===========================================================================
 BBS: The Little Kingdom
Date: 01-02-92 (02:31)             Number: 6648
From: JIM SMITH                    Refer#: NONE
  To: VINCE LAURENT                 Recvd: NO  
Subj: .QWK Formats and more 1/5      Conf: (19) Shareware
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

VLÞ³ So you can see where I stand.  I am trying to get the formats so I could
  Þ³ write the BBS side (export the CORRECT .QWK format and import the .REP
  Þ³ correctly!).  Any and all help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Here is some messages that I captured and found very useful:

===========================================================================
From the announcement...

You can now ADD and DROP conferences from your Qmail Door 4.00 setup
directly from inside your DeLuxeý (or compatible) reader.  All you need
to do is to enter a message to "QMAIL" with a subject of "CONFIG"
(without quotes).  Then, enter any of the commands listed below inside
the text of your message.  Remember to use one command per line.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

                ADD <confnum>             Add a conference into the
                                          Qmail Door 4.00 scanning list.
                                          "YOURS" can also be added to
                                          the command if the user wishes
                                          to receive messages only
                                          addressed them.  Example:

                                          ADD 1 YOURS

                DROP <confnum>            Drop a conference from the
                                          Qmail Door 4.00 scanning list.

                RESET <confnum> <value>   Resets a conference to a
                                          particular value.  The user
                                          can use "HIGH-xxx" to set the
                                          conference to the highest
                                          message in the base.

                CITY <value>              Changes the "city" field in the
                                          User's PCBoard entry.

                PASSWORD <value>          Changes the user's login
                                          password.

                BPHONE <value>            Business/data phone number

                HPHONE <value>            Home/voice phone number

                PCBEXPERT <on|off>        Turns the PCBoard EXPERT
                                          mode ON or OFF.

                PCBPROT <value>           PCBoard file transfer
                                          protocol (A-Z).

                PAGELEN <value>           Page length inside PCBoard.

                PCBCOMMENT <value>        User maintained comment.

                AUTOSTART <value>         Qmail Door autostart command.

                PROTOCOL <value>          Qmail Door file transfer
                                          protocol (A-Z).

                EXPERT <on|off>           Turns the Qmail Door EXPERT
                                          mode ON or OFF.

                MAXSIZE <value>           Maximum size of the user's
                                          .QWK packet (in bytes)

                MAXNUMBER <value>         Maximum number of messages
                                          per conference.

                Sparky
                Qmail Support
===========================================================================

CONTROL.DAT

         Line # 1 - This is the BBS name where you got your mail
                    packet.
         Line # 2 - This is the city and state where the BBS is
                    located.
         Line # 3 - This is the BBS phone number.
         Line # 4 - This is the sysop's name.
         Line # 5 - This line contains first the serial number of the
                    mail door followed by the BBS ID. Note the BBS ID
                    as it will be used later in this article.
         Line # 6 - This is the time and date of the packet.
         Line # 7 - This is the uppercase name of the user for which
                    this packet was prepared.
         Line # 8 - This line contains the name of the menu file for
                    those who use the Qmail reader/door. Almost all
                    other mail doors leave this line blank.
         Line # 9 - No one seems to know what this line is meant for.
         Line #10 - No one seems to know what this line is meant for.
                    (Note: Both of these ALWAYS seem to be 0)
         Line #11 - This line is the maximum number of conferences
   [ Continued In Next Message... ]

---
===========================================================================
 BBS: The Little Kingdom
Date: 01-02-92 (02:31)             Number: 6649
From: JIM SMITH                    Refer#: NONE
  To: VINCE LAURENT                 Recvd: NO  
Subj: .QWK Formats and more 2/5      Conf: (19) Shareware
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   [ ...Continued From Previous Message ]

                    MINUS 1.
         Line #12 - This line is the first conference's number. It is
                    usually 0 but not always.
         Line #13 - This line is the name of the first conference. It
                    is 10 characters or less.

         Lines 12 and 13 are repeated for as many conferences as
         listed in line 11.

         Anything you see after the last conference name can be
         ignored as that information isn't usually provided by mail
         doors. One exception to this is the Markmail door.


         Now we'll talk about the message file itself. If you haven't
         guess by now, it is the MESSAGES.DAT file. This is, quite
         obviously, the largest file in the .QWK packet.

         MESSAGES.DAT is organized very specifically into 128-byte
         records. The first record is the Sparkware copyright notice.
         The rest of the record after the copyright notice is filled
         with blanks (spaces). To maintain compatibility with Sparky's
         Qmail Door, all mail doors reproduce the copyright notice
         exactly.

         Following the first record begins the "meat" of the message
         file. Each message included in the file consists of a header
         followed directly by the message text itself. First we will
         describe the header:

          Header    Field
         Position   Length   Description
         --------   ------   ----------------------------------------
         1          1        Message status byte
                                ' ' = public message which hasn't been
                                      read
                                '-' = public and already read
                                '*' = private message
                                '~' = comment to sysop which hasn't
                                      been read by the sysop
                                '`' = comment to sysop which HAS been
                                      read by the sysop
                                '%' = password protected message that
                                      hasn't been read (protected by
                                      sender of message)
                                '^' = password protected message that
                                      HAS been read (protected by
                                      sender of message)
                                '!' = password protected message that
                                      hasn't been read (protected by
                                      group password)
                                '#' = password protected message that
                                      HAS been read (protected by
                                      group password)
                                '$' = password protected message that
                                      is addressed to ALL (protected
                                      by group password)
         2         7         Message number coded in ASCII
         9         8         Date coded in ASCII (MM-DD-YY)
         17        5         Time coded in ASCII (HH:MM) 24 hour
                             format
         22        25        Uppercase name of person message is TO
         47        25        Uppercase name of person message is FROM
         72        25        Subject of message
         97        12        Message password. Usually not anything
                             but spaces (to denote no password)
         109       8         Message # this message refers to (coded
                             in ASCII)
         117       6         Number of 128-byte chunks in the actual
                             message (includes header and is coded in
                             ASCII)
         123       1         Determines whethere a message is live
                             (active) or killed. 90% of the time you
                             won't see a killed message in a packet.
                                 'a' = Message is active/alive (0xE1)
                                 'b' = Message is killed/dead  (0xE2)
         124       1         Least significant byte of conference
                             number.
         125       1         Most significant byte of conference
                             number. NOTE: This isn't in the original
                             .QWK format but has become the standard
                             due to conference numbers greater than
                             255. In the original format, this byte
                             was space-filled.
         126       3         Filler bytes for future expansion.
                             Space-filled and usually ignored.

         Following the header record comes the message text itself.
         The message text is simply the body of the message. To save
         space, the return/linefeed combination is translated to the
         pi character 'c' (0xE3). Note that the last line of the
         message is padded with spaces to fill out the 128-byte
         record.
   [ Continued In Next Message... ]

---
===========================================================================
 BBS: The Little Kingdom
Date: 01-02-92 (02:31)             Number: 6650
From: JIM SMITH                    Refer#: NONE
  To: VINCE LAURENT                 Recvd: NO  
Subj: .QWK Formats and more 3/5      Conf: (19) Shareware
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   [ ...Continued From Previous Message ]



         Now we'll talk about the *.NDX files that are included in the
         packet. Each .NDX file is formatted into records of 5-bytes
         each. The bytes in each record are formatted thusly:

         Start  Field
         Byte   Length   Description
         ----   ------   --------------------------------------------
         1      4        This is a floating point number in the MSBIN
                         format. This number is the record number of
                         the message header in MESSAGES.DAT that
                         corresponds to this message.
         5      1        This byte is the conferece number of this
                         message. This byte can (and should) be
                         ignored as it is duplicated in the message
                         header in MESSAGES.DAT. This is especially
                         important for conferences numbered higher
                         than 255.

         Let's stray just a moment to talk about the MSBIN floating
         point format. This is the format used by the older Microsoft
         Basic compilers and interpreters. Most compiler manufacturers
         have switched to the more efficient IEEE floating point
         format. Therefore, we must have a method of converting to and
         from MSBIN format. Included at the end of this article are
         two routines in C that accomplish this quite easily.



         Ok, let's talk about the format of the .REP (reply) packet.
         Like the .QWK packet it is usually compressed. Inside the
         compressed archive is a file whose extension is .MSG. The
         filename itself is the same as line #5 of CONTROL.DAT. This
         is the BBSID. So, for example, if the BBSID is GENERIC, the
         complete filename in the .REP packet would be GENERIC.MSG.

         The format of the .MSG file is almost exactly the same as the
         MESSAGES.DAT file with three differences:

         1). In the first record, rather than a copyright notice, the
         first eight bytes are the BBSID as described above. The rest
         of the record is filled with spaces.

         2). In the message header, rather than the ASCII-coded
         message number, we have the ASCII-coded conference number

         3). Also in the message header, the conference number field
         (byte offset 124 & 125) may be filled with spaces *OR* the
         conference number.

         In recent months a new file, DOOR.ID, has been added to the
         .QWK packet. I know very little about it but will attempt to
         explain it as best as I can.

         DOOR.ID seems to be a method for individual doors to let the
         mail reader know how to add and drop conferences. It is a
         good idea and I hope more doors and readers can be made to
         cooperate with it.

         Usually there are only five lines in this file. Here is a
         sample from one of my recent .QWK packets:

         DOOR = TomCat!                       Line #1
         VERSION = 2.9                        Line #2
         SYSTEM = Wildcat! 2.x                Line #3
         CONTROLNAME = TOMCAT                 Line #4
         CONTROLTYPE = ADD                    Line #5
         CONTROLTYPE = DROP                   Line #6

         Line #1 - This is the mail door's name.
         Line #2 - This is the mail door's version number.
         Line #3 - This is the BBS software used and version number.
         Line #4 - This is the control name (TO:) where to send
                   requests for conference changes.
         Line #5 - This is the command the door expects to see to add
                   a conference to the user's current list.
         Line #6 - This is the command the door expects to see to drop
                   a conference from the user's current list.


         Here are the routines I use to convert to and from the MSBIN
         format. You may use them as you see fit - they are not
         copyrighted by me.

         /***  MSBIN conversion routines ***/

         union Converter
               {
                unsigned char uc[10];
                unsigned int  ui[5];
                unsigned long ul[2];
                float          f[2];
   [ Continued In Next Message... ]

---
===========================================================================
 BBS: The Little Kingdom
Date: 01-02-92 (02:31)             Number: 6651
From: JIM SMITH                    Refer#: NONE
  To: VINCE LAURENT                 Recvd: NO  
Subj: .QWK Formats and more 4/5      Conf: (19) Shareware
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   [ ...Continued From Previous Message ]

                double         d[1];
               }

         /* MSBINToIEEE - Converts an MSBIN floating point number */
         /*               to IEEE floating point format           */
         /*                                                       */
         /*  Input: f - floating point number in MSBIN format     */
         /* Output: Same number in IEEE format                    */

         float MSBINToIEEE(float f)
         {
            union Converter t;
            int sign, exp;       /* sign and exponent */

            t.f[0] = f;

         /* extract the sign & move exponent bias from 0x81 to 0x7f */

            sign = t.uc[2] / 0x80;
            exp  = (t.uc[3] - 0x81 + 0x7f) & 0xff;

         /* reassemble them in IEEE 4 byte real number format */

            t.ui[1] = (t.ui[1] & 0x7f) | (exp << 7) | (sign << 15);
            return t.f[0];
         } /* End of MSBINToIEEE */


         /* MSBINToIEEE - Converts an MSBIN floating point number */
         /*               to IEEE floating point format           */
         /*                                                       */
         /*  Input: f - floating point number in MSBIN format     */
         /* Output: Same number in IEEE format                    */

         float MSBINToIEEE(float f)
         {
            union Converter t;
            int sign, exp;       /* sign and exponent */

            t.f[0] = f;

         /* extract the sign & move exponent bias from 0x81 to 0x7f */

            sign = t.uc[2] / 0x80;
            exp  = (t.uc[3] - 0x81 + 0x7f) & 0xff;

         /* reassemble them in IEEE 4 byte real number format */

            t.ui[1] = (t.ui[1] & 0x7f) | (exp << 7) | (sign << 15);
            return t.f[0];
         } /* End of MSBINToIEEE */


         /* IEEEToMSBIN - Converts an IEEE floating point number  */
         /*               to MSBIN floating point format          */
         /*                                                       */
         /*  Input: f - floating point number in IEEE format      */
         /* Output: Same number in MSBIN format                   */

         float IEEEToMSBIN(float f)
         {
            union Converter t;
            int sign, exp;       /* sign and exponent */

            t.f[0] = f;

         /* extract sign & change exponent bias from 0x7f to 0x81 */

            sign = t.uc[3] / 0x80;
            exp  = ((t.ui[1] >> 7) - 0x7f + 0x81) & 0xff;

         /* reassemble them in MSBIN format */

            t.ui[1] = (t.ui[1] & 0x7f) | (sign << 7) | (exp << 8);
            return t.f[0];
         } /* End of IEEEToMSBIN */


         Well, that is all there is to it! I hope this article has
         shed some light on the so-called "mysterious" .QWK format.


                                             Jeffery Foy, April 1991

===============================================================================

Now, the format of the DOOR.ID file is like this:

DOOR = <doorname>

        This is the name of the door that created the QWK packet, eg.
        <doorname> = Tomcat.
   [ Continued In Next Message... ]

---
 þ SPEED 1.0B #0 þ Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind most.
===========================================================================
 BBS: The Little Kingdom
Date: 01-02-92 (02:31)             Number: 6652
From: JIM SMITH                    Refer#: NONE
  To: VINCE LAURENT                 Recvd: NO  
Subj: .QWK Formats and more 5/5      Conf: (19) Shareware
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   [ ...Continued From Previous Message ]

VERSION = <doorversion>

        This is the version number of the door that created the packet,
        eg. <doorversion> = 2.9.

SYSTEM = <systemtype>

        This is the underlying BBS system type and version, eg.
        <systemtype> = Wildcat 2.55.

CONTROLNAME = <controlname>

        This is the name to which the reader should send control
        messages, eg. <controlname> = TOMCAT.

CONTROLTYPE = <controltype>

        This can be one of ADD, DROP, or REQUEST (or others).  ADD and
        DROP are pretty obvious (they work as in Markmail), and REQUEST
        is for use with BBS systems that support file attachments.  Try
        out SLMR with CONTROLTYPE = REQUEST and use the Q function.

RECEIPT

        This flag indicates that the door/BBS is capable of return
        receipts when a message is received.  If the first three letters
        of the subject are RRR, then the door should strip the RRR and
        set the 'return-receipt-requested' flag on the corresponding
        message.

===============================================================================

Good luck!
.

---
 þ SPEED 1.0B #0 þ Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind most.
 þ QNet3á þ Intelec:Bloom County BBS þ BHAM, AL þ 205-856-0587 HST Dual