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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Thanks Bob. Some follow-up below.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><br><br>If you delete a message you will see that its id remains in the area.usr file.<br>If you check into a public area "your_call 0" is written to area.usr if you never logged into that area and<br>the "0" is overwritten with the id of the last message you have read at the moment that you switch over to another area<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>and when you log out otherwise just the old id is overwritten for your call if you are already in area.usr.<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Got it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><br>You will also see calls appended with an underscore in area.usr and these indicate errors mostly with a bbs,<br>a message is not forwarded because something goes wrong with a transmission, etc. The underscore just means<br>something like, forget what I have said.<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Hmm. Not following you there. So if I see an entry in mailbox.usr like “callsign_ 0”, where “callsign” is a BBS but mailbox is not an area that I forward to him, what does that mean?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><br><br>Only the id of the last message is written, so it doesn't overwrite after each message. Other stuff is kept somewhere else.<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>O.K. But that still doesn’t explain the (real) scenario I presented below. Specifically:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>The message numbers rollover at some point as shown below. So when that happens, it would seem that the entry in .usr needs some way to know that smaller message numbers have actually not been read. And that is the problem. The user is being told “0 new” when, in fact, he is sure that he hasn’t read at least the last one.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><br>The function definitions who write to usr are in bmutil.c<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>That would be nice if I were a C programmer! ;-)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Michael<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><br><br>73,<br><br>Bob VE3TOK<br><br> On 14-10-24 02:27 PM, Michael E Fox - N6MEF wrote:<br><br><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:#1F497D'>Thanks Bob.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:#1F497D'>I’m seeing something weird.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:#1F497D'>In mailbox.usr, an individual has a last read number of 29335. But the three messages in that mailbox.txt file are numbered 28560, 6039, and 14880, respectively. So apparently, the numbers used in .txt roll over at some point but the last read number recorded in .usr doesn’t. So this user gets “0 new” messages when he logs in, but, in fact, he is certain he hasn’t read at least the last one. Unless the numbers in .usr are updated when the message numbers roll over, it seems the algorithm is doomed to never work correctly.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:#1F497D'>Very strange. Does anyone know how this process is supposed to work?</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:#1F497D'>Michael</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-left:solid blue 1.5pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 4.0pt'><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span style='color:windowtext'> <a href="mailto:nos-bbs-bounces@tapr.org">nos-bbs-bounces@tapr.org</a> [<a href="mailto:nos-bbs-bounces@tapr.org">mailto:nos-bbs-bounces@tapr.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Boudewijn (Bob) Tenty<br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, October 22, 2014 10:12 AM<br><b>To:</b> TAPR xNOS Mailing List<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [nos-bbs] mailbox.usr and mailbox.inf file</span><o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:.5in'>>1) The mailbox.usr file holds a call sign and a number on each row. What does the number represent?<br><br>part of the message id of last message read<br><br>ve3tok 208448<br><br>Received: from port.ve3mch.ampr.org by port.ve3mch.ampr.org (JNOS2.0j.X) with SMTP<br> id AA208448 ; Wed, 22 Oct 2014 14:27:07 +0000<br><br>73,<br><br><br>Bob VE3TOK<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>On 14-10-22 10:30 AM, Michael E Fox - N6MEF wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>For a given JNOS mailbox, there are several files:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>-- mailbox.txt holds the actual messages in mbox format<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>-- mailbox.ind holds the index<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>-- mailbox.inf – don’t know<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>-- mailbox.usr holds which users have read up to which message<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>Two questions:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>1) The mailbox.usr file holds a call sign and a number on each row. What does the number represent?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>For example, if the line contains “n6mef 0”, what does that mean? And how is that different from not listing the call sign at all?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>As another example, if the line contains “n6mef 1000”, what does that mean and how does that relate to the Message-Id: header in the messages stored in mailbox.txt?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>2) What is the purpose of the mailbox.inf file?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>Thanks,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>Michael<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>N6MEF<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman ,serif",serif'><br><br><br><br></span><o:p></o:p></p><pre style='margin-left:.5in'>_______________________________________________<o:p></o:p></pre><pre style='margin-left:.5in'>nos-bbs mailing list<o:p></o:p></pre><pre style='margin-left:.5in'><a href="mailto:nos-bbs@tapr.org">nos-bbs@tapr.org</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre style='margin-left:.5in'><a href="http://www.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/nos-bbs">http://www.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/nos-bbs</a><o:p></o:p></pre></blockquote><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman ,serif",serif'> </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><br><br><br><o:p></o:p></span></p><pre style='margin-left:.5in'>_______________________________________________<o:p></o:p></pre><pre style='margin-left:.5in'>nos-bbs mailing list<o:p></o:p></pre><pre style='margin-left:.5in'><a href="mailto:nos-bbs@tapr.org">nos-bbs@tapr.org</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre style='margin-left:.5in'><a href="http://www.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/nos-bbs">http://www.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/nos-bbs</a><o:p></o:p></pre></blockquote><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>