errflags.txt

  ErrFlags version 2.23
  ---------------------

    This program checks incoming nodelist segments for illegal and
    redundant nodelist flags, and makes sure submitted segments are up to
    standard. Fully configurable to suit <othernets> as well as fidonet.

    Copyright 1995-1997 jonny bergdahl data AB. Freeware. All rights deserved.
    Modifications (c) 1999-2006 by Johan Zwiekhorst, 2:292/100
    Modifications (c) 2017-2026 by Niels Joncheere, 2:292/789


  Disclaimer
  ----------

    I guarantee that this program will take up some space on your hard
    disk. That is all. If you decide to run it despite this very meager
    warranty, however, standard software disclaimers apply. This means:
    I don't guarantee anything concerning this software and so will not
    be liable in any way for any damages incurred.

  SEE LICENCE.TXT FOR FURTHER INFORMATION!


  Preface
  -------

    When the original author of this program, Jonny Bergdahl, was the
    Region 20 Coordinator (RC20) of Fidonet Zone 2, the need for this
    program arose from all of the hubs and NCs which apparently just
    couldn't get their act together and submit a correct nodelist segment,
    for whatever reasons that was.

    This program, once installed, aids such inadequately functioning
    coordinators to make sure that the submitted segments use no illegal
    flags, no redundant modem flags and even tidies up the user flag field by
    reformatting it. It is fully configurable so that new flags may be added
    as they are approved. It can be used by anone from a hub submitting his
    hub segment via NC and RC up to the ZC handling a multitude of segment
    files, even in different networks.

  Installation
  ------------

    The following files are necessary for the proper functioning of the
    program (one executable only):

       ERRFLAGS.EXE   Main Win32 executable
       ERRFLAGS.CTL   Main configuration file
       ERRFLAGS.TAB   Approved flag setup file

    The following file is not necessary, and may be removed if not used:

       ERRFLAGS.CMT   Text file containing the header that gets copied
                      to all reports and notifications.

    Copy these files to any directory of your choice, and edit the CTL
    and CMT files to suit your needs. Insert execution of ERRFLAGS.EXE
    at the proper place in your mailer batch file, and you're ready to go.


  Command line parameters
  -----------------------

     ErrFlags accepts one command line parameter, and that is the name
     of the configuration file. The default name is ERRFLAGS.CTL.
     Overriding this makes it possible to use ErrFlags when coordinating
     several FTN type networks such as FDNet, IntlNet, ZyXELnet etc,
     where flag approval may differ from fidonet.


  ERRFLAGS.CTL
  ------------

    This is the configuration file that tells ErrFlags all it has to
    know at run time. Fire up your favourite ASCII editor and change
    the parameters based on the comments in this file.
    Note that all lines preceded with the ";" character are ignored,
    thus you will have to remove it for keywords you want to use.


  ERRFLAGS.TAB
  ------------

    This file defines the approved flags in Fidonet Zone 2 at the time
    of release for this version of ErrFlags. When new flags are approved,
    this is the file to edit. Fire up your ASCII editor and change the
    flags according to the comments in the file. You can always freq the
    latest file from Z2C with the name 'ERRFLAGS.ZC2'.


  ERRFLAGS.CMT
  ------------

    This is just a simple ASCII file that gets copied as a header of all
    notifications. Change this to suit your needs, and forget it. It might
    also be used for informational purposes since effectively this text
    is being sent to all your nodelist segment providers. If you have
    something important to tell them, this might be a good place.


  Messages
  --------

    ErrFlags will generate four kinds of messages while working.
    ERROR: this concerns a fatal flaw which is completely removed from the
           nodelist entry. You will need to check and correct this, as the
           removal could lead to other problems.
    WARNING: this is a problem ErrFlags can and will correct itself.
             The original nodelist segment will have to be adapted in order
             to avoid future warnings.
    BEWARE: this is something like a 'second level warning' and will follow
            a WARNING if (an) additional problem(s) is detected.
    : a simple message telling you what ErrFlags is doing or is going to do.


  Source code
  -----------

    If there is something in this program that you don't like you can
    rewrite it, as I am distributing the full source code in the file
    ERRFLAGS.PAS. You will need a Borland Pascal compatible compiler,
    and as I have used nothing very special, just about any old
    version will work when compiling. You might want to check out
    FreePascal for various platforms (including Linux) if you would like to
    compile ErrFlags for platforms other than what is included in the
    distribution archive.
    If you do change the program I would prefer if you would mail me a copy
    of the revised source code. Write to Johan Zwiekhorst at
    2:292/100@fidonet or e-mail me: johan@zwiekhorst.be.


  Revision history
  ----------------
    Version 2.0
    -  Initial release.

    Version 2.1
    -  Increased limit of nodelist segments to 80.
    -  Added a NoTouch mode for those who don't want to fix other peoples
       problems.

    Version 2.2
    - Added check/removal of duplicate flags.

    Version 2.3
    - Added support for wildcards in segment names.
    - Added support for unarcing incoming segments.
    - Changed behaviour of reports not to be posted when no errors found,
      (Ward filled my inbound with reports of no errors :-) but this can
      be forced anyway with the REPORTALL key word.
    - Changed the appearance of the report to work with the Mickey Mouse
      software "ROBO" that Ward is using.
    - Removed the OS/2 executable, to speed up distribution. Please contact
      Morten Mertner, 23/0 about availability of this.
    - Added user flag ENC and redundancy pair V32T - V32B in ERRFLAGS.TAB

    Version 2.4
    - Fixed bug concerning the inbound path.
    - Fixed bug concerning reports not being sent to the right system.
    - Added support for the NOERR keyword that defines what to execute
      for error free segments.
    - Removed support for the REPORTALL key word (which btw never worked
      anyway) that has been obsoleted by the NOERR key word.

    Version 2.5
    - Fixed bug concerning the inbound path with no-arc files
    - Fixed problem with command line capitalizing

    Version 2.6
    - Fixed handling of zone mail flags

    Version 2.7
    - by Johan Zwiekhorst, 2:292/100. Since Jonny Bergdahl is no longer
      in Fidonet, I'll take over.
    - You can now use 200 user flags instead of 80, which was not enough
      according to ZC2. The maximum length of one flag has been increased
      from 15 to 32 characters.
    - The previous wildcard '*' is now '?' in accordance with DOS: it means
      substitute any one character.
    - There is still a wildcard '*' and that is also in accordance with
      DOS: it means any number of characters until end of line or end of
      string, whatever comes first.
    - Added the OS/2 executable again.

    Version 2.8
    - Ben Baker's MAKENL can't handle nodelist entries of more than
      157 characters, so ErrFlags now checks for that. Lines which
      exceed 157 characters are shortened and a warning is issued.
      ErrFlags will first strip characters from the system name, then
      from the location and then from the flags section. The latter
      action usually means that the last flag on the line could become
      corrupted and therefore considered erroneous, which will lead to
      another warning. An extra warning will be generated when
      ErrFlags cuts characters from the flags section. ErrFlags will
      always leave at least one character for the system name and the
      location.
    - All flag equality checks are now done case-insensitive.
      This should simplify the TAB file construction.
      Nodelist flags (except their parameters) are converted to uppercase.

    Version 2.9
    - Added nodelist entry prefix checking. Only nothing or the words
      'Zone', 'Region', 'Host', 'Hub', 'Pvt', 'Hold' and 'Down' are
      accepted. An error message is issued and the prefix stripped if it's
      something else.
    - Added baudrate checking. The baudrate parameter in the nodelist entry
      is checked against the list in the TAB file. If it deviates, it will
      be replaced by the BAUDDEFAULT value from the TAB file or 9600 if that
      is absent.
    - Added checking for Pvt/phone pairing. If a Pvt prefix is followed by a
      phonenumber, that phonenumber will be replaced by '-Unpublished-'.
      If an entry has no prefix but an '-Unpublished-' phonenumber, it will
      get a 'Pvt' prefix.
    - Cosmetic changes:
       + Replaced the '■' character by '#' in ErrFlags messages so it's
         friendly for codepages other than 437 (default for IBM pc under DOS).
       + Replaced 'illegal' by 'invalid' because nodelist errors are not
         against the law!

    Version 2.10
    - Added phonenumber checking.
    - Some cosmetic changes.

    Version 2.11
    - Added DELENTRY feature. This serves to delete sysops from the nodelist
      which shouldn't be in there, probably because they have been
      excommunicated. To use this feature, add DELENTRY followed by up to 20
      names to the TAB file. The names should be in nodelist style, so
      FirstName_LastName. Use spaces to seperate the different names in the
      DELENTRY statement.

    Version 2.12
    - Added check and removal for spaces and trailing commas.
    - A new CRC/16 is calculated when necessary.

    Version 2.13
    - A header with CRC/16 is generated when absent.
    - Added a Windows 32-bit executable (Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000...).

    Version 2.14
    - Space and tail comma removals are now counted (that means, only the
      number of entries in which they occur are counted) and the node
      number of the offending entry is shown so the originator of the
      nodelist segment can correct the errors more easily.

    Version 2.15
    - User flags length increase from 32 to 40.

    Version 2.16
    - Removed check for presence of Pvt prefix if phone number is -Unpublished-.

    Version 2.17
    - Added support for path names up to 255 characters instead of 8.3 file
      names; added support for Linux.

    Version 2.18
    - Verified compatibility with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

    Version 2.19
    - Added check for combination of Pvt prefix and CM flag.

    Version 2.20
    - Parametrized maximum entry length introduced in v2.8; cf. the
      MAXENTRYLENGTH configuration file keyword.

    Version 2.21
    - Parametrized check for combination of prefix and flag introduced in
      v2.19; fixed newline bug in same.

    Version 2.22
    - Added number of explicitly deleted entries to reports.

    Version 2.23
    - Handle prefix followed by space instead of comma; apply bug fixes by
      Wilfred van Velzen, 2:280/464.