Revision history
2.30 The new configuration keyword "#define forcedINTL" (not case
sensitive) forces the program to insert "^aINTL <destination>
<origin>" into netmail messages even if destination and
origin zone are identical. I've been told that this makes
FrontDoor operation using AKAs in different zones easier.
See the section "miscellaneous general settings" in the file
Sample.Cfg included in Ghost230.Zip.
o The "^aFLAGS CFM" confirmation flag of the "Hello and thank
you!"-message created by "ghost hello!" now only will be set
if this message is created on systems in zone 2.
2.29 The domain string in the ^aMSGID written to messages
created by "Ghostwriter" now matches the domain table
as used by FrontDoor 2.00 (Setup: "Global / Address / Domains").
o Added some sounds to the program. If a tag-line could not be
found in Ghost.Cfg, messages from the "purge" group are deleted
during a "mailcheck" run and new echomail is found in a "report"
run sounds will be generated. The sessings in Fd.Sys (Setup:
"Mailer / Audio Control") will be consulted to check if it's
allowed to generate some noise.
2.28 The program now uses the site info field which will be
introduced by FrontDoor 2.00 to determine the system's
name and location (Setup: "Global / Address / Site info").
2.27 Fd.Sys will now be opened in a somewhat more network
aware way. Don't know why, but on Felix Kasza's (2:310/11)
Novell LAN "Ghostwriter" suddenly was unable to read Fd.Sys.
2.26 The new command line switch "-a[n]" allows to specify
which AKA should be used as origin address in messages
created by the program. [n] must be a number between
1 and 10 and refers to the AKA number found in FrontDoor's
Setup "Global / Address". -a2 refers to AKA #2, -a4 to AKA #4
and so on. This switch is valid only in FrontDoor environments.
2.25 The program's internal domain table has been updated
according to an article in Fido739.Nws.
2.24 The program became aware of DESQview and DoubleDOS.
The message generated when using "ghost hello!" has
the "Confirm Receipt REQ" flag set as supported by
FrontDoor 2.00.
2.23 The echomail report now also includes the message
subjects of new messages addressed to the sysop.
FrontDoor's "Mail" display flashes if new echomail
messages were found during execution of the "report"
function.
2.22 The "$fidonews" macro now reflects the new compression
method used by the Fido Newsletter editor: LZH.
o Fixed a bug which confused the mailcheck option when a
new month had just started.
2.21 While deleting messages of the "purge" group a field in
Msginfo.Bbs wasn't updated correctly. This didn't cause
any troubles, but of course it wasn't nice.
2.20 Changed the program to work with the new format of the
"address" statement as introduced by BinkleyTerm 2.40.
2.19 Two new macros for automatically updated magic filenames:
"$Sigdiff" and "$Sigecho".
2.18 Fdrescan.Now will not be written if netmail messages
to the local system were created by the program.
Additionally, errorlevel 0 ("no action") will be
returned in this case.
o The blue copyright notice output by the program no longer
should bleed through other screens if used in DESQview or
DoubleDOS environments.
2.17 I've received some bug reports concerning the "report"
function of the program: sometimes the computer would "hang"
in an endless loop. This happened when folder descriptions
in Folder.Sys were longer than 39 characters. Now only the
first 37 characters of the folder descriptions will be
included in the report message/report file. I've checked
it; on my machine it works, good luck on your computer.
o When executing "ghost mailcheck" the program terminated with
the wrong errorlevel 1 instead of 0 when no new messages were
created. This has been fixed.
2.16 Added the "$eggdiff" macro to the built in list of "magic"
filenames.
2.15 Ghost.Exe is compressed by "Lzexe". If you raise any
problems please use "Unlzexe" to remove the compression.
2.14 Fortunately I discovered that there's a "QuickBBS style bit"
present in Folder.Sys [blush]. This version uses this bit to
check if a folder contains a QuickBBS or *.Msg style board.
o The procedure used to extract the address of an echomail
message contained a bug which has been fixed. I hope the
program didn't write "Sorry..." messages during mailcheck
to the right people at the wrong addresses.
o When performing a single batch file via "ghost server" the
temporary batch file created by the program wasn't deleted
after execution. This has been fixed in this version.
2.13 The swap subdirectory and the subdirectory used for temporary
files will be taken from the TMP or TEMP environment entry.
If both are missing the current subdirectory will be used.
This avoids conflicts if FD or FM already are swapped to a
probably too small RAM disk.
o If QuickBBS boards and subdirectories for *.MSG style messages
are contained both in Folder.Sys only the QuickBBS boards will
be available for any message related function of the program.
Sorry, but the program already is large enough; I fear it's
impossible to cover both QuickBBS and *.MSG style echomail.
o The correct destination address will be written in the message
header if the program creates an echomail message in a QuickBBS
board. I found by accident that the program used randomly
values instead. However: since this happened only in echomail
folders no troubles resulted.
2.12 Added the ^aPID kludge as suggested by Joaquim Homrighausen.
o If the primary network address contains a net number greater
than 4000 the program assumes it's operated by a somewhat
dumb point user. The program will not be operable in this
environment. Use your correct 4-D-address instead.
2.11 The most currently known domains will be inserted in the MSGID.
A 32 bit Unix timestamp is used as MSGID part; this hexadecimal
string represents the numbers of seconds passed since 1970-01-01
UTC.
2.1 A new "trigger" function allows execution of any DOS command
if specific messages are existing in the netmail directory.
o Added some FrontDoor specific goodies: origin lines are taken
from Folder.Sys, Fdrescan.Now will be built on occasion, all
AKA addresses are checked when executing the "server" and
"trigger" functions. The Areas.Bbs file no longer is required
in FrontDoor environments. The built-in tag "history" creates
a verbose report of the system's inbound/outbound history.
2.09 Changed the "32 bit Unix timestamp" to what it is in reality:
a date and timestamp in DOS directory format. *Never* trust
what you read in a FidoNet specification file.
o Fixed the bug which corrupted the time part of the $bouncelimit
variable.
o File attaches now also work with the "onday" and "ondate" option
(thanks to Ruud De Bruin, 2:281/603, for the hint).
2.08 Support of the 32 bit Unix timestamp as used by Opus, SEADog,
FrontDoor and other FidoNet mailer/editor programs.
2.07 Added "Opcndiff" and "Opcnlist" to the built-in magic filenames
supported by the program. Jack Decker, 1:154/8, suggested this.
2.06 I've triple checked the source code to assure that under
no circumstances unreceived file attach messages will be
touched by the mail check option.
Roland Gautschi, 2:302/561, reported some troubles while
doing mail check with the "cosysop" flag enabled.
o If node zero is used in the system's primary network address
the program complains about that on screen and in the log file.
Zeroeth nodes or region network numbers normally should never
be used as primary network address.
2.05 The new optional command line parameter "-n<new_name>"
performs all program operations with <new_name> instead
of the sysop's name as found in Binkley.Cfg, Config.Ra
or Fd.Sys. Use the underscore character (5Fh, Alt-95)
to separate firstname and lastname.
o If an attempt is made to send messages to an undefined group
this will be logged to the screen and the logfile. Also the
"trouble" errorlevel (3) is returned to DOS after program
termination.
2.04 The "country" settings in Config.Sys now affect the time
format used in the program's log file. The appearance of
the mailcheck string variable "$bouncelimit" also depends
on the country code as found in DOS.
2.03 Changed the way the $group operator works: zone numbers will
only be shown if they are different from the addressee's zone.
Other group members names and network addresses are written
in word wrap mode.
2.02 Added support for the MSGID message kludge as published by
Jim Nutt aka "jim nutt" in the Fido Newsletter, vol 7 #11.
o Fixed nasty "tag not found" if "-d [days]" was present
on a file attach tag line.
2.01 New "onday" feature: valid day names are Monday to Sunday.
The call "ghost onday <more options>" will search for a tag
line starting with "onday <current day name>" and create
the message if tags match.
o Message flags now optionally also may be written on the same
line as "to group <groupname>". Message flags entered in this
manner are valid for the whole group; already individually set
flags for specific group members will be combined with the
group message flag.
o Optional "#define endtag <end-of-text mark>" flag. If this flag
is present the first occurance of <end-of-text mark> on a message
line is interpreted as end of message text.
This especially is useful for file request/file update request
tags (see the included Sample.Cfg for more details).
2.0 Full support for the QuickBBS message format as used by QuickBBS,
FrontDoor and RemoteAccess.
o Powerful "server" feature. Netmail messages can be saved as batch
files, forwarded to the sysop and executed immediately. Each valid
batch file command is allowed; there are no restrictions what can be
done in those "message batches".
o Added support for the RemoteAccess configuration file Config.Ra.
If RemoteAccess is used as BBS software no additional configuration
is required.
o Automatic adaption of the Ghostwriter's log format to the mailer or
BBS software used. Log file confirms the Opus format used by Binkley-
Term or the FrontDoor log file format.
o Multiple "dos <command>" lines will be written to a temporary batch
file befor executing them. This is useful for sysops with computers
without EMS memory: disk swapping only happens once.
o Ultra-fast check for new echomail addressed to the sysop: 1000
messages will be scanned in approximately four seconds. The report
may be sent to a private netmail message, a disk file or any device
like a printer etc (only available in a QuickBBS message style echo-
mail environment).
o DOS environment strings can be used in any line of the configuration
file to substitute user names, network addresses, message subdirec-
tories, message flags or parts of the message text.
o Free configurable mailer specific message flags for complete message
groups or different single messages.