[nos-bbs] Questions related to JNOS 1.11f

[Barry Siegfried]

["Miroslav Skoric (YT7MPB)" <skoric at ptt.yu> wrote]

> I also recall a subroutine of FBB server which offered an automatic
> search trough the texts of bulletins in order to catch for specific
> words.  That might be another security measure to ensure the proper
> mailbox content.

Yes, I suppose that would work.  Is the FBB source "open"?  No doubt
such a subroutine could be ported to JNOS if somebody has enough of
an interest to do it.  My prediction is, however, that this will not
happen.

> I agree with the suggestion to compile as small a NOS as possible
> but, as a beginner in JNOS, what I miss is a basic manual explaining
> what must be #define(d) for a specific NOS usage and what may be left
> as #undef(ined).  For example, I only wanted to have an AX.25 mailbox
> for the local VHF users and a capability to forward the content with
> the other home computer running FBB.

The reason that there is no such "manual" is because there are
limitless possibilities for "specific NOS usage".  Everyone has
different needs and therefore uses NOS in a different manner, which
means that everyone's CONFIG.H file must be specific in order to
provide what they require.

I have more than 20 different CONFIG.H files in the source code
directories here which hold them, and of those 25, whenever I have
to compile a new or changed program I run a batch procedure that
automatically compiles all of them.  Then I have to distribute
them after they are compiled which is the fun part...

> I did not plan to run any pop3 or smtp Internet-like services and
> so I excluded the smtp server in one of the first iterations.  Later
> it appeared that without defined smtp server nothing worked - related
> to the mailbox.

You probably meant that nothing "mail-related worked related to the
mailbox".  That is because SMTP has the distinction of being a service
for which the client and server are so dependent upon each other that
you literally cannot have one without the other.  And many of the mail
receive handling routines that are used in the mailbox use subroutine
mechanics that are common to the SMTP server as well.  So if you
#undefine SMTP mail handling then you will #undefine mailbox mail
handling as well.

I have my own CONFIG.H setup "reverse" from that kind of logic, however
to make it as difficult as possible to disable anything you actually
need for your configuration.  For instance, even if you #undefine the
SMTP client or server, if you #define one of them then the other is
forcibly #defined and if you #define mailbox mail handling then both
the SMTP client and server are forcibly #defined as well.  This way
you aren't left with a program that won't do what you really want or
need it to do.

> Now somebody may ask: If you wanted just plain AX.25 mailbox, why
> didn't you choose DosFBB or MSYS or something?  Well, they either
> won't run on a 80286, or not support network card, or not Y2K
> compliant, or...

That is probably because for the past 10 years or so the 80386 has
been considered to be oldest processor that you would want to use
on any Intel-family computer platform.  Almost no software at all
can be provided today that doesn't take advantage of at least some
of the 80386-specific instruction set.  This processor and its
associated support electronics really was a very large improvement
over the 80286 and earlier processors and it was predicted then that
the 80386 would be the "base" (lowest common denominator) processor
for many years to come.  That prediction came true.

73, de Barry, K2MF >>
           o
          <|>      Barry Siegfried
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