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RiBBS RiBBS RiBBS RiBBS R R B B B B S R R B B B B S R R i B B B B S RiBBS RiBBS RiBBS RiBBS R R i B B B B S R R i B B B B S R R i B B B B S R R i RiBBS RiBBS RiBBS v v 22 1 00 v v 2 2 1 0 0 v v 2 1 0 0 v v 2 1 0 0 v o 2222 o 1 00 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v GETTING STARTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 INSTALLING RiBBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 RCONFIG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 MENUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 MENU FUNCTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 SETTING UP YOUR MENUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 MENU MECHANICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 MENUEDIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 REQUIRED TEXT FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 MESSAGE BASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 USEREDIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 STARTING RiBBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 PACKMSG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 FILE TRANSFERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 BUNDLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 MAILIMPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 RBPASS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 UNBUNDLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 LOOKNODE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 DUMPFILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 APPENDIX A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 SPECIAL FUNCTION KEYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 APPENDIX B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 POINTS/RATIO/CREDIT SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 APPENDIX C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 AN APPLICATION FILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 APPENDIX D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 AUTOMATED NODELIST PROCESSING . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 APPENDIX E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 USER FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 USER LEVELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 APPENDIX F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 SAMPLE MODEM INIT STRINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 APPENDIX G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 MODIFYING XMBLIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 APPENDIX H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 CONNECT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 INTRODUCTION: Welcome to RiBBS (pronounced ribs). RiBBS is an enhanced BBS package for the Tandy Color Computer 3. Designed to allow you to take full advantage of the system setup you are now using. This software package is for those people who are knowledgeable with the OS9 operating system or with previous versions of RiBBS. For beginners to the OS9 operating system it will provide a challenging project. This is a real time BBS, offering ANSI graphics, OS9 color code options, Fido compatible (Echo and Network mail options). Xmodem/Ymodem (1K Xmodem) and Ymodem-Batch downloads and upload's are also available. This is a highly user definable BBS developed for the OS-9 operating system. LICENSING INFORMATION RiBBS version 2.10 is 'shareware'. You may distribute RiBBS v2.10 provided no charges are levied (excluding charges for time online for pay systems). And, no changes made to the program or documentation. If you have any questions you are welcome to call the following number (data) and leave a message to Charles West. RiBBS Headquarters, Arrakis......(405)752-8955 If you have access to Delphi. There is a Conference Thursday Evenings at 10 PM EST for Ribbs. If you plan on getting involved with FIDO, then there is an Echo that you can request through your Hub called RIBBS. You also might want to request the COCO, OS9, and COCO_CLUB echos while your at it. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TANDY Color Computer is a registered trademark of the Tandy Corporation. OS9 and BasicO9 are trademarks of Microware and Motorola. Hayes is a registered trademark of Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. The Wiz, Wiz Professional, m2w, mwp, and wizacia are copyright 1988 by William Brady COLOR22 are copyright by Mike Guzzi FIDO/FIDONet are copyright by the International FidoNet Assoc. If a trademark or other effort is mentioned in this documentation but not credited above, it is simply an oversight on my part, and is completely unintentional. No rights are claimed by virtue of such omission. Furthermore, my apologies are offered in any situation where improper credit is given. Please notify me so that I may correct the error in future releases. The mention of any particular product within this documentation should not be construed as an endorsement of or recommendation for any particular product. This Documentation was put together by Brian Steward from the following sources. The Original Docs, Charles West, Wes Gale, those who contributed their modem strings, and whoever else may have contributed to the efforts of writing Ribbs and wrote up documentation for their part iii FEATURES * Up to 40 sysop defined message bases * Fido Net Technology compatible * ANSI/TTY/OS9 terminal support * Unlimited Upload and Download areas. * Sysop controlled user security * Sysop controlled user flags * Customize the colors on the local screen * Ymodem transfers when RiBBS systems talk to other RiBBS systems (when both are in WaZoo mode.) iv System Requirements SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS What you will need to run RiBBS v2.10 HARDWARE To be able to use RiBBS v2.10 you must have a hardware system consisting of the following minimum configuration. Tandy Color Computer 3 with 512k upgrade Three 40trk SS disk drives (approx. 540k of disk space) A Hayes compatible auto-answer modem TRS-80 Deluxe RS-232 Program Pak TRS-80 Multi-pak Interface upgraded for the Coco 3 Optional Hardware Any additional disk space: floppy, hard or ram. Hardware clock SOFTWARE You will need the following before being able to use RiBBS v2.10. OS9 Operating System Level 2. BasicO9 programming language (BasicO9 comes with OS9 Level 2). v Getting Started GETTING STARTED The first thing, make a backup of all the files for RiBBS. This will save you time and expense if you experience hardware or software failure. You should make a backup of your working disks once a week. This is so you have a current copy of your userlog and messages. NOTE: When referring to RiBBS files disk we mean the disk used to un-PAK the RiBBS files. You will need to copy the following files to the CMDS directory on your RiBBS files disk. Copy RUNB, INKEY, COPY, MERGE, LOAD, ATTR, and DEL to your RiBBS files disk from your OS9 system disk. You will need to create the following directories on a blank disk(s): NOTE: These directory names are for examples only. Although referenced, your directory names don't have match to the directory names listed below. With the exception of the directory called CFG Decide where you want your message bases and your system disk, then put those directories on the proper disk. That is, drive 0 is the system disk. So, put CMDS, FILES, and DATA on that disk. Drive 1 is your message base disk, so MB, FIDOIN and FIDOOUT are there. 1. CMDS, directory for the commands that RiBBS needs to run. This will be your execution directory when running RiBBS. 2. FILES, has all the data files needed to operate RiBBS. Such files are the LOGO screen, help files, Bulletin, Events file, Dlimit File, Etc. This will be your working directory when running RiBBS. 3. DATA, this directory stores the system data such as the userlog and the stat file. This directory is optional and can be incorporated into the FILES directory. 4. MB, this is where all the messages, message index, and other support files that your message bases will need. The following directories are optional and not required if not part of a FIDO NET system. 1 Getting Started 5. FIDOIN, this is the directory that all incoming mail will go to. 6. FIDOOUT, this is a directory to hold the FIDO system files such as AREAS.CTL. 7. CFG, This directory has to be named CFG and has to reside in your FIDOOUT directory. This directory will hold some needed .ctl files 8. EXPORT, a directory where RiBBS will place messages, temporarily, that RiBBS will forward to other FIDO systems. 2 Installing Ribbs INSTALLING RiBBS The modules will need to be merged before installing in your BBS cmds directory. You will need runb,inkey and syscall from your OS9 system disk. Also, be sure that the modules are merged in the proper order. Otherwise you will run into an ERROR 43 problem because OS9 will not be able to unlink the module. Filename Modules to be merged together *RUNB (runb,inkey,syscall,onekey,numin,cdcheck,charin,charout) *RiBBS (ribbsmain,elapsed,linein,lineout,bytein,byteout) +CONNECT (connect,sendhello,rechello) >Xmin (xmin,xmblin,logout) >Xmout (xmout,xmblout) +Mailimport (mailimport,mailin) +Markmail (markmail,mrkmail) +Preq (Preq,CPreq) * Must be preloaded + preloading optional > Do not preload I suggest the following optional merges be made for more efficient operation. Pre-loading them will make things even faster. Rmenu (rmenu,stat,chat,dumpfile) Readmsg (readmsg,rbquote) If the suggested merges are not pre-loaded, then unmerged copies of Stat, Chat, Dumpfile and Rbquote should be available in the RiBBS execution directory. The following procedures are for the initial RiBBS installation and normal maintenance. 'Rconfig'- Creating and editing the Ribbs.cfg file 'Menuedit'- Creating and editing the menus 'Useredit'- Creating and editing the userlog 'Createmb'- is when starting the first time, or re-creating your message base. 'Packmsg'- is for normal msg base maintenance. 3 Installing Ribbs RCONFIG The first procedure is 'Rconfig'. This will set the BBS parameters to match your system and set the directories to their respective disk drives. Running this procedure creates a new file on your /DD drive in your root directory, named 'RIBBS.CFG'. NOTE: RiBBS requires 'DD' in your modules directory. If you don't have this in your modules directory, create a boot disk with this included. 'Rconfig' also will edit an existing 'RIBBS.CFG' file, if present. NOTE: Rconfig can also be passed a path name to an alternate ribbs.cfg file if you want to run multiline. i.e rconfig /dd/ribbs/files/line2.cfg Set your current execution directory to CMDS (chx /dn/CMDS). If you have a hard drive, you may want your BBS cmds directory a separate subdirectory such as /h0/BBS/CMDS. The other, 'DATA', 'MB', 'FIDOIN', 'FIDOOUT' and 'FILES', directories may also be under a subdirectory of /h0/BBS. This provides an easy method to isolate the BBS while running other programs with the BBS running. NOTE: When creating Sub-directories, keep the path names under 13 characters. Now type 'Rconfig' and press ENTER. The title screen of 'Rconfig' with 6 options will appear. 1) BBS Information 2) Pathnames & Palettes 3) General Settings 4) Modem and Path Options 5) Message Base 6) Exit 4 Installing Ribbs Enter '1' at the prompt for setting your BBS Information. ***** FIDO OPTION ****** Your Fido Zone: Your Zone number Your Fido Net: Your NET Number Your Fido Node: Your Node number Your Fido Point: Your Point Number BBS Name: This is the name of your BBS Sysop: This is your Name Allow Wazoo: YES/NO Login Delay:10 Connect Delay:5 Origin Address: Your full Zone:Net/Node.point Network Domain: (i.e. fidonet.org) When first setting up your Zone,Net,Node,Point info, Enter your REAL 4d address. Rconfig will build your Origin Address from the info entered here when you move the cursor to the Origin Address. Then go back and enter your Fakenet Address if you are going to be running as a point from your HUB. At this time Ribbs does not work when setup using a 4d address. You must use a Fakenet address NOTE: Rconfig will only build the correct Origin Address if that field is blank. You can leave all these fields blank unless your connecting to FIDONET and already have a NET/NODE assigned. The fields are self explanatory. The Allow Wazoo when ON will provide the other mailer your connecting to with more info about your board. When just starting out, leave this set to OFF. Once you are connecting reliably with the other system, then try turning it on. The Login delay and connect delay, in seconds, are used for FIDO screening. When RiBBS detects carrier the system will send a 'BBS Message' (See 'Enter BBS Message'). The board will PAUSE for the value defined in this field. A recommended set time is 5 for MNP modems and less for non-error correcting modems. The Origin address is what gets tacked onto your Origin lines. Usually it is the same address represented in the Zone, Net, Node, Point fields at the top of the screen, but if you are running a point system you'll need to set it up something like this example. Marc Bosley is a point on my system. His fakenet address is 1099/6809. In order for Export to function correctly, he needs to be set up like this: 5 Installing Ribbs Zone : 1 Net : 1099 Node : 6809 Point : 0 \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Origin Address : (1:147/61.1) **** PRESSING KEY [F1] WILL EXIT BACK TO THE MAIN MENU **** Select option '2'. Setting the Pathnames and Palettes. You will see that RCONFIG asks you the pathnames of the directories you will be using. Standard Data Path: (Example: /h0/FILES or /h0/BBS/FILES) Enter the directory of your BBS data directory when RiBBS is online. You may change these selections later using 'Rconfig'. Message Base: (Example: /h0/MB) (Example: /d1/MB or /d2/MB) This will usually be your largest single file. Depending on the number of messages bases and the length of time you keep messages. Editor temp message path: (Example: /r0 or /d0/BBS/DATA) This is the path RiBBS will use to store a temporary file called 'edtmp(n)' ('n' being the i/o path number). This is used by the message editor for temporary storage. It's length is 4000 bytes. Optional Local Editor: (Example: sled) This option is NOT available at release date. Leave this field BLANK 6 Installing Ribbs System Fido-in Area: (Example: /H0/FIDOIN) Enter the drive and path where you want all your incoming mail to be put. NOTE: You may leave this blank if not connected to FIDONET System Fido-Out Area: (Example: /h0/FIDO ) Enter the pathname where you will store the outgoing mail packets. Also, you will create a CFG directory in your Fido-Out directory. Be warned... you need disk space for FIDO mail. NOTE: This directory must be defined even if not connected to FIDONET. System Data Area: (Example: /h0/DATA ) Enter the pathname where you will store the userlog. This pathname could be the same as the Standard Data Path to drop the additional directory. Userindex: (Example: /h0/DATA ) This is where you will store the 'userindex' file used at logon. If possible, setup a ramdisk for this file. If using a ramdisk, make sure you save the userindex onto the drive before shutting off the computer, then you can copy the userindex back to the ramdisk at startup. Log Full Pathname: (Example: /p or /r0/log) This is the FULL pathname you want to direct the BBS activity too. This file keeps track of the BBS operations, Fido mail transfers, user activity, and errors that occur in the RiBBSMain program. This MUST include the FULL PATHNAME, unless you direct it to a serial device, such as your printer. Normally you should have a separate window to list the log periodically. This is easily done with a script files as follows: 'list /r0/log' (call the file 'listlog' for example) 7 Installing Ribbs Then when the file gets to long another script file will delete and restart it: 'del /r0/log;date t >/r0/log' (call it 'killlog') FIDO export message dir: (Example: /h0/EXPORT) This is a directory used by 'export' to hold mail forwarded to other net/nodes specified in your areas.ctl' file. NOTE: You may leave this blank if not connected to FIDONET. Menu Path: (Example: /h0/files) This directory contains the 'Menu Files'. 'MenuEdit' will create two files in this directory. (See the section on 'Creating Menus') Palette Colors: At the bottom of the screen are the colors RiBBS uses. These colors only affect YOUR screen, they will not affect users calling your BBS. You can experiment with these to your liking and for that reason we will not go into these options. Before experimenting, it is best to complete the rconfig procedure. Make a backup copy of the file RIBBS.CFG in case you get a color selection that is unreadable and can't get back to a readable selection. **** PRESSING KEY [F1] WILL EXIT BACK TO THE MAIN MENU **** Select option '3'. This will let us set the General Settings New User Level: This is the level of access that a new user gets upon first accessing your system. Access levels can range from 0-32000. The 'Useredit' procedure is where you will set a users level depending on the information they supply when the fill out a 'New User Application'. Setting the users at different levels is an easy way to code the users according to the type of computer or other criteria such as location. Refer to the following example: 8 Installing Ribbs LEVEL TYPE OF COMPUTER 50 (New User at log on) 100 Commodore 64 user 101 Commodore 128 user 102 Amiga user 200 Apple user 201 Mac user 300 IBM user 400 CoCo RS DOS user 401 CoCo OS9 user 500 Vip user 1000 Sysop This type of assignment allows menus to be constructed with ascending functions, refer to the 'Menuedit' section. New User Flags: The user flags range from 0-255. This is the flag(s) set when a new user logs on. Refer to APPENDIX E for a full explanation of flags and there usage. For starters just set to 0. New user Time Limit: This is the number of minutes you allow a user on your system per day. The maximum allowed is 255 minutes. You can specify 256 for 'unlimited' time. New User Download limit: This number represents the number of downloads a new user can access per day. Normally set to 0 until conformation of the user, and reset from the 'Useredit' program. SysOp Level: Level a user has before having access as a SysOp. Be careful not to set this to LOW. Any person having sysop access can enter, change or delete ANY message in ANY message area. Using the level table from above set for 1000. SysOp Flag: Users must have this flag set before having SysOp Access. Usually set for the highest, 255. 9 Installing Ribbs Upload Ratio (points): NOTE:(see APPENDIX B for more info) This number, multiplied by the size of the files uploaded in Kbytes, gives the upload points. Lets put it in simpler terms. If a user upload's a file that is 100 Kbytes long and you have entered a 4 on this line then the amount of download credit will be 400 Kbytes. This amount is accumulated for download credit, meaning that the user will now have 400 Kbytes download credit. If you don't want to use ratio system, set to 0. Then set a download ratio using the 'Useredit' procedure. New User Download Credit: NOTE:(see APPENDIX B for more info) Enter in this field the amount of credit you want to give a new user in Kilo Bytes. Message Scan: Enter either an 'A' for Active a 'D' for Disable or a 'P' for Prompted. Active will search for new messages upon logon. Disable will send the user straight to the first menu. Prompted will ask if the user would like to check for MAIL. Then, the option to read and reply to any MAIL they might have waiting. Applications: Enter an 'A' for Accepted or a 'N' for Not Accepted. Accepted, means the system will accept all new users and list out the NEW1 and NEW2 file. Not Accepted, the System will not accept a new user and will list the NOAPP file in the FILES Directory and then disconnect them. Name Format: This option will allow you to make a user use his FULL name or allow open format, (Handles / Single Names). If you are using the full name format, RiBBS will look for a character between a users name. If you allow handles,they must use two words (ie. A User, My Handle). Note the username must only be ASCII letters. No punctuation is allowed. Forced Application: If this option is FORCED, file 'NEW2' or 'NOAPP' will be the 'application'. Meaning that if you have option - Applications 10 Installing Ribbs accepted - then the file 'NEW2', MUST be in the Application format and is displayed when a new user logs on. If you have the option Applications - Not accepted, then the file 'NOAPP' MUST be in the Application format. That user will not gain access to your BBS and not entered in the userlog. Another way of limiting first time callers access but still allow a better idea of what type of BBS you are running is not to force application but use the user levels to control what they can get to online. For example, construct your Main Menu for level 50 to see only the application selection, an information file and perhaps a read message only of your general message base and a menu Quit or Logoff with message to sysop selection. This way they can decide if they want to bother filling out your application file. The application file can be used to reset their level to a higher access and then let them have an access to more things. When you review their application and run 'Useredit' you can determine if they are serious and also tell by the level they have if they filled out the application. Refer to the section labeled 'Applications'. Setting the New User flag to a 1 and having the Main Menu 'Application' selection with a flag of 1 then allows you to reset the newusers flag to 0 when you run 'Useredit' so the Menu Selection of 'Application' is blank for regular users. No Input Auto Logoff: This is the time in minutes that the BBS will sit idle while waiting for a menu command input before automatically dropping carrier and re-cycling to the wait screen. A setting of 3 to 5 minutes is a good choice. Don't set below 2 minutes. Note: Checked only while at a menu or an input line. Display User Stat Screen: This is a two-line window that will appear at the bottom of the RiBBS window after a user has logged on and the 'Welcome' file displayed. This window will contain information about the user that is on-line. 11 Installing Ribbs Example: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Username Level ##### Flag-------- Time ### Downlimit ### Paged No ALT'C'hat'H'angup 'S'ystem lvl update ('UP' 'DN' change time lmt) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Enter an 'E' for Enabled, or 'D' for Disabled. Enter BBS Message: [Example: Press [ESC] to enter BBS or wait 10 seconds.] This is a text line displayed as soon as RiBBS detects carrier. If the caller sends an 'ESC'ape code the FIDO Login Delay will be by-passed and the user will enter the BBS. Now, use the 'F1' key to return to the 'Rconfig' Menu. Now choose option #4, Modem and Path Options. High Baud: This is the Highest baud at which your modem can operate the bbs. If you have a 1200 BPS modem enter 1200 on this line. If you have a 9600 baud or higher modem, then enter 9600. I/O Pathname: [Example: /T2] This field will defined the RS-232 I/O device descriptor that RiBBS will use. NOTE: For stock '/T2' operation, you MUST patch the ACIA.DR with the patch included. For '/M2W' or '/MWP', make sure you install the right drivers & descriptors in your Boot-Strap. Carrier Bit: [Example:Standard=$20 or Inverted=$40] (SEE TABLE A) This field will defined the type of RS-232 cable you will be using for RiBBS. Let me explain. You can either use a Normal 25- pin RS-232 cable, OR you may REVERSE wires 6 & 8 with each other and thus having the so-called INVERTED cable. If you use a standard, non-modified cable, then after the FIDO delay time has expired, the system will check for BAUD rate MANUALLY. Depending on what you have for a HIGH baud rate, RiBBS will send a 'PRESS 12 Installing Ribbs ENTER' prompt to the caller. First at the highest baud rate and drop to the next lowest continuing to cycle through all baud rates. If RiBBS receives a Carriage Return, then the board will be active at the current baud rate. If the system doesn't detect a carriage return after reaching it highest baud rate, then the BBS will be activated at 300 baud. If you use a converted cable, then RiBBS will automatically detect the baud rate and start the BBS. To customized the cable, you must locate pin #6 & #8 on ONE end of the cable ONLY, remove these two wires, and install in the opposite positions. When entering the values for the Carrier Bit field, you can either enter the decimal value or hexadecimal value. If you choose to enter the value in the hexadecimal format, you MUST precede the value with the '$' symbol. For the Standard Cable, enter either '32' or '$20'. For the Inverted Cable, enter either '64' or '$40'. Carrier Callcode: [Example:T2=$28] (SEE TABLE A) This field will define which 'GetStt' System Call to use when checking the RS-232 I/O port. If you are using '/T2', then enter '$28'. This will automatically change to a decimal value of '40' after you press ENTER. If you are using '/MWP', then enter a value of '130'. Modem Init String: [Example:AT&C1&D2HMS0=1|] (See Appendix F for sample INIT strings) This field will define the string sent to the modem for initialization. Modem Hangup String: [Example:+++~ATH0|] This field will define the string sent to the modem when a user logs-off your system. In the example, the '+++' will bring the modem into the command state. The '~' will pause for 1 second. The 'ATH0' will hang-up the modem. The '|' ( <1>) is a code that will send a carriage return to the modem. 13 Installing Ribbs Modem Busy String: [Example:ATH1M|] This is the string sent to the modem when you 'Quit' RiBBS, go online in the Local Mode, engage a SHELL command from the Wait Screen, or for FIDO users, when MAILIMPORT is executing. What the above example will do is wake-up the modem, force the modem to go off-hook (pick up the phone), and turn off the built-in speaker. NOTE: You can also add a ^R, ^T, ^W, or ^P in the front of your strings instead of the modem escape sequence to toggle the DTR of your modem. ^R is used for ACIADRV, ^T is for ACIAPAK, ^W is for PROACIA, and ^P is for WIZACIA. (SEE TABLE A) TABLE A Aciapak ProAcia WizAcia Sacia Dacia Aciadrv CARRIER BIT 32/64 32/64 32/64 32/64 32/64 32/64 CALL CODE 40 130 130 40 40 130 DTR FLASH ^T ^W ^P ^T ^T ^R Modem Response: Here you will enter the proper text strings that your modem will echo back when it detects carrier, the busy response, the No Carrier and the No Connect responses. Make sure that the information that you enter is EXACTLY what you modem will echo back. Example.. You modem connects at 1200 and it echoes to your screen 'CONNECT 1200'. Enter CONNECT 1200 at the 1200 Baud response field. etc... Press to return to the Rconfig Menu. Ok, now that you have set up all the settings for your BBS, you should take a break and then think of some message base names. Here are some examples: Base 1- General Messages Base 2- Email Messages Base 3- Echo Mail Base 4- Network Mail Base 5- RiBBS Echo 14 Installing Ribbs Using these examples, lets go to option '5'. This option is MESSAGE BASE. This is where you will enter the Message base Name, Read level, Write Level, Public/Private or BOTH flag, and whether it is a LOCAL/ECHO or NET base. Confusing, probably, so lets go through a few together. After you select '5' you will be greeted by a screen that looks like this: Message Base Editor Base #1. Board Name ................... Read Level 0 Write Level 0 Private / Public Public (B)oth, P(R)ivate, (P)ublic Local / Echo / Net Local (L)ocal, (E)cho, (N)et Anonymous Posts Allowed NO (Y)es, (N)o # Days MSG's held ..... [------------------------ ORIGIN -----------------------] F1=exit Up/Down=Previous/Next Base SHIFT Up/Down=-10/+10 NOTE: The Origin line will only appear when you select (E)cho. You will notice that your cursor is at the beginning of the BOARD NAME input line. This is where you will enter the name of Board #1. First lets notice that the 'UP' arrow will move you to message base #40 and descend from there. The opposite is the 'DOWN' arrow, it will move you back to message base #1 and advance from there. The 'RIGHT' arrow will move down the input line and the 'LEFT' arrow will move up through the input lines. The Shift UP/DOWN keys will move you backward or forward 10 message bases at a time. Remember the 'F1' key to exit at any time. Board Name: This is the name you will call the message base (i.e. General Messages). Read Level: This is the READ access level which a user must meet or exceed to be able to read messages. Write Level: This is the WRITE access level which a user must meet or exceed to be able to write messages. 15 Installing Ribbs Private / Public: This option will determine whether or not the Message base you are assigning is a Private base or a Public base. This will allow a user to enter Private messages if you enter a 'R' or Public if you enter 'P'. There is a third option which is BOTH. This allows a user the option of whether it will be a Private or Public message by way of a prompt. A 'Private' selection means that the addressee must be in your userlog and only the addressee or the addressor can read the message (except the sysop). Local / Echo / Net: This is where you will tell Ribbs what type of area this is. A LOCAL base is a base found only on your system. The messages in a LOCAL base are not exported for a mail transfer. If you have picked the ECHO option, a scan of this base is done after logoff if a message was entered. Then, the system will run EXPORT and put the mail in mail packets to the proper NET/NODEs found in your NODELIST file. The NET option is basically the same, but NET mail is from one user to another user. The user is prompted for the NET and NODE to which the message is to be sent. Again the same goes here as for the ECHO option, don't use it if you are not supporting FIDO. If you select an area to be ECHO, then you will also be prompted to enter an ORIGIN line for that message base. Anonymous Posts Allowed This option when set to Yes will allow a user to change the FROM line on messages he is posting or replying to. Caution should be used with this option as a user will be to make the message look like it came from someone else. You may wish to inform your users that you will still be able to tell who the message was really from. # Days MSG's held: In this field enter the number of days from the time a message is written that you want to store in your message base. You will want to adjust the number according to how much space you have for your message base and how active that particular area is going to be. For example, there are some Fidonet echoes that only get about 10-20 messages a day in them. Then there are others that will get 200 messages a day. A good rule of thumb is, multiply the number of messages by 1000 (1k), that is about the average length of a message. So if this area will be getting 100 16 Installing Ribbs messages a day, and you have # Days held to 15, then 100 times 15 would be a total of 1500 messages multiplied by 1000 would be 1.5 meg of disk space you will need just for this message area. ORIGIN LINE An ORIGIN line is a line of text that Ribbs will append to your messages. You may include any text in that line you want. Most people include their BBS name, and phone number. Before entering your Origin Line, be sure you entered your Origin Address in the BBS Information section first, as the length of you Origin line is dependant on this. A typical origin line might look like this. Export will append your Fidonet address to the end of this line. The Coco Workshop 413-593-3944 After you have entered all the Message Bases that you will have available on your BBS, Press to return to the Rconfig Menu. Press [F1] to go back to the Main Menu. Now select option #6, Exit. This will now write the information you have just entered to the /DD/RiBBS.CFG file. 17 Installing Ribbs MENUS This is possibly the most important stage in configuring your BBS. The menus that you create will give the system it's own "feel", and will make your system look completely different from the one next door. The menu system gives you one hundred percent flexibility not only cosmetically, but in allowing and disallowing access to certain functions and parts of your BBS to groups of users. The menus are line-oriented. Using the menu editor supplied, you enter the lines one at a time. Each line has a line of text that is displayed to the user, a menu "type", a minimum security level and flag setting required to access that line, and some optional data that is used by some menu types. There are thirty-one menu functions that may be activated by the user pressing the key you have linked to that function. These functions are explained fully in the following pages. 18 Installing Ribbs MENU FUNCTIONS TYPE : 0 NAME : Display Line OPTIONAL DATA: NONE This menu function simply displays what ever is on the line. Type : 1 Name : Goto Menu number Optional data : Menu # or ALT-A This menu function causes a jump to another menu. If the LETTER under this action equals [Alt-A], then at that point in the menu, it will retrieve a text file and list it. Specify the full pathname for the text file (max 32 chars), if not OS9 will look in your pwd. Type : 2 Name : Read message Optional data : Message Base # 1-40 0=COMBINED This command initiates the message reading routines. Before a user can read any message Ribbs checks that the user has read access to the message area first. The as defined in RCONFIG, should be placed in the Boardnum field. If a value of '0' is entered, Ribbs will allow the user to read in "combined" mode (see function type 31 for more information on this feature). After selecting this function the user may select one of seven different reading modes, which are: (F)orward : Read forward from the selected message number to the last message. (R)everse : Read reverse from the selected message number to the first message. (I)ndividual : Read an individual message, selected by message number. (M)arked : Read messages marked by the user previously when doing a message scan, (See Menu Type 4). (N)ew msgs : New messages since the users last call. (S)elected : Read messages, by a search criteria on the "To:", "From:" or "Subject" fields. 19 Installing Ribbs (Q)uit. : Abort the message reading. A menu bar is displayed at the end of each message, this provides the user with the following functions depending on their access: [A] : Redisplay message again [N] : Go to the next message [S] : Stop reading messages [R] : Post a reply to the current message [D] : Delete the displayed message (check the "delete msg" menu function for more information) [B] : Both delete and reply to the message The following options are available only to users who have sysop access to the message area: [O] : Export message to a file or the printer NOTE: This option is not shown on the screen [M] : Move message to another msg area. NOTE: It is necessary to run PACKMSG after moving a message to another area to update the message pointers in the user log before that message can be read in the new area. [F] : Mark the message as not sent and export will resend the message [!] : Display ^A kludge lines normally hidden. These lines normally contain information pertaining to the product that created the message, echomail information and information about replies to the message. NOTE: This option is not shown on the screen TYPE : 3 NAME : Enter message OPTIONAL DATA: Message Base # 1-40 OR MB##USERNAME This function allows a user to enter a message to someone else. If the message base is an Echo, then you can leave a message to anyone. If the message base is private, then you can only leave a message to someone in the userlog. If the message base is NET, then you will be prompted for the net/node number of the person your sending the message to. The Sysop will also have an option to load a message from a text file. A text file of up to 255 lines can be loaded. You will be able to edit it if the number of lines is 100 or less. 20 Installing Ribbs If you have a message base number followed by a username then the message will be created to that user in that message base. After you are done entering your message, entering a blank line will give a list of options on the bottom of the message the options are. bort - Aborts the message. ontinue - Continue entering the message elete - Delete certain lines of text. dit - Edit a line. nsert - Insert text between lines. ill - Kill the whole text and start over. ist - List the message. ave - Saves the message. sbject - Change the subject of the message. rigin - Brings up the origin line editor so you can change your origin line for that message. NOTE: The Origin feature is not displayed on the screen and is only available at the sysop level. Type : 4 Name : Scan messages Optional Data : Message base # 1-40 0=COMBINED This function only displays the message header of each message. The user also has the option of marking messages for later retrieval. Messages marked with this method can be read later by the user by selecting the read "Marked" option from a menu type 2 command. Type : 5 Name : Delete message Optional Data : Message Base # 1-40 Allows a user to delete a message provided that: * The user has sysop access to the area the message is in, OR * The message is in a LOCAL or NETMAIL area, the user is the sender or recipient of the message, OR * The message is in an echomail area and the user is the sender of the message. 21 Installing Ribbs Type : 6 Name : Chat Optional data : NONE This function will display the PAGEMSG textfile to the user and page the sysop for a chat. While Ribbs is paging, the sysop can press ENTER to enter the chat mode. CNTRL-7 will end the chat mode. If the user selects this option while CHATOFF is on, then the user will be displayed the message from PAGEMSG. See PAGEMSG in the textfiles for more info. Type : 7 Name : Download a file from area Optional Data : Enables the user to download any file that is contained in the specified directory. Note that the file need not be listed in that directory's FILES.BBS for the user to be able to download it. Type : 8 Name : Upload a file Optional Data : Enables the user to upload (send) a file to your system. The file will be placed in the directory specified in the optional data path. FILES.BBS will be automatically updated to reflect the upload. After uploading a file, the user is prompted to enter KEYWORDS for the file. Then the user is Prompted to enter the description of the file. The Keywords and description are kept in a file DESC.BBS in that directory. Type : 9 Name : Set User Options Optional Data : None This menu option can be used instead of menu options number 12,13,14,15,16 and 21. The user will be prompted with the following screen. [ C ] Clear Screen Toggle [ E ] Expert Mode Toggle [ L ] Screen Length [ P ] Password Change [ T ] Terminal Type [ U ] UPPER/lowercase Toggle 22 Installing Ribbs Type : 10 Name : Terminate the session Optional Data : None Displays the GOODBYE.A?? text file and hangs up on the user by using the hangup string set in RCONFIG. Type : 11 Name : Run an external program in a shell Optional Data : filename This command will run an external program in a shell while the user is on-line. Examples are on-line games. NOTE: The filename must be in the Ribbs (PXD). Do not include a complete pathname to the file, otherwise you will end up getting ERROR #43's because ribbs won't be able to unlink the program from memory. Type : 12 Name : Uppercase lock toggle Optional Data: NONE This causes Ribbs to lock uppercase on for the user. Type : 13 Name : Toggle screen clearing Optional Data : None Allows the user to specify whether he/she would like screen clearing codes sent. If enabled Ribbs will clear the users screen every time the user changes menus. Type : 14 Name : Alter password Optional Data : None Allows the user to change his/her password. Frequent password changes should be encouraged to ensure system security. Type : 15 Name : Expert toggle Optional Data: NONE This function allows a user to toggle the Expert mode ON/OFF. When off, Full menus are displayed. When ON, just the letter selections for that menu are displayed. 23 Installing Ribbs Type : 16 Name : Toggle ANSI/OS9/TTY Optional Data : None Allows the user to select, or deselect ANSI/OS9/TTY. Type : 17 Name : Display userlog Optional Data : NONE Will allow a user to either search through the userlog for a user, or display All users on your system. Ribbs will display the username, Location, and the last time the user was on. Type : 18 Name : NONE Optional Data : NONE This option is reserved for future use. Type : 19 Name : Defined Raw Directory List Optional data : NONE This function will prompt a user for the pathname of the directory that they want to see. Type : 20 Name : Enter Message and disconnect Optional data : MB##Username (ie. 02SYSOP) This function will allow a user to enter a message before being disconnected. The message will be posted in the Message Base as defined in Rconfig and goto the username defined in the optional data. Type : 21 Name : Alter screen length Optional Data : None Allows the user to alter the vertical length of his/her screen display. This affects the "Continue?" prompt. Type : 22 Name : Raw directory Optional data : Full pathname of directory This will display the directory of the directory defined in the optional data. 24 Installing Ribbs Type : 23 Name : Online shell Optional data : Filename in PXD This function calls WATCHCD for running programs in a shell. (SEE DOCS on WATCHCD). While a user is in a shell. The sysops display doesn't show anything. Type : 24 Name : Browse with download Optional data : Pathname to directory This function will display the DESC.BBS for each file starting with the first file, and give the user a choice to download the file or continuing browsing. (NOTE: It's better to browse all the files first and write down the filenames that you want to download. If you download a file and select this option again, it starts displaying with the first file again. Type : 25 Name : Download by number Optional data : Pathname to directory This option will display a raw directory with a number by the filename and allow a user to select the file by entering the number(s). NOTE: If FILES.BBS and DESC.BBS are in all CAPS. then these files will not be displayed. Also see DUMPFILE for more info. Type : 26 Name : Application Optional data : Path and filename of application file This will cause the application routine to be run. NOTE: See section on creating an application for more info. Type : 27 Name : Display Text file Optional data : Full path and name of textfile This will cause Ribbs to call DUMPFILE and display a text file defined in the optional data. (NOTE: See section on DUMPFILE for more info. 25 Installing Ribbs Type : 28 Name : Gosub another menu Optional Data : Menu # As for Function 1, but saves the last menu on a "stack", making it possible to return to the calling menu with a type 29 function. Note that menus called in this way may be nested to a maximum of 10 levels. Type : 29 Name : Return from gosub Optional Data : None Use this function to return from a Gosub (type 28) to the previous menu in the menu stack. Type : 30 Name : Alternate Menu Select Optional data : Full path and name of menu This function allows you to call a different set of menus. Instead of the standard menu.list and menu.lvl you can specify a different set of filename.list and filename.lvl. Ribbs automatically appends the .list and .lvl to the filename. Type : 31 Name : Board select Optional data : NONE To allow your users to update the Board Select pointers. When your users invoke it, they will see a screen with all the boards they have Read access and, if you have used UserEdit correctly, the word "On" next to each board name. By entering the number next to any base name, they can toggle it's status from "On" to "Off" or vice versa. Entering a "0" will allow them to escape back to the previous menu. When a user has set a board to "Off", messages in that board will not be displayed during a Global Read (NOTE: This includes the global marked mail read that takes place after the board scans for new mail when a user first logs on... thus, it is possible for a user to be told he has messages marked for him at this stage, but for him not to be shown those marked messages if they are in bases toggled "Off".) One last thing about BoardSelect (the program), it will display for the user any board that his Read access is high enough to read. This includes unused bases! Therefore, it is a good idea to use Rconfig to set the Read Level on unused bases to something very high so those do not clutter up BoardSelect's 26 Installing Ribbs screen. NOTE: If a board name starts with a '*', then that board name will not appear on the board select screen. So if you have a board named ' * Private Email * ' , then the user will not be able to set the select flag on or off for that board. 27 Installing Ribbs SETTING UP YOUR MENUS Spend some time thinking about how your menus will be set up. Your BBS can be made to look as unique or as "uniform" as you like - you can choose a subjective topology, where the menus are organized according to area of interest, or a functional topology, where menus are organized according to their function. For example, a functional topology would group all message areas together and all file areas together, whereas a subjective topology would perhaps group together several message and file areas that were related. The diagram below illustrates this by depicting the same systems using the two different topologies: FUNCTIONAL +----------Coco messages +---------Messages menu | | +----------OS9 messages Main menu | | +----------Coco files +------------Files menu | +----------OS9 files SUBJECTIVE +----------OS9 files +--------------OS9 menu | | +----------OS9 messages Main menu | | +----------Coco files +------------Coco menu | +----------Coco messages Alternatively, you could even use a combination of the two topology types. The layout of your BBS is determined by how the menus are set up. In many cases a user will not realize that he or she is looking at a menu. The best technique for creating menus is to create all the "low-level" menus first, then the main menu, and then fill in between with the intermediate menus. Use menuedit to create/edit the menu's that RiBBS uses. Type 'menuedit' to enable the menu editor and start the menu creation/editing process. 28 Installing Ribbs MENU MECHANICS Each menu option consists of the following and is input as described below. 1. Menu description - used to describe an option or as a header for the menu. For example, ead Messages, would be the DESCRIPTION for the option to read messages. Or you could say eceive Messages, for the option to read messages. 2. Action - Refer to the ACTION numbers listed above. If the description is a text line only, enter a zero. If the description refers to an action, enter that action number. If the action refers to a sub-menu, the action number must be the menu number you wish to go to. For instance, the main menu is menu number 1. To be able to go to the MAIN MENU from a SUB-menu you would enter 1 for the action. If the private mail menu is menu number 5 you would enter 5 for the action. You can do this for any amount of menu's up to 155. 3. Pathname/Board Num - Depending upon the action number entered, you are prompted for the appropriate response. If entering for a message base, you would respond with the number of the message base. The message base numbers, 1 through 40, correspond to those in Rconfig. 4. Level - A number to show the level which a user must have or exceed before being able to access this option. (See APPENDIX E on USER LEVELS) 5. Flags - A set of 8 flags either turned on (X), showing the flag is set for this option. Or, off (-) no flag required. For a user to see this option they must have this flag SET. (See APPENDIX E on USER FLAGS) 29 Installing Ribbs CREATING A MENU Before you start, think of the menu's and what order you want them. Write down the menu and what options each menu will have along with the level and flag for each option in that menu. There are two ways to make a menu, the first of course is to use the menuedit program supplied with RiBBS v2.10. The second way and probably the easiest is to use an OS9 word processor. Lets use the program included with RiBBS v2.10, Menuedit, first. Then we will make a menu using a word processor. 30 Installing Ribbs MENUEDIT If this is your first time using the editor and don't have any menu files in your RiBBS standard data path, as defined by Rconfig. You will see a prompt, reate new files or xit. Press C to create your new menu files. You should now be at the main menu with the following options. <1> Select Menu Number <2> List Current Menu <3> Add/Change/Insert <4> Create Menu from a File <5> Delete Line <6> Simulate Menu <7> Clear Menu <8> Print Menu to File <9> Quit Option ? NOTE: Before editing any new menus, select option 7 and select 'Y' to clear the present menu. This MUST be done for each new menu. Not required for editing an existing menu. <1> Allows you to change which menu you want to edit. <2> Show each menu line description (text), letter, action code, level and flags for each line, 5 menu lines at a time. Pressing [ENTER] will continue showing the menu. Press [S] to stop the listing and exit to the main menu. <3> This is the most functional option, allowing almost total control of the menueditor. When you select this option it will prompt you for the starting line to edit. After selecting the line number, you will enter the line editor. You will be at the top left portion of the screen at the beginning of the description line. You can now type in the text you want displayed for this menu option. If you wish to add color you can select 1 of 8 available colors by pressing and holding the [ALT] key while pressing the corresponding ANSI color selection; 31 Installing Ribbs 1 - Black 2 - Red 3 - Green 4 - Yellow 5 - Dk Blue 6 - Magenta 7 - Lt Blue 8 - White When you select a color be sure to reset the color at the end of the menu line to white. Remember the colors shown with the [ALT]-[?] are what YOU see, not what the user will see. You can change color at any time in the desc. line. NOTE: Description lines have a limit of 80 characters. Each COLOR will use 3 characters each. When you press [ENTER] for the description line the cursor will move to the next option, and so on for each option. Enter the Action Number, referring to the menu option table for the option number corresponding to the option you want for this menu line. When on the action line option you can enter a '?' mark followed by [ENTER] and an overlay window will show the action codes along with a short description. If the action number is one requiring a pathname/message base number, enter that at the pathname/boardnum option. Otherwise the cursor will move to the letter option. NOTE: If you are using the action code 11, outside program, when entering the pathname specify the program NAME only! If you enter a full pathname, when a user selects this option after that user exits the outside program, RiBBS will not be able to unlink the program from memory. This will cause an error #43. Because of this, your outside program must be in your current execution directory when RiBBS is running. Also, the program name must be the same as when it is in memory. If you have a program named Ribbstrek and when loaded in memory you do a MDir and the program is in memory as Trek you must rename the program 'trek' or the same error (#43) will occur. This also goes for the pathname in the menu option. Now enter the letter that a user would select for this option. If this is a display line only then a letter is not required, press [ENTER] to go to the next option. 32 Installing Ribbs Ok, now notice the command list at the bottom right side of the edit screen. Using the [ALT] key plus a letter option will allow you to do various commands. C - Change menu, pull up an overlay window prompting you which menu you want to edit. If you enter a menu number higher than the current number of menus, you will be asked to verify your input. This is done because menuedit reserves disk space for each menu. If you entered 67, accidentally pressed the six and seven together, you would have 61 extra menus reserved, and not used, wasting a lot of disk space. D - Delete line, allows you to delete the current line. Prompts you if this is correct. G - Goto to line #, allows you to go directly to a menu line. I - Insert line, inserts a line BEFORE the current line. Q - Quit, exits back to the main menu. ? - Show colors, shows current colors as per Rconfig. / Arrow Keys - Select menu line, allows you to move through the menu. If you are editing a previously made menu you can move through the menu line options with the [LFT Arrow] forward one line or use the [RGT Arrow] back one line. The [DWN Arrow] will move you one menu line forward, that is, if you are editing a menu line one the [DWN Arrow] will take you to menu line number two. The [UP Arrow] will take you back one menu line. <4> This will let you import a menu that has been constructed with an OS9 word processor. To do this you would boot up your favorite OS9 word processor and type in a menu just like you would want to see it if you called into your BBS. When saving the file you have will have to name this file, '.text'. When you have the "text" made for your menu you will now have to make the "data (options)". This is done with the word processor also and follows the format; 33 Installing Ribbs option #,letter,access level,flags,path/boardname For each menu line you must enter a 'dat' line (ie. 5 menu lines, 5 dat lines). Now you will need to use the menuedit program to incorporate the 'text' and 'dat' files into RiBBS v2.10. NOTE: For a better idea of the format for, use option 8. This is done by using the menuedit option 4, create menu from file. This option will allow you to transfer as many menu 'text' & 'dat' files as you want. If you have 5 'text' & 'dat' files, menuedit will allow you to incorporate all 5 menus without having to return to the main menu of menuedit (you can pull them in consecutive)). Note: in the 'dat' format line, if you include a blank line, you must put a space for the letter, otherwise the menu will not work correctly when a user logs on. You will also be prompted to use the program COLOR when loading your menus. This is a separate program called color22 that will allow you to put color in your menus using a word processor. The program will also allow you to change the foreground and background colors also, and include blinking characters. Refer to the documentation on Color22 for complete description. You should test each menu if you have made them using the word processor method via local login. If a menu does not work you can probably fix it with menuedit using option 3 to verify each line, making sure the option, letter, level and flags are valid. Remember, your BBS is only as good as its menus. Try to make it easy for people to move around in your BBS so they don't have to move from the main menu, through 5 or 6 menus to get too what they want to see, then have to retrace those menus to get back to the main menu. Also, be creative, your BBS is among thousands across the country. Make it so people enjoy using your BBS and its uniqueness. <5> This option prompts you for the line in your menu that you want deleted. <6> Using this option, you can test how the menu will be displayed for a given user level and user flag setting. NOTE: See APPENDIX E on the users flags 34 Installing Ribbs <7> This will allow you to completely clear the present menu <8> Allows you to print out your menus to a file. When ask for a pathname, include the pathname of the directory you want it to go to and then a filename with no extension. Menuedit will put the extensions of .TEXT and .DAT on the files. It will create 2 files. The .TEXT file and the .DAT file. The .TEXT file it creates when there is color in your menus, is the same file that you would have created using a word processor for adding colors to be used with color22. <9> Quit Menuedit. Note: You can combine more then one option on a line by adding a ';' at the end of that lines description. Example: nter Message ead Message can be displayed on one line by adding a ; to the end of nter Message;. Color Code must be set to white for this to work. 35 Installing Ribbs REQUIRED TEXT FILES Now that you have all your menus ready you will need to make the files needed by RiBBS v2.10 to operate correctly, and any additional files you will need, such as help files available from your menu(s). These all are text files and are made using several different methods, you can BUILD, EDIT or use any one of the several OS-9 word processors. If you don't use these files RiBBS will show an error on the SysOp's end but won't effect the operation of RiBBS for that user. The following is a list and description of the required files and the directories they go in. You can add special codes to the text files on your BBS to display color, special information using the ALT codes listed in the DUMPFILE section of the docs, or have TRUE ANSI cursor positioning. For this reason, you will have to create two (2) separate files for every file that is marked with a '*'. One will be the name of the file alone (no extension), and can contain ANSI cursor information, color codes, and the ALT codes. The other file will have and extension of '.ASC'. This file can contain the color codes and ALT codes. You can NOT have the ANSI cursor positioning codes in this file. Ribbs will strip out the color codes before displaying the file to a user with colors set to off. AN APPLICATION FILE: Standard Data Path You should have a file which follows the application format. NOTE: See Appendix C. APPLICATION FILES This file will be shown when a user selects menu option 26. * BULLETIN: Standard Data Path This is just a general information file that you could use to display NEW RiBBS options or information that you want everyone to see when they log on. * DLIMIT: Standard Data Path Displayed when a user has reached their download limit. (ie Sorry, you have download as much as you can, how about an upload or two!) 36 Installing Ribbs EVENTS: Standard Data Path This is a list of events and times of commands that you want RiBBS v2.10 to perform automatically. Special commands that are included to operate with this file are listed in APPENDIX A. If you specify an OS-9 command then that command must be in your pxd when RiBBS is running, or you can specify the complete pathname. I used this to entirely re-boot my RiBBS system when I was running RiBBS from a ramdisk. The format for the EVENTS are: HH:MMCOMMAND. The events must fall in chronological order. Also do not use 00:00 for an event time, this is for RiBBS use only. You can put more then one event on each line in your EVENTS file by separating them with a '+' symbol. For best results, the KEYWORDS should be in ALL CAPS. Other commands should be put in lowercase. An example EVENT file might look like the following. 00:01MAIL+HUMAN+300+CHATOFF+SCHEDULE 2 01:00logoff_build+quote 03:00NOHUMAN+SCHEDULE 3+quote+logoff_build 04:00HUMAN+SCHEDULE 2 04:30packmsg -p9000 -r27000 -q -bc 05:30POLL 321/312 <- Poll a NET/NODE 06:00SCHEDULE 1+quote+logoff_build 12:00quote+logoff_build 18:00CHATON 22:00SCHEDULE 2+quote+log_build+CHATOFF FILEOUT.CFG Fido Out/CFG A FILEOUT.CFG is included. At the present time, the parameters are currently not used. After the top three help lines, the format is: [module],[Menu Name],[parameters] 10 20 20..........characters max If no parameters are specified, the trailing comma is required. If you put a "-" before the module name, that protocol is ignored. You may have up to nine ACTIVE protocols here. Note, the module names that start with "RB" are strictly for use by RiBBS internal protocols (Xmodem, Ybatch, Kermit, CoCoBin, Ascii, etc...) As of now, outside protocols will not be forked, so don't try to add them. I'll add that feature as soon as we work out the best way to handle external protocols. 37 Installing Ribbs Example FILEOUT.CFG Format for FILEOUT.CFG = , , * Up to 9 active protocols. * "-" before module name=ignore this protocol. --------------------[ Do not delete these top three lines ]------------------- RBAB,Auto-Buffer, RBAL,ASCII List, RBXM,Xmodem, -RBXC,Xmodem - CoCoBIN, RBX1,Xmodem - 1k, RBYB,Ymodem Batch, -RBKB,Kermit Batch, -SZ,ZModem Batch, LOGO: Standard Data Path Displayed at login, this file could be used to show a log on screen describing your BBS. The name, baud rates supported, etc. This is the first file RiBBS displays to anyone calling the BBS. * LOGOFF: Standard Data Path This file is displayed when a user exits the BBS. This file can contain any text. LOGOFF.BAT: Standard Data Path This script file is run every time a user logs off your system. You would put any programs in here that you want run. If your connected to Fidonet, you will want to put at least BUNDLE in this file so you can export your messages the user may have left. Example: bundle who_plus MAILHOUR: Standard Data Path This is shown when a caller calls and you have enabled the MAIL ONLY feature. NOTE: You will also need this file if your using the NOHUMAN and MAIL events to prevent users from accessing your system at certain times. 38 Installing Ribbs * NEW1: Standard Data Path Displayed if a new user logs on. You could use this file to list the rules, any new user information etc. This file is shown after the user enters there City and ST from which they are calling. * NEW2: Standard Data Path This file is displayed after the new user enters there password. If you have the applications forced on, then this file MUST be in an application format. If the applications are not forced, this file can contain any information you want a new user to see. This might include a help file of sort and list the RiBBS system commands it expects to see where and when. Such as a onekey input at the menu commands or any '?' and a char input followed by an [ENTER] if a ':' is displayed, etc. * NOAPP: Standard Data Path This file is displayed if you have the option Applications - Not accepted. If you also have the option Applications - Forced, this file MUST be in the Application format. * NOPOINTS: Standard Data Path This is displayed when a user doesn't have enough download points to download a file. 39 Installing Ribbs PAGEMSG: Standard Data Path This will be displayed when a user is trying to page the sysop using menu option #6. It must be in the following format: 1st line: Message displayed when a user is paging. (ie Paging SysOp...). 2nd line: Message displayed when you are not available.(ie SysOp unavailable at this time!) 3rd line: Message displayed when you respond to the page. The first text to appear, along with the text you have for this line, will be the user's name. (ie: , The SysOp is here now.) What would be displayed is: John Doe, The SysOp is here now. 4th line: Message displayed when the EVENTS command CHATOFF has been enabled. (ie SysOp available between the hours of 5pm-9pm, please try during that time). PARK.BAT: Standard Data Path Event file that is cycled every time something happens such as when a user logs off or an 'EVENT' is processed. You can use this for running commands or script files. For example. Running a script file that sends strings to your modem. Or list your last 10 users to the screen EXAMPLE: list who.dat echo ath0 >/t2 * TOOSLOW: Standard Data Path This file is displayed when the EVENTS command NO300 has been enabled. 40 Installing Ribbs TRASHCAN: Standard Data Path This is a file used to hold words some people try to log on with, such as profanity, bogus names (ie John Doe), etc. This file could also be used to keep off users you don't want on your system, or problem users you have kicked off your BBS. This file is checked after a user enters their name and it is not found in the userlog. You will need to have one word per line. The format should follow the same rules that apply that LOGIN applies to names. That is the first character of the name, any character after a space, "-", " ' ", or "Mc" is capitalized. All others are in lowercase. For example: John Doe Kevin McDonald I'M Here I-M Here * UPLOADING: Standard Data Path This file will be displayed each time a user uploads a file to your system, you could have an explanation of the protocols that RiBBS has available and what kind of software you support on your BBS, etc. * WELCOME: Standard Data Path This file is displayed to all users logging on. You could include information displayed by using the ALT- format option. See ALT KEYS for further information. The following text files are only required when you are using the FIDO option in Ribbs ARCHIVE.CTL Fido Out/CFG An ARCHIVE.CTL is included with RiBBS This file is used by BUNDLE to determine the actual program to use to archive your outgoing mail bundles. Bundle looks at Bundle.ctl to find out what archiver you want to use, then looks in this file to find out which program to run and what switches you want to call for that program also. ARCHIVE.CTL has the following format. 41 Installing Ribbs NoArc <-Blank line Arc Os9arc m | | Ar \|/ \|/ Os9ar -m Putting a '$' symbol in front of the command will cause BUNDLE to manually delete the .PKT's after it archives them up. As of this release LZH does not have a move option so it is necessary for BUNDLE to delete the files after they are archived. For example LZH $LZH -ae AREAS.CTL Fido Out/CFG You must create a text file called AREAS.CTL. The format for this file is as follows: ##ECHONAME NET/NODE NET/NODE ... ... ## - This is the Message base area number for RiBBS. ECHONAME - This is the name given to the ECHO by FIDONet. Net/Node - These are the Net/Node number(s) of the board(s) that you will be transferring messages with. You can enter up to ten (10) Net/Node numbers on each line. Example: 09RIBBS 104/54 5200/20 17STTNG 226/140 360/10 07NET 226/0 In the above example, the first line says that the message base number is 9. You MUST have a '0' if the message base number is less than 10! Next is the name of the ECHO (Not the name of the message base on your system). This must be in all capitals spelled EXACTLY how it is in the FIDO echo! Next is the first boards Net/Node number and then the second. The next line is the same format. Line number 3, in the above example has the name of NET, and a Net/Node number of 226/0. NET is the FIDO name for PRIVATE messages. The number is a DUMMY number. When you enter a PRIVATE MESSAGE (called a NET message), you will see a prompt 42 Installing Ribbs for the receiving board's Net/Node. This is for your message base that you have defined (from the Rconfig program) as a NET message base. You must be familiar with the FIDONet rules. There is a text file on RiBBS HQ that you should download. This will explain the rules, and how to apply for a Net/Node number. NOTE: Some of your AREA names will be similar. For example you may have an area called NET and an AREA called NET142 or NET_DEV. When that happens, you MUST put the longer area name before the shorter area name in the areas.ctl. For example NET142 and NET_DEV must be put in the areas.ctl before you put NET. Otherwise Ribbs will toss messages for NET142 and NET_DEV into your NET message base. BUNDLE.CTL Fido Out/CFG Arc-mail. All Archiving is done during the bundle stage. Bundle will use a file called Bundle.ctl placed in your Fidoout/CFG directory. The Bundle.ctl has 2 purposes. It controls what type of archiver will be used for each system listed that you send mail to. It will allow the routing of NET messages destined for one system through another system. NOTE: Check with your HUB to see if the NET allows routing of NET MAIL before doing this. You may list up to 100 systems. If a system is not listed then they will be assumed to be NON-archived. The accepted archive formats are : ARC Standard 'OS9ARC' - SEA ARC 5.12 (slow but decently small) AR AR 12 bit compression (small) 'OS9AR' ARO AR 11 bit compression (fast) 'OS9AR' PK PAK archive format (slow but fairly small) 'PK' LZH IBM compatible LhArc. Note: When using this command, be sure to use the '-e' switch. IBM's LHA will not decompress the file if your using an extended header. NOARC For no archiving, you need this when routing and not archiving 43 Installing Ribbs Using ARO will speed up the archive/de-archiving process, using AR, or ARC will speed up the transmission rate. If the receiver is using UnBundle (RiBBS obviously) they will be able to UnDo anything you send them automatically. No worries. Bundle will handle routing of mail as well. It is limited at this point by not being able to handle true points, but this may be changed in the future. Example of BUNDLE.CTL format for routing NET MAIL. ARC 153/920 153/920 153/905 153/715 153/752 \ / \ / ----- ----------------------------- / | 'destination' | / Send mail for these nodes to 'destination' Any mail to a node that is not in bundle.ctl will be appended to the poll file - p..OUT (also, if you have NONE for archive type). You may only have 9 nodes as destinations at this time. There are additional keywords. You can now use 'ALL' or 'EXCEPT' in bundle.ctl. Here is an example: ARC 153/905 153/ALL except 153/752 153/921 This will send all messages to nodes in net 153 except 752 or 921 to 153/905. Easy enough? NOTE : case does not matter for any of the keywords, upper, lower or a mixture it doesn't matter. Your choice. Example of BUNDLE.CTL for not routing NET MAIL. ARC 321/307 321/307 PK 147/61 147/61 ARO 396/27 396/27 AR 321/312 321/312 DIAL.CTL Fido Out/CFG The Dial.ctl file defines how RiBBS will treat other systems based upon what is in their Nodelist entries. A way to create the Dial.ctl file is with the OS-9 "Build" command, since most OS-9 editors trim excess spaces off the ends of each line. * Where the "_" character is used, substitute a space. 44 Installing Ribbs Here are some sample Dial.ctl files for different RiBBS setups: Normal Modem MNP Modem PRE_ATDT PRE_AT\N3DT HST_ATDT and another... HST_ATDT MNP_ATDT MNP_ATDT SUB_1-303__ LCK_9600 SUB_1-405__ The first line, PRE, is mandatory. This defines what your dial string is for systems you will call that are not running MNP or HST modems (there flags in the Nodelist which indicate this). In the second example, the "\N3" in the dial string is used to shut-off MNP mode on the RiBBS system when it dials out to a non- MNP/HST modem. The second and third lines define the dial strings for HST and MNP modems respectively, and also required. The HST flag will also apply for the flags V32xxx,V42xxx in the nodelist. LCK is an optional line which can be used to 'lock' your system at a certain baud rate, even though the system you are calling may be operating at a lower speed. This is useful if you are using a modem which can talk to your computer at 9600 baud while communicating at a lower speed to the modem on the other end. SUB is another optional line, but you will most likely use it. It is used to substitute one string in the phone number, and replace it with another string. The common use for this is to strip the "1-(area code)" from the number when dialing nodes that are in your local calling area. Its' format is: SUB . So, "SUB 1-303 " (note the two spaces after "303"... the first is a delimiter, and the space is the replacement for "1-303") would strip the 1-(area code) when dialing other systems in the 303 area code. Another example of the SUB would be: SUB 1-413-527 1-527 SUB 1-413-528 1-528 SUB 1-413 This example shows how to dial systems that are long distance within your area code. You would include all the systems that you have to dial 1 first to call them, then at the end of the list have the SUB 1-413 to just strip the area code from all other local calls. 45 Installing Ribbs FREQ.LIST Fido Out If you wish your system to support File Request processing, you need to build a Freq.list file which contains the filenames and locations off all the "Freq-able" files on your system, as well as some optional "Magic Filenames". This list is used by RiBBS to process a file request from another system. There are three different lines (commands) possible within this file: Magic - Magic filenames are used to allow one file to be requested, but have ribbs send a different name. An example would be the nodelist. You would set up a magic filename so when someone requested NODELIST they are sent /d0/fido/nodelist.arc. Magic files must start with a # sign to tell Preq that the following information is a Magic file. So to setup the nodelist you would have a line like this #NODELIST /D0/FIDO/NODELIST.ARC Directory - Directory lines are to change the current directory that the files are located in. These lines must start with a back slash. So /d0/files/ribbs/ would tell preq that the following files are located in the ribbs directory within files on drive /d0. The directory change will not change until another directory line is found. File - File lines contain the name of the file, not including the Directory. The directory must be defined by a Directory line. All files must be in all uppercase. Sample FREQ.LIST - Command type #FILES /D0/FIDOOUT/RIBBS_HQ.LST 'magic' #RIBBS /D0/FILES/RIBBSV210.AR 'magic' /D0/FILES/RIBBS/ 'directory' RIBBSV210.AR 'filename' GAMES.AR DOCS.AR /D0/FILES/OS9/ 'directory' SHELL+.AR 'filename' SUPERGAME.PAK There are two very useful utilities to automate the creation of the Freq.List and your ASCII list of Freq-able 46 Installing Ribbs files (in this case RIBBS_HQ.LST). They are "AutoFrL" by Bill Wittman, and RList by Gene Clifton and Christopher Mayeaux. MAILIMPORT.BAT: Standard Data Path This is a script file that is run every time your system receives mail. The format for this file is: unbundle mailimport bundle This file is called after your system receives FIDO mail. RiBBS will execute 'unbundle'. Unbundle will look at the file just received and determine which 'dearcer' to call to dearc the mail. Then mailimport will toss (distribute) the messages to there proper message bases. Mailimport will also 'toss' mail into messages, numbered sequentially, that will be forward to other systems. When mailimport is finished, RiBBS will execute 'bundle'. This will 'bundle' all the messages and put them into packets to send to other systems. NOTE: You will need to get the modules called DEARC, AR UNZIP and UNLZH from a local OS9 BBS or from RiBBS HQ BBS. These modules, must be in your RIBBS/CMDS directory. When MAILIMPORT finds an ARChived packet that your system received from an IBM FIDONet board, it will call on one of those programs to unARChive the packet first. NODELIST.IDX Fido Out/CFG This file is created by a program called 'NODEPROCESS'. You must obtain a file called NODELIST.xxx. Where the xxx=the julian day of the nodelist, which should be the last friday of the previous week. Move the NODELIST.xxx file into your FIDOOUT/CFG directory. This can be done quickly if you have Jamie Wilmoth's CP utility (or something similar) which allows you to move a file's directory entry without actually copying the data. Now run "nodeprocess " (in place of the , use the name of your raw Nodelist.). It is possible to have your system automatically keep your nodelist up to date... see Appendix D. 47 Installing Ribbs PASSWORD.CTL Fido Out/CFG See the Utilities section for RBPASS for more information This file is not required unless your going to have password protected mail sessions. POINTS.CTL Fido Out/CFG There is one file you can optionally add, depending on your setup. It goes in your FIDO-OUT/CFG directory and is called 'points.ctl'. If you are sending and receiving mail from a node that doesn't exactly exist, this will strip the seen-by entry in any messages received from them going to any non-point. This should stop any queries from your hub. The format for POINTS.CTL is simply this : net/node net/node ... ie. 0/0 1000/1000 1000/5 PREQ.CTL Fido Out/CFG This is the file that Ribbs will send out to a system when the filename requested couldn't be found. Here is an example of a PREQ.CTL file. NOTE: Preq will substitute the filename it couldn't find in FREQ.LIST in place of the \f 48 Installing Ribbs FIDO Net/Node - Arrakis BBS- (405)-752-8955 1:147/61 _____ Official RiBBS Headquarters ______ / | / / / | Operating (avg.) 22.4 hours per day / / / | (avg.) 295 standard days per year / / / |[rotational & orbital conditions vary] / / / /| | / / / / | | 300 - 2400 bps / MNP Level 5 / / / / | | 8 Bits / No Parity / 1 Stop Bit / /______ / / | | 182+ Megs Online / / / / | | ANSI - OS-9 - TTY /______ / / / | | _____ _____ ____ ___ / / / / | | | / | / /| | / \ / / / / | | | / | / / | | / | | / / / | | | / | / / | | < | | / / /_________| | | / | / / | | \ | | / / | |/ |/ /____| |___\ /___\ / / ________________| /____/ - [ Sysop: Charles "Usul" West ] - => Please limit your requests to no more than seven per call. <= Magic Filenames: ABOUT - Information about Arrakis.BBS BACKPROC - FidoNet BackBone Procedures ELIST - Latest EchoList in .ARC format FIDONEWS - Latest FidoNews in .ZIP format FILES - List of all File Requestable files POLICY - FidoNet Policy (revision #4) RIBBS - RiBBS v2.10 for CoCo/OS-9 (updated June '93) RIBBLIST - Current list of all known RiBBS BBSes Wildcard characters * and ? are acceptable, and soon to add update requests. This is still in development stage, so any problems that can be reported would be appreciated. The maximum number of files you can request is 9, anything after that is ignored. The actual number may be less, though, if you already have files here waiting for you. -----------------<< Unable to find Requested File >>------------- - '\f' - was not found in the Freq list. Please check the spelling and try again. If you are having trouble, feel free to send Netmail describing the problem and giving the filename you are requesting and I will attempt to assist. 49 Installing Ribbs PRIVATE.NODE Fido Out/CFG This file is optional and contains entries for systems that are not in your normal Nodelist. This file is very nearly the same format as the FidoNet Nodelist - which is: Host,net#,net_name,location,net_coord.,phone#,baud_rate,flag,node #,BBS_name,city_st,sysop_name,phone#,baud,flags etc.... A sample would look like: Host,7301,7301_Host,unknown,unknown,1-000-000-0000,2400,CM ,2402,AGBBS,Atlanta_GA,Phil_Ziegler,1-404-565-2977,2400,CM Host,5400,Host_5400,Denver_CO,Ron_Bihler,1-303-343-6707,2400,CM ,1,RiBBS_HQ,Aurora_CO,Ron_Bihler,1-303-343-6707,2400,CM,MNP ,2,Ocean_Beach,San_Diego_CA,Warren_Hrach,1-619-224-4878,2400,CM ,61,Arrakis,Oklahoma_City_OK,Charles_West,1-405-752-8955,2400,CM If RiBBS is unable to find a node it the nodelist, it will check Private.node for it before giving up. You can use this file without the need for a full FidoNet node list if you want to run Fido from a floppy disk system, or if only intend to poll just a few systems. ROUTE Fido Out/CFG Route is used to do some basic mail routing. RiBBS reads this file and determines which Net it is to send, or hold, mail.The route file is broken into groups by the keyword SCHEDULE; each line listed after it contains an action the system will take. This is true until it finds another schedule line. Current actions are SEND and HOLD followed by the net/node. The keyword ALL is considered a Wildcard. Example: SCHEDULE 1 SEND ALL/ALL HOLD 104/54 HOLD 103/ALL SCHEDULE 2 SEND 104/ALL In the above example, if you had selected SCHEDULE 1 in your events file, RiBBS would send mail to ALL systems as listed in the Line 1, BUT hold any mail going to 104/54 or Net 103. This could have been listed in any order. In SCHEDULE 2 RiBBS will send only mail for Net 104. Holding all other 50 Installing Ribbs mail. You can have 100 net/nodes per Schedule, and as many Schedules as you would like. Notice the 'keyword', this is one of two possibilities, SEND or HOLD. Send will send mail to that NET#. Hold will hold all mail for the net#s. The route file is used in combination with your event file. After mail is on, you can put SCHEDULE # in your event file. RiBBS will send mail to those net#'s under SCHEDULE # in your route file. If you do not use the keyword SCHEDULE in your event file this file is optional. UNARCHIVE.CTL Fido Out/CFG A UNARCHIVE.CTL file included with RiBBS. Unarchive.ctl is used to control what program Unbundle will call to dearchive the mail. It has the following format: COMMENT NOTE: Must begin with a '*' COMMAND OFFSET SIGNATURE COMMENT | | \|/ \|/ EXAMPLE: * This is the comment line. Up to 80 Chars. unzip $0 $50 * This is for DEARC dearc $0 $1a Now that you have all the required text files that RiBBS v2.10 needs you will need to make a message base and a user file. 51 Installing Ribbs MESSAGE BASE You are now ready to create your message base by running 'CreateMB'. You should check and see how much disk space is available before running 'CreateMB' because it allocates disk space for the message base. Change your pwd to your RiBBS MB directory. Run 'CreateMB' and it will prompt you for the following information: Starting message number: This is the number at which your messages will start, simple and easy! Number of K for text: this is how many 1000 bytes of disk space you want allocated for your message base. Sample output of CreateMb Creating Index (no input required) Creating Text . K written (no input required) Finished That is all there is to it, you now have your message base ready to go online. If you plan on having a large message base. Just create a 1k message base first with Createmb, then use PACKMSG -S to size it bigger. This will be faster, and also avoid over fragmentation. 52 Installing Ribbs 'USEREDIT' Now you can get your userlog ready to go online so users can call in. Keeping the same pxd and pwd, enter 'Useredit' at the OS-9 prompt. The following is the procedure and outline of the usereditor. NOTE: Useredit can be run as an online program. Refer to the menu action numbers. You will see the following menu: Userlog Editor ----------------------------------------------------------------- For RiBBS v2.10 Copyright (c) 1989 by Ron Bihler ----------------------------------------------------------------- Users: Board Selection Flags Clear all users High Msg number Dump to printer Edit userlog Purge log Search log Quit!!! Option ? Download 206.07 Kb. Share with your friends: