BBS: Inland Empire Archive
Date: 01-26-93 (01:26) Number: 339
From: DIK COATES Refer#: NONE
To: MARVIN HART Recvd: NO
Subj: Qwk format Part 3/3 Conf: (2) Quik_Bas
>>>> QUOTING Marvin Hart to All <<<<
Start Part 3 of 3 (Have stripped out some of the blank lines...)
MH> CONTROLL.DAT
[3.2] Control file (CONTROL.DAT)
The CONTROL.DAT file is a simple ASCII file. Each line is terminated
with a carriage return and line feed combination. All lines should
start on the first column.
Line #
1 My BBS BBS name
2 New York, NY BBS city and state
3 212-555-1212 BBS phone number
4 John Doe, Sysop BBS Sysop name
5 20052,MYBBS Mail door registration #, BBSID
6 01-01-1991,23:59:59 Mail packet creation time
7 JANE DOE User name (upper case)
8 Name of menu for Qmail, blank if none
9 0 ? Seem to be always zero
10 999 Total number of messages in packet
11 121 Total number of conference minus 1
12 0 1st conf. number
13 Main Board 1st conf. name (13 characters or less)
14 1 2nd conf. number
15 General 2nd conf. name
.. 3 etc. onward until it hits max. conf.
.. 123 Last conf. number
.. Amiga_I Last conf. name
.. HELLO Welcome screen file
.. NEWS BBS news file
.. SCRIPT0 Log off screen
Some mail doors, such as MarkMail, will send additional information
about the user from here on.
0 ?
25 Number of lines that follow this one
JANE DOE User name in uppercase
Jane User first name in mixed case
NEW YORK, NY User city information
718 555-1212 User data phone number
718 555-1212 User home phone number
108 Security level
00-00-00 Expiration date
01-01-91 Last log on date
23:59 Last log on time
999 Log on count
0 Current conference number on the BBS
0 Total KB downloaded
999 Download count
0 Total KB uploaded
999 Upload count
999 Minutes per day
999 Minutes remaining today
999 Minutes used this call
32767 Max. download KB per day
32767 Remaining KB today
0 KB downloaded today
23:59 Current time on BBS
01-01-91 Current date on BBS
My BBS BBS network tag-line
0 ?
Some mail doors will offer the option of sending an abbreviated confer-
ence list. That means the list will contain only conferences the user
has selected. This is done because some mail readers cannot handle
more than n conferences at this time. Users using those readers will
need this option if the BBS they call have too many conferences.
[3.3] Welcome file
This file usually contains the log on screen from the BBS. The exact
filename is specified in the CONTROL.DAT file, after the conference
list. This file may be in any format the Sysop chooses it be -- usu-
ally either in plain ASCII or with ANSI screen control code. Some
Sysops (notably PCBoard Sysops) may use BBS-specific color change code
in this file as well. Current mail programs seem to handle the trans-
lations between BBS-specific code to ANSI based screen control codes.
Even if the CONTROL.DAT file contains the filename of this file, it
may not actually exist in the mail packet. Sometimes, users will
manually delete this file before entering the mail reader. Some off-
line readers offer the option to not display this welcome screen; some
will display this file regardless. Some doors, similarly, will offer
option to the user to not send this file.
[3.4] Goodbye file
Similar to the welcome file above, the filename to the goodbye file is
in the CONTROL.DAT file. This is the file the BBS displays when the
user logs off the board. It is optional, as always, to send this file
or to display it.
[3.5] News file
Many mail doors offer the option to send the news file from the BBS.
Most will only send this when it has been updated. Like the welcome
and goodbye files, the filename to the news file is found in the CON-
TROL.DAT file. It can be in any format the Sysop chooses, but usually
in either ASCII or ANSI. Like the welcome screen, current mail facili-
ties seem to handle translation between BBS-specific control codes to
ANSI screen control codes.
[3.6] Qmail DeLuxe2 menu file
This file is of use only for Qmail DeLuxe2 mail reader by Sparkware.
The filename is found on line 8 of the CONTROL.DAT file.
[3.7] New uploads listing (NEWFILES.DAT)
Most mail programs on the BBS will offer the option to scan new files
uploaded to the BBS. The result is found in a file named
NEWFILES.DAT. The mail program, if implementing this, should update
the last file scan field in the user's profile, if there is such a
field, as well as other information required by the BBS. The mail
program should, of course, scan new files only in those areas the user
is allowed access.
[3.8] Bulletin files (BLT-x.y)
Most mail programs will also offer the option to include updated bulle-
tin files found on the BBS in the mail packet. The bulletins are
named BLT-x.y, where x is the conference/echo the bulletin came from,
and y the bulletin's actual number. The mail program will have to
take care of updating the last read date on the bulletins in the user
record.
End of Part 3 of 3... Trusting this helps a bit!
Regards Dik, Oshawa, Canada
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.10
--- Maximus 2.00
* Origin: Durham Systems (ONLINE!) (1:229/110)
