1MsgPost/2 Version 2.0, Oct 2000 (C) 1992 by CodeLand Australia
2========================================================================
3Mpost do not supported after 2004 year, but you may continue developing.
4========================================================================
5
6Unix users, use cat README | tr -d \\\r | less to view this file.
7Source code maintainers, please leave the carriage returns in this file for
8the comfort of Windows and DOS users.
9
10
110. What's new in this version
12-----------------------------
13
14See file Changelog.
15
16
171. About MsgPost and the current status
18---------------------------------------
19
20Mpost is a program to post a text file as netmail and echomail message into
21a Squish, Jam or *.MSG style message area from command line. It is useful in
22shell or REXX scripts or batch files for system maintanance purposes, like
23posting a monthly echomail statistics, posting rules files, or similar
24tasks.
25
26Mpost is (C) by Codeland Australia and has been written by Colin Wheat,
27originally for OS/2 only. The last release of MPost before I took over the
28source code this version was MPost 1.10. The exact license status of MPost
29is questionable; but it seem sot be freeware as its source code is
30available. I decided to leave in the Codeland Copyright statement.
31
32In 1999, I (Tobias Ernst) have done some modifications to this source code.
33Year 2000 bugs had to be fixed, I added a way to add FTSC 0054 charset
34kludges to the posted mails, and I ported the software to Unix, NT and DPMI
35DOS. In order to make the public profit from these changes (especially the
36Y2K one), I hereby release these modifications to the public, both the
37source code and binaries for all relevant platforms.
38
39If you are already using Mpost and only want to have the Y2K upgrade,
40simply copy the provided executables over your current ones, they should
41work immediately with the old configuration file.
42
43I do NOT intend to further work on this code, except for bugfixes. If
44anybody wants to do changes on the code and release a new version, I can
45offer my help in compiling the source code for all platforms that the
46prospective programmer might not have avialable, i.E. I offer to produce
47binaries and resolve porting issues. But I definitely will not start to
48work on the code on my own for adding new features or similar, unless I
49need them personally. So consider this a frozen release until the sime
50that some other person picks up the code. I have submitted the code the
51the Husky project, so maybe there will be some development going on, like
52fidoconfig adaption or simlar. View the Husky project site at
53http://husky.sourceforge.net for more information.
54
55
562. Using MPost
57--------------
58
59You can use one of the following executables:
60
61MPOSTP.EXE -- OS/2 32 Bit standalone executable
62MPOSTNTI.EXE -- Windows 32 Bit executable for Windows 95/98/NT on Intel CPUs
63MPOST32.EXE -- DOS executable. Requires an DPMI memory manager.
64MPOSTLNX -- Linux executable, dynamically linked
65
66The source code will also compile on most other Unix systems, see below.
67
68The following list shows all command line and configuration file options.
69It is all documentation that is available for the code, and I do not intend
70to write more. It is enough to get it running, anyway. For a more
71detailed description, also refer to mpost.cfg, the sample configuration
72file, which also contains some helpful remarks.
73
74Note that you always need a configuration file for Msgpost, even though you
75can in theory specify all options via command line.
76
77 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
78 | COMMAND LINE: |
79 | |
80 | COMMAND LINE ONLY |
81 | -T<name> Text source file path & name |
82 | -K Kill text file after processing |
83 | -C<name> Configuration file path & name |
84 | -@<name> List file name |
85 | -? Program help screen |
86 | |
87 | CONFIGURATION OVERRIDES |
88 | -M<name> Message area path & name (prefix $ for Squish, ! for Jam) |
89 | -N<addr> Netmail format - send to address |
90 | -O<addr> [Zone:]Net/Node[.Point][@Domain] |
91 | -P[cfhdkpru] Message priority flag(s) |
92 | -F<fname> Message addressed to first name |
93 | -L<lname> Message addressed to last name |
94 | -W<name> Message addressed from name |
95 | -J<subj> Message subject |
96 | -1 First line of text file is subject line |
97 | -S<##> Split long messages to ## Kb size (0-16) |
98 | -h<charset> Specify charset kludge name to use, like "IBMPC" or "LATIN-1"|
99 | |
100 | CONFIGURATION FILE: |
101 | |
102 | Address: [Zone:]Net/Node[.Point][@Domain] |
103 | Origin: <Your system echomail identification> |
104 | Area: <Message area path & name> |
105 | Netmail: [Zone:]Net/Node[.Point][@Domain] |
106 | MsgType: <Echomail | Conference | Local | Matrix> |
107 | To: <Some Name> |
108 | From: <Your Name> |
109 | Subj: <Your Subject> |
110 | Attr: <c|f|h|d|k|p|r|u|l> |
111 | FakeNet: <###> |
112 | NoSeenBy: |
113 | Split: <###> |
114 | Charset: <charset kludge name> |
115 | |
116 | ERROR LEVELS: |
117 | |
118 | 0 - Normal exit |
119 | 1 - Syntax exit |
120 | 2 - Out of memory |
121 | 3 - Configuration or text file not found |
122 | 4 - No system address set |
123 | 5 - Message base open failed |
124 | 6 - Names list file not found |
125 | 7 - No message folder file name set. |
126 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
127
128
1293. Mpost and the charset kludge
130-------------------------------
131
132The FTSC 0054 charset kludge is a means to use national special characters
133(ASCII 128 to 254) in Fidonet mails. The charset kludge is a sign that tells
134mail readers in which character set the mails hass been written, so that they
135can recode the mail to the character set that the operating system / terminal
136of the receiver is using.
137
138Mpost does not include logic for charcter set kludges. All it can do is
139insert a level 2 character set, but you have to tell it which one. The rule
140of the thumb is:
141
142If the text file that you are posting uses special characters as used by DOS
143and OS/2, especially umlauts and IBM graphics characters (IBM graphics is
144often used by statistics generators to produce nicer borders), use either the
145configuration file statement
146
147 Charset: IBMPC
148
149or the "-hIBMPC" command line option. If you are using Windows or UNIX, it is
150most likely that your umlauts comply to ISO 8859-1. In this case, use
151
152 Charset: LATIN-1
153
154or the "-hLATIN-1" command line option. (Windows calls this ANSI,
155and uses it for the Times New Roman, Courier New etc. fonts, though not for
156the terminal window; Unix calls this ISO 8859-1 keymap, though some Linux
157boxes can also be configured to use CP850 or CP437 instead, which would be
158the same as IBMPC).
159 Russian users must use CP866 instead of +7_FIDO or other obsolete, example:
160
161 Charset: CP866
162
163or the "-hCP866" command line option.
164
165
1664. MSGID considerations
167-----------------------
168
169For MSGID uniqueness reasons, the UNIX and DOS versions of MPost can only
170create one message per second. The OS/2 and Win32 versions can create up
171to 100 messages per second. MPOST will enforce the necessary delays, so
172you do not have to bother, it is only that MPOST might seem somewhat slow
173on UNIX and DOS because of this problem.
174
175
1765. Hints on compiling Mpost
177---------------------------
178
179Compiling Mpost requires the SMAPI source code, revision 1.6.4 or newer.
180You can get it from http://husky.physcip.uni-stuttgart.de or by requesting
181magic SMAPI from 2:2476/418. Place the smapi and Mpost in separate
182subdirectories at the same level, i.E. to c:\source\smapi and
183c:\source\mpost, respectively. Then compile a SMAPI for your operating
184system. If you have problems, the Msged TE manual contains exhaustive
185information on how to do this.
186
187After that, use one of the makefiles that come with Mpost:
188
189 Makefile -- for compiling in the Husky build environment
190 makefile.rxw -- for compiling with the EMX RSX/NT compiler for Win95/98/NT
191 makefile.mgw -- for compiling with the Mingw32 compiler for Win95/98/NT
192 makefile.emo -- for compiling with the EMX compiler for OS/2
193 makefile.ibo -- for compiling with IBM CSet/2 for OS/2
194 makefile.djg -- for compiling with the DJGPP compiler for DOS
195 makefile.unx -- for compiling with any "cc" compiler on Unix/Linux/...
196
197
1986. Contact
199----------
200
201This version of Mpost is available for f'req using magic MPOST at
2022:2476/418, or via WWW from:
203http://www.physcip.uni-stuttgart.de/tobi/projects.html.
204You can also check http://husky.physcip.uni-stuttgart.de for the latest
205source code.
206
207If you want to contact me, you can do so at the following addresses:
208
209Fido: Tobias Ernst @ 2:2476/418
210e-mail: tobi@bland.fido.de
211
212[EOF]
213