Release Notes DPBOX v5.03

Berlin, 19.10.96

Release Notes dpbox v5.03.00 / 19.10.96

Changes since v5.03.10 / 20.9.96

p2c/p2c.h no more included. Many had problems with odd linux
distributions with faulty p2c support.

TPK / TSTHOST sf request mode (F< <msgnum>) now corrected,
tested and running.

TPK / TSTHOST unproto message list requests now corrected,
tested and running. Needs a TNT version >= 0.9s

Only displaying held messages (HOLD command) when not yet
released by the release timer.

EA5SW translated all helpfiles in spanish language. Gracias!

MD2SF now also works in outgoing forward.

changed startup check for 7plus. was always reported as "installed",
even if not available. fixed.

bin>7plus conversion: fixed some remaining bugs and features hi

now recompiling message numbers when nightly house keeping reports disordered
numbering. message numbers are no essential of dpbox, they are only used for
TPK style message list broadcasting and TPK user forward requests.

now trying to recompile message numbers if actual number has reached 998000 but
message base holds less than 998000 messages. should help to avoid problems
with fbb oriented clients. DPBOX counts up to 2.147.483.647 (signed long) and
restarts with 10000 (offset needed to distinguish between fbb mode read command
and dpbox mode read command). internally, DPBOX uses unix time format to order
messages. of course handles also multiple messages per second. message numbering
is always upward related to incoming time, if message base does not exceed the
above signed long number of _stored_ messages (what should be impossible
nowadays).

PLEASE NOTE: when using high scrollback request values, continous transmission
of unproto message list may exceed the timeout of a built-in TNC watchdog (mostly
limiting PTT keying time to some 20 seconds). INCATIVATE IT (cut one pin of the
R-C time base). else shutdown could even happen with 9k6 data speed.

added a minimum time to exceed between two user unproto list requests. add
parameter INTERVAL <seconds> to system/unproto.box. default is 20 seconds,
minimum is 0.

now allowing unproto broadcast of local user mails in message list broadcast.
add parameter PRIVATES <ON|OFF> to system/unproto.box. default is OFF.

now allowing unproto broadcast of sysop only mails in message list broadcast
(messages sent to one-letter-boards). add parameter SYSOP <ON|OFF> to
system/unproto.box. default is OFF.

BTW: TPK style message forward (F< msgnum) will abort with a disconnect if
user is not priviledged to read the requested message number. is there a
way to signalise this to TPK/TSTHOST _without_ disconnecting?

now "guessing" homebbs of unknown users. is extracted during
reception of bulletins, is marked with "(guessed)" if you
check it with U <CALL>. A user set HomeBBS command will override
the guessed value. Guessed entries expire after one year of
inactivity, user set entries after five years (much too high, but
was requested by some sysops). Guessing is inhibited with
GUESS_MYBBS OFF in config.box, GUESS_MYBBS ON allows (default)
DPBOX does _not_ support forward of guessed entries in WP format,
can't see any reason why to do so. DPBOX guesses for itself, thus
limiting data base update message sizes. more than 90% of entries
in european WP mails contain guessed entries. why?

having 20000 or so entries in the forward list slowed down
execution time of forward proposals a bit dramatically hi.
Attempted to swap some MB of memory at every proposal ;))
Now running cached, needs a maximum of 50kB of ram independently
of the size of the fwd list, and providing a retarded internal
acknowledge of changes of the forward list (also running cached).

speeded up lookup of user database (HomeBBS etc.) at different points.

fixed one error in premature abort of garbage collection: bbs forever was set
to busy state, no user was allowed to log in. only happened when file system
problems were encountered.

TRANSFER and ERASE command now much faster (due to some of the above changes).

fixed a little bug inhibiting fbb style resume mode in sf on offsets > 999999
bytes.

now resolving addresses such as dl8hbs.dl4ybg.db0gr.#bln.deu.eu.
Users tend to install their clients this way, although it mostly
is of no use. remind: DPBOX has an integrated autorouter. it will
be looked up for such addresses. only if no path found, routing
of address is restarted at the next less resolved address.

adding two selections for a list command on the forward list
(LIST X). appending a + shows only private mails in the selection,
a : shows only bulletins. Don't moan about the syntax, I know
that it looks stupid. Examples: "L X + < DK0MNL", "L X : 1-"
etc. It is BTW really the LIST command, no special format.
An ERASE on the fwd list will work as well. But better use
the SETSF command for selected erase of fwd entries.

german thebox system found one nasty hole in the security check
of dpbox inputs. dpbox crashed when getting an input line in 
german mybbs forward format that exceeded some hundred bytes.
thebox crashed as well (after sending), that's justice ;)
fixed.

new macros for the prompt command: %e = cpu-type, %f = bogomips.
BTW: the output of the system load percentages is faulty with newer
linux versions. can anyone tell me what the values in /proc/loadavg
denote? percents? per thousands? per hour? Not a major problem,
but ranks in top 5 of most reported "bugs"... :)

running a batch ended in a message "unknown channel (user)" when
terminating the batch. caused no problem, now fixed.

user can no more list the /temp7pl/ directory in file server

TALK mode now should work also in file server. BTW: also in
file server mode you can apply bbs commands with a leading "!",
as within converse mode and talk mode.

Mark changed wildcard expansion in dpbox' file system modes. Had
troubles with selections as: ed*.txt, should work now

changed string sort routine. discovered C strcmp() ;))

now displaying the amount of erased/released messages of a single
ERASE/RELEASE command.

transferring a message out of board "D" (= the dirty area, messages
held by the badword filter), you now HAVE to append the distribution
area as with every other transfer command. A "T D 1 ALL" will stay local
at your bbs! Look up the distribution area in the incriminated "profile"
message or do a "LIST :" on board D to see the original distribution.
Example: "T D 1 ALL@EU"
In fact it's a bug, but it's almost a feature, and I believe I won't change
that no more. Had good reasons to alter the previous coding.

known bugs:
===========

badword filter won't check the subject line (in fact it does, but result gets
lost)

german network style TELL requests could be multiply delivered to a target
DPBOX as bulletin ID is not saved. bug exists since ever. not a big problem.

documentation is faulty concerning the "simplified format" for importing mails.
forgot to instruct you to insert a first line with the "received from" - bbs.
don't leave it blank! if it is a locally generated message, fill it up with
the local bbs callsign (it _has_ to be an amateur radio callsign!).



73 Joachim DL8HBS@DB0GR.#BLN.DEU.EU