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FTSC FIDONET TECHNICAL STANDARDS COMMITTEE
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Publication: FTS-5002
Revision: 1
Title: POINTLIST FORMATS
Author(s): Michiel van der Vlist
Revision Date: 1 October 2000
Expiry Date: 1 October 2002
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Contents:
1. Purpose
2. Formats
2.1 The "Boss" format.
2.2 The "Point" format.
2.3 The "Fake Net" format.
2.4 The "FidoUser" format.
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Status of this document
-----------------------
This document is a Fidonet Standard (FTS).
This document specifies a Fidonet standard for the Fidonet
community.
This document is released to the public domain, and may be used,
copied or modified for any purpose whatever.
Introduction
------------
This paper attempts to document the formats of four types
of pointlists in use in FidoNet.
Current practice for Fidonet Technology Networks (FTN) is to
maintain pointlists on net, region and possibly zone level
to store the details of the points participating in communication
via the network.
1. Purpose
----------
The concept of points was introduced into the FidoNet community
by Henk Wevers as an easy and fast way for users to get their mail
by using an FTN compatible mailer.
During the course of FidoNet history points have become a major
source of flow in FidoNet echomail. In order to suggest a netmail
address for a point with a known name but unknown address pointlists
are distributed on various levels. Unfortunately there has been
little or no coordination on the format of those lists. It has
mostly been up to the whim of the local list keeper.
This document is a first attempt to coordinate those efforts due to
Henk Wevers, Joaquim Homrighausen and others.
2. Formats
----------
Four formats for maintaining pointlists are used by the FidoNet
community and other networks using the FidoNet technology.
2.1 The "Boss" format
---------------------
This is an extension of the St. Louis nodelist format, the
list of points is a distributed separately from the nodelist.
The list contains of one or more lines of the format:
Boss,<zone>:<net>/<node>[,[<additional fields>]]
Where <additional fields> may be a copy of fields 3-8 of the
corresponding nodelist entry of the boss node. The second comma
and following fields are however optional and are usually omitted.
Current node/pointlist parsers ignore the additional fields but
some pointlist keepers include the second comma anyway just to be
on the safe side.
Directly below the 'Boss' line is a list of the points entered as
if they were nodes. The first field of a point entry must be empty.
The telephone number field may contain the actual number if the
point is online or "-Unpublished-" if it is not.
Example:
;A Sample pointlist for Friday Aug 2 1996 day 044 : 12345
;
Boss 1:1/1,
,1,First_point_of_node_1,Somewhere,John_Doe,-Unpublished-,300
,2,Joe'sPoint,Cybercity,Tom_Jennings,1-234-567-890,9600,V34,XX,U,ENC
Known exceptions/additions to FTS-5000/5001:
In some countries (f.e. Netherlands) one may find a NOZMH flag in
combination with callable points. Such a point is not online
during ZMH but can be called at (an)other time(s) which is
specified by one or more Tyz flags as defined FSC-5001.
The 16 bit checksum in the first line is not always present in some
distributed lists. Since the checksum is only really needed for diff
processors, this is not a problem if diffs are not used.
The "Boss" format is the preferred format for future distribution.
2.2 The "Point" format.
-----------------------
This is also an extension of the St. Louis nodelist format as
described in FTS-5000. The node- and pointlist are not
distributed separately, it is a combined list. It is not
used very much in FidoNet, but in Othernets one encounters
it occasionally.
Points are entered in the nodelist immediately below their bossnode
with the word "Point" (without the quotes) in the first field. The
rest of the line has the same format as an entry for a node as per
FTS-5000. The telephone number field usually contains
"-Unpublished-" (without the quotes) but it need not be so. If the
point is online at certain times, it may contain the actual
telephone number.
Example:
;A Node/pointlist for net 999 Friday Aug 2 1996 day 214 : 27158
;A
Host,999,Net_999,Simcity,Joe_Host,9-876-543-210,9600,V34,XX
,666,Just_a_Node,Simcity,Joe_Grunt,9-012-345-678,9600,VFC
Point,1,Point_1,Simcity,Joe_Point,-Unpublished-,300
Point,2,Point_2,Simcity,Joes_Brother,9-345-678-901,9600,V34,XX,U,Txz
2.3 The "fake net" format.
-------------------------
Fake nets were introduced as a way of allowing points using 2D
software. The use of a fake net is largely abandoned, very few
software that can not handle 4D is still around, but some nets
still distribute pointlists in a format that reflects this
obsolete practise.
Technically the fake net list in not a pointlist but a nodelist.
It has the same format as a regular FTS-5000 nodelist. The boss
node is listed as the host and his points are listed as the leaf
nodes.
Example:
Host,32061,2446/301,Uedem,Lothar_Behet,49-2824-922240,9600,CM, ...
,1,2446/301.1,Emmerich,John_Doe,49-2824-922240,9600,
,2,2446/301.2,Goch,Jim_Doe,49-2824-922240,9600,
,3,2446/301.3,Goch,Tom_Doe,49-2824-922240,9600,
In order to facilitate sending crash mail to a point, the telephone
number in the list is that of it's boss. Note that this would be
incorrect if it were a real nodelist. Listing a node with a tele-
phone number of another node that is not physically the same may
cause password errors in case these are defined for those nodes.
Also note that in this example the system name field contains
the actual node/point number for easy conversion of fake net/node
number to net/boss.point number.
Listing of the 3d number in the point lines is redundant. Some
only list the actual number in the Host line and use arbitrary
strings in the points system name field.
Host,10005,240/5496,Moisburg,Christian_Schmidt,49-4165-971143, ...
,1,Chrissie.1,Moisburg,Christian_Schmidt,49-4165-971143,9600,
,2,Chrissie.2,Buchholz,Steve_Tell,49-4165-971143,9600,
An alternative way to supply conversion information is used in
Denmark. The node number is supplied by the use of a UBOSS flag
(without a comma) in the line of the fake host:
Host,17010,NightCall,[..],[..],45-63121074,9600,V34,UBOSS:237/10
,1,System,Location,Point_Name,-Unpublished-,9600,MO
Also note that the fake list format is less suitable for big list
since fake net number are restricted to the range 1-32767. As the
number of boss nodes grows the difficulty if assigning unique fake
net numbers increases.
2.4 The FidoUser format
-----------------------
As the name suggests the FidoUser format was originally intended to
be a list of users in FidoNet. It allowed BBS software to suggest a
fidonet address for netmail if the name of the recipient is known to
the sender.
It was first used by the Fido BBS programme for this purpose.
Due to the explosive growth, keeping a list of all FidoNet users
soon became impractical. The format of the list has survived for
pointlists.
First of all it needs to be noted that although the FidoUser list
looks like an ASCII text file, it is NOT.
It is a datafile consisting of equal length records. The last two
bytes of each record are a CR and a LF. The actual record length is
not specified, but all records must be of the same length.
The format of a record is:
<Keyword>, <Restofname> [<zone>:]<net>/<node>[.<point>]
Records must be sorted on <Keyword>.
The zone number may be omitted. Default is the own zone. The
address must start on or after column 46. The record must be
padded with trailing blanks to make all records of equal length.
The keyword is the last word in the name. Usually this is the
surname, but in case of a compound surname it is the last of them.
Restofname usually is the first name, but it may be more than one
name and/or prefixes to the surname. Keyword and restofname are
separated by a comma and one space.
Examples:
Roche, Baptiste petit dit de la 2:500/128.6469
Vermeulen, Jan 2:280/100.1
Vlist, Michiel van der 2:500/9.5
It appears however that some software does not take kindly to spaces
in the name field. It is the old problem of BBS software that allows
only one first and one last name. Usually the problem is "solved" by
substituting dots or underlines in the names.
So one would also encounter:
Petit_dit_de_la_Roche, Baptiste 2:500/128.6469
Raaijmakers, Henk_Jan 2:500/506.11
van_der_Vlist, Michiel 2:500/555.5
Only ASCII characters are allowed. (No "high ASCII")
Known exceptions:
Dutchie 3, Timed and MBM 3.40 accept the IBM character set in the
name fields. They also accept that the address starts at column 37
and the address may be right justified without trailing blanks.
MakePl and PcMerge accept ASCII text files looking like FidoUser
lists. Last name and address must be separated by at least two
spaces or a tab character. Records need not be sorted and comment
lines starting with a semicolon are accepted. Some nets distribute
lists in the form of these ASCII "look alike" Fidouser lists.
A. Acknowledgements
-------------------
The following persons were helpful:
Marcel Wulffraat, Ruud Uphoff, Lothar Behet, Kaare Olsen.
B. References
-------------
[FTS-5] "The distribution nodelist", Ben Baker, Rick Moore.
February 1989. Obsoleted by FTS-5000.
[FTS-5000] "The distribution nodelist". Colin Turner, Andreas Klein,
Michael McCabe, David Hallford, Odinn Sorensen.
June 1999.
[FTS-5001] "Nodelist flags and userflags". Colin Turner,
Andreas Klein, Michael McCabe, David Hallford,
Odinn Sorensen.
June 1999.
C. Contact Data
---------------
Michiel van der Vlist
Fideonet: 2:280/5300.5
2:280/5555
E-mail:
[email protected]
[email protected]
D. History
----------
Rev.1, 20001001: Initial Release.
Principal author Michiel van der Vlist.
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