Subj : sbbsecho and bad packets
To : deon
From : Digital Man
Date : Mon Oct 06 2025 11:30 pm
Re: sbbsecho and bad packets
By: deon to Digital Man on Tue Oct 07 2025 01:36 pm
> Re: sbbsecho and bad packets
> By: Digital Man to deon on Mon Oct 06 2025 05:53 pm
>
> > > I didnt think DateTime was a null terminated string? Its 20 Bytes in
> > > the
> Howdy,
>
> > > packed message header (FTS-0001.16 C.1).
>
> > > "A packed message has a number of fixed length
> > > fields followed by four null terminated strings."
>
> > > (those being: to/from/subject and text are null terminated).
>
> > > Or have a missed something?
>
> > DateTime is defined as follows in FTS-1:
>
> > DateTime = (* a character string 20 characters long *)
> > (* 01 Jan 86 02:34:56 *)
> > DayOfMonth " " Month " " Year " "
> > " " HH ":" MM ":" SS
> > Null
>
> > The "Null" is explicit there. These FidoNet specs are pretty terrible,
> > but FTS-1 is one of the better ones. :-)
>
> I think we quoted the same document. Except you quoted the "a Stored
> Message" ("as it is the layer that the user's application sees as opposed to
> what FidoNet sees".) section, and I quoted the "Packed Message" ("As this is
> a data structure which is actually transferred, its definition is critical
> to FidoNet") section.
Indeed, yes, but the DateTime field definition for the packed message is "inherited" from the Stored Message definition - it's not redefined.
> Anyway, does that mean SBBSecho will only accept packets if the datatime
> field is encoded as a null terminated string?
Correct. It's been that way for a very long time, not new behavior.
--
digital man (rob)
Synchronet/BBS Terminology Definition #1:
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