F I D O N E W S -- Volume 14, Number 24 16 June 1997
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet community | "FidoNews" |
| _ | 1-904-409-7040 [1:1/23] |
| / \ | |
| /|oo \ | |
| (_| /_) | |
| _`@/_ \ _ | |
| | | \ \\ | Editor: |
| | (*) | \ )) | Christopher Baker 1:18/14 |
| |__U__| / \// | |
| _//|| _\ / | |
| (_/(_|(____/ | |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Submission address: FidoNews Editor 1:1/23 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MORE addresses: |
| |
| submissions=>
[email protected] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
| obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ |
| please refer to the end of this file. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS?
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
How hard IS it to format a text file to 70 columns? ...... 1
2. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR .................................... 2
What to do for more articles ............................. 2
3. ARTICLES ................................................. 3
SHARING-the FidoNet World Class, Global Communication E .. 3
4. GETTING TECHNICAL ........................................ 7
FSC-0082 - Proposed New Packet Type ...................... 7
FSC-0083 - Proposed standard for message IDs ............. 18
5. COORDINATORS CORNER ...................................... 37
Nodelist-statistics as seen from Zone-2 for day 164 ...... 37
6. NET HUMOR ................................................ 38
Java the Hutt? ........................................... 38
7. NOTICES .................................................. 40
A_THEIST Echo is on the Backbone! ........................ 40
Future History ........................................... 40
8. FIDONEWS PUBLIC-KEY ...................................... 42
FidoNews PGP public-key listing .......................... 42
9. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 43
10. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .................................... 45
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 1 16 Jun 1997
=================================================================
EDITORIAL
=================================================================
Even the most primitive word processing [EDLIN anyone?] programs can
count the columns live and in color as one is typing an article or
notice. Netmail and email is harder to control but text files are
difficult to make conform to ARTSPEC.DOC? Nah.
If anyone is being held back by the formatting constraints of the
ARTSPECs, please be assured that I will reformat [and even spell check
if desired] your submission for you. ARTSPEC exists to provide
directions to make a file that an automated MAKENEWS operation will
not choke on during a weekly run to produce FidoNews. Since I don't
run FidoNews as an automatic function, the poorly formatted stuff
doesn't get stuck in the dead letter file.
A couple promised articles never arrived [and i still have the email
link open behind me as i type this, JIC] so here's what we have for
this week.
BTW, what ever happened to the ASCII_ART Echo? It still isn't in the
BACKBONE.NA list and I would have sworn it got the REC requests.
And anybody heard any news on the resumption of ops at 1:13/10?
My Father's Day ran a little late and so is this Issue. [grin]
C.B.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 2 16 Jun 1997
=================================================================
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
=================================================================
From:
[email protected]
Date: 13 Jun 97 22:11:07 -0700
Subject: Fidonews - what to do for more articles
To:
[email protected]
Organization: Don't Mistake Lack Of Talent For Genius
>From steve steffler, 1:342/1022
Hi Chris, feel free to publish this in Fidonews if you wish..
I see in the newest Fnews that you ask what could be done to make
readers write articles for Fidonews. I know that for me, the one
thing that has kept me from contributing is that I don't like having
to carefully follow ARTSPEC.DOC when writing. If you eliminated that
document and formatted everything yourself before feeding it into that
MKNEWS program (or whatever it's called) then I am confident that more
people would contribute to the publication.
I'm also a firm believer that there is too much filler content in it -
if a 10k Fidonews was released without all the stuff like the PGP key
and the FSC documents, perhaps people would open their eyes and see
that an important link between individuals in the Fidonet community is
on the brink of extinction. Plus, the stuff that never changes from
issue to issue is really a deterrent to reading it, but I'll save that
for another rant, as I'm sure you've already all heard it all before.
;-) <= (Suggestion: Put the copyright notice, etc, etc, stuff that
never changes or rarely changes, into a separate file in the Fidonews
archive?)
[email protected] *
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/3755 * team os/2
-30-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 3 16 Jun 1997
=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================
Christopher Baker
Rights On!, 1:18/14
Edgewater_FL_USA
There's a new Echo in town dedicated to the REAL spirit of FidoNet
Sysoping. It's called SHARING. Here's the blurb from the EListing:
What Sysops will see and learn in SHARING will make it "the place to
be." What they will see will be up to them but there will be laughter
and wonders and mysteries of FidoNet technology will be explained.
SHARE the wonderful experience of our hobby. This Echo will be
Awesome. It's the Swiss Army knife of information! There's plenty to
learn. Sysops can SHARE everything! Every Sysop in the FidoNet
phonebook [Nodelist] is invited to participate but we will have a few
simple rules. POLITENESS to each other is EXPECTED! It is REQUIRED!
The few off-topic topics are contained in the accompanying SHARING.RUL
file. The Moderators reserve the right to declare off-topic any
subject getting out of the bounds of politeness and cooperation. The
Backbone or any backbone is off-topic automatically except as noted in
the rules.
mod Christopher Baker, 1:18/14
mod jim barchuk, 1:141/355
mod Debra Milner, 1:112/285
mod Emeritus-Don Dawson, 1:150/730
Backbone status has been in effect for months so Areafix a link from
your local Backbone feed or contact any of the Moderators for a direct
link via Netmail.
Here's the SHARING Echo Guidelines for those without a copy of the
current ELRUL file:
--- Following message extracted from SHARING @ 1:18/14 ---
By Christopher Baker on Sat Apr 20 23:38:03 1997
From: Christopher Baker
To: All
Date: 15 Apr 97 00:52:32
Subj: SHARING Echo Guidelines - regular repost
From: [by Don Dawson]
To: Y'all
Date: 4 Aug 95 22:27:48
Subj: Da Rulz
Sorry, it's dirty work but someone has to do it. :-)
What is this echo?
------------------
FidoNet is a World Class, Global, Communications Network of, by and
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 4 16 Jun 1997
for FidoNet Sysops around the Globe. There are other FTN networks but
none are of the size of FidoNet.
What Sysops will see and learn in SHARING will make it "the place to
be". What might they see? We don't have an agenda, hidden or
otherwise, but I'm sure we'll laugh at ourselves, cry for each other
and everyone will be "just themselves".
The wonders and mysteries of FidoNet Technology will be explained!.
Learn how and where files fall into dishes. Learn how and where files
pop out of the InterNet tunnel. Learn how to eat the Echomail
Elephant rather than have it eat you! Learn how to send e-mail to
anywhere on the Globe often with a local phone call, including to AOL,
Prodigy, C$erve, and perhaps that office down the street. Learn
there's no such thing as FREE!
SHARE the wonderful experience of our hobby. This echo is Awesome,
it's the Swiss Army knife of information! There's plenty to learn,
learn, learn and it doesn't matter what hardware, operating system,
mailer or BBS Software a sysop uses.
Sysops can share those funny experiences we all have. One of mine is
a brief story about NERF.BAT. We can laugh with each other and cry
with each other. Yes, tragedy, sometimes simple, sometimes bizarre,
hits us all. Why not share it? There's good news too: someone is a
new parent for the first time, a new grandparent even.
Sysops find good deals on all sorts of goods and services. Why not
SHARE where, how much and how good so we can all get the most out of
our hobby budget?
Please!
--------
What won't you see? No anger. No threats. No intimidation. No
inappropriate language. And none of that politistrivial junk so
common in other Sysop Echos. No Zeroes. No Binary addresses allowed.
If you're a 0 or a 1, stay away! No a.k.a.'s allowed! Use your real,
primary address or stay out, especially those 0's and 1's! Simple
enough?
Every Sysop in any FTN phonebook is invited to participate, invited to
just be themselves and SHARE the FidoNet Technology Experience.
FidoNet Technology Sysops are *very* special people, this echo is by,
for and about them.
Politeness to each other is EXPECTED! It IS REQUIRED. Almost no
topic is "off topic" except as noted below. The Moderators reserve
the right to BAN any topic. I reserve the right to "suspend
discussion" of a topic for a time certain. Be CERTAIN of your FACTS,
NAME names, don't take the cowards way out by using "They said, He
said". Be SPECIFIC.
There are three Moderators. They are:
Christopher Baker;
jim barchuk; and
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 5 16 Jun 1997
Debra Milner.
They are the only ones who will make Moderatorial pronouncements to
anyone else. Leave any Moderating to them. We don't expect to have to
do much in the way of moderating in a friendly and cooperative Echo.
Definitions:
------------
Phonebook: The Nodelist
FidoGawd: (or its variations) are prohibited from this Echo.
Fight-o-Net: (or its variations) are also prohibited.
Policy: Policy4 as indicated in the nodelist. The ONLY policy.
If your zone/region/net also has a local policy, be
specific. If you use Policy by itself, POLICY4 is
assumed.
EchoPol: It does not exist, never did. Maybe never will.
CRP: Cost Recovery Plan/Program. I prefer Cost Sharing but
you call it what you wish.
CRaP: Something that sometimes accompanies participation in a
CRP. It is and is intended to be an unflattering term.
Grunt Sysop: All 30,000+ PEOPLE in the FidoNet phonebook and or any
FTN phone book.
backbone: or Backbone, whichever you prefer is OFF Topic [except we
will share how to get an Echo on the Backbone if asked.]
As Mr. Bartles and Mr. James are known to say: Thank you for your
support!
Short and sweet (?)
Moderator Emeritus, former 1:150/730
B-) Don
QOFM.
Chris
Christopher Baker
jim barchuk
Debra Milner
Moderators, SHARING
-30-
We invite you to join us in a friendly and cooperative Echo for
FidoNet Sysops who don't need someone standing over them with a club
to behave like adults and who would prefer a Sysop Echo with less tar.
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 6 16 Jun 1997
[grin]
QOFM.
Chris
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 7 16 Jun 1997
=================================================================
GETTING TECHNICAL
=================================================================
[This is part of the continuing FidoNet History series of FTSC
Standards and Proposals. These docs have been reformatted to 70
columns where required. Tables may be askew. Node numbers and phone
numbers may be out of date.] Ed.
| Document: FSC-0082
| Version: 001
| Date: 14 May 1995
|
| Stephan Slabihoud, 2:2446/
[email protected]
A Proposed New Packet Type
Stephan Slabihoud
2:2446/
[email protected]
90:400/
[email protected]
[email protected]
1.Rev: Sep 20, 1994
Status of this document
=======================
This FSC suggests a proposed protocol for the FidoNet(r)
community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Distribution of this document is unlimited.
Fido and FidoNet are registered marks of Tom Jennings and
Fido Software.
Purpose
=======
This document should introduce a widely used standardised
extension to FTS-0001, like FTS-0006, 0007 and 0008 are, and
provides a new way to switch to a new more confortable bundling
method. I call this method XType-1. This is also more convenient
than FSC-0014 (an earlier binary-style msg proposal) and allows
multimedia extensions for further support (e.g. samples and
pictures like World-Wide-Webb). An example how to implement MM
extensions can be found at the end of this document. Note: This
proposal does not suggest how to implement MM extensions, it
should only demonstrate the flexibility of XType-1.
Prologue
========
The new bundling method (XType-1) that document is introducing is
NOT backward compatible. So only new software packages may offer
this bundling method.
Why introducing a new bundle format?
====================================
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 8 16 Jun 1997
Well, FSC-0001, 0039, 0048 and 0045 are not very comfortable to
handle. Software must be very complex to process a Type-2 packet
and looking for control lines like SEEN-BYs, MSGIDs, REPLYs and
so on slows down the importing, processing and exporting of every
mail.
How can I recognize a new XType-1 bundle?
=========================================
XType-1 bundles are using a new extension "*.PKX" and not longer
"*.PKT". So software can recognize a reveived XType-1 packet in a
very easy way. Older software that do not know the XType-1
bundling method will not touch the file. But it is highly
recommended to send the XType-1 bundles only to nodes you know
about that they can process this new bundling method. Filename
naming is the same as in FTSC-0001 explained. Only the extension
has been changed from "PKT" to "PKX". For older software it is
possible to convert the XType-1 format in one of the older
formats like FSC-0001, 0039, 0048 and 0045.
Packet Header
=============
Offset
dec hex
.-----------------------------------------------------.
0 0 | HeaderVersion ($01) | I/M-Format [1] |
[2] +--------------------------+------------------------
--+
2 2 | ProductCode (*) | ProductCode (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
4 4 | Revision (major) | Revision (minor) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
6 6 | origZone (*) | origZone (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
8 8 | origNet (*) | origNet (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
10 A | origNode (*) | origNode (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
12 C | origPoint (*) | origPoint (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
14 E | destZone (*) | destZone (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
16 10 | destNet (*) | destNet (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
18 12 | destNode (*) | destNode (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
20 14 | destPoint (*) | destPoint (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
22 16 | password |
| 8 bytes, null padded |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
30 1E | Date/Time in POSIX 1003.1 format (*) |
| (4 bytes) |
[5] +--------------------------+------------------------
--+
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 9 16 Jun 1997
34 22 | CapabilWord (*) | CapabilWord (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
36 24 | length of origNetwork (in bytes) (*) |
[3]
+-----------------------------------------------------+
38 26 | origNetwork, zero when "length of origNetwork"=0 |
[4]
| null padded to an even length |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
~~ ~~ | length of destNetwork (in bytes) (*) |
[3]
+-----------------------------------------------------+
~~ ~~ | destNetwork, zero when "length of destNetwork"=0 |
[4]
| null padded to an even length |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
~~ ~~ | zero or more |
~ packed ~
| messages |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
~~ ~~ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
'-----------------------------------------------------'
(*) high-low-byte or low-high-byte according to I/M-Format-Flag
(see [1]).
[1] This flag defines Intel ($00) or Motorola ($01) format.
Intel-Format stores low-byte first, Motorola-Format stores
high-byte first.
(2) HeaderVersion $01 means XType-1 ($02 means XType-2 and so on).
(3) Length of network domain (max. 64k characters). Zero, when
no network name is used, not known or your software does not
allow a 5D address. When this field is $0000 the next field
(the domain itself) will not be stored.
(4) Domain names are not case sensitive.
(5) POSIX 1003.1 format: Long integer containing the number of
seconds since the 1st of January 1970 (00:00:00).
Packet = PacketHeader { PakdMessage } $00 $00
PacketHeader = $01 /* $01 means XType-1 header
*/
I/M-Format /* $00=Intel format, $01=Motorola
format*/
productCode /* 0 for Fido, write to FTSC for
others */
revision /* revision or 0
*/
origZone /* zone of pkt sender (otherwise
null) */
origNet /* of packet, not of messages in
packet */
origNode /* zone of pkt sender (otherwise
null) */
origPoint /* zone of pkt sender (otherwise
null) */
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 10 16 Jun 1997
destZone /* zone of pkt receiver (otherwise
null)*/
destNet /* of packet, not of messages in
packet */
destNode /* of packet, not of messages in
packet */
destPoint /* of packet, not of messages in
packet */
password /* session pasword (otherwise null)
*/
date /* of packet creation, binary coded
*/
time /* of packet creation, binary coded
*/
CapabilWord /* bitvector of XType versions known
by */
/* orig. software
*/
origLength /* length of orig domain
*/
origNetwork /* network of pkt sender
*/
destLength /* length of dest domain
*/
destNetwork /* network of pkt receiver
*/
msb Capability Word lsb
Node Supports ------------FTSC Type Supported **)------------
U S 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Type-N,XType-1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
^ ^
| +-- "S" Indicates nodes able to process type
2,
| type 2+ or stone age style packets
+----- "U" Indicates nodes able to process RFC-
822 bundles.
** - In the example bit definitions only XType-1
is defined now. The rest are to be concidered
"reserved by FTSC".
Generating XType-1 bundles
==========================
Do we have a CW Does CW indicate
stored for dest? YES ----> higher packets YES ---> Generate
higher
NO we support? packet
| NO
\|/ |
+-----<----------------------+
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 11 16 Jun 1997
|
Fill header with all info
|
Add Messages
|
Terminate packet
|
Send packet
Receiving bundles
=================
Receiving a PKX? NO -------------> Old style (PKT) format
YES
|
HeaderVersion = $01 NO -------------> Process XType-Other
YES
|
Store CW
|
Process
Packed Messages in the XType-1 bundle
=====================================
To conserve space and eliminate fields which would be meaningless
if sent, messages are packed for transmission in a binary style.
XType-1 uses two different styles, a netmail style and an
echomail style.
Packed Netmail Message
Offset
dec hex
.-----------------------------------------------------.
0 0 | 0 | 1 | I/M-Format [1] |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
2 2 | origZone (*) | origZone (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
4 4 | origNet (*) | origNet (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
6 6 | origNode (*) | origNode (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
8 8 | origPoint (*) | origPoint (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
10 A | destZone (*) | destZone (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
12 C | destNet (*) | destNet (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
14 E | destNode (*) | destNode (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
16 10 | destPoint (*) | destPoint (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 12 16 Jun 1997
18 12 | Attribute (*) | Attribute (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
20 14 | cost (*) | cost (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
22 16 | Time/Date string (20 characters) |
[2]
+-----------------------------------------------------+
42 2A | length of origNetwork (in bytes) (*) |
[3]
+-----------------------------------------------------+
44 2C | origNetwork, zero when "length of origNetwork"=0 |
| null padded to an even length |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
~~ ~~ | length of destNetwork (in bytes) (*) |
[3]
+-----------------------------------------------------+
~~ ~~ | destNetwork, zero when "length of destNetwork"=0 |
| null padded to an even length |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
~~ ~~ | variable fields |
~ ~
| |
`-----------------------------------------------------'
Packed Echomail Message
Offset
dec hex
.-----------------------------------------------------.
0 0 | 0 | 2 | I/M-Format [1] |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
2 2 | Attribute (*) | Attribute (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
4 4 | cost (*) | cost (*) |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
6 6 | Time/Date string (20 characters) |
[2] +--------------------------+------------------------
--+
26 1A | variable fields |
~ ~
| |
`-----------------------------------------------------'
(*) high-low-byte or low-high-byte according to I/M-Format-Flag
(see [1]).
[1] This flag defines Intel ($00) or Motorola ($01) format.
Intel-Format stores low-byte first, Motorola-Format stores
high-byte first. Date/Time always stored in the format above!
[2] Time/Date string (ascii format) Format (see FTS):
DAY [ ] MONTH [ ] JEAR [ ][ ] HOUR [:] MINUTE [:] SECOND [0]
DAY: [00] ... [31]
MONTH: [Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec]
JEAR: [00] ... [99]
HOUR: [00] ... [23]
MINUTE: [00] ... [59]
SECOND: [00] ... [59]
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 13 16 Jun 1997
(3) Length of network domain (max. 64k characters). Zero, when
no network name is used, not known or your software does not
allow a 5D address. When this field is $0000 the next field
(the domain itself) will not be stored.
Due to routing, the origin and destination net and node of a
packet are often quite different from those of the messages
within it, nor need the origin and destination nets and nodes of
the messages within a packet be homogenous.
PakdMessage = $01 /* $01 indicates packed netmail
message*/
I/M-Format /* $00=Intel, $01=Motorola-Format
*/
origZone /* of message */
origNet /* of message */
origNode /* of message */
origPoint /* of message */
destZone /* of message */
destNet /* of message */
destNode /* of message */
destPoint /* of message */
AttributeWord /* as described in FTS-0001
*/
cost /* in lowest unit of originator's
*/
/* currency
*/
Date/Time /* message body was last edited
*/
origLength /* length of orig domain
*/
origNetwork /* network of pkt sender
*/
destLength /* length of dest domain
*/
destNetwork /* network of pkt receiver
*/
PakdMessage = $02 /* $02 indicates packed echomail
message*/
I/M-Format /* $00=Intel, $01=Motorola-Format
*/
AttributeWord /* as described in FTS-0001
*/
cost /* in lowest unit of originator's
*/
/* currency
*/
Date/Time /* message body was last edited
*/
AttributeWord bit meaning
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 14 16 Jun 1997
--- --------------------
0 + Private
1 + s Crash
2 Recd
3 Sent
4 + FileAttached
5 InTransit
6 Orphan
7 KillSent
8 Local
9 s HoldForPickup
10 + unused
11 s FileRequest
12 + s ReturnReceiptRequest
13 + s IsReturnReceipt
14 + s AuditRequest
15 s FileUpdateReq
s - need not be recognized, but it's ok
+ - not zeroed before packeting
Bits numbers ascend with arithmetic significance of bit position.
What is a variable field:
=========================
A variable field consists of a header of four bytes length:
.-----------------------------------------------------.
0 | DATA LENGTH (*) | DATA LENGTH (*) |
| $0000 when last field |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
2 | FIELD-ID |
| "ND" (end data) when last field |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
4 | FIELD-DATA |
~ ~
| zero padded to an even length |
`-----------------------------------------------------'
Defined FIELD-ID's:
===================
FIELD-ID - synonym to
--------------------------------------------------------------
FR "From" user
TO "To" user
SJ "Subject"
AR AREA (only used in echomails)
PD ^PID
TD ^TID
ED ^EID
MD ^MSGID
RP ^REPLY
RT ^REPLYTO (used by uucp gateways)
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 15 16 Jun 1997
RA ^REPLYADDR (used by uucp gateways)
SN ^SEEN-BY (only used in echomails)
VA ^VIA (only used in netmails)
RN ^REALNAME
SP ^SPLIT
CS ^CHARSET or ^CHRS
OR Origin (only used in echomails)
TL Tearline
ML Mailtext follows
ND End of data fields
--------------------------------------------------------------
multimedia extensions (explanation follows):
VO audio data VOC format
WA audio data WAV format
MI MIDI data
GF bitmap data GIF
TI bitmap data TIFF
JP bitmap data JPEG
AV video data AVI
--------------------------------------------------------------
write to St.Slabihoud for more...
All fields must have an even length. An odd field length must
be aligned to an even one with a padded 0.
Field = dataLength /* of field data (incl. 0) */
fieldID /* see table */
fieldData /* Field data */
Example (NetMail):
==================
From: Stephan Slabihoud on 2:2446/110.6
To : Guenther Paczia on 2:2446/110
Subj: This is a testmail
-----------------------------------------
^PID: AVALON 3.72
^MSGID: 2:2446/
[email protected] a3dbcfe5
^MYCTRL nothing interest
This is the message body
.-----------------------------------------------------.
| MESSAGE-HEADER |
~ ~
| |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| PACKED NETMAIL MESSAGE HEADER |
~ ~
| |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 18 | 0 |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 'F' | 'R' |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 'Stephan Slabihoud', $00 |
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 16 16 Jun 1997
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 16 | 0 |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 'T' | 'O' |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 'Guenther Paczia', $00 |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 18 | 0 |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 'S' | 'J' |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 'This is a testmail' |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 12 | 0 |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 'P' | 'D' |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 'AVALON 3.72', $00 |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 34 | 0 |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 'M' | 'D' |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| '2:2446/
[email protected] a3dbcfe5\0' |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 50 | 0 |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 'M' | 'L' |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| '^MYCTRL nothing interest', $0A |
| 'This is the message body', $0A |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 0 | 0 |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 'N' | 'D' |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| more messages or zero |
~ ~
| |
+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
'-----------------------------------------------------'
Unknown control lines are stores as usual in the message body. So
it is possible to receive a XType-1 packet and convert it into an
old style Type-2+ packet to send to it to another systems that do
not recognize the new Xtype-n bundles.
Messages can be longer than 65535 bytes. Just use the 'ML' fields
more than once. When importing such a mail the importer can
easily split the mail into smaller parts. All 'ML' fields can be
added to one big mail, or each 'ML' text can be stored in its own
message. According to older software each 'ML' field should not
be longer than 8 kbyte (but it is allowed to use longer fields!).
All fields are unsigned integer.
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 17 16 Jun 1997
Example: How to implement MultiMedia extensions (draft version):
================================================================
Graphics and sounds are coded in one of the following fields:
Audio: VO,WA,MI
Bitmap: GF,TI,JP
Video: AV
Each field-data starts with a multimedia header:
.------------------------.
0 0 | Name (Title) |
| 16 chars (zero padded) |
+------------------------+
16 10 | ID |
| 32bit Random Number |
+------------------------+
20 14 | Flags |
| 16bit bitfield |
+------------------------+
22 16 | 42 reserved bytes |
| |
+------------------------+
64 40 | start of data |
~ ~
| |
'------------------------'
Flags:
Bit 0/1 - 1 = align left
2 = align right
3 = center
0 = reserved
Bit 2-15 - reserved
There are some possibilties for a mail editor to show/play the
multimedia extensions:
1. It shows the mail in the first window and a list of all
available fields in an extra (selection) window. The user
selects the picture/sound from the selection window.
2. Pictures will be put together with the mailtext in ONE window
(a button will be shown when it is an audio field). To
define the place where a picture (or other multimedia
extension) is shown put following ^A-control line into the
mailbody: ^MMEDIA: <field> <id> [<infotext>]
<field> is the "variable field" shortcut.
<id> is the 32bit ID in hex from the multimedia header.
<infotext> can be used as infotext for buttons.
Example of ML field (mailbody):
------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to\n
^MMEDIA: GF 5417fde6\n\n
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 18 16 Jun 1997
Please select:\n\n
To hear my voice click on the button:\n
^MMEDIA: VO 2f4dca67 Say it\n
I am watching you ;-):\n
^MMEDIA: GF 5627320f Click here\n
------------------------------------------------------------
This mail could be shown as follows:
------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to:
+------------------------------+
| GIF-Picture |
+------------------------------+
Please select:
To hear my voice:
+--------+
| Say it |
+--------+
I am watching you ;-):
+-------------+
| |
| GIF-Picture |
| |
+-------------+
------------------------------------------------------------
Note: All pictures can be shown as button as well. This should
be switchable in the mail editor.
Credits
=======
Thanx to Jonathan de Boyne Pollard, Peter Dreuw, Daniel Roesen
and Rowan Crowe for their good ideas.
Epilog
======
That's all, now it's up to you to decide whether or not to
implement it.
-30-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Document: FSC-0083
| Version: 001
| Date: 17 June 1995
|
| Jonathan de Boyne Pollard, FIDONET#2:440/4.0
A proposed standard for message IDs on FTN systems.
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 19 16 Jun 1997
by
Jonathan de Boyne Pollard, FIDONET#2:440/4.0
Version 0.02, Sun 19950507
This document is (c) Copyright 1995 Jonathan de Boyne Pollard,
all rights reserved. Originally written on Tuesday 19950131.
Permission is hereby granted to copy and use this document
without modification in any way that you see fit, provided
that you do not attempt to make money from it, and that you
understand that I take no responsibility whatsoever for any
effect that it may have on your machine, data, marital status,
or cat.
Especial permission to freely use and redistribute this
document in its original form is given to developers of FTN
softwares and whatever FIDONET Technical Standards bodies may
exist from time to time.
-----------------------
0.0 Definition of terms
-----------------------
This document assumes familiarity with several terms in common
use in discussion of mail systems, such as `User Agent',
`Message Transport Agent', and so forth.
Robot mail programs qualify as UAs, incidentally.
0.1 Knackered Backward Form
---------------------------
This specification uses a modified BNF notation for discussion
of textual representation of message IDs.
Literal syntax elements (terminal nodes of the grammar) are
enclosed in single quotes.
'MSGID:' '@' '<' '"'
Non-terminal nodes are enclosed in angle brackets (greater
than and less then signs).
<quoted-text> <hex-text> <q-p-
site-identifier>
Production rules comprise a non-terminal, followed by
productions. Alternate productions for the same non-terminal
are separated by a vertical bar.
<qtext-chars> ::=
'"' '"'
| <any-character-except-quotes-NUL-or-
CR>
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 20 16 Jun 1997
Optional sequences within a production are indicated in two
ways. Square brackets enclose a sequence that may occur
exactly once or not at all.
[ '@' <dns-name> ':' ]
Curly braces enclose a sequence that may be repeated any
number of times. A leading numeric prefix (usually 0 or 1)
indicates the minimum number of repetitions.
1*{ <hex-character> }
0.1.1 Some standard production rules
------------------------------------
<whitespace-char> ::= <tab> | <space>
<whitespace> ::= 1*{ <whitespace-char> }
<hex-character> ::=
'0'|'1'|'2'|'3'|'4'|'5'|'6'|'7'|'8'|'9'|
'A'|'B'|'C'|'D'|'E'|'F'|
'a'|'b'|'c'|'d'|'e'|'f'
<upper-hex-char> ::=
'0'|'1'|'2'|'3'|'4'|'5'|'6'|'7'|'8'|'9'|'A'|'B'|'C'|'D'|'E'|'F'
<qtext-char> ::=
'"' '"'
| <any-ASCII-character-except-quotes-NUL-or-
CR>
<quoted-text> ::= '"' 0*{ <qtext-char> } '"'
<quoted-char> ::=
<any-ASCII-character-except-quotes-
backslash-NUL-or-CR>
| '\' <any-ASCII-character-execpt-NUL-or-CR>
<quoted-string> ::= '"' 0*{ <quoted-char> } '"'
<word> ::= 1*{ <any-ASCII-character-above-SPACE-and-
below-DEL> }
Note the difference between the two forms of quoting.
<quoted-text> is a string with embedded quotation marks
represented by double quotation marks (the way that most BASIC
languages do). However, <quoted-string> is a string with all
quotation marks and backslashes (and, indeed, any other
character) escaped by the backslash character, in the style of
the C and C++ languages.
-------------------------------------
1.0 Definition and use of message IDs
-------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 21 16 Jun 1997
For the purposes of this document, the network is considered
to form a vast distributed database of messages, which uses
replication and store and forward distribution to ensure that
all carriers of the database are kept up to date. Every
message, whether netmail or echomail, carries a primary
message ID that uniquely identifies it, and zero or more
reference message IDs that uniquely identify any messages that
it refers to.
A primary message ID is a globally unique key that is used for
uniquely identifying any single given mail message in the
database (that is, counting all replicas of a message over all
of the network as "one"). The reference message IDs are used
by user agents to form a reply graph, allowing the the user to
easily navigate the messagebase.
Message transport protocols may require the data in a message
ID to be encoded so that it may be safely transported. This
standard distinguishes between the "underlying" message IDs
and the encoded forms. This chapter discusses the underlying
message IDs and the concepts behind them without reference to
a particular encoding, and subsequent chapters discuss the
various encoded forms.
1.1 Components of a message ID
------------------------------
A message ID comprises two parts, namely a site identifier and
a local part. Both of these parts are arbitrary 8-bit binary
data, that implementations are free to store in any way they
choose, but which they should never alter. There are no
distinguished characters in either the site identifier or
local part, especially not terminating characters. So
implementations must usually store an additional length count
for both.
The "minimum maximum" lengths for the site ID and local part
are 64 octets each, and conforming implementations may not
impose shorter maximum length restrictions. In fact,
implementations are encouraged to impose no length
restrictions on message IDs whatsoever (for example, it is not
unreasonable to expect site IDs to exceed 256 octets on
occasion).
1.2 Preservation of uniqueness
------------------------------
A site that creates messages (by entering them into the
distributed database) must also issue message IDs, and must
ensure that the global uniqueness property of message IDs is
preserved.
A site MUST ensure that it issues unique local parts to
individual messages. Two or more sites may not have the same
site identifier, unless they *all* co-operate to ensure that
they do not issue duplicate local parts.
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 22 16 Jun 1997
The administrative procedures necessary to obtain a unique
site identifier are beyond the scope of this document.
Usually site identifiers will be FTN 5D addresses, or fully
qualified DNS names, because administrative procedures for
assigning such are already in place. However, they are not
restricted to be such.
The means by which a site invents new local parts is beyond
the scope of this document. A discussion of some example
options for implementors to consider is given in an appendix.
1.3 Reference message IDs
-------------------------
Reference message IDs in a message denote messages to which it
is related, comprising a "local subset" of the overall reply
graph (i.e. the direct and indirect ancestors of the message),
which each message carries around with it.
Carrying around multiple reference message IDs provides
overlap, allowing for the overall reply graph to be
reconstructed even in the absence of intermediate messages (if
they had expired, or had not yet arrived due to propagation
lag, for example).
UAs that conform to this standard MUST ensure that only
messages that start new threads (i.e. messages entered into
the network not in response to any existing message) have no
reference message IDs.
All other messages that they create MUST contain at least one
reference message ID, being that of the message that is being
responded to.
[[ Luckily, schemes already in existence mean that in practice
non-conforming User Agents will generally preserve this
single back link, as well. ]]
When responding to a message, user agents must create the
reference message ID list of the response by taking the list
of reference message IDs from the original message, and
appending the primary message ID of the original message to
the tail.
A reference message ID list should not be truncated, unless
transport or storage limitations are in danger of being
exceeded. In which case, message IDs may only be removed from
the head of the list. Removing from the tail would eliminate
links to immediate ancestor messages, and removing from the
middle would alter the reply graph.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--
2.0 Quoted printable encoding for storing 8-bit data in 7-bit
transports
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 23 16 Jun 1997
--------------------------------------------------------------
----------
To encode the 8-bit data in message IDs for transport by 7-bit
transport layers, we use a variation on the widely used Quoted
Printable form [RFC1521] [RFC1522].
2.1 Grammar of Quoted Printable encoding
----------------------------------------
The grammar of the 7-bit encoding of 8-bit data in a quoted
printable word is as follows.
<q-p-word> ::=
<word>
| <quoted-text>
| [ '=' ] 1*{ <q-p-character> } [ '=' ]
<q-p-character} ::=
<any-ASCII-character-bar-ctls-wspace-
quote-and-equals>
| <q-p-quoted-char>
<q-p-quoted-char> ::= '=' <upper-hex-char> <upper-hex-
char>
2.2 Conversion from 8-bit to 7-bit
----------------------------------
Rule #1 (non-quoted transparent 7-bit): Where the 8-bit data
consist of nothing but ASCII characters above SPACE and below
DEL, they may be copied literally to the 7-bit representation.
Rule #2 (quoted transparent 7-bit): Where the 8-bit data
consist of nothing but ASCII characters except CR and NUL,
they may be converted to the 7-bit representation by enclosing
them in quotes, and escaping every embedded quotation mark
with a second quotation mark.
Rule #3 (8-bit quoted): Where the 8-bit data contain CR or
NUL, or any non-ASCII characters, they are converted to a 7-
bit representation in two stages.
Firstly, all non-ASCII characters, all ASCII control
characters, SPACE, DEL, '"', and '=', are converted to
"quoted" form. Quoted form is an '=' character followed by
the hexadecimal value of the character represented as two
uppercase hexadecimal digits.
Secondly, the entire string is then enclosed by one
leading and one trailing '=' character.
2.3 Conversion from 7-bit to 8-bit
----------------------------------
Where the 7-bit field is delimited by equals signs, it is a
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 24 16 Jun 1997
fair bet that it comprises 8-bit data to which Rule 3 has been
applied. However, it is possible that sites in the 7-bit
world may produce data with leading and trailing equals signs.
Reverse of Rule #3 : If, after stripping the leading and
trailing '=', the remaining text can be converted back using
the reverse of Rule 3, then that 8-bit data is the actual
message ID. Otherwise the reverse of Rule 2 should be applied
to the original 7-bit data.
Reverse of Rule #2 : If the 7-bit data are enclosed by quotes
the reverse of Rule 2 should be applied to remove the
enclosing quotes and any embedded quotes (8-bit form does not
have delimiter characters and so does not require quoting).
Otherwise the reverse of Rule 1 should be applied.
Reverse of Rule #1 : The 7-bit data are copied to the 8-bit
data.
2.4 Rationale
-------------
The intention is that <q-p-word> tokens will not be parsed as
separate words by most 7-bit grammars. The elimination of
quotes, whitespace, and control characters by Rule 3 is part
of achieving this.
Rules 1 and 2 allow message IDs created by 7-bit standards to
enter and travel within the 8-bit world, and be restored to
their original form when they return to the 7-bit world.
Returning 7-bit message IDs to their original form means that
7-bit duplicate checking is not broken by 8-bit gateways.
The unfortunate side-effect is that any 8-bit data generated
in the 7-bit world will be returned to the 7-bit world as 7-
bit data in Q-P encoded form. However, the original 8-bit
data are unlikely to work in the 7-bit world in the first
place, so this is no great loss.
Rule 3 is the most general rule of the three. Rule 3 applies
to true 8-bit message IDs generated in the 8-bit world that
use 8-bit characters, allowing them to travel across the 7-bit
world with a reasonable chance of remaining intact.
The elimination of the equals sign by Rule 3, replacing it
with its Q-P encoding, ensures that the decoding process can
assume that an equals sign not followed by two uppercase hex
characters is not a valid Rule 3 encoding, and so fall back to
decoding Rule 2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
3.0 Storage of message IDs in type 2.0, 2.0+, and 2.2 message packets
--------------------------------------------------------------
-------
Type 2.0 message packets [FTS0001], type 2.0+ message packets
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 25 16 Jun 1997
[FSC0039], and type 2.2 message packets [FSC0045] are used for
message transport over much of FIDONET. They do not have
space in their message headers available for message IDs
(along with a lot of other things), therefore message IDs must
be transferred to the body of the message for transport in
these forms, and retrieved from the body of the message
afterwards.
The existing "kludge line" mechanisms [FSC0068] are used to do
this.
There are two concerns here.
Firstly, it is preferable that as much of the reply graph as
possible is preserved, even in the face of tools that use
existing MSGID/REPLY schemes [FTS0009].
Secondly, message IDs are 8 bit data, and must be encoded into
a 7-bit form that will be reliably transported in the bodies
of type 2.0, 2.0+, and 2.2 message packets.
3.1 Conversion to and from kludge lines
---------------------------------------
The primary message ID of a message is stored to and retrieved
from a "MSGID:" kludge line.
All of the reference message IDs of a message are stored, in
order from first to last, in a single "REFER:" kludge line.
The last reference message ID of a message (its immediate
ancestor, in other words) is stored in a "REPLY:" kludge line.
Note that the information in the "REFER:" kludge line is a
superset of the information in the "REPLY:" kludge line.
If a message has zero reference message IDs (it is the start
of a new thread), then the "REFER:" and "REPLY:" kludge lines
are omitted.
If, upon decoding from type 2.0, 2.0+, or 2.2 message
transport format, a "REFER:" kludge line exists, then its
contents are assumed to be the complete list of reference
message IDs (in encoded form) for the message, and the
"REPLY:" kludge line is ignored. Otherwise, the content of
the "REPLY:" kludge line (if any) is used for the single
reference message ID of the message.
3.2 Compatibility with existing MSGID/REPLY schemes
---------------------------------------------------
There are two compatibility considerations. It is important
that encoded message IDs be correctly parsed by
implementations using older less versatile standards. It is
also important that implementations expecting older
MSGID/REPLY pairs will destroy as little linking information
as possible.
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 26 16 Jun 1997
3.2.1 Grammar considerations
----------------------------
There are two valid interpretations of FTS-0009, both of which
(should) use the following grammar :
<msgid> ::= <soh> 'MSGID: ' <address-text>
<whitespace> <hex-text>
<reply> ::= <soh> 'REPLY: ' <address-text>
<whitespace> <hex-text>
<soh> ::= ASCII SOH character
<address-text> ::= <quoted-text> | <word>
<hex-text> ::= 1*{ <hex-character> }
The "VFIDO" interpretation assumes that MSGID/REPLY kludges
are the textual representation of an (address, number) ordered
pair. Systems using this interpretation may change the case
of <hex-text> or may renormalise <quoted-text> if they find it
to be a FTN 5D address.
Message IDs from this standard that are stored in MSGID/REPLY
kludges will be mangled by software applying the VFIDO
interpretation of FTS-0009. Such software is not compatible
with this standard.
The "Mark Kimes" interpretation assumes that MSGID/REPLY
kludges are text separated by whitespace, and preserves the
contents of <quoted-text> and <hex-text> without change.
The encoding scheme outlined in section 2.2 produces two
whitespace separated text fields. So software applying the
"Mark Kimes" interpretation of FTS-0009 will not mangle the
encoded message IDs.
In many cases, softwares using the "Mark Kimes" interpretation
will in fact parse <hex-text> as
<hex-text> ::= <word>
As long as software applying the "Mark Kimes" interpretation
of FTS-0009 is not written to truncate either field, or
complain about a non-numeric <hex-text> portion, it is
compatible with this standard.
3.2.2 Reply linking
-------------------
FTS-0009 implementations will generate MSGID kludges, transfer
the content (Mark Kimes interpretation) of the MSGID kludge
data of an original message into the REPLY data of a response
message, and will not generate a REFER kludge.
So reply linking will be preserved, but reference information
beyond the immediate ancestor of a message will be lost.
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 27 16 Jun 1997
3.3 Quoted printable encoding
-----------------------------
The 8-bit data in message IDs is encoded into 7-bit
MSGID/REPLY data for transport in type 2.0, 2.0+, and 2.2
message packets by using the quoted printable encoding
outlined in chapter 2, along with the following grammar.
<msgid> ::= <soh> 'MSGID: ' <7-bit-encoding>
<reply> ::= <soh> 'REPLY: ' <7-bit-encoding>
<refer> ::= <soh> 'REFER: '
<7-bit-encoding> 0*{
<whitespace> <7-bit-encoding> }
<7-bit-encoding> ::= <q-p-site-ID> <whitespace> <q-p-
local-part>
<q-p-site-ID> ::= <q-p-word>
<q-p-local-part> ::= <q-p-word>
Applying Rule 1 of Q-P encoding to local parts is safe as long
as <hex-text> (from the FTS-0009 grammar) is in actuality
treated as <word> by most implementations, as outlined in the
compatibility notes.
Rule 2 should not be applied to local parts, because the
grammar of FTS-0009 does not allow for quoted text in the
<hex-text> portion.
The restrictions in Rule 3 have deliberate effect here. FTS-
0009 sites will rarely produce data with leading and trailing
equals signs, so reversing Rule 3 will be unlikely to be
subject to spurious data. In theory, relaxing Rule 3 reversal
to include decoding lowercase hexadecimal as well as uppercase
hexadecimal would mean that sites that convert the case of
MSGID/REPLY (as part of the "VFIDO" interpretation) would not
break Q-P encoding.
However, the "VFIDO" interpretation will usually do far more
damage than simple case conversion, which will be impossible
to restore. Rather than attempt the reverse conversion (which
could have the undesirable effect of causing different
messages to end up with the same 8-bit message ID if the local
part were truncated to eight characters in the 7-bit world),
any "VFIDO" mangling that occurs will prevent Q-P decoding
from succeeding.
This means that 8-bit message IDs that look like incomplete or
damaged Q-P encodings are not gateway problems, but are more
likely to be the result of a site using the "VFIDO"
interpretation in the 7-bit world.
------------------------------------------------------
4.0 Storage of message IDs in type 2.3 message packets
------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 28 16 Jun 1997
The storage format of type 2.3 messages (so-called "extensible
type 2" [TYPE2EXT]) provides space in the message headers for
both a primary message ID and an arbitrary list of reference
message IDs.
All message IDs are stored as 8-bit binary strings, using
length counts rather than delimiters. Therefore message IDs
can be stored directly in type 2.3 messages.
------------------------------------------------------
5.0 Storage of message IDs in type 3.x message packets
------------------------------------------------------
There is such a wide variety of type 3 message formats that
this standard doesn't hope to cover them all.
For those with binary "chunks", chunk types 'PMID' (primary
message ID) and 'RFER' (reference message IDs) are expected to
have the following form :
|-----------------------------------------------------|
| Length of site identifier
WORD32 |
|-----------------------------------------------------|
| Site identifider
... |
|-----------------------------------------------------|
| Length of local part
WORD32 |
|-----------------------------------------------------|
| Local part
... |
|-----------------------------------------------------|
Those schemes that use text format headers and require field
delimiters may care to use the Q-P encoding outlined in
chapter 2.
---------------------------------------------------------
6.0 Storage of message IDs in RFC822 and RFC1036 messages
---------------------------------------------------------
The grammar of "Internet" messages is defined by the standards
for ARPA text messages [RFC0822] and for Usenet news messages
[RFC1036].
6.1 Restrictions on interconversion
-----------------------------------
Interconversion between a FIDO message ID and an RFC822
Message-ID is restricted by several factors. The major factor
is that RFC0822 actually places greater restrictions upon
Message-IDs than this standard does upon FIDO message IDs (in
part because this standard is designed to also be able to
handle X.400 message identifiers and others transparently as
well). It mandates that the <address> portion of a Message-ID
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 29 16 Jun 1997
be a valid DNS name.
A secondary factor is reversibility, in that many gateways
exist between FTN and RFC822, and so message IDs that cross
the boundary more than once will retain as much of their
original ID information as possible. There is more
information contained within a FIDO message ID than in an
RFC822 Message-ID. In particular, the <address> portions of
RFC822 Message-IDs are not case sensitive, whereas the site ID
of a FIDO message ID is treated as 8-bit data for the purposes
of comparison.
These are handled by restricting the allowable conversions
that a conformant gateway may use on a message ID, by ensuring
that all of the FIDO information is not lost when converted to
the (narrower bandwidth) RFC822 Message-ID format, and by
allowing gateway softwares to infer a meaning from the site
identifier portion of a message ID.
This is the *only* part of this standard where it is allowed
for softwares to place a meaning on the site identifier of a
message ID.
6.1 Converting to RFC822 form
-----------------------------
6.1.1 Site identifier recognition
---------------------------------
Gateway softwares are allowed to examine a site identifier of
a message ID and determine whether it is in a format that they
recognise or not. This standard specifies what gateway
softwares should do when they encounter a site identifier that
is a recognisable DNS name or one that is recognisable FIDO 5D
address, and what form the DNS name for RFC822 must take.
Site identifiers that are not FIDO 5D addresses are really
beyond the scope of FIDONET documentation. If an
implementation recognises another form of site identifier
(such as X.400 O/R addresses) then it is free to translate
that site identifier to and from DNS form, as long as it knows
how (there are RFCs on how to perform X.400 conversion).
This message ID standard imposes no restrictions on site
identifiers, allowing any scheme to be administered on
FIDONET. It is therefore up to the site identification
schemes themselves to provide their own mappings to and from
DNS names.
Gateways are free to drop messages with message IDs that they
do not understand how to convert. Both the FIDONET and RFC
worlds depend heavily upon message IDs for detecting messages
duplicates, and so it is better that a gateway should NOT
distribute messages with message ID formats that it doesn't
understand how to convert to RFC822 form, rather than that it
does so incorrectly.
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 30 16 Jun 1997
6.1.1.1 Site identifiers that are DNS names
-------------------------------------------
If the site identifier of a message ID can be parsed as a
legal DNS name according to the grammar of RFC822 then, even
if it cannot be resolved to an IP address or MX record, it
must be used as the domain name of the RFC message ID, and the
local part must be passed through unchanged.
This allows for RFC message IDs to enter and leave 8-bit
FIDONET without change, even via gateways that have no
knowledge of or connectivity to the originating RFC host.
6.1.1.2 Site identifiers that are FIDO 5D addresses
---------------------------------------------------
The conversion process for message IDs where the site
identifier can be parsed as a FIDO 5D address in the forms
DOMAIN#Z:N/N.P or Z:N/N.P@DOMAIN depends from the "domain" (in
the FIDO sense of the word) of the address.
6.1.1.2.1 Site identifiers that are 5D addresses in FIDONET
-----------------------------------------------------------
If the site identifier of a message ID is parseable as a FIDO
5D address of the form Z:N/N.P@FIDONET or FIDONET#Z:N/N.P
(i.e. in the FIDONET domain itself), then the DNS name used
for the RFC message ID must be the DNS equivalent of that
address.
This is because MX records exist in the DNS for all of the
zone:net pairs for 5D addresses in the FIDONET "domain", in
the form
p#.f#.n#.z#.fidonet.org
where # is a number without leading zeroes giving the
appropriate portion of the 5D address. Therefore this is the
conversion that must be used.
6.1.1.2.2 Site identifiers that are 5D addresses outside of
FIDONET
--------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Most other "domains" (in the FIDO sense of the word), are free
to choose their own DNS domain name, but have not yet done so.
Therefore, constructs such as p3.f0.n444.z81.os2net.ftn (which
several people have INCORRECTLY inferred from other FTS
documentation) are NOT ALLOWED as the DNS name in an RFC
Message-ID. .ftn is NOT a valid top-level DNS domain, for a
start, and there is no guarantee that OS2NET would adopt that
DNS name, either.
(p#.f#.n#.z#.os2net.fidonet.org anyone ?)
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 31 16 Jun 1997
6.1.1.2.3 Conversion of local parts
-----------------------------------
Where a gateway has recognised a site identifier to represent
a FIDO 5D address that it knows the DNS name for, the local
part must then be encoded.
According to the grammar in RFC822, any ASCII character (from
NUL to DEL) is legal in the local part of an RFC822 Message-
ID, because <quoted-pair> (q.v.) allows any special characters
to be escaped.
Since RFC822 transport is merely 7-bit just like type 2.0,
2.0, and 2.2 message packets are, we use the quoted-printable
scheme given in chapter 2.
However,
6.1.1.3 Site identifiers that are not recognisable 5D
addresses
--------------------------------------------------------------
-
No implementation may extend the FIDO 5D address to DNS name
conversions for site IDs that are given above. If the message
ID is "almost, but not quite" a FIDO 5D address, then the
message should for preference be discarded at the gateway
rather than being passed through.
Message IDs with abitrary site identifiers are perfectly
acceptable to this standard, since it ascribes no meaning to
site identifiers within FIDONET. However, RFC822 and the
existing RFC domain name system can only handle a restricted
subset of the whole range of FIDO 5D addresses.
6.1.1.4 Other site identifiers
------------------------------
As mentioned before, gateways are allowed to support other
site identification schemes that are not FIDO 5D addresses,
and convert site identifiers in those forms to DNS names as
they please.
It should be borne in mind when designing such conversion
schemes that the domain part of an RFC 822 message ID can only
contain ASCII characters that are not control characters,
whitespace, or special delimiter characters, because of the
definition of <atom> in that standard (q.v.). The quoted
printable encoding outlined in chapter 2 of this document is
probably not sufficient for handling full 8-bit site
identifier schemes, in which case the scheme in RFC1522 should
be investigated.
6.1.2 Preserving information
----------------------------
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 32 16 Jun 1997
Although this standard recognises two forms for a FIDO 5D
address, there is only one valid form for that address in the
DNS. For reverse conversions to succeed, when an RFC message
re-enters 8-bit FIDONET (possibly via another gateway), the
*exact form* of the original site identifier must be
reconstructed, otherwise FIDO softwares will treat the two
message IDs as different.
Although other schemes exist, which encode the 5D address in
the local part, and use a "generic" domain name of
"fidonet.org" (which is not a valid host name), it is
preferred that the semantics of a message ID ("WXYZ local part
generated at ABCDE site") be preserved, especially as FIDONET
sites are visible to the RFC world via the DNS anyway.
It is therefore suggested that the original FIDONET site
identifier (since it will be 7-bit text) be encoded as a
<comment> token immediately following the relevant message ID,
using quoting to escape any embedded punctuation (q.v. the
grammar in RFC 822).
6.2 Converting from RFC822 form
-------------------------------
When converting from RFC822 form back to 8-bit FIDONET message
IDs, gateways should determine whether the address portion of
the Message-ID is a hostname under the fidonet.org domain.
If it is, a comment token should be scanned for to find the
original form of the 5D address, and the site identifier
should be reconstructed from it if found, or from the given
DNS name in the form DOMAIN#Z:N/N.P if no comment token were
present. The inverse of the quoted printable encoding
outlined in chapter 2 should then be applied to the local
part.
Otherwise, the 7-bit RFC822 Message-ID should be stored in the
8-bit FIDONET message ID without change.
6.3 Reply linking
-----------------
According to RFC1036, message IDs occur in the Message-ID:
and in the References: header for news (echomail). Although
RFC822 specifies an In-Reply-To: header for mail (netmail),
it makes it difficult to use, because it need not contain a
message ID.
The model for message identification used by RFC1036 closely
matches the model outlined in this standard (it is probable
that there is only one way to skin this particular cat).
There is thus a direct mapping between the primary message ID
defined by this standard and the RFC1036 Message-ID: header,
and also between the reference message IDs defined by this
standard and the RFC1036 References: header.
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 33 16 Jun 1997
This means that in normal use the reference message ID list
will be properly maintained by Usenet softwares.
-----------------------------------------------
A.0 Discussion on generating unique local parts
-----------------------------------------------
How any given site generates unique local parts is up to it.
So this appendix should only be taken as a guideline.
On sites where there is only one piece of software assigning
message IDs (e.g. there is only one UA, or the MTA itself
assigns message IDs), then a simple "take a ticket" scheme
could work. Multiple instances of that piece of software
running simultaneously would need to arbitrate access to that
"ticket dispenser" amongst themselves.
A discussion of `sequencers' (which is the proper name for
this idea) and how atomic operations on them can be
implemented, can be found in any good computer science
textbook on concurrent systems.
Unfortunately, in today's heterogeneous world, it is difficult
to the point of impossibility to get every piece of software
to agree to use one single central sequencer.
It is obvious that using just the date/time for a message ID
is insufficient on multitasking systems, or even on single
tasking systems that can generate multiple messages per clock
tick.
What is less obvious is that it is not a good idea to use the
name of the software generating the message ID and a sequencer
maintained by that software as the unique local part. The
problem here is that it is not guaranteed that different
softwares will use different names (especially if they are
called "Message Editor" (-:), so it is possible that different
softwares could generate duplicate local parts.
Some form of "product ID code" would of course rectify this,
but given the amount of software in use and under development
these days, a centrally administered product ID database
hasn't been a viable option for decades now.
There are, of course, simpler schemes, that can guarantee to
produce unique local parts, because they rely on features that
are guaranteed unique to every individual application running,
and do not rely on different applications co-operating to use
the same central facilities, such as a site-wide sequencer.
One commonly used scheme is to use a combination of the
current date and time and the process and thread IDs of the
software creating the message ID.
e.g. 1995Jan31.123426.26.1
or 1995013112343600260001
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 34 16 Jun 1997
This doesn't have to be human-readable calendar time, of
course. It could equally well be the POSIX 1003.1 time
(seconds since The Epoch), or the Julian date plus the time of
day.
If the time isn't granular enough, a sequence number (which
can be maintained individually by each process) can be added
to increase its granularity.
On just about every operating system in the world, including
multi-user ones, the <time,process,thread,seq> 4-tuple will be
unique on one machine *forever* (or until the clock wraps
around, at least).
e.g. 1995Jan31.123426.26.1.2
or 19950131123436002600010003
On multiple machine sites, where all machines share the one
site identifier, the above scheme can be extended to include
the "hidden" local machine name, which will be assumed to be
made available (in some fashion) to the softwares generating
the message IDs.
This yields a unique <machine,time,process,thread,seq> 5-
tuple.
e.g. utopium.1995Jan31.123848.26.1.4
or utopium.19950131123907002600010005
Again, the "intra-site" machine name can be anything, from the
local uname() (for UNIX people) to the NETBIOS machine name
(for PC based LAN systems).
-------------------------
Bibliography and Author
-------------------------
[FTS0001] A Basic FIDONET Technical Standard, version 15.
Randy Bush, Pacific Systems Group. FIDONET#1:105/6.0.
30th August 1990.
( Defines the type 2.0 packet message
transport format. )
[FTS0009] A standard for message identifiers and reply chain
linkage, version 1. Jim Nutt. FIDONET#1:114/30.0. 17th
December 1991.
( Defines the MSGID/REPLY kludges. )
[FSC0034] Gateways to and from FIDONET. Technical,
administrative, and policy considerations. Randy Bush,
Pacific Systems Group. FIDONET 1:105/6.0. 30th August 1990.
( Discussion on features that should
be preserved across gateways, and on good gateway behaviour in
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 35 16 Jun 1997
general. )
[FSC0039] A type 2 packet extension proposal, version 4. Mark
A. Howard. FIDONET#1:260/340. 29th September 1990.
( Defines the type 2.0+ packet message
transport format. )
[FSC0045] A proposal for a new packet format, version 1. Thom
Henderson. FIDONET#1:107/542.1. 17th April 1990.
( Defines the type 2.2 packet message
transport format. )
[FSC0068] A proposed replacement for FTS-0004, version 1. Mark
Kimes. FIDONET#1:380/16.0. 13th December 1992.
( Defines kludge lines. )
[RFC0822] Standard for the format of ARPA Internet text
messages. David Crocker, University of Delaware. 13th August
1982.
( Defines the grammar and semantics of RFC
messages. )
[RFC1036] Standard for the interchange of USENET messages.
M Horton, AT&T bell labs; and R. Adams, Centre for seismic
studies. December 1987.
( Defines changes to the grammar and
semantics of RFC822 that are required for news instead of mail,
including reply linking. )
[RFC1521] MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part
One: Mechanisms for specifying and describing the format of
Internet message bodies. N. Borenstien, Bellcore; and N.
Freed, Innosoft. September 1993.
( Defines Quoted Printable encoding of text.
)
[RFC1522] MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part
One: Message header extensions for non ASCII text. K. Moore,
University of Tennesee. September 1993.
( Defines how to use Q-P encoding in message
headers. )
[TYPE2EXT] An extension to type 2.0, 2.0+, and 2.2 message
transport formats to eliminate most kludge lines from the
message body. Jonathan de Boyne Pollard. FIDONET#2:440/4.0.
[ Not yet released. ]
-----------
Jonathan de Boyne Pollard
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 36 16 Jun 1997
FIDONET#2:440/4.0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 37 16 Jun 1997
=================================================================
COORDINATORS CORNER
=================================================================
Nodelist-statistics as seen from Zone-2 for day 164
By Ward Dossche, 2:292/854
ZC/2
+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
|Zone|Nl-136|Nodelist-143|Nodelist-150|Nodelist-157|Nodelist-164|%%|
+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
| 1 | 8367| 8277 -90 | 8277 0 | 8182 -95 | 8182 0 |31|
| 2 | 15879|15855 -24 |15835 -20 |15774 -61 |15703 -71 |60|
| 3 | 800| 761 -39 | 765 4 | 758 -7 | 758 0 | 3|
| 4 | 543| 543 0 | 543 0 | 519 -24 | 514 -5 | 2|
| 5 | 87| 87 0 | 87 0 | 87 0 | 87 0 | 0|
| 6 | 1083| 1077 -6 | 1078 1 | 1078 0 | 1078 0 | 4|
+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
| 26759|26600 -159 |26585 -15 |26398 -187 |26322 -76 |
+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 38 16 Jun 1997
=================================================================
NET HUMOR
=================================================================
From: "Mike Riddle" <
[email protected]>
To: "Baker, Christopher" <
[email protected] (Christopher Baker)
Date: Fri, 16 May 97 08:12:01 -0600
Reply-To: "Mike Riddle" <
[email protected]>
Subject: Fwd: Java's Year 292 Million Bug
==================BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE==================
Received: from austin.onu.edu (austin.onu.edu [140.228.10.1]) by
monarch.papillion.ne.us (8.7.4/8.6.9) with ESMTP id BAA23416 for
[email protected]>; Fri, 16 May 1997 01:19:06 -0500
(CDT) Received: from austin.onu.edu (localhost.onu.edu [127.0.0.1])
by austin.onu.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id CAA85786
for <
[email protected]>; Fri, 16 May 1997
02:11:31 -0400
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 02:11:31 -0400
Errors-To:
[email protected]
Reply-To:
[email protected]
Originator:
[email protected]
Sender:
[email protected]
From: jenniferrose <
[email protected]>
To:
[email protected]
Subject: Java's Year 292 Million Bug
YEAR 2000 WOES DON'T AFFECT JAVA UNTIL A.D. 292271023
[5/13/97]
Sun Microsystems Inc. today acknowledged the Year 292 Million Bug in
the Java computer language, which could cause problems for Social
Security recipients and millions of other computer-dependent users in
292271023 A.D.
Dr. James Gosling, the inventor of Java, divulged the problem and
hastened to add that a team of specialists is now at work attempting
to solve the problem sometime within the next 292,271 millennia.
"We can't be certain Java will be around that long," said Gosling,
inventor of Java. "But then again, we can't take any chances. Two
hundred and ninety two million-plus years may seem like a long time
for a species. But relatively speaking, in astronomical terms, it's
nothing." Added Gosling, "I don't mean to brag, but Java is taking on
a life of its own. We do see it as the computing platform of the 21st
century and well beyond."
For more information contact Lisa Poulson at
[email protected]
or 408-343-1630.
http://java.sun.com/pr/1997/may/spotnews/sn970513.html
_____________________________________________________
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 39 16 Jun 1997
jennifer j. rose
[email protected] [email protected]
Lawyer, Attorney, Counselor, All-Purpose Bitch
P.O. Box 616 Shenandoah, IA 51601-0616
voice 712-246-5531 fax 712-246-5533 home unlisted
VISA/Mastercard Accepted
===================END FORWARDED MESSAGE===================
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 40 16 Jun 1997
=================================================================
NOTICES
=================================================================
Christopher Baker
Rights On! 1:18/14
A_THEIST Echo Available
A_theism means free of religion in the way a_political means free of
politics or a_sexual means free of sex characteristics or drives.
With that in mind and ever cognizant of the continued pressure of
religion to intrude itself into our government and its operations, the
A_THEIST Echo is provided to inform and alarm and hopefully wake up
the sleeping and too long silent majority to the peril on our
doorstep.
It is a Zone 1 Backbone Echo Hosted and Moderated by Rights On!
[1:18/14] and Christopher Baker [card carrying member of American
Atheists, Inc.]. Initial links may be obtained from your local
Backbone source connection.
The Echo is open to anyone who can discuss, without proselytizing, the
extreme desirability of maintaining the absolute separation of State
and church in this country as provided for in the U.S. Constitution
and other Constitutions around the world.
A sample of the first few messages and the statement of purpose of the
Echo is available as A_THEIST.ZIP from this system anytime except
0100-0130 ET and Zone 1 ZMH [USR HST ds online] if you wish to get an
idea of whether to commit disk space to the Echo. An archive of the
past traffic from the Echo is also available as A_ECHO1.ZIP,
A_ECHO2.ZIP, and A_ECHO3.ZIP.
Ask your Backbone connection to get it for you! The complete info is
available in the current ELISTnnn.XXX file available from your NEC or
REC or here. [Request ELIST.]
I hope you will join us or ask your Sysop to request a link via their
regular Backbone connections!
QOFM.
Chris
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Future History
1 Jul 1997
Canada Day - Happy Birthday Canada.
9 Jul 1997
Independence Day, Argentina.
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 41 16 Jun 1997
1 Aug 1997
International FidoNet PENPAL [Echo] meeting in Dijon, France
13 Oct 1997
Thanksgiving Day, Canada.
1 Dec 1997
World AIDS Day.
10 Dec 1997
Nobel Day, Sweden.
12 Jan 1998
HAL 9000 is one year old today.
22 May 1998
Expo '98 World Exposition in Lisbon (Portugal) opens.
1 Dec 1998
Fifteenth Anniversary of release of Fido version 1 by
Tom Jennings.
31 Dec 1999
Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed.
1 Jan 2000
The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec.
15 Sep 2000
Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens.
1 Jan 2001
This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E.
-- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this
Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 42 16 Jun 1997
=================================================================
FIDONEWS PUBLIC-KEY
=================================================================
[this must be copied out to a file starting at column 1 or
it won't process under PGP as a valid public-key]
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File-request FNEWSKEY from 1:1/23 [1:18/14] or download it from the
Rights On! BBS at 1-904-409-7040 anytime except 0100-0130 ET and Zone
1 ZMH at 1200-9600+ HST/V32B. The FidoNews key is also available on
the FidoNews homepage listed in the Masthead information.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 43 16 Jun 1997
=================================================================
FIDONET BY INTERNET
=================================================================
This is a list of all FidoNet-related sites reported to the Editor as
of this appearance.
============
FidoNet:
Homepage
http://www.fidonet.org
FidoNews
http://ddi.digital.net/~cbaker84/fidonews.html
HTML FNews
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6894/
WWW sources
http://www.scms.rgu.ac.uk/students/cs_yr94/lk/fido.html
FTSC page
http://www2.blaze.net.au/ftsc.html
Echomail
http://www.portal.ca/~awalker/index.html
WebRing
http://ddi.digital.net/~cbaker84/fnetring.html
============
Zone 1:
http://www.z1.fidonet.org
Region 10:
http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html
Region 11:
http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/
Region 13:
http://www.smalltalkband.com/st01000.htm
Region 14:
http://www.netins.net/showcase/fidonet/
Region 15:
http://www.smrtsys.com/region15/ [disappeared?]
Region 16:
http://www.tiac.net/users/satins/region16.htm
Region 17:
http://www.portal.ca/~awalker/region17.htm
REC17:
http://www.westsound.com/ptmudge/
Region 18:
http://www.citicom.com/fido.html
Region 19:
http://www.compconn.net
============
Zone 2:
http://www.z2.fidonet.org
ZEC2:
http://fidoftp.paralex.co.uk/zec.htm [shut down?]
Zone 2 Elist:
http://www.fidonet.ch/z2_elist/z2_elist.htm
Region 20:
http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish)
Region 24:
http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (in German)
Region 25:
http://members.aol.com/Net254/
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 44 16 Jun 1997
Region 27:
http://telematique.org/ft/r27.htm
Region 29:
http://www.rtfm.be/fidonet/ (in French)
Region 30:
http://www.fidonet.ch (in Swiss)
Region 34:
http://www.pobox.com/cnb/r34.htm (in Spanish)
REC34:
http://pobox.com/~chr
Region 36:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7207/
Region 41:
http://www.fidonet.gr (in Greek and English)
Region 48:
http://www.fidonet.org.pl
============
Zone 3:
http://www.z3.fidonet.org
============
Zone 4: (not yet listed)
Region 90:
Net 904:
http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (in Spanish)
============
Zone 5: (not yet listed)
============
Zone 6:
http://www.z6.fidonet.org
============
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 45 16 Jun 1997
=================================================================
FIDONEWS INFORMATION
=================================================================
------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION -------
Editor: Christopher Baker
Editors Emeritii: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell,
Donald Tees
"FidoNews Editor"
FidoNet 1:1/23
BBS 1-904-409-7040, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(ds)
more addresses:
Christopher Baker -- 1:18/14,
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
(Postal Service mailing address)
FidoNews Editor
P.O. Box 471
Edgewater, FL 32132-0471
U.S.A.
voice: 1-904-409-3040 [1400-2100 ET only, please]
[1800-0100 UTC/GMT]
------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET
INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system. It is a compilation
of individual articles contributed by their authors or their
authorized agents. The contribution of articles to this compilation
does not diminish the rights of the authors. OPINIONS EXPRESSED in
these articles ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS and not necessarily those of
FidoNews.
Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
Copyright 1997 Christopher Baker. All rights reserved. Duplication
and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For
use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or
the Editor.
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic
form may be obtained from the FidoNews Editor via manual download or
file-request, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet.
PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above postal
address. File-request FIDONEWS for the current Issue. File-request
FNEWS for the current month in one archive. Or file-request specific
back Issue filenames in distribution format [FNEWSEnn.ZIP] for a
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 46 16 Jun 1997
particular Issue. Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP
where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the
current year [7], i.e., FNWSFEB7.ZIP for all the Issues from Feb 97.
Annual volumes are available as FNEWSn.ZIP where n = the Volume number
1 - 14 for 1984 - 1997, respectively. Annual Volume archives range in
size from 48K to 1.4M.
INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via:
http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm
ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/
ftp://ftp.aminet.org/pub/aminet/comm/fido/
*=*=*
You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending email to:
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with a Subject line of: subscribe fnews-edist
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distribution use a Subject line of: unsubscribe fnews-edist with no
message to the same address above.
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You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at:
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STAR SOURCE for ALL Past Issues via FTP and file-request -
Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from:
ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/
Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents
for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 11 Megs.
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The current week's FidoNews and the FidoNews public-key are now also
available almost immediately after publication on the Editor's new
homepage on the World Wide Web at:
http://ddi.digital.net/~cbaker84/fidonews.html
There are also links there to jim barchuk's HTML FidoNews source and
to John Souvestre's FTP site for the archives. There is also an email
link for sending in an article as message text. Drop on over.
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A PGP generated public-key is available for the FidoNews Editor from
FIDONEWS 14-24 Page 47 16 Jun 1997
1:1/23 [1:18/14] by file-request for FNEWSKEY or by download from
Rights On! BBS at 1-904-409-7040 as FIDONEWS.ASC in File Area 18. It
is also posted twice a month into the PKEY_DROP Echo available on the
Zone 1 Echomail Backbone.
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SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews Editor, or file-requestable
from 1:1/23 [1:18/14] as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". ALL Zone Coordinators
also have copies of ARTSPEC.DOC. Please read it.
"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
trademarks of Tom Jennings, P.O. Box 410923, San Francisco, CA 94141,
and are used with permission.
"Disagreement is actually necessary,
or we'd all have to get in fights
or something to amuse ourselves
and create the requisite chaos."
-Tom Jennings
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