Last updated 15 Apr 2024

MBSE BBS: mbmsg (Message Base/Posting) Utility

In order to run mbmsg, mbsed must be running and the global variable $MBSE_ROOT must be set and must point to the BBS home directory (/opt/mbse). The main configuration file config.data must be present in the ~/etc directory.

Synopsis

mbmsg [commands] <options>

Description

mbmsg is the message base utility program for MBSE BBS.

The main purpose of mbmsg is to link messages after tossing mail, maintain the size of the message bases, and the age of the messages. The best way to do the maintenance is to run mbmsg from the crontab. An example:

30 05 * * * export MBSE_ROOT=/opt/mbse; $MBSE_ROOT/bin/mbmsg kill pack link -quiet

Another purpose is to automatically post messages in local, echomail, and netmail areas. This is good for posting logs from nightly maintenance jobs to a private local message area from the system to you.

Commands

mbmsg link
Link all messages by subject ignoring Re: in the subject lines. You should run this after tossing or scanning mail.

mbmsg kill
Kill messages in areas that have the age or maximum messages set. A setting of 0 is ignored. The messages are not removed from the message base as they are only marked as deleted.

mbmsg pack
This command actualy removes the messages that have the deleted flag set. The lastread pointers are updated and the messages renumbered. After running this command, there is no way you can recover your messages except from backups.

mbmsg post <from> <to> <#> <subj> <file> <flavor>
This command posts a message in a message area.
- <from>, <to>, and <subj> need to be enclosed in double quotes or use an underscore in the place of a space if the fields contain spaces.
- <#> is the message area number to post in.
- <file> is the text file to use as the message body.
- Flavor can be one or more of the characters "c", "h" or "p" to set the Crash, Hold, or Private flags. If no flavor is needed, use the - (minus sign) as a placeholder. In netmail areas, these will set the corresponding flags in the created message.
- If you are sending a netmail with mbmsg, the to field needs to include the destination FTN address after an @ character with the full FTN address in f.n.z.d format like this: "Michiel Broek@f16.n2801.z2.fidonet".

Options

mbmsg [command] -area <#>
Process only one area indicated by the area number.

mbmsg [command] -quiet
Quiet mode without screen output. Use this switch if you run mbmsg from the crontab.

Notes

MBSE allows you to suppress adding a tearline to messages in local message areas. To enable this option, toggle mbsetup 1.5.27 to "Yes".

mbmsg will not add a MSGID or origin line to messages in local message areas.

mbmsg will also respect the "suppress tearlines in local message areas" option in mbmsg (1.5.27).

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