Subj : BSO .try files
To   : Wilfred van Velzen
From : Pavel Gulchouck
Date : Mon Jan 25 2016 05:50 pm

Hi Wilfred!

25 Jan 16, Wilfred van Velzen ==> All:

 WvV> FTS-5005.002 says about .try files:

 WvV>   5.3.  try control file

 WvV>         This control file is created by a mailer when a connect
 WvV>         attempt is finished - successful or not. It is named the same
 WvV>         way as a flow file but with the extension ".try".

 WvV>         An existing try file is replaced by a new one.

 WvV>         A try file must contain one line string with a diagnostic
 WvV>         message. It is for information purposes only.

 WvV>         For information purposes the second line of a try file may
 WvV>         contain one line of PID information. ( < 70 characters)

 WvV> Now I noticed that binkd is writing 5 binary bytes to a try file. Seems 
like some status information, plus the following
 WvV> string length.

 WvV> Is FTS-5005 not correct? Or does binkd have its own idea about try files?

Yes, binkd is not compatible with FTS. Thank you for the finding.

I have no idea why FTSC published a standard which is not complies widely-used 
software.
Files *.try and *.csy in BSO initially created by binkd many years ago as its 
private flags which did not conflict with any other BSO files. These are not 
informational flags, they contain technical information and are not intended 
for reading by people or by another software.
FTSC documents which describe these files (in fact, another files with the same 
names) appeared much later.
I do not think that binkd have to change its behaviour to comply FTS. IMHO FTS 
should be fixed according to practice.

It's not first case when binkd suddenly contradicts FTSC documents. Binkd even 
violates protocol binkp as it's described by FTSC. I think that FTSC primary 
function is standardization of existing and used protocols to avoid 
incompatibility between software, but not invent new features and protocols 
that developers have to implement.

And the worst case is when a developer implements some feature not clear, 
incompatible with an existing software. But if this developer is FTSC member, 
it's more simple for him to document his implementation as standard than fix 
it. He may think that his implementation is better, and it will be good if all 
another developers change this feature to his way.

It's not hard to take another names instead of *.try and *.csy in binkd to 
avoid FTS incompatibility. But I'm sure that these names in FTS-5005 were 
obtained from binkd (directly or via some another mailer), so I'm not sure that 
if binkd will use another names, these new names will not occure in FTS the 
same way.

              Lucky carrier,
                           Pavel
                           aka  gul@gul.kiev.ua
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5
 * Origin: II:CDLXIII/LXVIII (2:463/68)

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