Hello g00r00!

I hope all is well with you!

On 03 Jul 2022, Bj”rn Wiberg said the following...

The following are the things that I'm currently experiencing
with the 2022/04/03 A48 prerelease, and some minor things I'd wish for

Thanks a lot for fixing so many of these in the 07/07/2022 prerelease!

I know that you're probably still working on things, but I still thought I would give an update regarding the new prerelease. The things that I'm still having problems with (and some new) would be the following:

* FTP uploads appear to corrupt the file base. If I scroll down the

This is still a problem; as soon as I FTP upload a file to a file base that already has a file, it appears to corrupt the file base. This time I got parts of the login screen showing up when listing the base from within the BBS. But when editing the file, the Description is empty (although with a corrupted
file base that might not be indicative of anything particular).

* There appears to be a "leftover" in the SysOp menu; the "(V) Voting Booth Editor" option which attempts to call command "(*V) Unknown Command", which doesn't exist any longer. Probably the (V) option
should be removed from the SysOp menu?

(That one is still there.)

* For a normal account (not a QWK account), when selecting the message bases to scan from the message menu, i.e. (MZ) Toggle new scan bases with an empty Data field, Mystic appears to be selecting the wrong message base when I enter a number:

That one is still there. Now it appears to be selecting a message base in some other message group? Not sure, because I can't see any changes in the scanned list after entering some number. I do not get any error message of any kind.

Also, related to this (and new, I think):

* For a normal account (not a QWK account), when selecting the message bases
to scan from the offline mail menu, i.e. (OS) Set QWK scanned bases with
Data: /allgroups, the number one enters does not correspond to the base being toggled there either. For example:

ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ ± QWK Message Area Scan Settings Local ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
Area Scan Name
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
1 Yes Private Messages (PMs)
2 Yes Private Messages (PMs) (SysOp Access)
3 No Duplicate Messages
4 Yes fsxNet Netmail
5 No fsxNet Netmail (SysOp Access)
6 No FSX_ADS: BBS and NETwork Ads
7 No FSX_ARTS: Arts + Artistic Chat
8 Yes FSX_BBS: BBS Support/Dev
9 No FSX_BOT: Automated Robot Posts
10 No FSX_CRY: Cryptographics
(cut cut)
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
Toggle: [#,#-#], [A]dd/[R]emove All, [?/List, Enter/Quit]: 10

2010: DOVE-Net Sysops Only will be scanned in QWK packets.

...so it appears to select the wrong message base.

When checking the DOVE-Net message group, I find that #10 corresponds to the base that Mystic selected. But I wasn't even "standing" in the DOVE-Net
message group (and it should be irrelevant)....

(I'm using list compression, as earlier.)

* In the multinode teleconference, if one uses ASCII, the cursor is
positioned at the end of the line so that the text one writes always gets wrapped.
I believe this is because the cursor gets positioned at the end of the
input field (whose background is not actually written when using
ASCII). Would it be possible for Mystic to position the cursor at the beginning of the "invisible" input field if using ASCII? (Using backspaces?)

(That one is still there.)

* The str8 variable in archive_view.ini would need an extra space to
clear out the "Enter/View" text when searching.

(I think that one is still there?)

* Read ACS checking for the POP3 server -- i.e. that it would return Access denied if a user does not fulfil the Read ACS -- would be much appreciated. It would make things consistent between the BBS interface and the POP3 access method.

(I think that one is still there?)


Also, a few more things (I do not know if all have been present earlier)
and suggestions:

* 5mooth-mist25.ans is present in the text directory of the default theme. Should it be there? Perhaps for some gallery function or similar?

* When editing user flags in the user editor, ANSI escape codes
(e.g. arrow up yields a "P") toggle the corresponding flags. Would it be possible for Mystic to "filter out" anything with an escape before it?

* When selecting a function/command in the menu editor, -R is listed after -S.

* After uploading a file via FTP, the FTP command processor will
become unresponsive until upload testing has finished (if one has enabled upload testing). Could Mystic send e.g. a "452 Requested action not taken. Still testing uploaded file. Please wait a little and try again." response to most commands during testing? Perhaps that would prevent batch uploads (mput), but maybe some commands (ls, cd etc.) where the user is waiting for a response would benefit from a 452 feedback response?

* I still cannot get file download over the web to work. When clicking on the download link for a file, I get the "File not in queue" error message. The MIS log shows:

+ 2022.07.09 13:46:13 HTTP > Connect on slot 1/10 (192.168.1.1)
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:13 HTTP 1-HostName router.asus.com
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:13 HTTP 1-Country Unknown (-)
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:13 HTTP 1-DLREQ: GET /dlreq?12cfe918 HTTP/1.1
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:13 HTTP 1-Authenticated user: Zip
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:13 HTTP 1-List Batch
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:13 HTTP 1-Request done
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:14 HTTP > Connect on slot 1/10 (192.168.1.1)
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:14 HTTP 1-HostName router.asus.com
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:14 HTTP 1-Country Unknown (-)
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:15 HTTP > Connect on slot 1/10 (192.168.1.1)
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:15 HTTP 1-HostName router.asus.com
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:15 HTTP 1-Country Unknown (-)
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:15 HTTP 1-DLREQ: GET /dlreq?12cfe918&test.tar HTTP/1.1
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:15 HTTP 1-Authenticated user: Zip
+ 2022.07.09 13:46:15 HTTP 1-Refused: File not in queue

The dlreq data file contains:

bbs@glimmer:~/mystic/data$ cat 12cfe918.dlreq
1657377963
192.168.1.1
1
1,10240,0,/mnt/bbs/mystic/files/local/L_UPLOADS/test.tar 1,181,0,/mnt/bbs/mystic/files/local/L_UPLOADS/test.tgz bbs@glimmer:~/mystic/data$

It looks OK I think. Could it possibly be some kind of mismatch between the directory separators (/ on Linux instead of \ on Windows) or some path length limitation that causes this?


I'll let you know if I would stumble across anything additional, but I think the new version is a big step forward. Thanks, and, as always, many thanks in advance!

Best regards
Bj”rn

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/07 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (2:201/137)

Hello again g00r00!

I hope you will forgive me for all my messages, as I really don't want to interrupt your work...

On 09 Jul 2022, Bj”rn Wiberg said the following...

I'll let you know if I would stumble across anything additional, but I

* I edited resetpw.ini and emailval.ini in the data directory (also tried copying to the theme's text directory), but it appears that Mystic doesn't use the INI files just yet? (I got the "old" hard-coded messages e-mailed
out.) Being able to customize those messages will be great!

* When copying (/C) and pasting (/P) an action to the action list of a menu command: If the command list is already full (25 entries), pasting will overwrite the highlighted action (if any -- one could be at the empty line below all actions, in which case nothing would happen). Perhaps the paste function could/should be greyed out of there isn't room for another action? And perhaps the empty line ("room for another action") at the bottom of the action list shouldn't be shown if the list is full?

* I have Disable Time: No and a security level (s255) which has Time Per Day: 9999. Do Shell events with Warning: x (minutes) really kick the user out? I would expect Mystic to trim the available time (9999 minutes) down so that the closest event with a Warning value set will be able launch without any users being logged in. But it appears that I get 9999 minutes per day and don't get kicked out during the events with a Warning value.

For what kind of events does the Warning value affect the amount of remaining time?
Did I perhaps ruin something by setting the Time Per Day to > 1440 minutes?

Background: I'm using the Shell event type (and not a "BBS" type event) for my daily/weekly maintenance events since I do not want MIS to exit (it is started via systemd and I want it to be running, but without users logged on).

I do create/remove a semaphore of my own during/after the maintenance, and check for that during logon, so that any attempts to log on during maintenance will honor the ongoing event. But it is more of a work-around as I do not know of any built-in semaphore of Mystic to prevent logins.

(And for a SysOp account, one might want to be able to override this in case something goes wrong, one is at a remote location, and needs to e.g. remove the semaphore via a menu command or the Mystic-DOS Shell...)

Thanks in avance!

Best regards
Bj”rn

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/07 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (2:201/137)

* FTP uploads appear to corrupt the file base. If I scroll down the

This is still a problem; as soon as I FTP upload a file to a file base that already has a file, it appears to corrupt the file base. This time

This turned out to be Linux-specific so I had to set up some tests there. The 7/11 release should fix this.

* For a normal account (not a QWK account), when selecting the messag bases to scan from the message menu, i.e. (MZ) Toggle new scan base with an empty Data field, Mystic appears to be selecting the wrong message base when I enter a number:

That one is still there. Now it appears to be selecting a message base
in some other message group? Not sure, because I can't see any changes

Yeah this was a freak accident. Turns out when I was editing something else I accidentally hit a key and it was passing a bad default value to a function (-10 instead of -1).

I think now that I changed it back to -1 we should be okay in the 7/11 build but let me know once you have a chance to try it!

Also, a few more things (I do not know if all have been present earlier) and suggestions:

* 5mooth-mist25.ans is present in the text directory of the default
theme. Should it be there? Perhaps for some gallery function or similar?

Yes its used as the ANSI in the Demos menu for File Viewer.

* When editing user flags in the user editor, ANSI escape codes
(e.g. arrow up yields a "P") toggle the corresponding flags. Would it be possible for Mystic to "filter out" anything with an escape before it?

This isn't in the 7/11 update but should be fixed in the next build.

* When selecting a function/command in the menu editor, -R is listed
after -S.

Fixed.

* After uploading a file via FTP, the FTP command processor will
become unresponsive until upload testing has finished (if one has enabled upload testing). Could Mystic send e.g. a "452 Requested action not
taken. Still testing uploaded file. Please wait a little and try again."

Not for now. It may be possible to send some status codes to like the client know its being tested and when to resume but I would need to test that with various clients.

Ideally it would spawn a thread for testing but there needs to be a thread queue and a limit to it otherwise a bad actor could use it as a form of DDOS attack. This is something I want to do but its a chunk of work and probably a low priority given how few people will actually use this feature.

I think short term is to experiment with status messages and long term is to implement a testing thread/queue.

... The dog ate my .REP packet

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/07 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Sector 7 * Mystic WHQ (1:129/215)

* I edited resetpw.ini and emailval.ini in the data directory (also tried copying to the theme's text directory), but it appears that Mystic
doesn't use the INI files just yet? (I got the "old" hard-coded messages e-mailed out.) Being able to customize those messages will be great!

Its supposed to be working.

* When copying (/C) and pasting (/P) an action to the action list of a menu command: If the command list is already full (25 entries), pasting will overwrite the highlighted action (if any -- one could be at the
empty line below all actions, in which case nothing would happen).

I'll have it pop up a note that says "max items reached" or something along those lines. I could increase it from 25 as well if it would be helpful.

Also you can stack actual menu commands too so for example if you reached the menu action limit for a specific hotkey you can create another one with a blank text under it with the same hotkey, and Mystic will execute the action lists for both.

* I have Disable Time: No and a security level (s255) which has Time Per Day: 9999. Do Shell events with Warning: x (minutes) really kick the
user out? I would expect Mystic to trim the available time (9999

It probably doesn't when you disable the entire time system I would have to check into that. I am pressed for time right now so I don't have time to take a look to refresh my memory.

But this entire area could use some work!

... Evil triumphs when good people do nothing. - Einstein

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/07 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Sector 7 * Mystic WHQ (1:129/215)

Hello g00r00!

Thank you for your message!

* FTP uploads appear to corrupt the file base. If I scroll down

This turned out to be Linux-specific so I had to set up some tests
there. The 7/11 release should fix this.

Thanks a lot! Works like a charm now!

Yeah this was a freak accident. Turns out when I was editing something else I accidentally hit a key and it was passing a bad default value to
a function (-10 instead of -1).

Oops. :-D

I think now that I changed it back to -1 we should be okay in the 7/11 build but let me know once you have a chance to try it!

Thanks a lot -- it works just fine now!

Not for now. It may be possible to send some status codes to like the client know its being tested and when to resume but I would need to test that with various clients.

I think short term is to experiment with status messages and long term
is to implement a testing thread/queue.

Sounds like a good plan! :)

Best regards
Bj”rn

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/11 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (2:201/137)

Hello g00r00!

Thank you for your message!

On 11 Jul 2022, g00r00 said the following...

* I edited resetpw.ini and emailval.ini in the data directory (also t copying to the theme's text directory), but it appears that Mystic doesn't use the INI files just yet? (I got the "old" hard-coded messa

Its supposed to be working.

I checked with strace, and it appears that it only checks the text directory of the theme and that of the fallback theme (in my case, the "default" theme) for the INI file, but not the "global" data directory (/home/bbs/mystic/data/resetpw.ini):

write(1, "\33[0;1;30m\33[0;1;33mSending password reset e-mail... \33[?25l", 57) = 57
access("/home/bbs/mystic/themes/scbbs_en/text/resetpw.ini", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
access("/home/bbs/mystic/themes/default/text/resetpw.ini", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
access("/home/bbs/mystic/themes/scbbs_en/text/resetpw.ini", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
gettimeofday({tv_sec=1657565833, tv_usec=72114}, NULL) = 0

(cut)

write(28, "2022.07.11 20:57:14 SMTP R:250 HELP\n", 36) = 36
close(28) = 0
open("resetpw.ini", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

(cut)

open("/home/bbs/mystic/logs/node2.log", O_WRONLY|O_APPEND|O_LARGEFILE) = 28 write(28, "2022.07.11 20:57:14 SMTP S:MAIL FROM:<sysop@scbbs.nsupdate.info>\n", 65) = 65

(cut)

I'm not sure what the CWD is for the last open() there, but suspect it might be the Mystic main directory (/home/bbs/mystic).

After copying resetpw.ini to /home/bbs/mystic/themes/scbbs_en/text, it manages to find it:

write(1, "\33[0;1;30m\33[0;1;33mSending password reset e-mail... \33[?25l", 57) = 57
access("/home/bbs/mystic/themes/scbbs_en/text/resetpw.ini", F_OK) = 0

...but still fails to open it:

write(28, "2022.07.11 21:05:46 SMTP R:250 HELP\n", 36) = 36
close(28) = 0
open("resetpw.ini", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

So perhaps there are two things that would need to be adjusted -- that it should check the "global" data directory as a fallback (before resorting to the hard-coded message in MIS), and that it should attempt to open the file it determined to use using its full path?

menu command: If the command list is already full (25 entries), pasti

I'll have it pop up a note that says "max items reached" or something along those lines.

Sounds great! That will do just fine.

Also you can stack actual menu commands too so for example if you
reached the menu action limit for a specific hotkey you can create
another one with a blank text under it with the same hotkey, and Mystic will execute the action lists for both.

Thanks for the tip! Yes, I have a bunch of those (although not for a certain hotkey, but rather for FIRSTCMD) in the prelogin menu, and that's actually where I had to split one of the steps during login (e-mail validation) further because I exceeded the limit. :)

But no harm done, as that menu already contains many FIRSTCMDs for the different steps/checks performed during login. :)

* I have Disable Time: No and a security level (s255) which has Time Day: 9999. Do Shell events with Warning: x (minutes) really kick the user out? I would expect Mystic to trim the available time (9999

It probably doesn't when you disable the entire time system I would have to check into that. I am pressed for time right now so I don't have
time to take a look to refresh my memory.

No problem!

Although "Disable Time: No" means time accounting enabled, right?

I actually re-enabled it a while ago as I thought that disabling it was the cause of users not getting kicked out. But it appears that it doesn't matter if it's enabled or not -- users still don't seem to get kicked out at event time.

So that might be something to test whenever you get time. :)

But this entire area could use some work!

Actually it works just fine otherwise!

Again, thanks a lot!

Best regards
Bj”rn

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/11 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (2:201/137)

* FTP uploads appear to corrupt the file base. If I scroll

This turned out to be Linux-specific so I had to set up some tests there. The 7/11 release should fix this.

Thanks a lot! Works like a charm now!

Thanks for letting me know!

BTW for you guys who upgrade earlier today I created a new 7/11 build with some new changes. I actually built a few today but I am done for the day so if you have the older 7/11 you might want to grab the latest.

... My reality check just bounced

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/11 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Sector 7 * Mystic WHQ (1:129/215)

I checked with strace, and it appears that it only checks the text directory of the theme and that of the fallback theme (in my case, the "default" theme) for the INI file, but not the "global" data directory (/home/bbs/mystic/data/resetpw.ini):

Thanks this was really helpful. I was able to see the problem and fix it up for the next build.

open("resetpw.ini", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or

This is the problem. Its supposed to be opening in the calculated directory + the filename but its accidentally using just the filename. I'll have that fixed in the next build.

Oddly enough when I tested it, it worked becaue I accidentally had a copy of the .ini file in my root Mystic directory lol.

... Confucius say: "Its stuffy inside fortune cookie"

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/11 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Sector 7 * Mystic WHQ (1:129/215)

Hello g00r00!

Thank you for your message!

On 11 Jul 2022, g00r00 said the following...

Thanks this was really helpful. I was able to see the problem and fix
it up for the next build.

Thanks! Sounds great! :)

Oddly enough when I tested it, it worked becaue I accidentally had a
copy of the .ini file in my root Mystic directory lol.

:-D

Best regards
Bj”rn

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/11 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (2:201/137)

Hello g00r00!

BTW for you guys who upgrade earlier today I created a new 7/11 build
with some new changes. I actually built a few today but I am done for
the day so if you have the older 7/11 you might want to grab the latest.

Thanks a lot! Will do! :)

Best regards
Bj”rn

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/11 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (2:201/137)