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  • SBBSECHO Bugs

    From Alprunty@VERT to dIGITAL MAN on Tue Aug 2 01:09:03 2016
    I spoke with Deuce in IRC and he said this one is up your alley.

    SBBS Echo has some serious bugs with the rescan.

    First my downlinks add two areas and put the %rescan parameter as the last line and it will rescan EVERYTHING... but the new areas that were just added.

    Second they will send a new areafix message with

    %rescan area-name-1
    %rescan area-name-2

    which were the two areas that were added previously. This is the standard areafix protocol for many other tossers... and it rescans EVERYTHIGN with the two new added.

    When you do get a rescan and I have verified this with both mystic's internal tosser and fastecho it rescans the messages in a way that it causes the receiving system to toss them out of sequence by date.... the new messages from 2016 are in the middle of the area that dates back to 2015.

    This sends a bunch of messages totally out of date order.

    I don't know what I need to do to send you what you need to fix this.

    Allen
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  • From Digital Man@VERT to Alprunty on Tue Aug 2 15:15:59 2016
    Re: SBBSECHO Bugs
    By: Alprunty to dIGITAL MAN on Tue Aug 02 2016 01:09 am

    I spoke with Deuce in IRC and he said this one is up your alley.

    SBBS Echo has some serious bugs with the rescan.

    First my downlinks add two areas and put the %rescan parameter as the last line and it will rescan EVERYTHING... but the new areas that were just added.

    The AreaFix requests modify the area file (e.g. data/areas.bbs). That file is parsed when SBBSecho runs, so combining a rescan with area-changes in a single areafix request won't work and would not have ever worked with SBBSecho (since it's introduction over 20 years ago). I'll consider that as a "new feature request" though.

    Second they will send a new areafix message with

    %rescan area-name-1
    %rescan area-name-2

    which were the two areas that were added previously. This is the standard areafix protocol for many other tossers... and it rescans EVERYTHIGN with the two new added.

    That rescan syntax has never been supported by SBBSecho. Calling this a "serious bug" is misguided. I'll consider this as a "new feature request".

    When you do get a rescan and I have verified this with both mystic's internal tosser and fastecho it rescans the messages in a way that it causes the receiving system to toss them out of sequence by date.... the new messages from 2016 are in the middle of the area that dates back to 2015.

    This sends a bunch of messages totally out of date order.

    I don't know what I need to do to send you what you need to fix this.

    I have no idea on that one. SBBSecho's rescan would send the messages in the same order in which they exist in your local message base. SBBSecho has no control over what order they are tossed on the receiving system.

    digital man

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  • From Alprunty@VERT to Digital Man on Wed Aug 3 09:12:46 2016
    Re: SBBSECHO Bugs
    By: Digital Man to Alprunty on Tue Aug 02 2016 03:15 pm

    That rescan syntax has never been supported by SBBSecho. Calling this a "serious bug" is misguided. I'll consider this as a "new feature request".

    I appreciate that Rob. I've almost always operated as a hub in the 20+ years I've ran a board (been down the last 6 because I had a house fire and never set back up until recently). I am hubbing again and never have I encountered a rescan that sent the nodes complete list of echos that they are subscribed to.

    I've also chased down what may be the problem of the .pkt files getting tossed out of sync. It maybe more of an error with binkit not sending the files in order by date. The receiving system is receiving them out of date order and tossing by the timestamp of the files. We will work on that one a bit with Deuce.

    Most rescans have a syntax to rescan one echo only... my apologies for calling it a bug and I appreciate your attention on this much needed new feature request.

    Allen
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  • From Digital Man@VERT to Alprunty on Wed Aug 3 14:08:38 2016
    Re: SBBSECHO Bugs
    By: Alprunty to Digital Man on Wed Aug 03 2016 09:12 am

    Re: SBBSECHO Bugs
    By: Digital Man to Alprunty on Tue Aug 02 2016 03:15 pm

    That rescan syntax has never been supported by SBBSecho. Calling this a "serious bug" is misguided. I'll consider this as a "new feature request".

    I appreciate that Rob. I've almost always operated as a hub in the 20+ years I've ran a board (been down the last 6 because I had a house fire and never set back up until recently). I am hubbing again and never have I encountered a rescan that sent the nodes complete list of echos that they are subscribed to.

    I think the original implementation of SBBSecho's area manager was modeled after that of GEcho and GEcho's area manager, it appears, works the same way: you can't rescan a single area.

    I've also chased down what may be the problem of the .pkt files getting tossed out of sync. It maybe more of an error with binkit not sending the files in order by date. The receiving system is receiving them out of date order and tossing by the timestamp of the files. We will work on that one a bit with Deuce.

    Most rescans have a syntax to rescan one echo only... my apologies for calling it a bug and I appreciate your attention on this much needed new feature request.

    I do find it surprising that SBBSecho has gone without a "much needed" feature for 20+ years. Anyway, it was pretty easy to implement. Please test it out and let me know how it works for you.

    Now the other "bug report" you gave (a %RESCAN doesn't include areas added in the same AreaFix request) has not been addressed yet.

    digital man

    Synchronet "Real Fact" #18:
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  • From Alprunty@VERT to Digital Man on Wed Aug 3 21:21:06 2016
    Re: SBBSECHO Bugs
    By: Digital Man to Alprunty on Wed Aug 03 2016 02:08 pm

    I think the original implementation of SBBSecho's area manager was modeled after that of GEcho and GEcho's area manager, it appears, works the same way you can't rescan a single area.

    Maybe not Gecho... Squish maybe but Gecho you could do it area by area at least the last verision 1.11 which I can't get a key for.

    Actually you need not do the %RESCAN at the bottom of the arealist request.

    Doing it area by area is fine and most of the people who are feeding from me are used to that syntax and that's the most common use I've found it for. Ross Cassell's system uses that syntax (I think he's using gecho) and so does my R11 Hub RJ

    Appreciate you much... thank you for everything you have contributed to the community. I'm also happy to say (but he will probably never notice as I never see him post here.) That Duece is kickin' some ass with Bink-it. I've worked with him a few nights to help him squash some bugs and wow has he ever brought it. I highly reccomend people give it a try.

    Allen
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  • From Digital Man@VERT to Alprunty on Thu Aug 4 01:11:39 2016
    Re: SBBSECHO Bugs
    By: Alprunty to Digital Man on Wed Aug 03 2016 09:21 pm

    Re: SBBSECHO Bugs
    By: Digital Man to Alprunty on Wed Aug 03 2016 02:08 pm

    I think the original implementation of SBBSecho's area manager was modeled after that of GEcho and GEcho's area manager, it appears, works the same way you can't rescan a single area.

    Maybe not Gecho...

    It was GEcho 1.00 (which I bought). Here's the Area Manager help (from GECHO.DOC from the GEcho 1.00 archive) for the functionality that was mimicked in SBBSecho:

    [+]<areaname> Connect an area
    -<areaname> Disconnect an area
    %HELP Request this message
    %LIST Request a list of areas available to you
    %QUERY Request a list of areas to which you are
    connected
    %UNLINKED Request a list of areas to which you are not
    connected
    %COMPRESSION <type> Change the compression type
    (ARC/ARJ/LZH/PAK/SQZ/ZIP/ZOO)
    %PASSWORD <password> Change your AreaMgr password
    %RESCAN Request a rescan of new added areas
    %ACTIVE Reconnect all temporary disconnected areas
    %PASSIVE Temporary disconnect all connected areas
    %FROM <address> Remote maintenance, must be the first command
    %+ALL Connect all available areas
    %-ALL Disconnect all areas
    [---] Everything below the tear line is ignored

    Now, SBBSecho never performed the rescan of "new added areas", but rather all connected areas. So the help file did not accurately describe what SBBSecho did. That's been fixed. But GEcho 1.00 and SBBSecho (before now) did not support a per-area remote rescan via AreaFix.

    digital man

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  • From Alprunty@VERT to Digital Man on Fri Aug 5 00:33:00 2016
    Re: SBBSECHO Bugs
    By: Digital Man to Alprunty on Thu Aug 04 2016 01:11 am

    I was a long time user of Gecho back in the day... Steve and John Richardson (the TopEd Editor folks) lived in Louisville not far from me and got me into RemoteAccess. I used it for years... and have hte last version they put out 1.20. By that time it worked with wildcat and pcboard.

    I think they added the area by area rescan by version 1.02 or perhaps 1.05. I still have all of it on floppy at mom's hous if those old floppies still work.

    Anyhow you have no idea how greatful I am that it's fixed. Rescanning everything can be quite disasterous when you carry the whole backbone. It can also cause a nightmare in dups if not careful.

    I have to say you do have the Dups thing covered.

    Allen
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  • From Digital Man@VERT to Alprunty on Fri Aug 5 16:11:25 2016
    Re: SBBSECHO Bugs
    By: Alprunty to Digital Man on Fri Aug 05 2016 12:33 am

    Anyhow you have no idea how greatful I am that it's fixed. Rescanning everything can be quite disasterous when you carry the whole backbone. It can also cause a nightmare in dups if not careful.

    I don't consider that a "fix" since it was never intended to have that feature in the first place, but you're welcome just the same.

    digital man

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