Subj : Trialing FMail/lnx status check-in
To   : Paul Quinn
From : Nicholas Boel
Date : Thu Sep 07 2017 20:45:24

Hello Paul,

On Fri Sep 08 2017 08:45:44, Paul Quinn wrote to Nicholas Boel:

 PQ>>>>> /opt/ftn/fido/msgbase/fec1e5dd 8020

 NB>> The above seems like a MSGID or a computed packet naming scheme,
 NB>> not an areatag. Is the echotag actually fec1e5dd? Also, is 8020
 NB>> the number of your message in the message base?

 PQ> No bout-a-doubt it.  I'm with you on this.  It does and probably uses
 PQ> the same hashing code... in FastEcho (FE).  It's originally an
 PQ> auto-created FE echomail base filename generated by using a hash
 PQ> value.  (While browsing logfiles, I narrowed it down last night to
 PQ> sometime during the week 14-20 December 1997.)  It is how FE does that
 PQ> sort of thing.

Is that some sort of separate option or setting? I can only seem to recall 
areatag-esque filenames created by FastEcho when I used it some ages ago. At 
least I don't remember any tosser I've ever used making filenames like that by 
default.

 PQ>>>>> In the areas.bbs file that file is identified as...
 PQ>>>>> !/opt/ftn/fido/msgbase/fec1e5dd WIN95                3:640/384

 PQ> This is the important bit...       ^^^^     It's where the translation
 PQ> you're looking for occurs, and also most importantly, is in FMail's
 PQ> area manager also.  The areas.bbs is only used by GoldEd, and is the
 PQ> only format quotable in echomail taking into account FMail's config
 PQ> files are binary types.

This is probably where I was confused when originally setting up FMail with an 
areas.bbs. I suppose I've just seen way too many different formats of areas.bbs 
to know which is actually the _correct_ one.

 NB>> This log snippet doesn't mention anything about area "fec1e5dd".
 NB>> But it does mention "WIN95". Something seems odd there, like your
 NB>> echomail.jam should read: /opt/ftn/fido/msgbase/win95 8020

 PQ> For most of the echo areas that is true; there is a very small number
 PQ> of areas cloned from my old FE config.  Your average echomail.jam
 PQ> deals in echo base path+filename and message number, only.  No area
 PQ> tags.

Right. It was the areas.bbs format you had above that confused me, not the 
echomail.jam format. Have you tried a test post on an echo not cloned from FE 
to see if echomail.jam is read properly?

 NB>> I believe I had asked about some better logging when echomail.jam
 NB>> fails too. ;)

 PQ> Damned right!  Or, at least a log entry that says "Nup, it's
 PQ> Thursday... I don't do echomail.jam files on Thursdays.  Thank you for
 PQ> your co-operation".  8-)

Yeah, or "Go get me a beer first, then we'll talk!"

So far in my endeavo(u)r, I haven't seen any big issues with Fmail/lnx, so I 
added in the rest of my Fidonet echos. Still haven't added othernets yet, but 
that time will come. Seems to be chugging along nicely so far, so I don't see 
an issue. Once I get it all setup the way I want it, hopefully I can just drop 
it in place on this machine and replace the few 'hpt <args>' commands with 
'fmail <args>' ones.

Regards,
Nick

.... "Не знаю. Я здесь только работаю."
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
 * Origin: thePharcyde_ distribution system (Wisconsin) (1:154/10)

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