, .DST, .LOC or .PWD. * Added option to remove "Re:" and "(R)" junk from message subjects while tossing to JAM areas. * In the "GEcho options" menu you can now choose how GEcho should use the "optional" fields in the MSG header with the "MSG compatibility" setting: Fido = use it for zone/point information (FTS-1 revision 15), as was done by previous versions of GEcho. Opus = use it for binary date/time stamps. * Check "Mgr options" in GSETUP and AREAMGR.HLP for new features. * GEcho will now optionally expand the filenames on the subject of file attach netmail messages it tosses from inbound packets by prefixing the "Inbound mail" pathname to each filename. Filenames which already contain a blackslash will not be expanded, to enable use of programs that locally generate packets with a full pathnames in the subject field. {+} * GEcho can now create Return receipt messages (enabled by default). {+} * There is now an option to export netmail that is addressed to one of your own AKAs, even if it is not for a user defined in GSETUP. {+} * The "Scan USERS.BBS" field in the "Netmail options" menu has been renamed to "Check user name". You can specify "No", "User file", or "User index". If you select BBS type RA 1.11, RA 2.00 or SuperBBS 1.16, GEcho/MBUTIL can use the fast user index files of those programs, which is faster and will also find a users' "Handle" or "Alias". * In the "MBUTIL options" menu you can now specify the number of days for "Del future". MBUTIL has an option to delete messages which are more than the specified number of days in the future. * In the "MBUTIL options" menu you can now also specify the minimum number of messages you want MBUTIL Purge and MBUTIL Pack -Purge to keep in all areas and boards. A non-zero "Max msgs" value will override the default "Minimum msgs" if it is smaller. Area manager ------------ * The packet and AreaMgr passwords in the Node manager are no longer visible unless they are edited. * When editing the addresses to add to the SEEN-BY lines for an area, you can now press '-' to deselect all addresses, or '+' to select all addresses of the zone of the area's Origin AKA. * When deleting a JAM area, GSETUP will ask if you want to delete the JAM message base files too. * The Area manager in GSETUP now has speed search in View mode. The first matching area will be displayed as you type the characters of the area name. * The "Export list" has been renamed to "Connections". The design has totally been changed. You can now set the status of the individual entries. Status Export Active Import Mandatory ----------- ------ ------ ------ --------- Normal Yes Yes Yes Yes/No Export only Yes No No Yes/No Import only No n/a Yes Yes/No Disconnect No n/a No Yes (!) If Export is set to Yes and Active to No, a node can still receive his personal mail if the name of the sysop is specified in the Node manager. If you set both Export and Import to No and you Mandatory to Yes, you can disconnect a node from the area, for example if the moderator asked you to do so. If the area is set to Mandatory, it will override the individual settings, so none of the nodes can disconnect that area. When editing a node the SysOp name will now be displayed (if known). If you press Enter on the SysOp name field, you can use Node browser to select a node. The highlighted bar will automatically be placed on the first node in the zone/net of the Origin AKA of the area. * Five new area options have been added: Read-Only All new nodes added to the Connections list are set to Export-Only. This does not affect nodes that are already in the Connections list. Hidden Hides area for all nodes, including those who have access to it Hide SBs Hide imported SEEN-BY lines Check dupes Check for duplicates messages Link replies If MBUTIL Link should link replies in this area * The Find function (F4) now supports wild cards. Node manager ------------ * The lay out of the Node manager in GSETUP has been changed, to make room for a few new options: - "ARCmail compatibility". This option used to be in the "Global options" menu. Now you only have to enable this for nodes who require this. Also, when trying to enable it, GSETUP warns that this can cause duplicate mail file names, and asks you if you are sure. - "Pack netmail". If enabled, netmail for this node will be packed, so you not have to specify the node in the Pack manager if you do not have to route netmail for other nodes to that node. This should help most of the people who were running out of Pack manager entries. If you set this option to No, netmail for this node will still be packed according to the information in the Pack manager. {+} - "Forward packets". If enabled, GEcho can forward mail packets that are addressed to that node, provided that they do not contain the packet password that you have set for the originating system. {+} - "Daily archives". If enabled, GEcho will create a new archive for a node every day instead of adding to the same archive. {+} - "Days to keep mail". Here you can specify the maximum a number of days GEcho should keep old mail archives around. {+} * The "Authorized groups" field has been renamed to "Read/write groups". If a node connects an area in one of these groups, both Export and Import in the Connections list entry will be set to Yes. If a node has only access to areas in the new "Read groups" field, Export will be set to Yes and Import to No. * The mail archive and AreaMgr message status now have to be specified separately. When converting the node database with GSETUP Pack, the mail archive status will be copied to the AreaMgr message status field. * GEcho will now only check if the packet password in the packet header is correct if the new "Check password" setting in the Node manager is set to "Yes". If it is set to "Auto", GEcho will automatically enable this setting as soon as the first packet with a correct password is received. This makes it easier to set up a packet password, without getting .PWD files in the beginning if the other node still has unsent packets without the password. Pack manager ------------ * Added Move and Sort functions to GSETUP Pack manager. Export data ----------- * If you leave the destination file name in GSETUP Export empty, you will be able to view the results on the screen. To accomplish this, the help viewer is used to view GSETUP.TMP, which is created in the directory pointed to by the TMP, TEMP or GE environment variable (used in that order of preference). The file is deleted after viewing it. Information ----------- * F1 is now the used in GSETUP for on-line help, but Alt-H can still be used too. * If GSETUP cannot find the files GE_DOC.GEX and GECHO.DOC (used by the on-line help system) in the system directory, it will try to locate them by searching the DOS PATH. This way, if you have multiple configurations, you don't have to have these files in multiple directories. GEcho ----- * GEcho now supports RemoteAccess 2.00 and the JAM message base. * The AreaMgr has been made more compatible with FSC-57 revision 3. - GEcho will now accept messages addressed to "ConfMgr", - the %COMPRESSION, %PASSWORD, %PASSIVE and %ACTIVE commands have been renamed to %COMPRESS, %PWD, %PAUSE and %RESUME respectively. - %COMPRESS will now give a list of available compression programs when an unknown method or '?' is specified. - Users can now use the '*' and '?' wildcards, where '*' replaces zero or more characters, and '?' replaces one character. The %+ALL and %-ALL commands have been removed. - A user can use %NOTE to place comments in the requests. Such requests will not be deleted after they have been processed. - It is now possible to sent a receipt to another node with %RECEIPT. - When using %FROM, GEcho will now automatically sent a receipt to the node for which the remote maintenance is done. * Increased maximum message size to 64 kB. For echomail, 10 kB of this is reserved for control information. * Changed the "^aVia" kludge in netmail messages to a new format, also used by the next version of TosScan. * GEcho will now skip messages whose size is too long when exporting mail. * When Sent/Rcvd netmail is moved to a HMB board, it will no longer appear on the screen and in the log file as if it was imported inbound netmail. * GEcho will now strip trailing spaces from the From/To/Subject fields when reading a .MSG header. * GEcho AreaMgr and GCONVERT can now read text files (areas files, taglists) of unlimited size. GEcho will now also correctly process uplink areas files which contain Tabs (such as NEWSGRPS.LST). * The query list produced by the AreaMgr will now show if an area is paused. * After GEcho Notify command you can now specify one or more node numbers to send a notify message to. {+} * Added "Kill" command to GEcho, which will delete old mail archives based on "Days to keep mail" information specified in the Node mana- ger. This feature will only work if "Mailer type" is set to "Front- Door". {+} * GEcho now uses the new Tosser Identification (TID) field instead of replacing or removing the Product Identification (PID) field. * If an AreaMgr receipt gets the received status (that is: it is not deleted), it is immediately moved to the Rcvd netmail directory. * When performing remote maintenance using %FROM, the receipt messages will now show which node performed it. {+} * Removed the -Flags switch. GEcho now parses the FLAGS field, and will not pack messages with FIL, FRQ, IMM, XMA, FAX or FPU flag set. Locally entered messages with the DIR (Direct) flag will only be packed directly to the destination, never routed. MBUTIL ------ * MBUTIL now supports JAM and *.MSG areas. * You can now specify the area on which you want to run the MBUTIL Index, Link and Pack commands. As result of this is that MBUTIL can no longer use an AREAS.BBS file instead of AREAFILE.GE for the purpose of mapping board numbers to area names and vise versa. * The MBUTIL Post commands has been enhanced a lot. It can now post messages in JAM and *.MSG areas. MBUTIL will also insert a MSGID and PID field in the message. There are a number of new switches. The -Delete switch causes the file to be deleted after posting. The -Local switch to MBUTIL Post command. The -Local switch a message that should not be exported to be posted in an Echomail area. There are also 10 new 3-character flag switches, such as -FAX. It is now possible to post empty files. If you need an empty message text, you can specify the "NUL" device name as file name. * The Purge command has been cleaned up. The -ToIdx and -File switches have been removed. MBUTIL will now only use GEcho's AREAFILE.GE. - If you do not specify an area name, messages on all areas will be purged based in the information specified in the Area manager, and -Msgs, -Days and -Rcvd will override the default settings in the "MBUTIL options" menu, which apply only to Hudson areas not defined in the Area manager. - If you do specify an area name, messages in that area will be purged based on the information specified in the Area manager, and the -Msgs, -Days and -Rcvd will override those area settings. * To purge messages while packing, you should now use the -Purge switch instead of -File. * Pack will now remove a users' record from the JAM last read (.JLR) file if both the HighestRead and LastRead values are lower than the lowest existing message number. * The Maint command has been removed, as maintenance on *.MSG areas is now done by the Purge and Pack commands. * When posting netmail messages with MBUTIL Post, it will now display the origin and destination addresses on the screen. * Added -Unknown switch to MBUTIL Purge, to delete messages in unknown boards (not defined in SETUP.GE and AREAFILE.GE). GCONVERT -------- * GCONVERT now supports conversion from FastEcho 1.20-1.41, FMail 0.98 and IMAIL 1.51. You can now optionally specify the name of the "ECHOLIST" file for "GCONVERT 10". The GEcho to TosScan conversion has been removed. * GCONVERT can now convert the purge info in MESSAGES.RA (RemoteAccess) and MSGDAT.CFG (QuickBBS) to AREAFILE.GE * GCONVERT can use the JAM_CONV.GE file created by GSETUP Convert to update MESSAGES.RA: change the area type to JAM and enter the JAM base name. JAM information --------------- This version of GEcho supports a new message format: JAM. In its current revision each area is stored in four separate message base files (header, data, index and lastread). Because of this there are some things that you should take in to consideration. 1. Do not put too many areas in one subdirectory. File access in a FAT partition is reported to slow down considerably if a directory contains more than 128 files. For the OS/2 HPFS partitions this limit is about 5000 files. 2. Do not make subdirectory levels too deep. Each additional subdirectory in the path name will take extra time. Also, keep in mind that what you have to specify in GSETUP is a base FILENAME, which should not have a file extension or end with a back slash. 3. GEcho only keeps one JAM base open at a time. Using a disk cache will considerably speed up re-opening message base files. If you system does not have sufficient memory for a disk cache, consider using DOS' FASTOPEN program instead. 4. RemoteAccess creates a file called ECHOMAIL.JAM in it's "Msg base" path. The file contains information about newly entered messages. GEcho checks for this file in it's "JAM base" path. Currently the name, format and location of this file are not defined in the JAM specification, but this is the defacto standard. 5. For tossing JAM areas, GEcho needs a 80 kB buffer. It already needs about the same amount of memory for tossing anyway, and it needs up to 128 kB for the duplicate checking, making GEcho's total memory requirement exceed 400 kB. If you are running GEcho under DESQview, you may have to reduce or disable your area cache to prevent GEcho from aborting due to insufficient available memory, depending on the maximum size of your DESQview window. There is no need to disable the HMB write buffer, GEcho will automatically disable that anyway if there is not enough memory left. 6. Due to the way a message is stored in a JAM base, it is possible that the messages that are sent to a downlink when a rescan is performed are not identical to the original (for example, have the kludges in a different order). 7. Due to the way a message is stored in JAM, it would be very inefficient to let MBUTIL Link remove "Re:" junk from subjects. This can therefore be done by GEcho while tossing. 8. MBUTIL has JAM support in the Index, Link, Pack, Post, Purge and Undelete commands. This support is transparent, in the same run MBUTIL will process JAM, Hudson and *.MSG areas. To process only JAM, Hudson areas, use the -JAM, -Hudson and -MSG switches. New features in forthcoming versions ------------------------------------ Whenever a number of new features has been implemented, I will release a new version with a minor version number, for registered users only. Only after a number of releases will there be a new shareware version, 1.20. So, if you want to have these features as soon as they're ready, be smart and register now! Here are just a few of the things that will be in the next versions: - More groups and uplinks. Currently there are only 26 groups and 10 uplinks. Especially if you are in a lot of networks, this may not be enough to group all areas, and to specify all uplinks. In a next version you will be able to specify 256 groups. For each group you will be able to specify an uplink, default area settings. - Automatic area adding. Currently GEcho will only auto-add areas that were requested from an uplink. In a next version you will also be able to specify that GEcho should automatically add unknown areas, depending on which node the messages come from. GEcho will check the uplink data to find out which group to assign the area to, and which default area settings to use. - Better duplicate detection. Currently GEcho uses one database which can contain up to 32767 CRC-32's of the headers of processed messages for all areas. This number is not sufficient for systems that process large amounts of mail, and the CRC-32 does not provide a totally reliable way to detect dupes, as it can give false hits and let messages that were modified by buggy tossers slip through. In a next version you will be able to select a new duplicate detection system that uses separate databases for each area, and uses the MSGID serial number for more accuracy. - Build-in packet sorting. Currently messages in packets are usually in a random order. This has a negative impact of GEcho's performance when tossing to JAM areas, since only one JAM base is opened at a time. In a next version you will be able to enable packet sorting, which means that GEcho will first build an index of all messages in the packet, sort it by area number, date and time, and then process it. This will not only improve the JAM tossing performance, you will also be able to get better area cache hit rates, or you can reduce the size of the area cache without loosing performance. The packet sorting will prove especially efficient if the new duplicate detection system is enabled, which stores duplicate information for each area separately. - Better AreaMgr. The a next version there will be several new options, such as specifying the maximum number messages and/or days to rescan, globally or per area, and to specify groups with several commands, for example when connecting/disconnecting areas with wildcards, and when pausing/resuming areas. - Better disk space management. Currently GEcho will compress all packets after it has processed all mail. In a next version it will be possible to specify minimum amounts of disk space GEcho has to keep available. If that boundary is crossed, GEcho will start compressing packets to make more space available. - Response file for MBUTIL Post. Currently you might have trouble fitting all parameters within the 128 character limit DOS imposes on the command line. In a next version you will be able to specify all commands in a response file, and specify the name of that file on the command line with @. - Support for other message base formats. In a next version support for the PC-Board and Squish message base formats will probably be added. - Support for more platforms. A next version of GEcho will be available for 16-bit DOS as well as a 32-bit DOS, Windows and OS/2 version. - Better netmail routing. The current pack manager in GEcho can only route netmail to 64 nodes. This may not be enough for some systems. In a future version this limit will be increased. It will also be possible to specify wild cards in addresses, for example to route netmail for 2:28* to 2:28/999. - Better statistics. Currently GEcho statistics only includes the number of messages and duplicates that were received in each area in the last session. In a next version GEcho will also keep track of exported messages, and the number of messages and kilobytes received from and sent to your uplinks and downlinks. Thank you for registering GEcho! Gerard J. van der Land 2:2802/110@fidonet Barneveld, The Netherlands Monday December 5, 1994