Connect v1.00 Qmail <--> FrontDoor FileAttacher Copyright 1990 by Jim Nikolich All rights reserved By James Nikolich T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ----------------------------------- LICENCE .................................................. 3 TRADEMARKS ............................................... 3 WHAT IS CONNECT? ......................................... 4 HOW CONNECT WORKS ........................................ 4 INSTALLATION ............................................. 4 Systems Without Passthru Areas ....................... 4 Systems With Passthru Areas .......................... 6 CONNECT.CTL VERBS ........................................ 7 Connect v1.00 Documentation --- Page 2 LICENCE Copyright 1990 by James D. Nikolich. All rights reserved. Connect is distributed on a non-commercial basis. Commercial distribution prohibited without express written consent from the author. Modification of the Connect source, documentation, or executable code is expressly prohibited. WARRANTY IN NO EVENT SHALL JAMES D. NIKOLICH OR ANY OTHER PARTY BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANYONE ELSE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS, OR OTHER SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE CONNECT, EVEN IF YOU HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF CONNECT AND THE ACCURACY OF ITS DOCUMENTATION RESTS WITH YOU. SHOULD CONNECT OR ITS ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTATION PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE FULL COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION. TRADEMARKS Acknowledgement is given to the trademarks and products mentioned in this documentation. Use of these names or trademarks does not suggest any affiliation with the specified products. The names or trademarks referred to are used for reference purposes only. FrontDoor and TosScan Joaquim Homrighausen. Opus-CBCS Wynn Wagner III. ConfMail and oMMM Bob Hartman, Spark Software. Qmail Greg Dawson. BinkleyTerm Bob Hartman and Vince Perriello, BBS Inc. Connect v1.00 Documentation --- Page 3 WHAT IS CONNECT? Anybody using FrontDoor as a mailer will probably find that they have quite a small selection of echomail-handling programs from which to choose. They can use Confmail, an obsolete program that supports neither passthru areas nor multiple zones. Alternatively They can spend $45.00 (U.S. dollars) plus shipping and handling for a copy of TosScan, written by the author of Frontdoor. Prior to Connect, these were about the only choices a sysop had. Connect was written to allow users of FrontDoor to implement Qmail as their echomail handler. Although Qmail might be a bit confusing to install, it is a competent program used world-wide, and supports passthru areas, multiple zones, multiple AKA's in seenbys, zonegating, tiny-seenbys and a host of other features. HOW CONNECT WORKS Qmail is capable only of generating oMMM-style .FLO, .CLO, .DLO and .HLO files (referred to as "Flow files") for use with Binkley and Opus- style mailers. FrontDoor instead requires that a file-attach message be created for every file to be transmitted and doesn't even notice the FLO files as used by Qmail. That's where Connect comes in - Connect will scan the outbound directories used by Qmail, and generate file-attach messages for any files waiting to go out. Connect will only create new messages if the file is attached to no other message already. Connect will also delete the unnecessary Flow files. In order to keep Qmail from scanning the netmail directory and packing up any messages found into outbound packets, Qmail is directed to a dummy directory which should never contain any files. INSTALLATION These installation instructions require that you already be familiar with the operation of Qmail and FrontDoor. Please refer to their respective manuals for information on how to get them installed and running. Two installation procedures are outlined: one for systems with passthru areas, and one for those without passthru areas. Generally speaking you will not normally have any passthru areas unless you act as some kind of echomail hub or routing system, in which case the first set of instructions will be the ones for you. Please Refer to the Qmail documentation for more information on what passthru areas are and how they are used. Systems Without Passthru Areas Step 1. Copy CONNECT.EXE and CONNECT.CTL into your FrontDoor directory. Connect v1.00 Documentation --- Page 4 Step 2. Create a new subdirectory under your FrontDoor directory. This can be any name you choose, although "DUMDIR" will be used in the following examples. Step 3. If you've ever used Qmail before, you'll be aware that you need to run Qmail separately with a different configuration file for each zone you operate in; otherwise your seenby lines will be carried over from one zone to the other. If you haven't already done so, make a configuration file for each zone. Make a second copy of each Qmail configuration file you have for future use. The following examples will use "IMEXTOSS.CFG" and "FIDOTOSS.CFG" as the original files, and "IMEXPACK.CFG and "FIDOPACK.CFG" as the new copies. Step 4. Modify each of the new config files you've made so that the "NetMail" option within each of them points to the subdirectory you created under your FrontDoor directory instead of your real Netmail directory. THIS IS IMPERATIVE! Otherwise Qmail will be able to get at the messages in your Netmail directory, packing them up into more outbound files and deleting the messages. The end result would be an endless loop with Qmail making up files from netmail messages, and Connect Making more file-attach messages. Step 5. Create a Connect control file. CONNECT.CTL is provided as an example. Refer to "CONNECT.CTL VERBS" for more information. Note: if you operate in more than one zone, you will have to create a separate control file for each zone. The following examples use "CON_FIDO.CTL" and "CON_IMEX.CTL" as the filenames of the control files. Step 6. At this point, you've finished installing Connect. All that remains is to write the batch files that will run Qmail and Connect. An example is provided to illustrate the usage. DOMAIL1.BAT will toss, scan and pack waiting echomail for two zones. No other batch files are required, however you may wish to split up the operations of DOMAIL1.BAT into separate batch files, namely to execute the "Toss" pass separate from the "Scan Pack" pass. This would allow you to import incoming mail at different times than when you check for new mail originating on your system. DOMAIL1.BAT qm toss -cFIDOTOSS.CFG -aFIDOAREA.BBS qm scan pack -cFIDOPACK.CFG -aFIDOAREA.BBS -sNORMAL_MAIL connect CON_FIDO.CTL qm toss -cIMEXTOSS.CFG -aIMEXAREA.BBS qm scan pack -cIMEXPACK.CFG -aIMEXAREA.BBS -sNORMAL_MAIL connect CON_IMEX.CTL DOMAIL1.BAT first runs Qmail in "Toss" mode which will extract any incoming echomail you may have and place it in its proper Connect v1.00 Documentation --- Page 5 echomail area(s). FIDOAREA.BBS is the file that contains all the echomail information for that zone. Next Qmail is run in "Scan Pack" mode which will check your echomail areas and export any echomail waiting to be passed on. NORMAL_MAIL is the tag of the schedule used to control packing as defined in your Qmail Routing file (typically QM_ROUTE.CFG). Connect is then run, generating file attach messages for any newly-created outbound mail packets. The whole process is then repeated using the second zone's set of control files. Systems With Passthru Areas Steps 1 - 5. Steps one through five are the same as those described in the section "Systems Without Passthru Areas". Step 6. At this point, you've finished installing Connect. All that remains is to write the batch files that will run Qmail and Connect. The following example is provided to illustrate the usage. DOMAIL2.BAT will toss, scan and pack waiting echomail for two zones, taking special consideration for any passthru areas that may exist. No other batch files are required however you may wish to split up the operations of DOMAIL2.BAT into separate batch files, namely to execute the "Toss Scan" pass separately from the "Scan" and " Pack" passes. This would allow you to handle incoming mail at different times than when you check for new mail originating on your system. If so, insure that you run Qmail in "Pack" mode followed by Connect immediately after each time you "Toss Scan" and "Scan Pack". DOMAIL2.BAT qm toss scan -cFIDOTOSS.CFG -aFIDOAREA.BBS qm scan -cFIDOTOSS.CFG -aFIDOAREA.BBS qm pack -cFIDOPACK.CFG -sNORMAL_MAIL connect CON_FIDO.CTL qm toss scan -cIMEXTOSS.CFG -aIMEXAREA.BBS qm scan -cIMEXTOSS.CFG -aIMEXAREA.BBS qm pack -cIMEXPACK.CFG -sNORMAL_MAIL connect CON_FIDO.CTL First Qmail is run in "Toss Scan" mode which imports any incoming echomail into its proper areas. Any incoming mail destined to be sent on to other systems will also be prepared for packing. The combined "Toss" and "Scan" modes activate Qmail's Passthru recognition so that any passthru messages will be deleted immediately after the pass is completed. NORMAREA.BBS is the file containing all the echomail information for that zone. Next Qmail is run again in "Scan" mode which will cause Qmail to search all echomail areas for any new mail that might have Connect v1.00 Documentation --- Page 6 originated on your system. This pass is necessary since the previous "Toss Scan" pass will only handle incoming mail, not new mail entered on your system. Qmail is then run a third time in "Pack" mode to pack any mail waiting to be sent on to other systems. NORMAL_MAIL is the tag of the schedule used to control packing as defined in your Qmail Routing file (typically QM_ROUTE.CFG). Connect is run lastly to generate the required file-attach messages for any new outgoing mail packets. The whole process is then repeated using the next zone's set of control files. CONNECT.CTL VERBS Following is a listing of each verb in CONNECT.CTL along with their meaning. HOLDDIR The complete path to your Qmail outbound directory. NETMAIL The complete path to your NetMail message directory. ZONE # The zone your system operates in. This must be the same as the primary zone defined in the Qmail "Pack" configuration file for that zone. NET # The Net number of your system. This must be the same as the primary net address defined in the Qmail "Pack" configuration file for that zone. NODE # The Node number of your system. This must be the same as the primary node address defined in the Qmail "Pack" configuration file for that zone. Connect v1.00 Documentation --- Page 7