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█┐ █▀▀▀█┐ █▀▀█┐ █┐ █┐ █│ █│█┐█│ █│▀█│ █│ █│ █│ █│└┘█│ █│ █│ █│ █│ █│ █│ █│ █│ █│ █│ █▄▄▄┐ └┘ └┘ └┘ └┘ └┘ └┘ └───┘ The "Semi-Intuitive" Mail Processor V e r s i o n 1 . 5 0 Copyright 1992-1994 Andreas Klein All Rights Reserved IMAIL 1.50 Table of Contents -------------------------------------------------------------- ══ TABLE OF CONTENTS ══ 1. INTRODUCTION 2. LICENSE AGREEMENT 3. STANDARD DISCLAIMER 4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS - Copyrights 5. AN OVERVIEW OF ECHOMAIL a. What is Echo Mail? b. How it Works c. Some notes on Addresses d. Echo Mail Message Control Information 1) Area Line 2) Tear Line 3) Origin Line 4) SEEN-BY Lines 5) PATH Lines e. Methods of Sending Echo Mail f. Topology g. Why a PATH line? h. Gating of Echo Mail 6. INSTALLATION Upgrading from Previous Versions to IMAIL 1.50 a. System Requirements b. Environment Variables 7. IMSETUP a. General Configuration 1) System Addresses 2) Domains 3) Subdirectories 4) AreaLink Options 5) Forward link manager 6) Product Codes 7) No Import 8) Other parameters 9) Special parameters b. Compression Programs c. Decompression Programs d. Area Manager 1) Editing Keys 2) Flags displayed in the Area Record 3) The Message Area Record 4) Special boards e. Node Manager 1) Editing Keys 2) The Node Record f. Group Manager g. Forward Link Manager h. Pack Routing i. Import/Export Functions 8. IMAIL COMMAND LINE OPTIONS a. TOSS - Toss Incoming Mail b. SCAN - Scan for Outgoing Mail 9. IMCOMP - Compress arcmail bundles 10. IMPACK - Pack Net Mail Messages 11. IMALNK a. Format of the Request b. Arealink Replies c. Meta-Commands d. Remote Maintenance e. Local Maintenance IMAIL 1.50 Table of Contents -------------------------------------------------------------- 12. IMTHINGS a. IMPORT [MHS-] Import Net Mail Messages b. INDEX [-H--] Rebuild index files c. KILL [MHSJ] Delete messages from an area d. LINK [MHSJ] Link Messages in Message Base e. MOVE [MHS-] Move Message Area f. NOTIFY [----] Send list of linked echos g. PACK [MHSJ] Compress message base h. POST [MHSJ] Post message in echo area i. RECOVER [-H--] Unerase messages j. SEND [----] Send a file k. SORT [-H--] Sort the Message Base 13. KLUDGE LINES a. EID (Echomail IDentification) b. FLAGS c. FMPT (FroM PoinT) d. INTL (INTernationaL/INTerzonaL) e. MSGID (MeSsaGe IDentification) f. PID (Product IDentification) g. REPLY h. RESCANNED i. TID (Tosser IDentification) j. TOPT (TO PoinT) 14. BATCH FILE EXAMPLE 15. MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION a. A Note about Capability b. Defaults for Compression/Decompression c. Files Maintained by IMAIL d. Exit Codes and Semaphores 16. IMAIL REGISTRATION SITES IMAIL 1.50 page 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. INTRODUCTION IMAIL is an echo mail processor. In other words, it moves incoming mail received by your mailer to a local message base and is also able to forward echo mail to other systems (this is called TOSSing). It scans the message base for locally entered messages and will create packets for your uplink and the other connected systems, so your mailer can transmit them (this is the SCAN function). IMAIL is FTSC-compatible, and written for those who use any combination of the "Hudson" message base (ProBoard, QuickBBS, SuperBBS, RemoteAccess, or fully compatible), an *.MSG message base (for example Opus), the Squish message base (Maximus) or the Jam message base (Remote Access and Proboard). It can be used with mailers which implement the file attach method of mail transfer (such as FrontDoor or Intermail), or with systems which use "flow files" (such as Binkley or Portal of Power). Support for the D'Bridge Queue system is planned for a future version. It also features full Zone and Point support, eliminating the need to use the "fake address" method of sending mail to and from points (IMAIL however still supports the point net addressing). Moreover IMAIL offers a very powerful area management which allows to handle the most tasks (creating and removing of areas, detection of dead or linkless areas) automatically. Especially on large systems IMAIL can save a lot of time for the sysop. If you are new to FidoNet mail processing, I suggest you familiarize yourself with the documentation for the mailer you will be using, and read "An Overview of Echo mail", Chapter 5. You can easily print out this doc by COPY IMAIL.DOC LPT1: to any ASCII-printer. If you want two-sided-printouts, first print IMAIL_O.DOC for the odd-numbered pages, then turn the pages and print IMAIL_E.DOC on the backsides for the even pages. page 2 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. LICENSE AGREEMENT This software and anything enclosed in the original archive are protected by both German and international copyright law and treaty provisions. IMAIL is NOT Public-Domain or Freeware, it is released as Shareware. If you intend to use this program after a trial period of THIRTY (30) days, you must register your copy of IMAIL or stop using it. You are entitled and encouraged to give this program together with its original documentation to anybody, if you do not change the contents of the archive or the program itself. The distribution of modified versions is prohibited. IMAIL has no restricted features, everything can be used with one exception (via lines). But unregistered users will only receive minimal support from the author and support/registration sites. Only registered users will get full support. For registration information contact the registration site closest to you, the addresses can be found in Chapter 16. More specific information and the current registration fees can also be found in the IMAILREG.ARJ supplied in the release archive. Registered users receive a key file with a unique serial number. The key file remains the property of the author Andreas Klein. It must not be hacked, distributed, re-engineered or modified in any way. It is also forbidden to modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile and/or disassemble this software. If you violate this agreement, your license expires immediately and legal action may be started against you. IMAIL is in no way a crippled program, nor will it stop working after a certain amount of time. I don't like this concept in ShareWare programs. This software is provided AS IS without any warranty, expressed or implied, including but not limited to fitness for a particular purpose. The author will not be liable for any direct or consequential damages, lost profits or lost savings arising out of the use of this software due to loss of data or any other reason. The person using the software bears all the risks as to the quality and performance of the software. I will however do my best to fix any bugs reported to me, as long as I have enough information to do this. If your local laws do not permit any of the statements made above, or if you do not agree with any of them yourself, then you are not licensed to use this program! IMAIL 1.50 page 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. STANDARD DISCLAIMER This product is meant for educational purposes only. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Void where prohibited. Some assembly required. List each check separately by bank number. Batteries not included. Contents may settle during shipment. Use only as directed. No other warranty expressed or implied. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Postage will be paid by addressee. Subject to CAB approval. This is not an offer to sell securities. Apply only to affected area. May be too intense for some viewers. Do not stamp. Use other side for additional listings. For recreational use only. Do not disturb. All models over 18 years of age. If condition persists, consult your physician. No user-serviceable parts inside. Freshest if eaten before date on carton. Subject to change without notice. Times approximate. Simulated picture. No postage necessary if mailed in Antarctica. Breaking seal constitutes acceptance of agreement. For off-road use only. As seen on TV. One size fits all. Many suitcases look alike. Contains a substantial amount of non- tobacco ingredients. Colors may, in time, fade. We have sent the forms which seem to be right for you. Slippery when wet. For office use only. Not affiliated with the Red Cross. Drop in any mailbox. Edited for television. Keep cool; process promptly. Post office will not deliver without postage. List was current at time of printing. Return to sender, no forwarding order on file, unable to forward. Not responsible for direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages resulting from any defect, error or failure to perform. At participating locations only. Not the Beatles. Penalty for private use. See label for sequence. Substantial penalty for early withdrawal. Do not write below this line. Falling rock. Lost ticket pays maximum rate. Your cancelled check is your receipt. Add toner. Place stamp here. Avoid contact with skin. Sanitized for your protection. Be sure each item is properly endorsed. Sign here without admitting guilt. Employees and their families are not eligible. Beware of dog. Contestants have been briefed on some questions before the show. Limited time offer, call now to insure prompt delivery. You must be present to win. No passes accepted for this engagement. No purchase necessary. Processed at location stamped in code at top of carton. Shading within a garment may occur. Use only in well-ventilated area. Keep away from fire or flame. Replace with same type. Approved for veterans. Booths for two or more. Check here if tax deductible. Some equipment shown is optional. Price does not include taxes. Not recommended for children. Prerecorded for this time zone. Reproduction strictly prohibited. No solicitors. No alcohol, dogs, or horses. No anchovies unless otherwise specified. Restaurant package, not for resale. List at least two alternate dates. First pull up, then pull down. Call toll free before digging. Driver does not carry cash. Some of the trademarks mentioned in this product appear for identification purposes only. Record additional transactions on back of previous stub. page 4 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IMSETUP makes use of the C eXtended Library (CXL) version 5.2 by Mike Smedley and the Squish MSGAPI by Scott J. Dudley. IMAIL uses Lingua (c) Sichemsoft, Wageningen, Netherlands for multi-language support (yet not fully implemented). IMAIL also uses the JAM(mbp) API - Copyright 1993 Joaquim Homrighausen, Andrew Milner, Mats Birch, Mats Wallin. My deepest gratitude to the Beta Testers, who risked seeing their message base grunged by my program, and for having had patience when I released buggy betas. Very special thanks to: Fabiano Fabris who started the IMAIL project and worked on it until IMAIL 1.30. Stefan Kaspar, who together with me took over IMAIL from Frank Prade, Fabiano Fabris. Markus Lomb and Stefan Rubner. Udo Fleckenstein who developed parts of IMTHINGS. Henk Heidema, without their support, the IMAIL project Roelof Heuvel, would not have suceeded and a lot of bugs Andy Kreuzer and would not have been found. Bob Snowdon. Klaus Bader who maintains the documentation IMAIL 1.50 page 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - Copyrights The following copyrighted programs are mentioned in this document: Arc System Enhancement Associates Arj Robert K. Jung Binkley Bit Bucket Software Co D'Bridge Chris Irwin DesqView Quarterdeck Office Systems FrontDoor Joaquim Homrighausen InterMail Continental Software Jam Joaquim Homrighausen, Andrew Milner, Mats Birch and Mats Wallin. LANtastic Artisoft Inc. LHarc/LHA Haruyasu Yoshizaki Maximus Scott J. Dudley MS-DOS Microsoft Corporation Novell Netware Novell Inc. OS/2 IBM Corporation Opus Wynn Wagner III PAK NoGate Consulting PC-DOS IBM Corporation PKZIP PKWARE Inc. PKarc/PKpak PKWARE Inc. Portal of Power The Portal Team ProBoard Philippe Leybaert QEMM Quarterdeck Office Systems QuickBBS Richard Creighton & Steve Grabilowitz RemoteAccess Andrew Milner SQZ J. I. Hammarberg Squish Scott J. Dudley SuperBBS Aki Antman & Risto Virkkala TosScan Joaquim Homrighausen Validate McAfee Associates XRS Mike Ratledge Zoo Rhaul Dhesi If I have forgotten someone, or have made any mistakes, my most sincere apologies! Drop me a line and it will be rectified for the next release. page 6 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. AN OVERVIEW OF ECHOMAIL Information derived from FTS-0004. a. What is Echo Mail? Echo Mail is a technique which permits several nodes in a network to share messages. All systems sharing a given echo see any messages entered into the echo by any of the participating systems. This can be implemented in such a way as to be totally transparent to the users of a particular system. In fact, they may not even be aware of the network being used to move their messages about from node to node! This has its disadvantages. Users who are not familiar with Echo Mail do not realize that the messages transmitted cost MANY sysops money, not just the local sysop. This is an important consideration in Echo Mail and should not be taken lightly. In an echo with 100 participating systems the transmission costs per message can get quite high. b. How it Works In general, the process is: 1. A message is entered into a designated area (often called "echo") on a FidoNet compatible system. 2. This message is "exported" along with some control information to each system "linked" to the echo through the originating system. 3. Each of the receiving systems "import" the message into the proper Echo Mail area. 4. The receiving systems then "export" these messages, along with additional control information, to each of their links. 5. Return to step 3. The method is quite simple in general. Of course, following the steps literally would mean messages would never stop being exported and transmitted to other systems. This obviously is not desirable as the network would quickly become overburdened. The information contained in the 'control information' section is used to prevent transmitting the same message more than once to a single system. IMAIL 1.50 page 7 ------------------------------------------------------------------- c. Some notes on Addresses In order to send a message from the originating system to the destination, there has to be a method of addressing. You can try names, of course. Ever seen a New York phonebook? Ok, something else. In the world of FidoNet-compatible networks, a so called 4D-address is used. Let's have a look at one: 2:2480/141.42 The punctuation marks divide the address into four parts, these are the four dimensions of an address. That's why it is called 4D-address. The first number indicates the ZONE to which the system belongs. The zone number may be more than one-digit, but trouble is at hand when you use a zone number higher than 255. The zone number is used to indicate the bigger geographical environment of the system, in our example it's Europe. The second part of the address is the NET. With the net number, you can usually determine the nearer location of this system. In our example, it's southern Bavaria in Germany. Following after the net, there is the NODE. A nodenumber is assigned to an individual system. The last number is the POINT. Points are systems which can not be contacted directly via mailer. Therefore, they hold an address "behind" their node, which is often called "bossnode". Since the 4D-address is a newer development, some mailers cannot handle it. These have to use a "fakenet" to address their points, a small network which only exists between the bossnode and his points. This should be enough for our purposes, you can find more detailed information elswhere! d. Echo Mail Message Control Information There are five items of control information associated with an Echo Mail message. Some are optional, some are not. Normally this information is not entered by the person creating the message, but rather is added by the program which is responsible for the exporting of the original message. The following control fields determine how Echo Mail is handled: 1) Area Line This is the first line of an echo mail message. Its actual appearance is: AREA:CONFERENCE where CONFERENCE is the name of the echo. This line is added when a conference is being "exported" to another system. It is based upon information found in the configuration file for the designated message area (in the case of IMAIL, this file is IMAIL.AR). This field is REQUIRED by the receiving system to "import" a message into the correct Echo Mail area. Note that IMAIL will not handle echo mail messages which "kludge" this field by putting a ^A character in front of page 8 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- it; these messages will be tossed into your net mail directory. Note also that you may not have two areas defined with the same area name; this would create cross-linked messages, which are a potential source of duplicates. 2) Tear Line This line is near the end of a message and consists of three dashes (---) followed by an optional program specifier. This is used to show the first program used to add Echo Mail compatible control information to the message. The tear line generated by IMAIL looks like: --- <a small product-specific banner> This field is optional for most Echo Mail compatible processors. Some systems will place this line in the message when it is first created, but it is normally added when the message is first "exported." 3) Origin Line This line appears near the bottom of a message and gives a small amount of information about the system where it originated. It looks like: * Origin: IMAIL Development (2:2480/47) The " * Origin: " part of the line is a constant field. This is followed by a banner which should in some way identify the system which originated the message. This is fiction. Reality is that the origin line is used for everything from aphorisms to political exclamations. But this is not really serious, as long as the first part and the address is correct. The complete network address (2:2480/47 in this case) is added by the program inserting the line. This field is generated at the same time as the tear line, and therefore may either be generated at the time of creation or during the first "export" processing. 4) SEEN-BY Lines There can be many SEEN-BY lines at the end of Echo Mail messages, and they are the real "meat" of the control information. They are used to determine the systems to receive the exported messages. The format of the line is: SEEN-BY: 132/101 113 136/601 1014/1 The net/node numbers correspond to the net/node numbers of the systems having already received (or "seen") the message. In this way a message is never sent to a system twice. IMAIL 1.50 page 9 ------------------------------------------------------------------- In an Echo with many participants the number of SEEN-BY lines can be very large. This line is added if it is not already a part of the message, or added to if it already exists, each time a message is exported to other systems. This is a REQUIRED field, and IMAIL might not function correctly if this field is not put in place by other Echo Mail compatible programs. IMAIL and other mail processors use this field to check whether one of your downlinks has already seen this message (which normally only occurs due to errors in the distribution topology). Depending on the configuration, IMAIL notifies you and/or does not export this message to this system. 5) PATH Lines These are the last lines in an Echo Mail message. They appear as follows: ^APATH: 132/101 1014/1 where the ^A stands for Control-A (ASCII character 1) and the net/nodes listed correspond to those systems having processed the message before it reached the current system. This is not the same as the SEEN-BY lines, because those lines list all systems the message has been sent to, while the path line contains all systems having actually processed the message. e. Methods of Sending Echo Mail To this point the issue of how Echo Mail is actually sent has been glossed over entirely. The phrase has been, "the message is exported to another system." What exactly does this mean? In principle, the messages could be copied once for each receiving system, then addressed for it, placed in the netmail folder (the AREA:-line identifies them as conference mail) and sent by the mailer. Thus generating a huge number of messages, the mailer would soon be overburdened, would the phone bill... Echomail is today sent in so-called ARCmail-bundles. Thom Henderson (from System Enhancement Associates) came up with the original ARCmail program. Having previously written the ARC file archiving and compression program, he knew the savings achievable by having all of the Echo Mail messages placed in .ARC format for transmission. As a by-product, the messages no longer appeared in the net mail area, but were included in a file attached to a single Net Mail message. In this way the tremendous number of messages generated, and the phone bill problems were both solved. When IMAIL sends Echomail, the following happens: The message to be sent is copied once for each system (just like our principle). This copy is placed in a special directory called "Temp Outgoing Packets" and gets a special format called Packet or PKT. If a system receives more than one message, these are also included in one or more PKT. page 10 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- The PKT also includes the sender's and the receiver's address, it is a kind of netmail. Having copied all messages, IMAIL calls a compression programm which turns the PKTs into one ARCmail-bundle. When importing, IMAIL does the same in the ooposite direction. f. Topology The way in which systems link together for a particular Echo is called the "echo topology." It is important to know this structure for two reasons: - it is important to have a topology which is efficient in the transfer of the Echo Mail messages; - it is important to have a topology which will not cause systems to see the same messages more than once. Efficiency can be measured in a number of ways; least time involved for all systems to receive a message, least cost for all systems to receive a message, and least phone calls required for all systems to receive a message are all valid indications of efficiency. Users of Echo Mail compatible systems have determined (through trial and error) the best measure of efficiency is a combination of all three. Balancing the equation is not easy, but some guidelines can be given: 1. Never have two systems attempting to send Echo Mail to each other at the same time. This results in "collisions" which will cause both systems to fail. To avoid this, one system should be responsible for polling while the other system is holding mail. This arrangement can alternated based upon various criteria, but both systems should never be attempting to call each other at the same time. 2. Have nodes form "stars" for distribution of Echo Mail. This arrangement has several nodes all receiving their Echo Mail from the same system. In general the systems on the "outside" of the star poll the system on the "inside". The system on the "inside" in turn polls other systems to receive the Echo Mail that is being passed on to the "outside" systems. / / B / \ / C----A----F /| / | D E IMAIL 1.50 page 11 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Utilize fully connected polygons with a few vertices. Nodes can be connected in a triangle or a fully connected square (all corners of the square send to all of the other corners). This method is useful for getting Echo Mail messages to each node as quickly as possible. A / \ / \ B-----C All of these efficiency guidelines have to be balanced with the need to prevent the export of duplicate messages. Duplicates will occur in any topology which forms a closed polygon which is not fully connected. Take for example the following configuration: A ---- B | | | | C ---- D This square is a closed polygon that is not fully connected. It is capable of generating duplicates as follows: 1. A message is entered on node A. 2. Node A exports the message to node B and node C placing the SEEN-BY for A, B, and C in the message as it does so. 3. Node B sees that node D is not listed in the SEEN-BY and exports the message to node D. 4. Node C sees that node D is not listed in the SEEN-BY and exports the message to node D. At this point node D has received the same message twice - a duplicate was generated. Normally a "dupe-ring" will not be as simple as a square. Generally it will be caused by a system on one end of a long chain accidentally connecting to a system on the other end of the chain. This causes the two ends of the chain to become connected, forming a polygon. g. Why a PATH line? The PATH line stores the net/node numbers of each system having actually processed a message. This information is useful in correcting the biggest problem encountered by nodes running an Echo Mail compatible system - the problem of finding the cause of duplicate messages. How does the PATH line help solve this problem? Take the following path line as an example: ^aPATH: 107/6 107/312 107/528 107/312 132/101 This shows the message having been processed by node 107/312 on more than one occasion. Based upon the earlier description of the 'information control' fields in Echo Mail messages, this clearly is an error in processing (see Section b. entitled "How it Works"). page 12 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- This further shows node 107/528 as the node which apparently processed the message incorrectly. In this case the path line can be used to quickly locate the source of duplicate messages. The circular path detection of IMAIL recognizes such errors and allows you to stop such duplicate messages. IMAIL checks whether your system is already in the path line. But as the path does not contain zone information (and net/node combinations might be the same in different zones, IMAIL also checks whether the systems before and after your nodenumber are in the list of linked systems of this echo. If this is also true, a circular path has been detected. In an Echo with many participants it becomes almost impossible to determine the exact topology used. In these cases the use of the path line can help a coordinator of the Echo track any possible breakdowns in the overall topology, while not substantially increasing the amount of information transmitted. Having this small amount of information added to the end of each message pays for itself very quickly when it can be used to help detect a topology problem causing duplicate messages to be transmitted to each system. h. Gating of Echo Mail There was a time when the only network which made use of the methods described above was FidoNet. However, new networks have appeared, and the problem of sharing Echo Mail between these networks arose. (To avoid ambiguity, the term "domain" was introduced to distinguish between networks such as FidoNet and SIGnet.) Sharing (or gating) of Echo Mail presents technical problems. Put simply, the network addresses which are valid in one domain may not appear in the messages of another domain. The reason for this is that, if we consider only the net and node fields of a network address (many mail processors are not able to handle the zone and point fields), there is a high possibility that a given address exists in another domain. With net mail, this problem may be solved by enforcing the requirement that inter-domain mail be sent directly to its destination, or at least, to a gateway system. With Echo Mail, the problem is more complex, due to the information contained in the SEEN-BY and PATH lines (as described above). These lines contain network addresses, and are needed to prevent duplicate rings. However, a strategy has evolved which will allow Echo Mail to be gated. Above all, only ONE system should be allowed to gate Echo Mail between domains. This may be done on a world-wide or Zone-wide basis. This system will be responsible for receiving the mail from one domain, and feeding it into the other. This is not enough. Due to the possibility of duplicate network addresses, all SEEN-BYs and PATH lines should be removed during the gating process. This explains why only one system should be allowed to gate Echo Mail. IMAIL 1.50 page 13 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. INSTALLATION IMAIL is supplied in a single compressed file which should contain the following files: IMAIL.EXE The mail processor IMALNK.EXE The AreaLink IMCOMP.EXE The packet compression program IMCVT.EXE The conversion-tool for previous configs IMPACK.EXE The net mail packer program IMSETUP.EXE The setup program IMTHINGS.EXE The external utilities IMAIL.ETF The language file IMAIL.DOC The documentation IMAIL.GER The german documentation README.1ST Summary of changes since the last release IMAILREG.ARJ Information concerning registration. FTSCPROG.048 The FTS-product code list There may also be a README file which includes last minute information. Please refer to it before installing. Copy all the executable files to the same directory. Set the IMAIL environment variable (see below) to point to a directory where you want your configuration files to be stored (usually the same directory as that in which the program "resides", it is known as the IMAIL "home" directory) and run IMSETUP. Also make sure that the IMAIL.ETF file is in this directory. Upgrading from Previous Versions to IMAIL 1.50 If you are upgrading IMAIL from a previous version, please see the file README.1ST for information on new features since the last public release. The program IMCVT.EXE will convert your database from version 1.40G3 to the current format If you are still using IMAIL 1.10, 1.20/1.21(a), 1.30/1.35(a) or 1.40, you should contact the next support/registration site where conversion tools should be available. There is one tool for upgrading from 1.10 to 1.20, one from 1.2X to 1.3X and one from 1.3X to 1.4X page 14 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- a. System Requirements 1) Hardware IBM PC/AT/386/486, or fully compatible Mono or color display Hard disk a keyboard is strongly recommended :-) 2) Software MS-DOS (or PC-DOS) 3.10 or greater An FTSC-0001 compatible mailer One or more compression programs, selected from: ARC by System Enhancement Associates; Arj by Robert K. Jung; LHarc by Haruyasu Yoshizaki; PKARC/PKPAK by PKWARE Inc.; PAK by NoGate Consulting; PKZip by PKWARE Inc.; SQZ by J. I. Hammarberg and ZOO by Rhaul Dhesi. 3) Networks and File Sharing IMAIL has been extensively tested in the NetWare and LANtastic environments, as well as under DESQview and OS/2 2.x. IMAIL implements file sharing as "expected" by RemoteAccess V 1.1X. What this means is that it will open all files in sharing mode, and will lock MSGINFO.BBS just before writing to any of the message base files. If IMAIL encounters the semaphore MBUNLOCK.NOW, before it locks the messagebase itself, it waits 90 time slices and gives control back to give another programs in a multitasking environment enough time to run. When an attempt to lock the Hudson mailbase fails, the MBUNLOCK.NOW is created also. Note that SHARE.EXE =must= be loaded in order for this to work correctly, unless you are using IMAIL in a network environment, which supports the MS-DOS file sharing functions. However, IMTHINGS (beside the LINK function) does =not= make use of RemoteAccess file sharing. It is expected that message base utilities will not be run while a user is on line, or while some other program is making use of the message base. Damage can result if you try to use IMTHINGS together with another program. If you are using IMAIL in a multi-tasking or network environment, please set the multitasking flag in IMSETUP (see Chapter 7. Section a. para 7)). IMAIL 1.50 page 15 ------------------------------------------------------------------- In this case IMAIL fully supports the multi-tasking and the network capabilities of FrontDoor 2.20a, Intermail and Binkley. IMAIL indicates when it is accessing the arcmail bundles for a certain system and checks whether a session is currently running to avoid file sharing problems. There are situations where it can be necessary to stop IMAIL or one of the other executables as soon as possible if for the server of a network detects a power failure. Whenever checking for CTRL-C or CTRL-Break from the keyboard, IMAIL also checks for the semaphore file IMAIL.BRK in the semaphore directory (or in its home directory if no semaphore directory is given). If this file is found, IMAIL behaves as when the user has pressed CTRL-C. b. Environment Variables 1) IMAIL An environment variable should be set to point to the directory containing IMAIL's configuration files. This is not required, but strongly recommended, in order to avoid problems in case of errors in your batch file. The variable may be set by including an instruction such as the following in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: SET IMAIL=C:\IMAIL Please note that IMAIL and its companion programs do not make use of any other program's configuration files. 2) POINTNET If you are a "boss" node and have point running software which cannot handle 4D addressing, you will have assigned them a point net (sometimes called a fakenet) address. You should inform IMAIL of this point net by setting the POINTNET environment variable, so that TOSS and SCAN can remove addresses containing the point net from the SEEN-BYs in echo mail messages. For example, if you were using a point net of 31339, you would set the POINTNET variable with: SET POINTNET=31339 3) TASK This environment variable is needed in a FrontDoor or Intermail network/multitasking environment, it is used for the FrontDoor/Intermail CRC semaphore. SET TASK=99 The variable is used to determine by the program on which system (in a multitasking/network environment) it is running when creating the FD 2.10 CRC semaphores. If you use the same variable on different computers/tasks you will experience problems. page 16 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. IMSETUP The program IMSETUP is used to configure the various options used by IMAIL. In this chapter, each option will be examined in detail. If any of the options are not clear, or their meaning and use is "obscure", you can generally leave them in their default setting. You can get help in any of the IMAIL support echos, or by sending net mail to the author or to the support sites listed at the end of this documentation. A complete new version of IMSETUP with context-sensitive help is in work but not yet ready. IMSETUP can be given one or more command line options, selected from the following: /M Force 'mono' color set /C Force 'color' color set /D Force direct screen writes /S Force CGA snow elimination Naturally, /D and /S have exactly opposite effects, so it makes no sense to use them together. Note: Should you wish IMSETUP to create and/or look for the configuration files in a directory which is different from the one in which you ran it, set the IMAIL environment variable to point to this directory. Otherwise, IMSETUP will look for its configuration files in the current working directory, whatever that happens to be. When editing data, the following editing keys can be used in the input fields of IMSETUP: Tab, Enter, RightArrow, DnArrow field right Shift-Tab, UpArrow, LeftArrow field left Ctrl-LeftArrow word left Ctrl-RightArrow word right Home beginning of field End end of field Ctrl-Home beginning of first field Ctrl-End end of last field Ins toggle field insert mode Del delete character at cursor BackSpace delete character left Ctrl-BackSpace delete word left Ctrl-R restore field to original Ctrl-T delete word right Ctrl-U, Ctrl-Y delete to end of field Esc abort data entry F10 Exit and save data IMAIL 1.50 page 17 ------------------------------------------------------------------- a. General Configuration This options leads to another menu which allows various system- wide parameters to be set. Please read this section carefully! 1) System Addresses The "System Addresses" menu allows you to define up to 16 network addresses. The first of the addresses is known as your primary address. It should be the same as the one defined as your primary in your mailer and/or BBS program. The other addresses given are your system's AKAs (or aliases). Addresses should be given in the form: zone:net/node.point Addresses may be in different zones, and even in different domains (or networks). At least the primary address must be specified. When IMSETUP detects that you made changes to the list of system addresses, the area database, the group database and the domain information will be corrected automatically. 2) Domains In this menu the domain(s) to which you belong are specified. The word "domain" is used to distinguish between different amateur networks such as SIGnet and FidoNet. Here, you should indicate the domains of which you are a part, the zones belonging to these domains, your AKAs in this domain, and the outbound directory for each domain. You should also specify those domains to which you do not belong, but with which you exchange mail. IMAIL uses this information for MSGID kludges when generating net mail messages. More importantly, outbound mail for a specific domain will be placed in the directory you specify here. If you are in doubt of which zone you belong to, or which domain, please contact your nearest Coordinator or Host. - Domain name Specify the name of the domain. No universally accepted standard seems to exist, but some examples are: FidoNet for zone 1 to 6, IntlNet for zone 56 through 58, and so on. The name must not contain the character '@'; everything before that character and itself will be deleted when you save your configuration. page 18 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - Outbound Directory If you belong to more than one domain, it might be wise to keep the outbound mail for each domain separate. In this case, specify each directory here. In Binkley mode, mail for points will be place "under" these directories. If this field is left empty, IMAIL will default to the directory specified as Outbound Net Files (see below). - Zone List By pressing F1, you enter a window in which you specify all the zones which belong to this domain. For example, for IntlNet, these would be 56, 57, 58 and 59. - AKA List With F2, you enter the selection window for the addresses which belong to each domain. In that window, you togglemark an address with space. Leave the window with Esc or save it with F10. 3) Subdirectories In this menu, specify the paths to the various files IMAIL needs to use during execution. Most of the fields are required and you should NOT use the same physical directories for more than one entry. It's also NOT useful if other programs use the IMAIL temporary directories (especially the FrontDoor packet directory must not be used by IMAIL). When specifying subdirectories, you may omit the trailingbackslash. - Hudson Message base Specify the path to the Hudson format message base files. These message base files are searched for outgoing messages when you run the IMAIL SCAN function. If you are not using a Hudson message base, this field may be left empty. - Net Mail Message The path to where your mailer stores its net mail message (*.MSG) files. IMAIL will use this when searching for existing file attaches, when creating new file attach messages, or when it generates outgoing net mail of its own. -> This field is required. <- - Secure Inbound Files This is where your mailer stores inbound compressed mail files and packets from a password protected session. IMAIL will look here when you run the TOSS function. NOTE: Please do =not= run IMAIL from this directory! -> This field is required. <- IMAIL 1.50 page 19 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - Unsecure Inbound Files If your mailer knows a seperate inbound directory for unprotected sessions, you can specify it here. IMAIL only accepts uncompressed packets from this directory and any echomail in such packets is automatically moved into the badmail area. - Temp Inbound Packets This directory is used by IMAIL TOSS to store packets as they are extracted from ARCmail files, and before they are processed. -> This field is required. <- - Outbound Net Files This subdirectory is where your mailer normally looks for outbound compressed files. These files may be generated by all of IMAIL's functions. This CANNOT be the same subdirectory as the Inbound Net Files directory, otherwise IMAIL will process the files as if they were FOR your system. Note that if you are running in a Binkley environment, this will be the subdirectory in which outgoing mail for your PRIMARY zone will be placed. Mail addressed to other zones will be placed in other subdirectories, having the same root name as the one specified in this field, but with a 3-digit hexadecimal extension (the zone of the destination address). For more details, please refer to the Binkley documentation. This subdirectory will be used whenever you do not specify an outgoing subdirectory in the Domains menu (see above). -> This field is required. <- - Temp Outbound Packets This is the directory in which IMAIL and IMPACK will build outbound packets prior to compression into ARCmail files. This directory must NOT be the same as your mailers temporary packet directory, nor may it be the same as IMAIL's Temporary Inbound Packet directory. If omitted, IMAIL will default to the Outbound Net Files directory. -> This field is required. <- - Dupe data base Enter a directory for the dupe database files if you do not want them to be stored in IMAIL's home directory. In local area networks, it can speed up things tremendously if you place the dupe database on a local harddisk. - Semaphore Directory This directory is used to store and create all semaphores. Also the mailer rescan semaphore as defined below will be created in this directory. For FrontDoor 2.20a, this is the semaphore directory as defined in the FrontDoor setup, for FrontDoor 2.11 this is the directory where the FD environment variable points to. page 20 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - Netmail Semaphore File If IMAIL should tell your mailer that netmails have been created or updated, you should specify the name of the necessary semaphore file here. IMAIL will create it in the semaphore directory if necessary. For FrontDoor this is FDRESCAN.NOW - IMAIL Log File Name Is you wish IMAIL to log its activity to file, you may specify the name of the log file here. If a path is not specified, the file will be written to the current working directory. - Echotoss log file name Here you define the name of the echotoss log file which is used by IMAIL to determine Jam, Squish and *.MSG areas where new messages have been entered. Your editor and your bbs should use the same file name for this file. - Areas Action Log In this file, IMAIL stores the following actions: Autoadding of an area ADD Forward link request REQUEST Unlink request UNLINK Deletion of a dead area DEAD Remote deletion of an area REMOVE Relink of an unlinked area RELINK Here is a small batch which allows you to post a notification whenever a new echo has been arrived. %IMAIL% is the IMAIL environment variable. NEWAREAS.LOG is the name as entered in IMSETUP for the areas action areas log. AREA.NEW is used to store the file after posting it -----------[ BEGIN ]---------- REM REM POST A MESSAGE CONTAINING NEW AREA'S ONCE... REM IF NOT EXIST %IMAIL%\NEWAREAS.LOG GOTO NONEWMAINT %IMAIL%\IMTHINGS POST /F%IMAIL%\NEWAREAS.LOG /ALOCAL.SYS /WSysop /SNew_areas COPY %IMAIL%\AREA.NEW+%IMAIL%\NEWAREAS.LOG %IMAIL%\AREA.NEW DEL %IMAIL%\NEWAREAS.LOG :NONEWMAINT REM -----------[ END ]---------- - Log Format If you have specified that IMAIL should create a log file, here you may indicate how much information you wish to be written to the log file. IMAIL 1.50 page 21 ------------------------------------------------------------------- There are two possible choices: N Normal. This will log only important information, errors and final stats to the log. V Verbose. Complete information will be logged, including all echo areas scanned or tossed. 4) AreaLink Options The options in this menu regard IMAIL's area manager, called AREALINK. This function will do for IMAIL what AreaFix does for other systems. Your downlinks will be able to request that new areas be sent to them, or that areas no longer be sent. Besides, they may request information on which echos are available to them, and have a list of the echos they are currently receiving. AreaLink can also request areas not available on your system from your uplinks, thus further automating your system. For information on how AreaLink is used, see Chapter 11. - Keep AreaLink Reply If you enable this option (set it to 'Y'), then IMAIL will not mark its outgoing messages as KILL/SENT. In other words, once the message has been sent, it will remain in your net mail directory for you to see it. Note that this is valid only for the messages generated by AreaLink, but not for those it has processed. It is the corresponding setting to 'Keep Arealink Request'. - Keep AreaLink Request If you enable this option (set it to 'Y'), then IMAIL will not delete incoming requests, they will remain in your net mail directory for you to see it. Note that this is valid only for the messages processed by AreaLink, but not for those it has created. This is the corresponding setting to 'Keep Arealink Reply'. - Password Expiration Days This allows you to specify that your downlinks should change their AreaLink password after a specified number of days. If set to 0, this feature is disabled. AreaLink will still allow a system to use AreaLink if the deadline has passed, but it will add a warning saying that the password should be changed. A sysop may change his password automatically by using the %PWD meta-command; see Chapter 11. Section c. for more information on this. - Forward Link Requests This allows you to specify whether AreaLink should execute forward link requests to one of the uplinks defined in the data section. A detailed explanation of Forward Link Requests can be found below. page 22 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - AreaLink Help Text In this field you may specify the name of a text file to send if a user requests help with AreaLink (see Chapter 11. Section c.) If no name is specified, then AreaLink will respond to a request for help by saying that none is available. If the file does not exist, IMSETUP will prompt you for the creation of a default help text. If a file is specified, it must be located in the directory pointed to by the IMAIL environment variable, or in the directory which is current when IMAIL is run. - Forward every request If this field is set to yes, IMAIL forwards area requests where the area cannot be found in one of the lists given in the Forward Link Request Manager to the first uplink defined in this manager. - Remote Maint Help Text In this field you may specify the name of a text file to send if a user requests help with AreaLink (see Chapter 11. Section d.) if this users has remote maintenance rights on your system. If no name is specified, then AreaLink will take the file specified under AreaLink Help Text. If a file is specified, it must be located in the directory pointed to by the IMAIL environment variable, or in the directory which is current when IMAIL is run. - Unlink Requests Here you can specify whether AreaLink should check areas (whenever one user requests to unlink from an echo and at least once per day after midnight during the statistic update) whether you have areas with only one system in the list of linked systems. If this single system is also listed in the forward link requests data section, then IMAIL marks this area unlinked and sends an unlink request to this system. You can specify whether this function should not to be run ('N'), only affect passthrough echos ('P') or all echos ('A'). Moreover you can exclude single areas or groups from this function in the Area / Group Manager by settings the field "Auto Maint" to 'N'. Using this feature you can prevent echos from being tossed into the NUL device and consequently reducing the amount of mail. - Ignore unknown systems If this switch is set to Yes, IMALNK simply ignores ALNK requests from systems not defined in the node manager, otherwise it will respond to the requesting system that it has no allowance to do so. IMAIL 1.50 page 23 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Product codes This small and apparently insignificant menu is really very important. It allows you to indicate programs which produce Type 2+ information in the packet header. (For more information about this and the Capability Word, see Chapter 15. Section a.) With this information, IMAIL TOSS will know how to correctly process incoming mail. If it finds a packet with no capability word, it will scan the list of product codes defined in this menu to see if the packet really contains zone and point information. If the packet was produced by one of the programs whose code is listed here, then it will treat the packet as it is fully Type 2+. Otherwise it will be treated as "Stone Age". Note that the product codes must be entered in hexadecimal. 6) No import In this screen, you specify the names of persons (or programs) which IMTHINGS IMPORT should ignore. For example, if you wish messages addressed to AreaLink not to be imported into your net mail area, you would specify AREALINK here (case is not significant). Similarly, if you do not want net mail addressed to you to be imported, specify your name in this menu. If you specify a '*' wildcard at the end of a name, anything starting with that name will not be imported. See Chapter 12. Section a. for information on IMTHINGS IMPORT. 7) Other parameters This menu assigned for various options which control the general behavior of IMAIL. Most of the options available are of the "on/off" type; in other words, specifying 'Y' will enable the option, while 'N' will disable it. - Number of Dupe Records This field indicates how many dupe records IMAIL will save in the file IMAIL.DP for dupe checking. You can enter a value between 0 and 999.999, but IMAIL will slow down noticeably if set higher than 130.000. If the number is set to zero, no dupe checking will be performed; this will make a bit IMAIL faster, but certainly less secure. - Auto-add New Areas Enable this if you want IMAIL to automatically create a new area record whenever an echo mail message arrives in an undefined area. The area record created will be marked as Auto-Added; the node which originated the message (or better, your uplink) will be inserted in the export list for the new area. If you allow the creation of these areas, please check the Node Manager (to configure the system which are allowed to create areas) and the Group Manager to specify some default settings for these new areas. page 24 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - Multi-Tasking If you are running in a multi-tasking or network environment (i.e. LAN), then set this to Yes. It will force IMAIL to make more checks for locked files; the IMAIL semaphore will only be created if this flag is enabled. - Dupe Ring Handling This option tells IMAIL how to handle echo mail if one of the downlinks is already listed in the SEEN-BYs of this mail. You have four options: N Disable this check. W Copy the message to the dupe area. E Do not export to this downlink. K Do not export to this downlink and copy the message to the dupe area ('W'&'E'). For further information on echo mail topology and related problems see the section about echo mail in Chapter 5. - Circular Path Detection Here you can specify whether IMAIL should check also the PATH lines of each message for circular paths. IMAIL then searches the PATH line for your origin address in this echo. If it finds your origin address, it also checks whether the system before and after your address can be found in the export list of this echo. If this is the case, a circular path has been detected. You have the following four options: N Disable this check. W Copy the message to the dupe area. E Do not export to this downlink. K Do not export to this downlink and copy the message to the dupe area ('W'&'E'). For further information on echo mail topology and related problems see Chapter 5. - BBS software used When updating the user base while packing or sorting the message base, IMTHINGS needs to know which message base is used by your system or BBS software because Remote Access 2.xx or ProBoard 2.xx use different structures (but still the same file name). Specify 'R' for RA and Proboard, 'O' for any other BBS software. - Environment This field will accept either a 'B', an 'F' or an 'I', which indicate Binkley, FrontDoor or Intermail. By selecting Binkley, IMAIL will create "flow files" in your outbound directory, containing lists of files which the mailer should send. If you select FrontDoor or Intermail, IMAIL will use file attach messages. This method can be used for other mailers which use file attach messages rather than "flow files". This setting will also control the style of the IMAIL log file and moreover the multitasking of IMAIL. IMAIL 1.50 page 25 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - Send Return Receipt If a net mail messages arrives with the "Request Return Receipt" flag set, IMAIL will automatically generate a net mail message to the originating system, stating that the message arrived. Note that the FLAGS RRQ kludge is not supported by IMAIL in the current version. Since the message attribute is defined, I decided to support it. - Handle PKTs not for us This option tells IMAIL how to handle PKTs which are not for one of "our" akas. You have the following three options: - TOSS can move these PKTs to the Temporary Packet Outbound and compress them 'F'or their real destination. - You can also tell TOSS to move them back to the inbound and 'R'ename them to *.BAD. - The third option allows to process these PKTs as if they were addressed to you, simply 'T'OSS them. Note that if this option is not set to Forward, it will become impossible to route echo mail packets, because they will be processed by IMAIL, and the messages will probably end up in your Bad Message board. - Delete empty netmails (TOSS) While extracting netmails from inbound PKTs, IMAIL TOSS checks whether they are empty netmails and deletes them if this option is set to Yes. - Check for personal mail While tossing, IMAIL has the capability to check whether there are new messages for the user defined as sysop. You have four options L (Log) Write a log entry if a message was found M (Mail) Create a netmail containing the headers of the new messages C (Copy) Copy each new message to a special area N (None) Disable this feature The last option requires the special area PERSMAIL defined in the Area Manager. - Sysop Name This field is required, as it is used by IMAIL for the generation of automatic messages and so on. IMAIL also uses it to validate your registration key. Your ID-card will help you filling out this field, but check it with a mirror... - Default Origin This is the Origin line which IMAIL will use if one or more of your echo areas have no Origin line defined. You can define an own Origin line for each area in the Area Manager. page 26 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) Special parameters This menu contains the special settings for IMAIL concerning naming and settings depending on your hardware, especially the amount of free harddisk space. Usually, you can leave things as they are, but READ this section to know what IMAIL is capable of. - ARCmail 0.6 Compatibility If this option is set, IMAIL will generate compressed mail bundles that conform to the ARCmail 0.6 naming standard when sending to systems marked in the node manager as "Stone Age", or to systems not listed in the node manager. Systems listed as "Type 2+" will have a special naming scheme. (See Chapter 15. Section a. for information on the Capability Word). If this is set to "No", then IMAIL will always use its own internal method for the naming of outbound compressed files. When generating ARCmail for point addresses, IMAIL =always= uses its own scheme. - Direct Screen Writing If set to Yes, IMAIL writes direct to the screen memory, otherwise the (slower) BIOS functions are used. Set this to 'N' if you experience problems or to eliminate CGA- "snow". - Max Packet Size With this option, you can specify the maximum size of the packet files (*.PKT) that IMAIL will create. Use this if your up and/or down links are short on disk space. The number should indicate a size in kilobytes. If a zero (0) is specified, there will be no limit imposed. - Max Arcmail Size Setting this to a non-zero value tells IMCOMP not to add further arcmail PKTs to a compressed ARCmail bundle if its size is bigger than specified (in kB). IMCOMP will then create a new bundle. Using this feature you can limit the size of the arcmail bundles and therefore reducing the time which is needed to transfer the bundle again if a session was interrupted. - Max Message Size Here you can specify the maximum message size of messages generated by IMAIL. The value entered here should be around 10-15 kB. If it is too small, IMAIL will produce lots of mails and if it is too high, some mail processors will get trouble with these mails. This is of course a way of convincing downlinks to switch to IMAIL, but it is not the kindest way possible. ;-) Currently this value is only used by IMALNK and by IMTHINGS POST. IMAIL 1.50 page 27 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - Kill Dead handling This field controls how to handle "dead" echos, i.e. echos that didn't carry mails for a defined amount of time. D The kill dead function will be disabled. F Only echos with a pending forward request will be deleted. A All echos will be processed. If you specify 'F' or 'A', you can except areas or groups from handling by setting the field 'Auto Maint' in the area/group manager to 'N'. - Truncate/Delete Sent ARCmail Normally, when ARCmail has been sent by your mailer, the file is truncated (that is, its length is set to zero). This allows IMAIL to generate a new file name if it processes more outbound mail for the same system. If for any reason you want the mailer to delete the file instead of truncating it, set this option to 'D'. ! However, it is NOT suggested that this be done ! ! Use this option with caution ! - Single Bundle Extract When enabled, IMAIL will extract the packets in a single compressed file before processing, but it will extract ALL the packets. Use this only when diskspace is really tight, because it will really slow down the tossing process. TOSS has to stop its work and call the decompressing programm for every ARCmail bundle. - Use Crc filenames (Autocreate) This switch determines the way IMAIL assignes a name for a new messagebase. If you specify "N", IMAIL uses the echotag to create a new messagebase. The areatag "SYSOPS.GER" may result in an filename-stem like "...path\SYSOPSG.xxx". Setting this switch to "Y", IMAIL will calculate a CRC-32-sum over the areatag and will then use this somehow cryptic sum as filename or pathname (in case of *.MSG). - Compress after each Packet This option lets IMAIL calling the compression function whenever a packet has been processed and there is outgoing mail waiting in the Temp Outbound. Also, the option 'Max ARCmail size' will be executed more precisely. But there is another side to the coin: This option takes up a great deal of time. Really lots of time. A disturbing lot of time. So use it only on systems where disk space is tight, because it will slow down the execution of the program noticeably. - Swap Options Before calling any external programs, IMAIL and IMPACK will swap most of themselves out of memory, to leave room for the program called. Once the program has completed, IMAIL (or IMPACK) will be reloaded into memory and continue execution. page 28 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- E - Expanded Memory (EMS). If you specify EMS, IMAIL will try to allocate a certain number of EMS pages to try to swap itself into. If this fails, it will swap to disk. (Note: You will need a custom driver to access your hardware EMS or a memory manager to emulate it from XMS (such as EMM386.EXE or QEMM)). X - Extended memory (XMS). If you specify this option, IMAIL will try to swap to extended memory. If this fails, it will swap to disk. (Note: You will need a driver such as HIMEM.SYS in order for it to work.) B - Both. This indicates that IMAIL should try both EMS and extended memory, in that order. If both fail, swapping to disk will occur. D - Disk. IMAIL will swap its overlay buffers to disk when needed. This is the default, and also the slowest of the options. - Add Via Lines Registered users of IMAIL may disable the insertion of a Via kludge in forwarded net mail by setting this option to E (Export) Via lines added by IMPACK when pack- routing netmail, I (Import) VIA lines added by IMAIL TOSS when netmail is found in inbound mail- bundles, B (Both) Import and Export enabled (see above). N (None) Via lines NOT added, - Use FTSC Product Names This options controls whether or not IMAIL TOSS will display product names when processing inbound packets of mail. If enabled, TOSS will show the name of the program used to create the PKT file; otherwise, it will simply show the program's product code. In order to use this option, you must have a file called FTSCPROD.??? available in the IMAIL home directory; if found, IMAIL will compile this file into IMAIL.PR (after which you may remove the FTSCPROD.??? file). If the file is not available for compilation, IMAIL will behave as if you had set this option to No. The newest version of the FTSC product code list is distributed by the FidoNet Standard Committee, it can be requested at many systems (FTSCPROD.A??). - Nr. of PKTs to pack per call Here you can define how many PKTs should be packed with one call of a compression program when IMAIL compresses the outgoing PKTs into arcmail bundles. If you set this value to zero, all PKTs for the destination node are packed in one packer call. - Delete Squish/Msg/Jam-bases When automatically deleting Squish, Msg or Jam areas, IMAIL can also delete the message bases of these areas if you specify Yes. This frees the harddrive of 'forgotten' areas. IMAIL 1.50 page 29 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - Use Squish 'kill on the fly' Squish offers a special feature which allows to keep the number of messages in an area always below the given maximum for this area. On the other hand, this slows down the handling of Squish areas. - Diskspace before Unpack This is a kind of emergency break. If you received more mail than your remaining harddisk space can accomodate when unpacked, you can prevent the TOSS operation. This prevents loss of mail due to harddisk overflow. Specify the size in MB, disable the test by entering zero. - Diskspace before Toss Together with the previous setting, you can handle tight diskspace intelligently and automatically. Depending on the ratio of received to exported mail, you can determine the space TOSS usually needs to distribute mails. An example: Your average amount of imported mail is 2000 messages per day that need some 3MB space when unpacked. So, you set 'Diskspace before Unpack' to 3. TOSS then creates, say 5000 messages to your downlinks (so you have an import/export ratio of 1:2.5). In this example, it would be advisable to set this field to 8MB, this way getting things straight for =average= dayly operation. If you want to disable this check, set this field to zero. - Diskspace before Compress This field controls how much diskspace TOSS leaves before calling IMCOMP to compress the mail bundles. This value is directly dependant on the value entered in 'Max Arcmail Size'. - Before Toss This option was included to allow sysops to run a "mail mangler" on extracted packets before IMAIL processes them. If you wish to use this feature, then specify the full path name of the executable program here, including arguments. If you need to give the name of the PKT file, then place a %P on the command line. For example: MY_PROG.EXE %P /ZAP The %P will expand to the name of the packet file. Note that the program called MUST NOT delete the packet file! If you specify a batch file as Before Toss command, IMAIL will automatically call the command processor by using the environment variable COMSPEC (or COMMAND.COM if COMSPEC is undefined). page 30 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- b. Compression Programs In this section, you may specify the programs, along with their parameters, to use in the creation of outbound compressed mail. Also a short name for each program is asked which is used by IMALNK (remote change of compression). When you run IMSETUP for the first time, it will show defaults for the following programs: ARC, Arj, LHarc, PKARC/PKPAK, PAK, PKZip, SQZ, ZOO. The default parameters are listed in Chapter 15. Section b. If you wish, you may add other programs of your own choice, but do not leave any entries empty. Instead, if you do not intend to use one (or more) of the predefined programs, replace it with one that you do use. All of the programs you intend to use must be present somewhere in the DOS path, because IMSETUP does not allow the input of pathnames. You will then select which of these programs to use for mail compression on a per-system basis, in the Node Export Manager (see Section e.). If IMAIL needs to compress mail for a system not listed, it will use the first of those given in this menu. c. Decompression Programs IMAIL automatically recognizes compressed files produced by the following programs: ARC, Arj, LHarc, PKARC/PKPAK, PAK, PKZip, SQZ, ZOO. In this menu, you may change the name and parameters which will be executed when compressed mail files are identified. The default parameters "preinstalled" in IMSETUP are listed in Chapter 15. Section b. It is also possible to define a program which should be invoked if IMAIL is not able to determine the type of compression used to create an ARCmail file. If this entry is not defined, IMAIL will simply ignore the file. Be VERY careful when changing these items, for a mistake might produce very unexpected (and often unwanted) results. Certainly do NOT try to use one program instead of another. A compressed file identified as having been created by LHarc, for example, cannot be decompressed by ARC! (crazed idea of some dudes...) If possible, have =all= of the decompression programs somewhere in the DOS path, unless you are absolutely certain that you will not be getting mail compressed by one or more of them (and who can be =absolutely= sure of anything nowadays???). IMAIL 1.50 page 31 ------------------------------------------------------------------- d. Area Manager The Area Manager is one of the most important parts of the program, and also controls most of what IMAIL does. When you first run IMSETUP, no message areas are defined.You will see a screen with many different fields, all empty or set to certain default values. These fields will be explained in a moment, but first the editing keys. 1) Editing Keys The following keys will allow you to edit, add, delete or find area records. They are: - F1: Edit No, it's =not= the online help, sorry folx. The F1 key allows you to edit the current message area record (ie. the one currently being displayed). If at any time during editing you recognize that you are going wrong and you wish to abort, simply press ESC, and nothing will be saved. The same is true if you were adding an area: it will be "forgotten". - F2: Find Pressing F2 brings up a window in which you may specify an area name. If the area is found, it will be displayed. Wild cards may be used: * expands to 0 or more characters, while ? will match any single character. The record may then be edited with F1. Note that a wild card search is slower than one in which the full area name is specified (but sometimes typing the name can be slower than searching with a wildcard, huh?). - F3: Global If you need to make global changes to the area information, pressing F3 will bring up the Global Edit menu. From this, it is possible to edit the origin lines, origin addresses, or to add, delete or replace systems in the export list. In each case, the changes will be made on a per-group basis. One or more groups may be specified, and the modifications will be made for all echo areas which belong to the selected group(s). To close the Global Edit menu, press ESC; you will be returned to the main Area Manager screen. - F4: Browse The browse function will allow you to examine a list of all the currently defined areas, and to move to a specific record. The window shows some information about each area. For example, it might read: TEST_ECHO S X AF D:002 MYPOINT.ECHO J X A U The first field is the name of the area (the areatag). This is followed by the type of the area (H for Hudson, M for *.MSG, S for Squish or J for Jam), and by the group to which it belongs. page 32 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Autoadded areas area indicated with an A in the 'Flags' column. Areas for which a forward request is pending are tagged with 'F', unlinked areas with an U. The areas which have been 'dead' for some days have an D:nnn in their line, nnn being the days inactive. - F5: Copy Area The F5 key allows you to create a new echo but in unlike Ins it carries over some data from the current record (like group, flag settings, downlinks). - F6: Echo flow statistics Pressing F6 pops up a small window which allows you to check the current echomail flow information for the current area. - ESC/F10: Exit ESC and F10 is used to exit the Area Manager. - Ins: Add Adds a new message area, and takes you into editing mode. Added records are automatically inserted into the list so that it is maintained in alphabetical order. - Del: Delete Deletes the current message area. You will be asked for confirmation. IMSETUP will also prompt you for the deletion of the related message base, too. - Home: First Takes you to the first message area (they are sorted in ascending alphabetical order). - End: Last Takes you to the last message area. - PgUp/PgDn: Previous/Next The PgUp and PgDn keys move between the area records. Once you have found the one you are looking for, you may edit it with F1. (Note that the arrow keys have the same effect as PgUp and PgDn.) IMAIL 1.50 page 33 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Flags displayed in the Area Record When displaying the area record, you will find some status information given in square brackets at the bottom of the record window. These are: [Fwd Req pending] This flag indicates that this area has been requested automatically from your uplink due to a request of one of your downlinks (forward request), but no mail has arrived yet. [Dead: nnn] With this flag, IMSETUP informs you that there has been no traffic in this area for 'nnn' days. [Unlinked] When this status message is displayed, this echo has been unlinked automatically from your uplink, because there were no systems (downlinks) this echo was exported to or because it was 'dead' for too long. [Auto-Added] This flag also informs you about an automatic measure: This area has been created automatically. This could be the result of a forward request or a remote creation (see Section e. on the node record and Chapter 11, Section d. on the remote creation). 3) The Message Area Record What follows is a description of the individual fields of the message area record, and how they are used and changed. All fields are required unless stated otherwise. - Area Name This is the name of the message area, sometimes called "Area Tag". The name may be up to 50 characters long; it will be forced into upper case. Special characters such as '-', '_' and '.' may be used, but no spaces may appear. Wildcard characters like '*', '?', '[' and ']' will result in an error, too. Please be sure of the spelling of the name, since it is used to identify into which area (board or path) an incoming message should be tossed. It is not possible to define two areas with the same area name. IMSETUP will show a warning message, and you will be prompted to correct the name. This is to prevent cross-linked areas. - Comment Here you may enter a brief description of the area. This description is used by AreaLink and IMTHINGS NOTIFY when generating lists of the areas you have available, and may also help remind you of the topic or purpose of the message area. page 34 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Note that if the area was auto-added, created due to an automatic creation or forward request by TOSS or AreaLink, the comment will be set to something like "Area autoadded by <node> on <date time>" "Area received from <node> on <date time>" "Area requested from <node> on <date time>" This way, you have an overview of what is going on. IMAIL tries also to determine the description from the forward link request file (if defined). This field is optional. Unfortunately, it often will be left blank or set to the entry given by IMAIL. This forces the downlinks to guess at the purpose of an echo and puts him/her back to "trial and error". Help your downlinks! Try to fill out descriptions as well as you can on a regular basis, especially with autoadded areas. - Origin Line Here you may specify up to 63 characters which will be used as the origin line for the area if it is an echo area (see Chapter 5. for more information on Origin lines). To this will be prefixed the string * Origin: and your origin address (see below) will be appended. The total length must not exceed 79 characters. If you forget to define this field, the default origin line will be used (General Configuration - Other parameters). Note that if the BBS or editor program used to write an echo message already adds an origin line, the one defined here will not be used (kind of 'first come - first served' basis :-) ). - Active This by default is set to 'Y', which means that the area is active (pretty cool, huh?). If set to 'N', IMAIL will behave as if the area had not been defined. This will allow you to disable an echo area -for any reason you may wish- without having to actually delete it, and later re-enter it. Unlike unlinked or hidden areas, inactive areas are ignored by AreaLink and cannot accessed by any downlink. - Group A letter between A and Z which identifies the group to which this message area belongs. Groups are used primarily by the AreaLink function to indicate which nodes may request links to which echo areas, request areas from which uplink and generally simplifying their automatic handling. IMAIL 1.50 page 35 ------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information on this, see Section f. Chapter 7, Section 4 and Chapter 11. If the area was auto-added by TOSS or AreaLink, this field will be set to the group specified in the Node Manager's New Area Group field (for the node which created the echo), or to that specified in the Other Parameters menu. If it was created due to a forward request, it will be assigned to the group defined in the Arealink Option's Create Group field or to the one in the Node Manager`s New Area Group field. If neither of these is defined, the group character will be set to '?'. In this case, it should be edited to the correct value as soon as possible. You can access the Group Manager via F6 which allows you to select one of the predefined groups. - Secure If enabled, IMAIL will check the address of the system which sent the message in this area. If it is among the export nodes listed in the Export List (see below), it will be imported and processed; otherwise, it will be tossed into your Bad Message Board. Note that the sender's address will be determined using the PKT-address, not the address stated in the origin line. If this switch is set to N, IMAIL will also ignore the export only flag in the list of linked systems. - Msg Base Type Here you indicate the message base (format). Possible choices are 'H' for Hudson (QBBS or RemoteAccess), 'M' for *.MSG, 'S' for Squish, 'J' for JAM or 'P' for Passthrough. When you switch a Squish, MSG or Jam area to passthrough, IMSETUP will prompt you for the deletion of the related message base. - Type In this field, you will indicate the type of message area. You may specify that an area is 'E'cho, 'L'ocal or 'N'et Mail. This way, you may include ALL of your message areas in IMSETUP. For the purpose of handling echo mail, only those areas which are of type Echo will be considered. Local areas will be ignored by all IMAIL functions (but not by IMTHINGS), but will ensure that you do not use a board number twice. The special board BADMAIL, DUPES and PERSMAIL are an exception to this rule, they are forced page 36 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- to 'L'ocal by IMSETUP. Net mail areas are used by the IMPORT function of IMTHINGS. - Board If the area is of type Hudson, then in this field you should specify the board number corresponding to the message area. The board number may be between 1 and 200 inclusive (the upper limit is imposed by QuickBBS/RA). IMSETUP will not let you use the same board number twice, because you would be cross-linking echo areas. If you press F4, a list of all unused board numbers will be shown, and you may move around using the cursor keys and select one from it by pressing ENTER. If you are changing the board number, the highlight bar will be placed on the currently defined board number; ESC will allow you to retain the current definition. TOSS uses this number when importing echo messages, since the QuickBBS/RemoteAccess message bases contain no indication of the area name. Similarly, SCAN uses this to derive the name of an echo area when exporting mail. - Path If the message area is of type *.MSG, JAM or Squish, then in this field you should specify the directory or path name of the message base. If the area is of type *.MSG, the directory in which the the messages will be placed should be specified. For Squish- and JAM-type areas, specify the directory and the base file name of the area (ie. directory plus file name without extension). If you change an Area from Hudson or Passthrough to Squish/Jam or MSG, IMSETUP will automatically create a path and basename according to your settings in the Group Manager and the areatag. If you have no entries in your Group Manager, IMSETUP will not propose anything. If you change the area path manually, IMSETUP offers the possibility to move the message base to the new path, thus reducing error possibilities. - # Days This item is used by IMTHINGS KILL /U (see Chapter 12. Section c.) to determine which messages to kill: it will mark as deleted any messages older than the number of days specified here. If this field is left at zero, no messages will be killed, unless the "# Msgs" field below is specified. The maximum value which can be entered in this field is 255. If the area is marked as Passthrough, this field has no meaning (kinda obviously). IMAIL 1.50 page 37 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - # Msgs This is used by IMTHINGS KILL /U (see Chapter 12. Section c.) to determine how many messages to leave in this board. If this field is left at zero, it will be ignored, and no messages will be killed, unless the "# Days" field (see above) is specified. Naturally, if the area is Passthrough, this field has no meaning. - Hide Enable this option if this area should not be displayed in any AreaLink report of available areas. Moreover it cannot be linked with a wildcard request. It can only be linked when explicitly stating the full areatag. - Unlinked Together with Auto Maint, this field controls the unlink status for the current area. If this field is set to yes, IMAIL has unlinked this area after the last downlink has unlinked it from your system and the remaining system is listed as uplink in the Forward Link Request Manager. The echo will still appear in your list of available areas and if a system requests this area, IMALNK automatically requests this area from your uplink again. - Auto Maint If this option is set to N the unlink check and the dead echo check are disabled for this area, so it will remain linked to your system. - Mandatory If you set this field to yes, no downlink can unlink from this echo using the AreaLink functions. This can only be done manually. This field is useful when you really want an echo to be read. - Read only If this option is enabled, every system linking this area gets an export only flag (which can be removed manually by the sysop). This flag prevents unauthorized downlinks from posting messages in restricted (read only) areas. - Tiny-Seens Enable this option if you want to strip all the SEEN-BY information from an incoming echo message before it is re-exported. In this case, the outgoing message will contain only the SEEN-BYs of your downlinks. Note, however, that if the area is not marked as passthrough, and if the Keep-Seens option (below) is active, the message will be =imported= with the original SEEN-BY information. - Import Seens This switch controls whether the SEEN-BYs are imported into the message base or whether they are stripped. page 38 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - Hide Seens If this switch is set to Yes, IMAIL puts a ^A in front of every SEEN-BY line. This is useful for the BBS software which should not display these hidden SEEN-BYs to the normal users then. - Zone Gate This field is similar to the Tiny-Seens field (above). It indicates that IMAIL should strip all information from the SEEN-BY line when exporting to a system which is in a different zone, except for your address and that of the downlink. Currently, zonegating only works with ONE node in the other zone, because the new SEEN-BYs will only contain your own and the destination address. Note that when the message is imported in your message base (if the area is not passthrough) the original SEEN- BY lines will be preserved. - No %PAUSE This setting can be used with important echos. By default, your downlinks can prevent echo mails being exported to them using the %PAUSE meta-command with Arealink (see Chapter 11, Section c.). If you don`t want information in important areas to pass your downlinks, you can inhibit the pausing of an area with this switch. - Dupecheck This switch can be used to advise IMAIL not to perform dupe checking on an area. This increases the speed of TOSS a little, but increases the risk of dupes noticeably. - Kill dead IMAIL allows you to delete echos without traffic after a definable number of days. During the midnight maintenance IMAIL marks echos without traffic. A value of 0 disables this function, the maximum number of days is 256. Single echos can also be excluded by setting the field Auto Maint in the Area Manager to 'N'. Dead echos are marked in the Area Manager, do not forget that this check is only done during midnight maintenance and the Area Manager shows only full days. - Manual only This switch provides another bit of security for you. It prevents an echo from automatic access via Arealink. Downlinks can only be linked to this echo manually. This is very useful when handling restricted or adult- only echos. This setting can serve as the counterpart to 'Mandatory'. - Origin Address Pressing F1 while editing an area will allow you to choose the address to use in the Origin line of the message. IMAIL 1.50 page 39 ------------------------------------------------------------------- You will be presented with a window containing a list of all the addresses defined in the "System Addresses" menu; select one of these. This address will also be used in the PATH line of the echo message, as well as in the list of SEEN-BYs. Note that only the net and node numbers will be placed in the SEEN-BYs and PATH lines; the use of zone and point numbers is not accepted. However, IMAIL is able to parse zone and point information from these lines, if found (cute!). - Seen-Bys Pressing F2 while editing an area will allow you to choose one or more addresses to add to the SEEN-BY line for that area. If you do not select any addresses, then the one specified as "Origin Address" will be used, without zone and point numbers, just like above. - Linked systems Pressing F3 will bring up the Export List Manager. Here, you may specify up to 60 systems to which this echo will be exported. At least one node must be defined to TOSS or SCAN to/from the area. In this menu, you may also indicate that a system is "Export-only" or "Import-only" (use F1 and F2 to do so). "Export-only" means that IMAIL will export mail to this system, but will not accept incoming mail, in this area from this system. This is only valid for "secured" areas. "Import-Only" indicates that IMAIL will accept incoming mail from the system, but will never export to it. It is also possible to see whether a node has been marked as "Paused", and to toggle this flag by pressing F3 (see Chapter 11. Section c.). page 40 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Special boards IMAIL uses three special areas for some internal purposes. At least the bad message area should to be defined. The dupes area and the personal message area may be set to passthrough. - Bad Messages Messages flagged as "bad" will be tossed into this message area. These include echo mail messages arriving from unlisted systems when "Secure" mode is active for that area, as well as echo mail in unrecognized areas. You should first choose if you want the area to be of type Hudson (H), *.MSG (M), Squish (S) or Jam (J). If you select Hudson, then you must supply a valid board number; otherwise, you should specify a path name. This record is required, the hardcoded areatag is BADMAIL Note: ! This area should NOT be used for ! ! anything except "bad" mail ! - Dupe Messages This message area is the one into which all messages flagged as duplicates will be tossed. If not defined, dupes will simply be killed (deleted). As with the Bad Message Area, first select the type of the message area (Hudson, *.MSG, Squish or Jam), and then the board or path. The hardcoded areatag for this record is DUPES Note: ! This area should not be used for ! ! anything except duplicate messages ! - Personal Message Board IMAIL can check the echo mail while tossing for new mail for the person defined as sysop in IMSETUP. If you enable this feature you can select that these mails are copied into a special board, the Personal Message Board. The hardcoded areatag for this record is PERSMAIL Note: ! This area should not be used for ! ! anything except personal messages ! IMAIL 1.50 page 41 ------------------------------------------------------------------- e. Node Manager The Node Manager is used to specify information regarding the systems to which you export mail, including which program will be used to compress outbound mail for the system, as well as what type of file attach to generate. 1) Editing Keys The following keys will allow you to edit, add, delete or find node records. They are: - ESC: Does just what it means: escape. Either from editing the node record or from the node manager altogether. Changes made will not be saved, but simply "forgotten". - F1: Edit The F1 key allows you to edit the current node record (ie the one currently being displayed). For the meaning of each of the fields, see below. If at any time during editing you wish to abort, simply press ESC, and nothing will be saved. The same is true if you were adding an entry: it will be "forgotten". - F2: Find Pressing F2 brings up a window in which you may specify a node number. If the address is found, it will be displayed. It may then be edited with F1. - F4: Browse The browse function will allow you to examine a list of all the currently defined nodes, and to move quickly to a specific record. The window shows some information about system. For example, an entry might read: 27:1331/1 C ANP The letter following the node address indicates the status: H means Hold, C is Crash, while N is normal. An additional D means Direct. The letters following are the groups to which that system has access. - F5: Copy Record The F5 key allows you to create a new entry but unlike Ins carries over some data from the current record (like groups or flag settings). - F7: Node statistics (F9) Pressing F7 while browsing through the node records or F9 while editing a node, you will be confronted with a small window which informs you about the recent mailflow statistics of this node. - F10: Save The F10 key is used to exit the Node Manager, saving any changes made. Note that if IMSETUP detects the presence of the IMAIL semaphore it will wait until the semaphore is removed before saving. page 42 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - Ins: Add Adds a new entry, and takes you into editing mode. Added records are automatically inserted into the list so that is it maintained in numerical ascending order. - Del: Delete Deletes the current record. You will be asked for confirmation. IMSETUP will prompt you for the deletion of this node from the area database. - Home : First entry \ - End : Last entry - in numerical - UpArrow/PgUp/LeftArrow : Previous entry - order - DnArrow/PgDn/RightArrow: / 2) The Node Record Now things really get started. Let's delve into the abyss of editing the node record: - Address Here you specify the address of the system. The Zone, Net and node are required. If no point is specified, it will default to 0. When changing a node's address, IMSETUP will allow to change the nodenumber in the area records, too. - Sysop This field allows you to specify the name of the sysop of the system. It is used for purely cosmetic purposes, by AreaLink and IMTHINGS NOTIFY, when generating net mail messages, and so is not required. But as man usually remembers names rather than numbers it is strongly recommended that you fill out this field. - Domain If you press F1 whilst editing, it will allow you to specify the domain to which the system belongs. This is very important in multi-domain environments, and when you have different outbound directories for each domain (see Chapter 7., Section a., para 2) for more on this). Select the domain from the list presented. If the system belongs to a domain which is not listed, you should define it in the Domains menu. - PKT origin address Here you can configure one of the system akas as fixed origin address for the packets created for this system. Also the origin address of the area can be used, which is the default setting. This feature allows to use always the same aka when sending packets to a specific system. Note that the address specified here is only used for the *.PKTs; this has nothing to do with the single mails or the sender of the compressed file (the ARCmail- bundle). IMAIL 1.50 page 43 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - AreaLink Password If specified, this will be the password that the system will use when requesting areas or information from Area Link. If no password is specified, the system may not request any areas, even if one or more groups have been enabled. For more information on AreaLink, see Chapter 11. - Packet Password For added security, you may specify that packets to and from this node contain a password. The password may not be longer than 8 characters. This password will ensure that mail from that system cannot be sent by someone else under false pretences. - Groups List the Groups to which the system may have access. Up to 26 may be specified since there are letters from A to Z. A system must have a Group enabled in order to be able to request a link to any echo area which is part of that Group. Using F6 you can access the Group Manager. It shows you the groups currently assigned to that system and allows you to add or remove certain groups very easy. - Notify This flag indicates whether or not the specified node should receive NOTIFY messages. By default, this is set to Yes, indicating that the system will receive a notification message from IMTHINGS NOTIFY. - Remote Maint IMAIL may allow systems to carry out changes in the links for other systems. These changes may be made via AreaLink, using the %FROM meta-command (see Chapter 11. Section d.). In order to enable a node to make these changes for other systems, this field must be set to 'Y'; the default is 'N'. Remote Maint also allows the system to delete an echo area from your list, or to change the name of an area. It thus allows a lot of control over your system. - Change packer Here you can control whether this system is allowed to change the packer using the commands of IMALNK. This is useful for systems which are called by you and where you always want to use a very good packer. - Check echo for ALNK message This feature of IMAIL allows to check every message from this system whether it is a message to Arealink (to avoid for example exporting an Arealink request that an unexperienced points has posted in an echo). Use it with care because it requires some time while tossing. page 44 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - Check PKT password You can control the use of the previously specified packet password with the help of this switch. If you set this to "N", incoming packets are not checked for the packet password, while outgoing packets (those created by IMAIL) will contain the specified password. Setting this switch to "Y", IMAIL will only process packets with matching passwords. - Rescan OK This flag indicates whether the system is allowed to rescan echo mail from your system, with an AreaLink request. Of course, only those echoes to which this node has access will be rescanned. - Add to New If you wish this system to be added to all new areas, then set this field to Yes. Note that the node will only be auto-added if it is in the same domain as the system which "created" the new area. - Forward Requests This flag selects whether this system is allowed to cause Forward Link Requests, so you can prevent downlinks from requesting areas from your uplink. - Create New Areas If you wish to allow the system to create new echo mail areas on your system, then set this flag to 'Y'. Otherwise, mail in unknown echo areas, originating from this system, will be tossed into the bad message area. - New Areas Group If you have enabled the Create New option (above), this field will specify the group to be used for echo areas created by the node. If it is left empty, group will default to that specified in the Other Parameters menu (see Chapter 7. Section a. para 7)). - Uplink Together with "Program Name" and "FSC-0057 compatible" these fields are used by the remote functions of AreaLink. If an area is remote created, renamed or deleted, IMAIL informs your links about this. This field selects whether this system is one of your uplinks (see below). - Program Name This is the name of the AreaLink used by this system. It is used by Arealink when forwarding delete, create or change requests to the systems linked to a certain echo. See next Section ( 17) FSC-0057 compatible) for details. - FSC-0057 compatible This flag specifies whether this system is FSC-0057 compatible (which is only required concerning the remote delete, rename and create request). If such a function is executed on your system, all affected downlinks are notified. If they are also FSC- 0057 compatible and are not an uplink, their AreaLink is also notified with a message. IMAIL 1.50 page 45 ------------------------------------------------------------------- The table below shows how AreaLink works in this cases: Remote req FSC-0057 not FSC-0057 delete delete request unlink request create create request link request rename rename request -------------- - Message Status Pressing F2 while editing a node's information will allow you to change the message status for messages created by IMAIL (like AreaLink replies). By default, this is "Normal", but you may select one of: Normal No status Hold Hold message for pick up Crash Send message Crash Immediate Set Immediate flag This status can be combined with a direct status, so messages created by IMAIL can be prevented from being routed via other systems. The destination system must either pickup them at your system or you will have to send these messages directly to their destination. Note that any systems not defined in the Node Manager will not have their messages marked DIRECT. - Attach Status The F3-key allows you to change the file attach status. By default, this is also "Normal", but you may select one of: Normal No status Hold Hold attach for pick up Crash Send attach Crash Immediate Send attach Immediately This can be combined with a direct status, so file attaches will never be routed via other systems. This is not available in a Binkley environment because FLO-files are by default direct. It is STRONGLY recommended that echo mail NOT be routed, (pretty safe way to get guys angry) so if the node is your echo mail feed, it is best to mark it as Direct. Note that any systems not defined in the Node Manager will have their mail put on HOLD for pickup. - Packer If you press F4 while editing a node's information, you will be able to select the program to use for mail compression. A list will appear, containing the programs you defined in the "Compression Programs" menu. If you make no selection, by default the first program in the list will be used. Note that is is possible to specify that no compression program be used (the last entry in the list). In this case, PKT files addressed to the node being edited will page 46 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- not be compressed, and will simply be file attached to the system. This allows simple mail processors to receive mail from IMAIL systems without needing to have one or more decompression programs available (And this . - Capability The Capability describes the other system's mail processor. Currently, two types are defined: Stone Age Type 2+ Using F7, you can set this field according to the capability of the remote system's mail processor, if known. If you are unsure, leave the field set to "Stone Age". Note, that it is possible to define as Type 2+ mail processors which are not normally detected as such but which have the zone and point information. This is done in the Product Code menu (see above). For more information on the capability word, refer to the FTSC documents FSC-0039 and FSC-0048. See also FTS- 0001. These documents may be available near you; otherwise you should be able to file request them from 1:1/20. Refer also to Chapter 15. Section a. Note also that IMAIL will always generate "Type 2+" information in the packet header, and identify itself as a Type 2+ mail processor, regardless of the setting of this field. - CW Handling This field allows you (using F8) to define how IMAIL will use the setting defined in the Capability field when handling inbound mail. If it is set to "Force", IMAIL will always use the setting defined in the Capability field, regardless of what the actual format of the inbound packet(s) might be. Instead, if set to "Auto", IMAIL will try to determine the type of packet by examining the Capability Word and its validation copy and/or the product code, and process the file accordingly. Please note that IMAIL cannot correctly handle points which use "Stone Age" mail processors, unless they are using fakenet addresses. IMAIL 1.50 page 47 ------------------------------------------------------------------- f. Group Manager The Group Manager has two functions. It allows you to assign descriptions to the various groups which can be accessed from the Area Manager and from the Node Manager. Moreover you can define the default settings which should be used if a new area arrives and is automatically created by IMAIL. You can assign each system which is allowed to create areas a "New area group". Each area created by this system will get this group and the defaults of this group as defined in the Group Manager. - Comment Here you can enter a short description of the group, it is used when you select groups in the Area Manager and in the Node Manager (F6). - Msg Base and Path This feature allows you to control the areatype a new area gets: Passthrough, QuickBBS, Jam, Squish and *.MSG. If you select QuickBBS IMAIL tries to find a free board in IMAIL.AR and assignes this to the new area (be careful that all areas used are defined in IMAIL.AR). If you select Squish, JAM or *.MSG, IMAIL uses the areatag to create a unique filename of the new squish area in the directory specified in Path or a new directory under the directory specified in Path. If an identical name already exists, IMAIL will use another algorithm (be surprised...). The following switches only control the default settings of a new entry created by IMAIL. They are described in the Area Manager section: Secure, # Days, # Msgs, Hide, Auto Maint, Mandatory, Read Only, Tiny-Seens, Zone-Gate, Import-Seens, Hide Seens, No %PAUSE, Dupecheck, Kill Dead, Origin Address und SEEN-BYs page 48 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- g) Forward link manager Forward Link Requests are a method to have IMAIL automatically request areas from your echo uplinks. If AreaLink processes a request for an echo area which is not listed in your configuration, it will search the files you have defined for this area. If found, it will send a request for that area to the system listed. ! Note that the requester and the Uplink have to belong ! to the same domain. - Uplink In the "Uplink" column, specify the network address of the system to which the request should be sent. - Areas file This column indicates the file name of an Fidonet.na- type file containing the list of echo areas available on that system which AreaLink should search. This file should be located in the directory pointed to by the IMAIL environment variable (if set), or in the directory from which IMAIL is run if the IMAIL variable is not set. The format of the Fidonet.na file is <AREATAG> <DESCRIPTION> - Send to Enter the name of the program to which the net mail message will be sent, such as for example AREAFIX, AREAMGR or IMAIL. If you are unsure of what to put here, contact your uplink. Note that AreaLink will behave a bit differently if AREAFIX is specified instead of another name. - Password This column should be self-explanatory, you enter the password the uplink has assigned to your system. You will need to contact your uplink to have one assigned to you or if you forgot yours. :-) - Access Group This column indicates the Group the requester must have access to in order to invoke a forward request. By this, you have another method of dynamically assigning rights to your downlinks. Left empty, every downlink can invoke forward requests. - Create Group With this character, you assign the group the newly requested echo will belong to. When left empty, the new area will be assigned to the group entered in the node manager. The versability of this setting turnes out when you enter different characters: you can tell apart echos which have been sent to you by your uplink (they are assigned to the group entered in the node manager) from those which have been requested from your system (they are assigned to the group entered in this column). This way, you can prevent access to newly created echos. IMAIL 1.50 page 49 ------------------------------------------------------------------- h. Pack Routing In this menu you may specify default routing for IMPACK (see Chapter 10.); in other words, you may specify that net mail for one or more systems be compressed in a packet addressed to another system, from which (presumably) the mail will be forwarded on. This can result in a great speedup in the handling of your netmail folder... The menu is composed of two "Route Via" columns, which indicate the nodes via which net mail will be routed. For reasons of space, the routed and excepted nodes are not shown unless the appropriate function key is pressed. If no systems are listed as "Routed Systems", IMPACK will simply look for and compress mail for the "Route Via" address. To edit these entries, position the cursor on the desired row and press ENTER or simply press the character preceding the desired entry. You will then be able to edit the "Route Via" address. Once finished, you may edit the list of "Routed System" by pressing F1. It is also possible to specify one or more "excepted systems" by pressing F2. If you want to insert new entries between existing ones for reasons of clearness, do so by pressing INS, and delete entries (permanently!) by pressing DEL. IMSETUP supports the use of the "*" macro when specifying the "Routed Systems". This macro may be used in place of the net, node or point fields (the zone should always be given). For example: 2:* All net mail messages addressed to systems in Zone 2 2:2480/* All net mail messages addressed to the nodes in Zone 2, Net 246 2:2480/100.* All net mail messages addressed to the points of node 2:246/100. This is equivalent to: 57:4980/100 This is treated as if you had written 57:4980/100.*; in other words, it will act on all messages to the "boss" node and his points. If you wish to indicate only certain points (or the node itself as .0), you will have to specify them explicitly: 2:246/100.1 This will pack messages for point 1 of the system 2:246/100 via the node specified in the "Route Via" column. If you do not specify the Zone, IMSETUP will use the Zone as defined in your primary address. page 50 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Routing via itself: If you use the ALL macro '*' as Via System, IMPACK will pack all messages matching this entry via the node itself, for example Route Via: * Routed Systems: 2:2480/55 Routed Systems: 2:2480/48 Routed Systems: 2:2480/37 tells IMPACK to pack the netmail for 2:2480/55 via 2:2480/55, 2:2480/48 via 2:2480/48 and 2:2480/37 via 2:2480/37. Using this feature you can collect several entries to one. An example might serve to illustrate how this all works. If you have two entries such as the following: Route Via: 2:2480/55 Routed Systems: 2:* Excepted Systems: 2:245/* 2:242/* Route Via: 2:242/53 Routed Systems: 2:* Excepted Systems: (none) Thus all mail addressed to systems in Zone 2 would be routed via 2:2480/55, EXCEPT for mail addressed to systems in net 242 and 245. Since the list is processed top-down, mail for systems in nets 242 and 245 will be pack-routed via 2:242/53. i. Import/Export Functions 1) Export Areas.Bbs Here you can create a standard Areas.Bbs file, IMSETUP will ask you for the name of the file. 2) Export GoldED Areafile This function creates an include file for GoldED and uses already the enhanced format (up from GoldED 2.41). 3) Export FidoNet.na This function creates a standard FidoNet.na file which contains the area tag and the description. 4) Export ICheck The 'Export ICheck' function creates a file for each uplink in the IMAIL home directory using the naming convention <netnode>.ick (2:2480/55 becomes for example 248055.ICK). This textfile contains all linked echos with a preceeding '+' and all unlinked areas (from this uplink) with a preceeding '-'. It can be imported in a message and sent to the areamgr of the uplink to ensure that all echos are connected properly. 5) Import Areas.Bbs Here, you can import a standard Areas.Bbs file into your area database. IMAIL 1.50 page 51 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. IMAIL COMMAND LINE OPTIONS Once you have configured the program via IMSETUP, you are ready to use IMAIL. There are three separate commands or functions "contained" in IMAIL, and they are invoked via the command line. The syntax used to invoke IMAIL is: IMAIL TOSS | SCAN | /? If no command or the switch /? (-? will do the same) is given, IMAIL will display a help screen, and return to the DOS prompt. a. TOSS - Toss Incoming Mail This invokes IMAIL's TOSS function. This will search your inbound files directory for mail, either compressed or in PKT form, and toss it into your message base; net mail messages will end up in the net mail directory, while echo mail will be put into the correct message area. The TOSS function will automatically forward any echo mail to other links, as long as the switch 'Handle PKTs not for us' is set accordingly. If TOSS finds that there is insufficient free space on the working drive while processing, it will automatically spawn to IMCOMP which compresses all outgoing mail before going on. This should help prevent disk full errors. Should TOSS encounter an ARCmail file from which it cannot extract the mail packets successfully, it will rename the file to have an extension of .BA? so that you can look at it, and so the file will not be processed again. For information on how TOSS handles the Capability Word, refer to Chapter 7. Section e. Note that IMAIL TOSS will return different errorlevels to indi- cate which kinds of mail have been processed. For the full list of ERRORLEVELs returned, see Chapter 15. Section d. - /B - Check Bad Message Board Use this switch is you wish to force IMAIL to check messages in the Bad Message Area. What will happen is this: if an echo message is found, IMAIL will search to see if it belongs to an area defined in your Areas file (IMAIL.AR); if the correct are is found, the message will be moved to the correct area. However, if the area is marked as Passthrough, the message will be deleted. This option is useful in those cases in which your echo feed has "turned on" an area which has not yet been defined in your areas file. page 52 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- b. SCAN - Scan for Outgoing Mail This evokes the echo/net mail SCAN function. The message base(s) will be searched for outgoing net and echo mail, exporting it to packets. If the messages are echo mail, a packet will be generated for each of the downlinks listed for the area; a net mail message, on the other hand, will be exported to a MSG-style file, and placed in your net mail directory, where it can be pack routed with IMPACK - IMAIL will leave them as they are. Regarding echo mail, SCAN will use the origin address as specified in the IMSETUP Area Manager, rather than trying to extract this information from the message header. To speed up SCAN, the Echomail.Bbs and Netmail.Bbs (for the QBBS message base) and the echotoss-logfile (for the Jam, Squish and *.MSG areas) as specified in IMSETUP are used to determine whether new messages have been entered since the last run of SCAN. Without these files, SCAN does not check the message bases. In such a case, you should use the /F commandline parameter. /F - Force Complete SCAN If for any reason you suspect that IMAIL has not scanned out all the the mail which should be exported, run it with the /F switch. This will bypass the use of the ECHOMAIL.BBS, NETMAIL.BBS and/or the echotoss log files generated by the BBS and/or message editor and the whole base will be scanned. Nobody's perfect! For this reason, you should use this parameter once a day (for example before packing the messagebases). /H - Only Hudson If you wish to have IMAIL process only the Hudson message base (QuickBBS or RemoteAccess), then you may run SCAN with the /H switch. /O - Only MSG/Squish/Jam (_O_ther) This switch has the opposite effect of /H: it will cause SCAN to process only *.MSG, Squish and Jam message areas, ignoring the Hudson message base (if at all present, without it, this switch will be pretty superfluous). IMAIL 1.50 page 53 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. IMCOMP - Compress arcmail bundles IMCOMP is used to compressed outgoing mail into arcmail bundles and to generate a file attach message or a binkley style flow file. If the destination system is listed in the Node Manager, the appropriate compression program will be called to compress the packet; otherwise, the first program listed will be used (by default, ARC). IMCOMP is usually called after IMAIL, IMPACK and IMALNK, but not after EACH call, but after having called ALL programs needed. This is the reason why IMCOMP has been isolated to an additional program, because now the time-intensive compression job can be done when mail-mengling is finished. The following is important when working in a multitasking or network environment: When compressing outgoing mail, IMAIL fully supports the FrontDoor 2.20a and the InterMail 2.21 crc-semaphores and the Binkley BUSY- flags. So IMAIL can work while your mailer is still online. Without this support (like under FrontDoor 2.02) you should =not= leave your mailer online while IMAIL is compressing because it may cause file access problems and loss of mail. 10. IMPACK - Pack Net Mail Messages This is it: IMAIL's taking-the-horror-out-of-routing, it`s space- saver, it's spped-up-your-mailer-tool, the net packer! The IMAIL Net Mail Message Directory will be searched for outgoing net mail messages, which will be moved into packets according to the information given on the command line or as specified in IMSETUP (see Chapter 7. Section f.). Later, these PKTs may be compressed using IMCOMP. In the following, 'compressing' means transferring into packets. Note that this command operates only on MSG style messages. Net mail messages in the Hudson/Squish/*.MSG/Jam message areas will be exported by the SCAN command and thereafter treated as normal net mail. The syntax of IMPACK is: IMPACK [/N] [/C] [/D] [/H] [/R] [/?] [z:n/nd[.p] [[...] VIA z:n/nd[.p]]] The elements in square brackets (meaning: everything) are optional. 'z:n/nd.p' represents a network address in the usual form: zone:net/node.point where the point field is optional (see below). /? again will present a short help text. As with IMSETUP, the net, node and point fields may be replaced with the '*' macro. If you omit the zone field, the zone defined for your primary network address will be used by default. page 54 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Messages addressed to point systems will be packed along with the mail for its bossnode. Net mail for YOUR points will never be pack routed via another node, unless explicitly forced. IMPACK can only handle 4D-addresses, it ignores 'fakenet'-addresses, so care should be taken that net mail destined to a fakenet address is never pack routed out of your point net. IMPACK will ALWAYS need a 'VIA' system specified, unless you only specify ONE system, then its mail will be compressed and sent to itself. IMPACK * therefore is merely tomfoolery, the '*' card specifies 'various' systems, not only one. IMPACK * VIA 2:2/1 Better. Much better. All mail for your primary zone will be compressed and sent to 2:2/1 (we remember: * will become 2:* if your primary address is in zone 2). IMPACK 2:* 5:* VIA 2:2/1 will send everything for zones 2 and 5 to 2:2/1. When run with commandline arguments, IMPACK will act on them, =after= which it will process the default routing commands given in IMSETUP, which means that you may override the defaults. If no parameters are given on the command line, IMPACK will simply act on the defaults. Messages marked as Crash, Hold or Direct will only be processed and packed if forced with the /C, /H, /D and/or /R switches (described below). Messages which are file attaches, file requests, update requests, or which have the IMMediate or LOCKed status will NEVER be packed. /N No Default Pack Routing If for any reason you wish IMPACK to ignore the defaults given in IMSETUP, suffix the switch /N to the command line. In this case, IMPACK will simply process the command line. Note that the command IMPACK /N effectively tells IMPACK to do NOTHING, except for allocating memory and CPU-time... :-) (/N tells to ignore the defaults and since no routing commands are given, there`s nothing more to do than abort.) /C Also Pack Crash Messages /H Also Pack Hold Messages /D Pack Direct Messages If you specify this switch without the switch /R, IMPACK will pack messages which are marked as Direct only to the system itself, the message will be compressed, but will remain to be sent direct. That means that IMPACK 2:all via 2:310/0 /D has no effect on direct mail for 3:310/11. IMAIL 1.50 page 55 ------------------------------------------------------------------- /R Pack Route Direct If you specify the /D switch (see above), net mail messages will not be pack routed unless they are being packed to their destination. This behaviour can be overridden with the addition of the /R switch. In this case, IMPACK will pack route net mail marked as Direct as though this flag had not been specified. Use this switch with care, since the Direct flag is =not= stripped from the net mail message, and might cause your uplink considerable grief! Please check with your uplink before using it! Note that if the /D switch is =not= specified, this switch will have no effect. page 56 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 11. IMALNK AreaLink is a function which allows other systems to request echos from your system without the need for you to manually insert them in the areas' export list. It is similar in function to AreaMgr (which is part of TosScan), or to AreaFix. AreaLink is not fully compliant with FSC-0057 (rev 3), but will implement full compliance with one of the next releases. What happens is this: a system sends a message addressed to IMAIL on your system. Instead of the subject, he places a password. In the body of the message will go the list of areas to which the other system wishes to be linked, or areas which he no longer wishes to receive. The system may also request information from IMAIL by including one or more of the supported meta-commands. The remote maintenance is executed via Arealink requests, too. In order to be able to use AreaLink, a system must be defined in your Node Manager (See Section e. of Chapter 7.). When the request is processed by AreaLink, it will check that the password given on the subject line of the message matches the one defined in the node manager. AreaLink will only allow a system to request areas belonging to one of the groups to which he has access. IMALNK is also a handy tool when editing a node's area record. AreaLink creates a netmail for the edited node, notifying him/her about the things that were changed. When allowing rescan requests you should consider that IMALNK only creates the PKTs for the downlink but does not compress them into the arcmail bundles. You will have to call IMCOMP for that purpose! IMAIL 1.50 page 57 ------------------------------------------------------------------- a. Format of the Request As outlined above, a request to AreaLink takes a specific format. Here is an example: From : John Doe on 2:2480/55 To : IMAIL on 2:2480/47 Subject : <password> ------------------------------------------------------- +SYSOP <= Request to add area +SYSOP,R <= Request to add area with rescan +SYSOP,R=10 <= Request to add area with rescan of the last 10 messages =NEWS,R <= Request to update area with rescan =NEWS,R=20 <= Request to update area with rescan of the last 20 messages. -PENPAL <= Request to remove area %HELP <= Request for help on AreaLink use %INFO <= Request for general information %LIST <= Request for available area list %QUERY <= Request for active area list %UNLINKED <= Request for a list of unlinked but available areas %NOTE <= Begin a message to the sysop %PAUSE <= Temporarily stop exporting msgs %RESUME <= Resume exporting messages %RESCAN <= Request to rescan new and updated areas %PWD <newpassword> <= Request for password change %COMPRESS <prg> <= Change compression program %FROM z:n/nd.p <= Execute request for <address> ~FRIENDS <= Request for remote deletion %DROP FRIENDS <= Request for remote deletion &TEST <= Request for remote creation %ADD TEST <= Request for remote creation #OLD.ECH NEW.ECH <= Request for name change %CHANGE OLD.ECH NEW.ECH <= Request for name change All names, the password, area names and meta-commands may be given in any combination of upper and lower case. As can be seen, in order to request that an area be added, the name of the area may be prefixed with a plus ('+') sign, whereas to have a area removed, it =must= be prefixed with a minus ('-') sign. The plus sign is optional. Wildcards may be specified within area names. AreaLink recognizes and handles the following: * Matches 0 or more characters. For example, IM*L will match IMAIL. ? Matches a single character. So ?MAIL will match IMAIL and FMAIL. [a-d] Matches any character in the range 'a' to 'd' Note that requests may be addressed to any one of: IMAIL AREALINK AREAFIX AREAMGR AreaLink will recognize any of the above "names". Optionally, the message may end in a tear line ('---'), followed by any text (usually a message to the sysop). In this case, the request will only be deleted if this was specified in the AreaLink options of IMSETUP (see Chapter 7, section a., para 4)). page 58 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- b. Arealink Replies Having processed a request, AreaLink will reply to the sender of the message. This message will contain a list of the areas linked or unlinked and the result of meta-commands. The message will normally be flagged 'Kill/Sent' unless there is another setting in the AreaLink options of IMSETUP (see Chapter 7, section a, para 4)). The request mail will normally be deleted, too. You can inhibit the deletion in the AreaLink options. c. Meta-Commands IMAIL supports several meta-commands in AreaLink requests. These are: - %HELP This meta-command will make AreaLink send a bestseller: "The cry for help" from Are A. Link. Proposed for the pulizer prize, it containes virtual help for the use of AreaLink. The help text to be sent may be defined in IMSETUP; - %INFO This sends some general information (packer used, AreaLink password, attach status,...) to this system. - %LIST The %LIST meta-command will have AreaLink reply with a list of all the areas available to the requesting system. In other words, those which are marked as Active, not Hidden and which belong to a group listed as available for that system. - %QUERY If the message contains this meta-command, AreaLink will reply with a list of currently active echos for the requesting system - %UNLINKED This meta-command is, in a sense, the complement of %QUERY and %LIST. In other words, it will send a list of all available echos which are NOT currently linked to the requesting system. - %NOTE This meta-command is used to introduce a comment to the sysop. It is equivalent to adding a tear-line in the message body, but the use of %NOTE is preferred. AreaLink requests containing a tear-line or a %NOTE will only be deleted once processed if this is explicitly stated in IMSETUP. - %PAUSE If a sysop wishes to temporarily unlink from ALL echos, then he may send a message to AreaLink with the %PAUSE command. This will cause the receiving system to stop exporting echo mail without deleting the node from the export list for the echo areas to which he is linked. IMAIL 1.50 page 59 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - %RESUME That will reverse the effect of a %PAUSE command (see above). It will reactivate the suspended link. - %RESCAN This meta-command will allow a node to request that IMAIL send all old mail in the areas requested. For example, if a system requests to be linked to the SYSOP echo, and places a %RESCAN meta-command in the message text, IMAIL will link the system, and then scan your message base for any messages in this area, and send them to the requesting system. All the exported messages will have the same SEEN-BY lines as they normally would, thus (hopefully) preventing duplicates. However, the messages will be exported only to the system requesting the rescan, not to all linked nodes. In order to prevent the system which requested the rescan from sending the messages out to other systems, AreaLink will insert a special kludge into the message: ^ARESCANNED <addr> where <addr> is the address of the system which requested the rescan. Note that if you have set the Rescan OK option in IMSETUP to "no" (see Chapter 7. Section e.), then the rescan request will be ignored. - %PWD <newpassword> With this meta-command, a sysop can change the password he uses to make AreaLink requests to your system. Note that if no new password is specified, AreaLink will NOT respond with the current password, for reasons of security. - %COMPRESS <prg> This allows a sysop to request that your system use a different compression program be used to create ARCmail files bound for his system. If no valid compression program is given, AreaLink will respond with a list of the available programs. <prg> should be the three character name for a compression program as defined by the sysop in IMSETUP. page 60 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- d. Remote Maintenance AreaLink will allow you to give partial control of your areas configuration to another system: Any system which has Remote Maint (see Chapter 7. Section e.) enabled in the Node Manager will be able to add, delete or rename one or more echo areas from your system. Furthermore, this node may execute AreaLink requests in behalf of other systems. If a node includes commands of the remote maintenance in his AreaLink request although he is not eligible for it, AreaLink will send a reply with a refusal of obey. The commands for remote maintenance are: - %FROM <full node number> The %FROM meta-command will allow another system to make requests "on behalf" of a different system. This is particularly useful for remote maintenance of someone else's system. The address must include the zone and point fields of the system which will be linked (or unlinked). Note that the password (subject) of the message must be correct for the system SENDING the message, not for the system for which the changes will be made. The generated reply will be sent, again, to the system which sent the request, not to the one for which the changes were made. - %DROP <Areatag> / ~<Areatag> This feature is useful if, for example, you wish to allow your boss or host system to automatically delete an area when it has been discontinued. The meta-command %DROP is fully equivalent to the command '~'. When AreaLink processes such a request, it will first send a net mail message to any other systems which are linked to that area, warning them that it has been deleted. It will then flag the area as deleted and inactive, so that any requests to link to it will be ignored. The next time IMSETUP is run, and the Area Manager entered, the area will be removed completely from the list. - %ADD <Areatag> / &<Areatag> This command allows creation of an area remotely (as if the area is sent by a system which is allowed to create areas). - %CHANGE <old areatag> <new areatag> / #<old> <new> A system which has Remote Maint privileges on your system may request a change of area name. What this will do is simply to change the name of the area and advise all other downlinks of this variation by sending them a netmail; no other variations will take place. Place one or more spaces between the old areatag and the new one. The requesting system also has to be linked to this echo. IMAIL 1.50 page 61 ------------------------------------------------------------------- e. Local Maintenance IMAIL also allows 'his' sysop to use AreaLink as if another sysop had sent a request. This can be done by using one or more of the command line switches described below. When run from the command line, AreaLink is designed to mimic its behaviour when it is parsing a request from another system. (For more information on the single meta-commands, see Section c. above.) The advantage of using AreaLink to make changes instead of doing it from IMSETUP is that a net mail message will be generated automatically, informing the system of the changes made. Note that each switch may appear only ONCE on the command line. However, the /+ and /- switches may make use of the '*' wild card. For multiple changes, it will be necessary to run AreaLink several times. The complete syntax accepted by AreaLink is: IMALNK /N<addr> (system to make changes for) /+<area> (link area) /=<area> (update area) /-<area> (unlink area) /H (send helptext) /I (send info) /L (send list of linked areas) /Q (send list of available areas) /U (send list of unlinked areas) /P (pause export of areas) /S (resume sending) /R (rescan area(s)) /~<area> (delete area) /D<area> (delete area) /#<old> <new> (change areatag) /C<old> <new> (change areatag) If you omit the /N parameter, AreaLink will act on behalf of YOUR system. Thus most of the other switches are meaningless. In particular, that is /+, /-, /=, /H, /I, /L, /Q, /U, /P, /S and /R. If the /N switch is used, a net mail message will be generated for that system, specifying the changes made. If this switch is NOT used, everything but /D, /~, /C, /# will be ignored and a net mail message will be generated to you. page 62 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 12. IMTHINGS IMTHINGS is a program containing additional utilities for use with IMAIL. It is used giving it a command and additional parameters, which vary according to the command given. All of the commands give a brief on-line help if followed by the /? switch. To get an overview of the functions of IMTHINGS, give IMTHINGS /?, whereas IMTHINGS SEND /? will briefly explain the options of SEND. In most cases, the commands may be abbreviated to one or two letters; for example IMTHINGS KILL may be given as IMTHINGS K. However, IMTHINGS SORT must be abbreviated to IMTHINGS SO since the SEND command also begins with the letter 'S'. Supported message bases are indicated by a letter, as follows: M = *.MSG H = Hudson (QuickBBS or RemoteAccess) S = Squish J = Jam PLEASE NOTE: The Squish MSGAPI which is used in IMAIL and IMTHINGS has a built-in limit regarding the number of messages it can handle during certain operations. This limit is just over 5300 messages. So it is suggested that you keep each Squish message area under this limit. a. IMPORT [MHS-] Import Net Mail Messages The IMPORT function allows you to import net mail messages from the net mail directory into the net mail area of the message base. This is necessary if you wish to allow the users of your BBS to read net mail addressed to them. It will scan the net mail directory for net mail messages addressed to one of your AKAs, and if found, import (i.e. copy) them into the net mail area which corresponds to that AKA if it is not - a file request - an update-request - addressed to a name in the IMSETUP-No-Import-List. Once imported, the MSG file will be deleted. see Chapter 7, Section a. para 7) on the No-Import-List). /S will strip crash bit from imported messages. b. INDEX [-H--] Rebuild index files The INDEX command will rebuild the message base index files (MSGIDX.BBS, MSGTOIDX.BBS and MSGINFO.BBS) from the MSGHDR.BBS file. Use this if for any reason you suspect that one or more of these files have somehow become damaged. Note that INDEX is run automatically after MOVE and SORT. IMAIL 1.50 page 63 ------------------------------------------------------------------- c. KILL [MHSJ] Delete messages from an area The KILL command allows you to mark as deleted some or all messages in a specified message area. Note that KILL does NOT pack the message base. Use IMTHINGS PACK for this. When you KILLed Hudson messages by mistake, use RECOVER (see below). With a Hudson message base, normally KILL will create a temporary file to which it will write the new MSGHDR.BBS. However, if it detects that there is not enough disk space, it will overwrite the original file directly; this method is MUCH slower. Note that it is advisable to run IMAIL SCAN /F before running this command; this will ensure that all outgoing echo mail messages have been exported. The syntax of the command is: IMTHINGS KILL /A<areaname> /B<board> /D<age of messages in days> /N<number of messages> /! (kill ALL messages) /M (only process *.MSG) /H (only process Hudson mailbase) /S (only process Squish) /J (only process Jam Areas) /U (kill according to IMSETUP) /O (kill unallocated boards) /K<age of arcmail bundles in days> - /A<areaname> If specified, the /A switch should be followed by the name of one of the echo areas, as given in the Area Manager. If this switch is used, then the /B switch should NOT be given. NOTE: If you specify the /U switch, this switch will be ignored. - /B<board> If specified, the /B switch should be followed by a message board number. In this way, it is possible to "act" on message board not defined in the IMSETUP Area Manager (for example, local message areas). If the /B switch is used, then the /A switch should NOT be given. If you do not specify one of /A or /B, then KILL will act on ALL message boards, unless the /U switch is given (see below). - /! - /D<age of messages in days> - /N<number of messages to be killed) With the /D parameter, you specify that KILL should keep messages younger than the given =age= in number of days. /N keeps the specified =number= of messages and marks the rest as deleted. page 64 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- If both switches are specified, KILL will meet =both= conditions, it may happen that it leaves less than <number> if there were too much old messages. It may also happen that "new" messages are deleted when they exceed the maximum specified in <number>. Evoked with /!, KILL shows his diabolical potency and marks ALL messages in the specified area(s). Omitting both /D and /N and also /U, you will get the same result. When the /U switch is given, /D and /N will be ignored. be ignored. - /M, /H, /S and /J If you only want the Hudson message base to be processed, you can advise KILL to do so by setting the /H switch. /S will cause KILL to process only the Squish Areas, /M assignes *.MSG areas for KILLing and /J will doom Jam-Areas. - /U - Use Default Information from IMSETUP This parameter tells IMTHINGS KILL to use the information given in IMSETUP to determine how many messages to kill. It will operate on all boards defined in the Areas Manager, leaving the given numbers of messages in the board, or deleting all messages older than the given number of days. PLEASE NOTE: if you use the /U switch, the /A, /B, /D and /N switches will be ignored if also specified. - /O - Delete messages in undefined boards In conjunction with /U this parameters tells KILL to kill all messages which are in hudson boards not defined in the IMAIL Area Manager. PLEASE NOTE: Take care that all your local BBS boards are defined in the area manager of IMSETUP to protect them from being deleted when using this switch. - /K<days> This switch allows you to have KILL delete old ARCmail files and their respective file attaches. The <days> parameter indicates the age of the message; in other words, ARCmail files which are older than the given number of days will be deleted. If you choose to use this switch, it is recommended that you advise your downlinks, so that they know that should pick up their mail before it is deleted. This feature works only in the FrontDoor or Intermail environment because it uses the file attach netmails to get the necessary information. IMAIL 1.50 page 65 ------------------------------------------------------------------- d. LINK [MHSJ] Link Messages in Message Base In order to update the links between the messages and their replies, run IMTHINGS LINK after each arrival of echo mail, or at least once a night. LINK scans the message base, looks for messages with similar subject lines, and from them, creates links for each message, which point to the previous message in the chain, and the next message. Note that the case of the subject line is not significant; thus "Echo mail" and "Echo Mail" will match when creating links. Note however that the search is performed ignoring any leading "RE:" (or "Re:") in the subject line. IMAIL marks Jam/Squish/*.MSG areas when tossing new mails into them which is used by LINK to skip areas without new messages. This can be overridden by using the /F commandline switch. /C will remove all occurrences of "RE:" (in upper and/or lower case) from the message subject lines. Otherwise, the "RE:" strings will be left in place, but still ignored when the link search is being done. /F will force a complete link of Jam, Squish and *.MSG areas. /M , /H, /S and /J specify if only the *.MSG-Areas (/M), the Hudson mailbase (/H), Squish (/S) or Jam (/J)-type areas will be processed. e. MOVE [MHS-] Move Message Area The MOVE command allows you to move all the messages from one board or area to another. The syntax of the command allows you to specify the source and destination areas either by area name, by board number or by area path: IMTHINGS MOVE /R<src areatag> | /S<src board> | /F<src path> /T<dst areatag> | /D<dst board> | /P<dst path> You may use only ONE way to specify source or destination, but you might well mix them, for example IMTHINGS /RTEST_ECHO /D150 will be perfectly all right. When using /F and /P, please note that MOVE will test if the destination area is of MSG type (in this case, you specify a path name) or of Squish/Jam (you should give a pathname with the name stem of the areabase then). Please note that all messages moved will have the Outgoing Echo, Outgoing Net and Net mail bits cleared, so that they will not be SCANned out again by mistake, thus creating confusion in the network. page 66 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- f. NOTIFY [----] Send list of linked echos The NOTIFY function will send a message to the systems which are linked to you for at least one echo area, listing the echos to which they are linked, as well as systems listed in the Node Manager. Note that systems listed in the Node Manager which have the Notify flag set off will not be notified unless explicitly specified on the command line (see Chapter 7. Section e.). You may call IMPACK with an address to notify a single system, but you can also use the '*' wildcard. IMTHINGS NOTIFY * notifies all systems in your primary zone only (remember: the wildcard alone expands to your primary zone) If you have AKAs in different zones or feed echo mail to systems in more than one zone, and wish to notify ALL of your downlinks, simply give the command without any parameter. /N If you specify this switch, NOTIFY will not generate a message to systems which are listed only in the node manager, but are not listed in any of the echo areas' export lists. /P If you wish to remind your downlinks of their AreaLink password, specify the /P switch. The password will then be included in the net mail message which is generated. /W This switch will cause NOTIFY to only generate a message warning about an expired AreaLink password, should this be the case. g. PACK [MHSJ] Compress message base In Hudson, Jam and Squish message bases, when you delete a message, it is not actually removed from the base, but rather is just marked in a special way. PACK will allow you to remove from the message base those messages marked as deleted, thus recovering unused disk space. In *.MSG message areas, this concept does not exist, since messages are physically deleted; so PACK will simply renumber the message area. For Hudson areas, PACK will normally create temporary files to which it will write the new MSGHDR.BBS and MSGTXT.BBS files. However, if it detects that there is not enough free disk space to do this, it will overwrite the original files; this method is considerably slower. Squish- and Jambase will be handled accordingly. In order to make PACK faster on Hudson areas, it does not try to update the 3 index files; instead of this, it will call IMTHINGS INDEX after having completed. It also doesn't care about message links, it might be desirable to run IMTHINGS LINK after a PACK. PACK will update the USERS.BBS file (if it is found) as well as LASTREAD.BBS (this file keeps track of the last messages read in each message area) and the appropriate lastread files of the other message base types. IMAIL 1.50 page 67 ------------------------------------------------------------------- It will leave them untouched if the filesize of the userbase does not fit the number of records detected.If this comparison of the userbase with the record size failes, PACK will note it in the logfile. Note that it is also advisable to run IMAIL SCAN /F before packing the message base. This will ensure that all outgoing echo mail messages have been exported. Optionally, it is also possible to have PACK renumber all net mail messages. /B will tell PACK not to delete the backup files which comprised the original message bases [-MSJ] /M , /H, /S and /J (again) serve to restrict operation of PACK to *.MSG (/M), Hudson (/H), Squish (/S) or Jam (/J) areas. /R this will have PACK renumber all net mail messages. To avoid complications, IMTHINGS will make use of semaphores in Frontdoor and Intermail environments. /P causes PACK ONLY to remove deleted or duplicate area records in IMAIL.?R (when an area is deleted, it will only be =marked= as deleted, but will remain in the database). When /P is given in the command line, all other switches will be ignored. h. POST [MHSJ] Post message in echo area The POST function will allow you to post a message in an echo area. It is particularly useful for posting echo message statistics, for example. The message will be cut into several pieces if bigger than the maximum message size specified in IMSETUP. The syntax of the command is: IMTHINGS POST /F<filename> /A<areaname> /B<board> /W<to_who> /R<from_who> /S<subject> - /F<filename> The /F switch is used to specify the name of the text file to post as the message. This file should be a simple ASCII file, containing no special control characters. This parameter is required. - /A<areaname> - /B<board> To specify the name of the echo area in which to post the message, use the /A or the /B switch. The name of the area may be given with /A in upper or lower case, or any combination of the two. You can also give the number of the page 68 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Hudson message board, which is especially useful for boards not entered in the IMSETUP area manager. Note: Use only ONE of the two ways to specify the area. - /W<to_who> You may optionally specify the name of the person to whom the message is addressed. If this parameter is omitted, the message will be addressed to 'All'. If the /W parameter is used, the name should contain no spaces; replace the spaces with underscores: /WTest_User - /R<from_who> By default, POST will use the name defined in the Sysop field in IMSETUP to indicate the name of the sender of the message. If you want to use another name, specify it after the /R switch. The name should contain no spaces; replace any spaces with an underscore. - /S<subject> You may also specify the subject of the message with the /S switch. If this parameter is omitted, the message subject will be 'News'. If you do use this parameter, the text following the switch should contain no spaces; replace them with underscores. For example: /STest_message_#1 i. RECOVER [-H--] Unerase messages The RECOVER command will allow you to "undelete" messages in your Hudson message base. Naturally, it will only work if you have not PACKed the base. By default, RECOVER will "undelete" messages found in any message area, prompting you at each message. However, you may specify that it look for messages in a specific area, and that it automatically recover all deleted messages it finds. - /A<areaname> or - /B<board> allows you to indicate the target of your rescue operation. You can EITHER give the areatag (/A) or the board number (/B). Giving the board number allows you more flexibility, since local message areas might not be defined in the Area Manager, and therefore would have no name so the /A switch cannot be used. - /U - Automatic Mode. If this switch is given, RECOVER will not prompt you at each message. Instead, it will "undelete" all messages it finds (if /A or /B are specified, only messages in the specified message area will be recovered). IMAIL 1.50 page 69 ------------------------------------------------------------------- j. SEND [----] Send a file The SEND command invokes the IMAIL Robot. This will allow you to send a file and/or message to another system, much like any other Robot program. The syntax of the SEND command is: IMTHINGS SEND /F<filename> /T<textfile> /A<address> /W<to_who> /C (Crash) or /H (Hold) /D (Direct) /K (Kill/Sent) /E (Erase/Sent) /Y<days> /N<1-16> /! If a file name is given with /F, and the required file is found, a file attach message will be generated in your Net Mail directory. However, it is also possible omit the file name, and simply specify a text file (with /T). In this case, a net mail message will be generated, with no attached file. Note that either a file or a message text (or both) must be specified; if both are omitted, SEND will exit with an error. - /F<filename> Indicates the full pathname of the file to be sent. This parameter is not required if you simply wish to send a net mail message. If the filename contains wildcards, only the first matching file will be sent. If the full path is not supplied, IMTHINGS will use the current drive and path when generating the file attach message. Note that if the file has zero length, it will NOT be sent. - /T<textfile> This switch allows you to specify the name of a text file to be used as the "body" of the file attach message. If omitted, the message will have no text. It may also be used to generate a normal net mail message if the /F parameter is not given. - /A<address> Specifies the destination address of the file. This parameter is required. The address should contain the zone, otherwise the zone of your primary address will be used by default. - /W<to_who> You may optionally specify the name of the person to whom the file is being sent. If this parameter is omitted, the message will be addressed to 'Sysop'. If the /W parameter is used, the name should contain no spaces; replace the spaces with underscores: /WTest_User - /C - Mark message with 'Crash' status (Opposite of /H). page 70 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - /H - Mark message with 'Hold' status (Opposite of /C). - /D - Send message Direct This means that in no case will the message be routed via another system. It may be used together with the /C or the /H option. Use this flag only if your mailer supports the FLAGS DIR kludge (see Chapter 13). - /K - Kill/Sent Marks the message as Kill/Sent. In other words, once sent, the message will be automatically deleted from your Net Mail directory. Otherwise, it will remain, but be marked as Sent. - /E - Delete/Sent Marks the message as Delete/Sent. This will cause the mailer to delete the file once it has been sent. Use this flag only if your mailer supports the FLAGS KFS kludge (see Chapter 13). - /Y<days> - Newer than Indicates that the file must be newer than <days> for it to be sent. This is useful for sending nodelist files, as you can then specify a wildcard in the filename, and indicate that the file be sent only if it is newer than, say, 6 days. - /N<0-15> - Alternate Address or AKA With this switch, you may specify which of your addresses should be used when sending the file. If /N is not specified, SEND will attempt to find an address which best matches that of the destination system. If /N is specified, it may take one of several forms: /N or /N0 - your primary address /Nx - AKA 'x' (with x between 1 and 15) /N<addr> - where addr is a full network address. - /! - send message without attach This switch allows to create messages without fileattach and realizes a POST function for the netmail. (You will get the same result if you only omit the /F-parameter) k. SORT [-H--] Sort the Message Base The SORT function will sort the Hudson message base by message date. What it does is to read in the MSGHDR.BBS file, saving the message number and time stamp. The list thus created is sorted, and then the MSGHDR.BBS file is rewritten, following the order of the new message numbers. Note that the SORT command destroys the message index files, so it automatically called INDEX once finished. SORT also updates USERS.BBS (if found) and LASTREAD.BBS; this may account for the last message number read being suddenly moved; previously "older" messages have a newer date and/or time. SORT comes with two switches: IMAIL 1.50 page 71 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - /L - Link Messages after Sort Since SORT destroys the message links, you may wish to have it call LINK after processing has completed. This can be done by specifying /L on the command line. - /Q - "Quick" Sort The /Q switch forces a "quick" sort. In other words, only those messages numbered higher than the highest lastread pointer will be sorted. The advantage of this is that your users will not have to read old messages again. The disadvantage is that, due to the way certain message editors assign new message numbers, it is possible that a small number of "old" messages will be overwritten. Thus it might be advisable to run IMTHINGS PACK prior to calling SORT with this switch. page 72 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 13. KLUDGE LINES For the more technically minded, there follows an explanation of the various kludge lines that IMAIL may place in messages. A kludge line is generally defined as any line preceded by a ^A (Control-A) character, and may be found either before the message text itself, or after it. a. EID (Echomail IDentification) The EID is used only in Echo Mail messages. IMAIL does NOT add this kludge to echo messages. It was 'invented' mostly for reasons of dupe checking, but IMAIL will use other methods for this purpose. The format of the kludge varies; according to the specification proposed by Jim Nutt, it may be: ^AEID zddd nnnccccc where z is the zone modulo 16, ddd is the net modulo 4096, nnn is the node modulo 4096, and ccccc is a message serial number. The serial number is generated using the low order word of the Unix time stamp shifted left 4 bits, with a nybble counter appended. b. FLAGS This kludge is present in net mail messages only, and is used by many mailers to give more information on how the message should be treated. It is followed by one of more modifiers; some of the more common ones are listed below. - DIR (DIRect) Indicates that the net mail message should be sent direct to its destination; it will NEVER be routed. IMAIL allows you to specify whether mail should be marked DIRECT or not. See the description of the Node Manager (Chapter 7. Section e.) - IMM (IMMediate) Indicates that a message should be sent immediately. IMAIL will never use this, and will always ignore it. - TFS (Truncate File when Sent) This is found only in file attach messages, and indicates that the file should be truncated when sent. ARCmail file attached generates by IMAIL will have this flag set. - KFS (Kill File when Sent) Kill File when Sent. This is found only in file attach messages, and means that the mailer will delete the file once sent. - CFM (ConFirMation Receipt Request) This flag is set if the sending system wishes to have an acknowledgement that the message was read. As such, IMAIL does not intercept this flag; it is up to the message editor to handle it. IMAIL 1.50 page 73 ------------------------------------------------------------------- - RRQ (Return Receipt Request) This flag is set if the sending system wishes to have an acknowledgement that the message was received by your system. Currently, IMAIL does not recognize this flag, since the message header itself defines a similar bit. If the bit is set, IMAIL will automatically generate a reply to the sending system. c. FMPT (FroM PoinT) The FMPT kludge is used in net mail messages only. It is similar to the TOPT kludge, except that it is used to indicate that the message originate from a point system. The format of this kludge is: ^AFMPT <orig point> where <orig point> is the point component of the address of the system originating the message. d. INTL (INTernationaL/INTerzonaL) The INTL kludge is used in net mail messages only. It indicates that the message is destined to a zone which is different from the one in which it originated. The format of the INTL kludge is: ^AINTL <dest zone:net/node> <orig zone:net/node> IMAIL will use this kludge to try to determine zone addresses, as well as adding it to net mail messages it generates. Note that in multi-domain environments (ie, systems which belong to more than one domain, and thus more than one zone), IMAIL will put an INTL kludge in ALL net mail messages it generates, even if the destination and origin zones are the same. e. MSGID (MeSsaGe IDentification) A MSGID kludge is used in all messages, be they net mail of echo mail messages. They are automatically added by IMAIL when it generates messages (Automatic Reply, AreaLink's messages, etc), and used in duplicate checking. The format of the MSGID follows the specification of FTS-0005 by Jim Nutt, which is: ^AMSGID: zone:net/node[.point]@domain xxxxxxxx where zone, net, node and point are the address of the originating system, and domain is the domain of the originating system (eg. FidoNet, SIGnet, etc). xxxxxxxx is a serial number which is derived from the originating system's address, a Unix time stamp, and an internal counter. IMAIL will automatically supply the domain by attempting to derive it from the list of domains specified in IMSETUP (see Chapter 7. Section a. para 2)). If the zone number is not recognized, no domain field will be added. page 74 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- f. PID (Product IDentification) The PID (Product ID) is appended by IMAIL to all messages it generates. Following the specifications given by Joaquim Homrighausen, the format of the kludge is: ^APID: <product> <version>[ <serial number>] For example, IMAIL 1.50 would generate the kludge as follows: ^APID: IMAIL 1.50 g. REPLY The REPLY kludge is simply a copy of the MSGID of the message to which you are replying. IMAIL currently does not generate this kludge. The format is as for MSGIDs: ^AREPLY: zone:net/node[.point]@domain xxxxxxxx h. RESCANNED IMAIL inserts this kludge in messages which have been exported in response to a %RESCAN request. This way, when they are processed by TOSS, they will not be exported to other systems thus potentially creating dupe rings. Currently there are only a few mailprocessers which support this kludge, so it is by no means a fail-safe method of preventing dupes. Rescanning echo mail is ALWAYS dangerous, and until some robust and standard method is adopted, it is best to avoid rescanning altogether. The format of this kludge (according to FSC-0057) is: ^ARESCANNED <addr> where addr is the address of the system which requested the rescan. i. TID (Tosser IDentification) The TID is appended by IMAIL to all messages when exporting them from the message base. The format of the klugde is the same as with PID. j. TOPT (TO PoinT) The TOPT kludge is used in net mail messages only. It is used to indicate that the message is directed to a point system, rather than a "normal" node. The format of this kludge is: ^ATOPT <dest point> where <dest point> is the point component of the address. For example, a message addressed to 2:310/11.22 will have: ^ATOPT 22 while the message header will contain the address 310/11. IMAIL 1.50 page 75 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 14. BATCH FILE EXAMPLE The example given below is designed for systems running SuperBBS, with FrontDoor as a mailer. It should be easy to modify for other setups, but I can only write from my own experience. ECHO Off :START C: CD \FD FD IF ERRORLEVEL 99 GOTO CLEAN IF ERRORLEVEL 60 GOTO SCAN IF ERRORLEVEL 50 GOTO UNPACKMAIL IF ERRORLEVEL 40 GOTO LOCAL IF ERRORLEVEL 30 GOTO LOAD_BBS IF ERRORLEVEL 10 GOTO OUT IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO ERROR GOTO START :LOAD_BBS CALL DOBBS.BAT GOTO START :LOCAL BBS -L -E0 GOTO START :CLEAN REM Message Areas Maintenance IMTHINGS KILL /U IMTHINGS PACK GOTO START :SCAN IMAIL SCAN IMCOMP GOTO START :UNPACKMAIL IMAIL TOSS IMALNK IMPACK IMCOMP GOTO START :ERROR CLS ECHO *** Internal Error *** Programming Error GOTO OUT :OUT ECHO System .... Down! page 76 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 15. MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION a. A Note about Capability The term Capability, when referring to a mail processor, indicates that program's ability to generate zone and point information in outgoing mail, as well as the ability to recognize and use such information in inbound mail. Currently, IMAIL distinguishes between two forms of capability: "Stone Age" and "Type 2+". "Stone Age" means that the packet contains no zone and/or point information, and thus IMAIL is forced to guess at their value; "Type 2+" indicates that the packet contains zone and point information, and IMAIL knows where to look for them. "Type 2+" mail packets are distinguished from the others by means of a Capability Word and a Capability Word Validation Copy (as outlined in the document FSC-0039). However, there are several mail processors which produce valid zone and point information, but do not mark the packets as "Type 2+". In order for IMAIL to correctly extract the zone and point fields from these packets, they must be marked as Capability : Type 2+ Cap Handling: Forced in the Node Manager (see Chapter 7. Section e.). In other words, you should enquire as to which mail processor the node is using, and set these two fields accordingly. Examples of mail processors which produce Type 2+ information are: Product Product Code --------------- ------------ BBCscan CE D'Bridge 1A Fastecho AF Fmail 81 FrontDoor 0C GEcho 61 IMAIL 4B MailLink 9D Qmail 29 RA-Echo 8C ScanToss 82 TosScan 3F ZmailQ 35 Some of these do not (yet) make use of the Capability Word, but it is possible to "tell" IMAIL that a mail processor has Type 2+ Capability by indicating its product code in IMSETUP (see Chapter 7. Section a.). For other mail processors, if your are uncertain of their capability then it is best to set the two capability fields to "Stone Age"/Auto. IMAIL 1.50 page 77 ------------------------------------------------------------------- b. Defaults for Compression/Decompression For reference, below are listed the default parameters for the compression and decompression programs as you would see them when installing IMAIL for the first time. 1) Compression Arc.Exe mw Arj.Exe m -c -e+ -y -i Lha.Exe m /m2n1t1 Pak.Exe m /WN /ST. /P PkArc.Exe -ot m" PkZip.Exe -m -ex -o (PkZip Version 1.10) PkZip.Exe -m- -~ -ex -o (PkZip Version 2.04, default) Sqz.Exe aM /p3 Zoo.Exe aMPh: 2) Decompression Arc.Exe xw Arj.Exe e -c -i -y Lha.Exe e /c1m2n1 Pak.Exe e /WA PKUnZip.Exe -ed -o PkXArc.Exe -r SQZ e /o1 Zoo.Exe eO c. Files Maintained by IMAIL IMAIL and IMSETUP create and maintain several external data files. Generally it is NOT a good idea to delete these unless you wish to rebuild your configuration from the beginning. Of these files, all those containing IMAIL's configuration information should reside in the directory from which IMAIL is run, or, if you have set the IMAIL environment variable, in the directory it points to. IMAIL.CF Basic IMAIL configuration information, including network addresses, path names and so on. IMAIL.AR Contains the definitions of the echo areas. If this file is deleted, ALL echo area information will be lost. This file is updated by AreaLink, if necessary, and is usually maintained via IMSETUP. IMAIL.AX Index file of echo area information, according to area name. This file is maintained and updated both by IMSETUP and IMAIL. It may be deleted (in which case you will need to run IMSETUP to recreate it). IMAIL.BX Index file of echo area information, according to Hudson board number. This file is maintained and updated both by IMSETUP and IMAIL. It may be deleted (in which case you will need to run IMSETUP to recreate it). page 78 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- IMAIL.ND This file contains the information defined in the Node Manager. IMAIL.DP Data base of information used to catch dupli- IMAIL.DPI cate messages. These files may be deleted, but then you risk missing incoming dupes. If IMAIL.DPI is missing or corrupt, IMAIL will recreate it from the information in IMAIL.DP. IMAIL.PR This is a compiled version of the FTSC product code list (which is usually distributed as FTSCPROD.xxx, where xxx is a decimal number). IMAIL.GR The Group Database with the names and the de- fault settings for the groups. IMAIL.PP This file contains the packer definitions used by IMAIL. IMAIL.RO Here, the pack routing for IMPACK is stored. IMAIL.CFM Text file used when IMAIL generates a confirmation receipt request. ????????.$I$ A packet file (????????.PKT) that was being processed by TOSS. You should only find these files if there was a system crash during a TOSS. In order to process it, simply rename it to ????????.PKT and run IMAIL TOSS again. If IMAIL finds such files it renames them to ????????.P$$ renamed (????????.$i$) file (see above). ????????.P$T A packet file (????????.PKT) where IMAIL TOSS found errors while processing this packet. IMAIL 1.50 page 79 ------------------------------------------------------------------- d. Exit Codes and Semaphores Should an error occur while IMAIL, IMALNK, IMPACK or IMTHINGS are running, all programs will exit with an error, and set the MS-DOS ERRORLEVEL environment variable. This may be tested in a batch file, and acted upon. Listed below are the ERRORLEVELs: ERRORLEVEL Meaning 0 No error 1 TOSS/SCAN process net mail 2 TOSS/SCAN processed echo mail 4 TOSS/SCAN processed bad mail 8 TOSS/SCAN processed Hudson mail 16 TOSS/SCAN processed *.MSG mail 32 TOSS/SCAN processed Squish mail 64 TOSS/SCAN processed JAM mail 128 TOSS found mail to the sysop 238 Cannot create directory 239 File locking error 240 Error opening IMAIL.AX 241 Error opening IMAIL.BX 242 Index file missing or corrupt 243 IMAIL.CF not found 244 IMAIL.AR not found 245 IMAIL.ND not found 246 Error in IMAIL.CF 247 Bad version of IMAIL.CF 248 Error opening file 249 Error reading file 250 Error writing file 251 Command line parameter error 252 File not found 253 Memory allocation error 254 Disk full 255 Unknown (generic) error The errorlevels 1-128 are also indicated by a set of semaphore files which area created in the semaphore directory when IMAIL exits. This makes the evaluation of the errorlevels much easier: IMAIL.NET TOSS/SCAN processed net mail IMAIL.ECO TOSS/SCAN processed echo mail IMAIL.BAD TOSS/SCAN processed bad mail IMAIL.HUD TOSS/SCAN processed QuickBBS areas IMAIL.MSG TOSS/SCAN processed Msg areas IMAIL.SQU TOSS/SCAN processed Squish areas IMAIL.JAM TOSS/SCAN processed JAM areas. IMAIL.PER TOSS found mail to the sysop IMAIL.NAR TOSS created new area. page 80 IMAIL 1.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. IMAIL REGISTRATION SITES a. Headquarters Alpha's Node - IMAIL Development System: FidoNet 2:2480/47 PB-Net 246:6107/0 Virnet 9:494/3020 Internet alpha.fido.de Snail Mail: Andreas Klein Haindlfinger Str. 1 85354 Freising Germany b. Credit Card Registrations (worldwide, cards only) IMAIL Support & Distribution System: FidoNet 2:246/1013 PB-Net 246:6106/1001 Snail Mail: Constantin Spiess Lindenstr. 20 70734 Fellbach Germany c. Australia IMAIL Support & Distribution Australia System: FidoNet 3:632/350 Snail Mail: Bob Snowdon 17 Witham Drive Coldstream, Victoria Australia 3770 d. Benelux IMAIL Support & Distribution Benelux System: FidoNet 2:284/130 Snail Mail: Roelof Heuvel Postbus 1245 5900 BE Venlo The Netherlands IMAIL 1.50 page 81 ------------------------------------------------------------------- e. North America/Latin America IMAIL Support & Distribution North America/Latin America System: FidoNet 1:10/100 Snail Mail: Pablo Kleinman 7275 Franklin Avenue, Suite 420 Hollywood, CA 90046-3089 U.S.A f. Canada IMAIL Support & Distribution North America System: FidoNet 1:153/923 IntlNet 56:200/1 SIGnet 25:4604/198 Snail Mail: Hardy Rosenke P.O. Box 1240 Tsawwassen, BC Canada V4M 3T3 g. Italy IMAIL Support & Distribution Italy System: IntlNet 57:3902/103 FidoNet 2:2480/47.200 Snail Mail: Fortunato Lodari C.so Garibaldi 88/a 84081 Baronissi (Sa) Italia.