I'm in the process of moving all my FTN based stuff (including my Usenet feed from Avon et. al) to a FreeBSD based BBS system called Sklaffkom (it's Swedish). It can handle Usenet feeds but not any FTN stuff since
it was never written for it. I can get Binkd running in FreeBSD without any problems but I'm dumbfounded on how to get the .MSG files into a "Usenet" format that the import/export utility in Sklaffkom can handle.
Anyone got any ideas?
On 08 May 2020 at 01:53p, Joacim Melin pondered and said...
I'm in the process of moving all my FTN based stuff (including my Usenet
feed from Avon et. al) to a FreeBSD based BBS system called Sklaffkom
(it's Swedish). It can handle Usenet feeds but not any FTN stuff since
it was never written for it. I can get Binkd running in FreeBSD without
any problems but I'm dumbfounded on how to get the .MSG files into a
"Usenet" format that the import/export utility in Sklaffkom can handle.
Anyone got any ideas?
This is ugly, at best. To be clear here, you want to
translate between Fidonet-style binary message formats,
and RFC1036 format? Something like `fidogate` can do
that, but it's really old and pretty unmaintained.
I've got to work on my code to do this; I just haven't
had time.
I'm in the process of moving all my FTN based stuff (including my
Usenet feed from Avon et. al) to a FreeBSD based BBS system called Sklaffkom (it's Swedish). It can handle Usenet feeds but not any
FTN stuff since it was never written for it. I can get Binkd
running in FreeBSD without any problems but I'm dumbfounded on how
to get the .MSG files into a "Usenet" format that the import/export utility in Sklaffkom can handle.
Anyone got any ideas?
I didn't know about the RFC1036 format but yeah - that's the general
idea. if it can't be done then that's not the end of the world but it would be pretty neat to get it to work.
Sorry that does not sound easy to maintain 2 BBSes but, aside from
joining FTN networks that offer and allow NNTP feeds directly (I only
know of one), I cannot think of an easy way to do that.
On 08 May 2020 at 03:40p, Blue White pondered and said...
Sorry that does not sound easy to maintain 2 BBSes but, aside
from joining FTN networks that offer and allow NNTP feeds
directly (I only know of one), I cannot think of an easy way to
do that.
What's the one that does?
tenser wrote to Blue White <=-
Sorry that does not sound easy to maintain 2 BBSes but, aside from
joining FTN networks that offer and allow NNTP feeds directly (I only
know of one), I cannot think of an easy way to do that.
What's the one that does?
On 05-09-20 14:29, Al wrote to tenser <=-
I haven't done it myself but I believe synchronet supports nntp feeds
as well as users but I'm not sure how that is done.
What's the one that does?
I haven't done it myself but I believe synchronet supports nntp feeds as well as users but I'm not sure how that is done.
Yes, newslink.js is what you need. :)
I haven't done it myself but I believe synchronet supports nntp feeds as
well as users but I'm not sure how that is done.
Ah, that's too bad. I mean, potentially cool, but a bit
of a bummer that there's not a lot of experience here.
Fat-dragon.org uses an NNTP server as the main messaging
repository. I wrote ginko to act as a binkp mailer, but
honestly have been so busy that I haven't had time to
flesh out the gating to/from the NNTP server; so I get a
bunch of maildir files that pile up. It's not hard code
to write, I don't think, just tedious and I haven't had
time.
In many ways, it'd be much simpler just to accept an NNTP
feed from somewhere.
That's probably doable. If Nelgin or other Synchronet folks don't jump in here
we might need to direct our questions directly to them.
Is an nntp feed doable with newslink.js?
On 10 May 2020 at 05:38p, Vk3jed pondered and said...
Yes, newslink.js is what you need. :)
Ah, cool! It would be neat if fsxNet and perhaps SciNet
had that set up.
In many ways, it'd be much simpler just to accept an NNTP
feed from somewhere.
In many ways, it'd be much simpler just to accept an NNTP
feed from somewhere.
On 05-12-20 03:01, tenser wrote to Vk3jed <=-
On 10 May 2020 at 05:38p, Vk3jed pondered and said...
Yes, newslink.js is what you need. :)
Ah, cool! It would be neat if fsxNet and perhaps SciNet
had that set up.
Re: Re: FTN / Usenet to a new BBS
By: tenser to Al on Tue May 12 2020 03:00 am
In many ways, it'd be much simpler just to accept an NNTP
feed from somewhere.
I have JamNNTP running on Hub 3 if that helps?
...????
Is an nntp feed doable with newslink.js?
It's doable. I haven't followed this thread, so:
newslink.js is for outbound synchronization of Synchronet message bases with NNTP servers. I believe it has some config info at the top of the file and maybe in the wiki.
Ah, cool! It would be neat if fsxNet and perhaps SciNet
had that set up.
My current plan is to setup a nntp server on CentOS 7, poll news from
some source and then feed that to my BBS running on FreeBSD 8.4 (it will not work on
any later version for reasons I do not understand) and getting the software needed to poll news from a outside source is a pain in the ass
to compile on FreeBSD 8.4.
More servers are more fun anyway.
So if I were to gate fsxNet FTN to dedicated newsgroups at news.bbs.nz then figure out a way to give your NNTP server authenticated NNTP access to read/write to those groups. Would that blend? :)
In many ways, it'd be much simpler just to accept an NNTP
feed from somewhere.
I have JamNNTP running on Hub 3 if that helps?
Hmm, what are you wanting to do? what's that got to do with the
networks? (they're FTN)...
On 05-12-20 19:31, Avon wrote to tenser <=-
On 12 May 2020 at 03:00a, tenser pondered and said...
In many ways, it'd be much simpler just to accept an NNTP
feed from somewhere.
So if I were to gate fsxNet FTN to dedicated newsgroups at news.bbs.nz then figure out a way to give your NNTP server authenticated NNTP
access to read/write to those groups. Would that blend? :)
On 05-13-20 08:11, tenser wrote to Vk3jed <=-
On 12 May 2020 at 09:35p, Vk3jed pondered and said...
Hmm, what are you wanting to do? what's that got to do with the
networks? (they're FTN)...
What I'm wanting to do is not use FTN to transfer FTN-network
content in and out of my system. But maybe I should just stop
being lazy and finish up my own software....
On 05-13-20 08:04, tenser wrote to echicken <=-
That's it. My "BBS" runs INN as the "message server".
There's no other BBS package installed. I wrote my
own binkp mailer, but need to do the gate to/from FTN
messages thing next. I haven't had time; getting a net
feed via NNTP would obviate that work.
Can I connect with a News fetch software thingie running in Linux or FreeBSD?
On 11 May 2020 at 10:33p, Joacim Melin pondered and said...
Ah, cool! It would be neat if fsxNet and perhaps SciNet
had that set up.
My current plan is to setup a nntp server on CentOS 7, poll news from
some source and then feed that to my BBS running on FreeBSD 8.4 (it will
not work on
any later version for reasons I do not understand) and getting the
software needed to poll news from a outside source is a pain in the ass
to compile on FreeBSD 8.4.
What software are you using, is the source code available, and
what precisely do you mean when you write, "it will not work"
on recent versions of FreeBSD? 8.4 is long dead, but perhaps
I can get it to run if the source is lying around somewhere
(preferably github). Does it compile and fail to run, crash
mysteriously and randomly, or fail to compile?
On 05-13-20 08:11, tenser wrote to Vk3jed <=-
Hmm, what are you wanting to do? what's that got to do with the networks? (they're FTN)...
What I'm wanting to do is not use FTN to transfer FTN-network
content in and out of my system. But maybe I should just stop
being lazy and finish up my own software....
Haha yeah. :) I assume you're posting from a different system to the
one in question. ;)
On 05-13-20 08:04, tenser wrote to echicken <=-
That's it. My "BBS" runs INN as the "message server".
There's no other BBS package installed. I wrote my
own binkp mailer, but need to do the gate to/from FTN
messages thing next. I haven't had time; getting a net
feed via NNTP would obviate that work.
Might be worth playing with Synchronet as a NNTP gateway.
What software are you using, is the source code available, and
what precisely do you mean when you write, "it will not work"
on recent versions of FreeBSD? 8.4 is long dead, but perhaps
I can get it to run if the source is lying around somewhere (preferably github). Does it compile and fail to run, crash mysteriously and randomly, or fail to compile?
It fails to compile. The source code is here:
http://www.sklaffkom.se/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/s132.tar.gz
Feel free to have a look. It would be awesome to get it running under FreeBSD 12 or CentOS 7 or something more modern.
On 05-14-20 05:06, tenser wrote to Vk3jed <=-
Haha yeah. :) I assume you're posting from a different system to the
one in question. ;)
That is correct. Most of my messaging has been from Agency.
On 05-14-20 05:08, tenser wrote to Vk3jed <=-
That's a pretty heavy-weight approach, but is a
possibility. I've already got code that will
transfer data via binkp, and I can read and parse
FTN messages; I just need to stream those to the
NNTP server and add some glue code, then write
a little more to accept streamed NNTP messages
from INN, translate those to FTN format and send
them to the hub and again some glue code.
On 05-14-20 05:08, tenser wrote to Vk3jed <=-
That's a pretty heavy-weight approach, but is a
possibility. I've already got code that will
True. :)
transfer data via binkp, and I can read and parse
FTN messages; I just need to stream those to the
NNTP server and add some glue code, then write
a little more to accept streamed NNTP messages
from INN, translate those to FTN format and send
them to the hub and again some glue code.
Sounds like you're well on the way, but almost reinventing the wheel
with your own NNTP - FTN gateway effectively! :)
Potentially? news.bbs.bz is running INN, right? I don't
see any reason that gating setup wouldn't work.
Authentication might be a little weird; my server would
peer with yours, but wouldn't exactly authenticate as a
"user".
On 13 May 2020 at 08:08a, tenser pondered and said...
Potentially? news.bbs.bz is running INN, right? I don't
see any reason that gating setup wouldn't work.
Yep INN
Authentication might be a little weird; my server would
peer with yours, but wouldn't exactly authenticate as a
"user".
Yep that's correct. I would configure the feed to send you fsxnet.*
groups that I would need to create in INN
On 05-14-20 14:23, tenser wrote to Vk3jed <=-
Indeed, that's true. Part of the reason for that
is that most of the existing code that does this is
either a) wired into some other BBS package, or b)
has atrophied over time from neglect and lack of
maintenance. E.g., `fidogate`.
On 05-14-20 21:53, tenser wrote to Avon <=-
Yep that's correct. I would configure the feed to send you fsxnet.*
groups that I would need to create in INN
Yeah, that could definitely work. I still want to
finish my own stuff, but it would certainly get things
off the ground.
Sure. I got it to compile without errors/warnings
on FreeBSD 12.1 and OpenBSD 6.6. I haven't tested
it, though.
fetch http://fat-dragon.org/pub/sklaff-1.32.tar.gz
There's as git repo in there that should show
exactly what I changed.
On 14 May 2020 at 10:40a, tenser pondered and said...
Sure. I got it to compile without errors/warnings
on FreeBSD 12.1 and OpenBSD 6.6. I haven't tested
it, though.
fetch http://fat-dragon.org/pub/sklaff-1.32.tar.gz
There's as git repo in there that should show
exactly what I changed.
And compiling this with a more recent gcc (instead
of just clang) with maximum warnings turned on
reveals even more problems in the source; some quite
severe. I'll take a stab at fixing some of those,
but I wouldn't trust this software too much.
On 14 May 2020 at 10:40a, tenser pondered and said...
Sure. I got it to compile without errors/warnings
on FreeBSD 12.1 and OpenBSD 6.6. I haven't tested
it, though.
fetch http://fat-dragon.org/pub/sklaff-1.32.tar.gz
There's as git repo in there that should show
exactly what I changed.
And compiling this with a more recent gcc (instead
of just clang) with maximum warnings turned on
reveals even more problems in the source; some quite
severe. I'll take a stab at fixing some of those,
but I wouldn't trust this software too much.
Alright - solid work so far! Thanks!
This software was written in the early 90's by a bunch of swedish
hackers over a couple of weekends. I think it ran on some sort of BSD
back in the day (probably NetBSD) on a 90Mhz Pentium computer, first
with five modems and later also with internet and telnet access. I was a user of that BBS (S÷derKOM it was called, still around but with a different software and vibe compared to the old days) and I've always wanted to get it up and running on a modern Unix* platform with
newsgroups and stuff.
There have been efforts of getting it to run on Linux over the years but they never really panned out properly. Someone managed to get it sort-of working and ran a BBS with Sklaffkom on Linux but there was always some issue with it.
If you can manage to fix whatever issues there are I will be a very very grateful man.
On 17 May 2020 at 02:32p, Joacim Melin pondered and said...
On 14 May 2020 at 10:40a, tenser pondered and said...
Sure. I got it to compile without errors/warnings
on FreeBSD 12.1 and OpenBSD 6.6. I haven't tested
it, though.
fetch http://fat-dragon.org/pub/sklaff-1.32.tar.gz
There's as git repo in there that should show
exactly what I changed.
And compiling this with a more recent gcc (instead
of just clang) with maximum warnings turned on
reveals even more problems in the source; some quite
severe. I'll take a stab at fixing some of those,
but I wouldn't trust this software too much.
Alright - solid work so far! Thanks!
No problem. I poked at it some more and got it to
compile without warnings or errors on OpenBSD, FreeBSD
and Linux, all with whatever compiler runs as `cc`
and with GCC up to 9. As before, I haven't tested
it, but it should build and I presume run.
This software was written in the early 90's by a bunch of swedish
hackers over a couple of weekends. I think it ran on some sort of BSD
back in the day (probably NetBSD) on a 90Mhz Pentium computer, first
with five modems and later also with internet and telnet access. I was a
user of that BBS (S÷derKOM it was called, still around but with a
different software and vibe compared to the old days) and I've always
wanted to get it up and running on a modern Unix* platform with
newsgroups and stuff.
The OChangelog starts in 1993 and ends in 1996. I presume
that was the last time anyone did any significant maintenance
work on it: almost 25 years and honestly, it kinda shows. I
don't mean that in an unkind way, but just being honest. It
looks an awful lot like the folks who wrote it were coming
from Pascal and relatively new to C.
Interestingly, it looks like it was ported to some fairly
obscure systems: DG-UX and Mt Xinu's BSD distribution, for
example.
There have been efforts of getting it to run on Linux over the years but
they never really panned out properly. Someone managed to get it sort-of
working and ran a BBS with Sklaffkom on Linux but there was always some
issue with it.
I got it to build on modern Linux, but I really don't know
how well it will work. If it fails, I strongly suspect bugs
in the program itself: it plays fast and loose with things
like strings and pointers.
Things that were preventing it from building natively were
lack of modern string-handling functions in Linux's libc
(Drepper's views on strlcpy and strlcat are just wrong), and
using really old antiquated interfaces. Everything is using
POSIX interfaces now, so it should be fairly portable, and
I brought in OpenBSD's strlcpy/strlcat for Linux (the license
is permissive so that should be ok).
The weirdest thing was using `nlist` to prime the parser; I
replaced that with a table.
Some of the logic was clearly wrong: I guessed a little bit
but tried to fix it to do what I thought it was supposed to
do. This is mostly not initializing things like pointers
and then maybe using them before something else had written
to them.
If you can manage to fix whatever issues there are I will be a very very
grateful man.
Re-grab that tarball and it should at least get you started.
I've done as much as I'm likely to do, but it should at least
be hackable now.
Thanks again. I had to check again what OS they where using back in the day and it was actually Interactive Unix back then.
And you are absolutely right about the Pascal part - most if not all of them came from a background in Pascal with several of them having
written older BBS systems in Pascal for CP/m and later MS-DOS.
tenser wrote to Blue White <=-
On 08 May 2020 at 03:40p, Blue White pondered and said...
Sorry that does not sound easy to maintain 2 BBSes but, aside from
joining FTN networks that offer and allow NNTP feeds directly (I only
know of one), I cannot think of an easy way to do that.
What's the one that does?
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