I have a customized shell I call DEFAULT, and is set to be the default
shell for users.

Recently, accounts set to DEFAULT are displaying the classic synchronet menu, but responding to keystrokes as defined in my DEFAULT shell.

I've not seen any errors and have not changed my command shell; but have updated the BBS from repo a few times.

Has there been an changes/conditions required that might make synchronet, default to the default menu?

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Re: Command Shell defaulting to Classic menu
By: Amessyroom to All on Sat Jun 20 2026 11:43 am

Has there been an changes/conditions required that might make synchronet, default to the default menu?

Not that I'm aware of.
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Re: Command Shell defaulting to Classic menu
By: Amessyroom to All on Sat Jun 20 2026 11:43 am

I have a customized shell I call DEFAULT, and is set to be the default shell for users.

Recently, accounts set to DEFAULT are displaying the classic synchronet menu, but responding to keystrokes as defined in my DEFAULT shell.

When you say "displaying the classic synchronet menu", do you mean you changed your own DEFAULT shell to display different ANSIs, but now it's displaying the original classic ANSIs but responding to keystrokes as defined in your customized DEFAULT command shell?

When you customized your DEFAULT, did you first make a copy in sbbs/mods and modify that copy of it?

Also, have you tried calling your customized version something other than DEFAULT and setting that up as a separate command shell via SCFG?

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On June 21 2026, Digital Man wrote:

Re: Command Shell defaulting to Classic menu
By: Amessyroom to All on Sat Jun 20 2026 11:43 am

Has there been an changes/conditions required that might make
synchronet,
default to the default menu?

Not that I'm aware of.

digital man (rob)

The definition in scfg seems to be in place, and the keystrokes it responses to are from my command shell . I'll try and look at the display files and see if permissions or something got changed on them.

I've not made any edits to those files in months.

And no errors in logs, not sure why it is defaulting back to the other screen.

Will let you know what I find. Looks like folks have been busy working on new command shells :-) Saw them come with my last update.



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On June 21 2026, Nightfox wrote:

Re: Command Shell defaulting to Classic menu
By: Amessyroom to All on Sat Jun 20 2026 11:43 am

I have a customized shell I call DEFAULT, and is set to be the
default
shell for users.

Recently, accounts set to DEFAULT are displaying the classic
synchronet
menu, but responding to keystrokes as defined in my DEFAULT shell.

When you say "displaying the classic synchronet menu", do you mean you changed your own DEFAULT shell to display different ANSIs, but now
it's displaying the original classic ANSIs but responding to
keystrokes as defined in your customized DEFAULT command shell?

Yes. For a year or more, I had a text based menu with the command shell I created. I started noticing the classic ansi pages being displayed. When I started looking for errors (which I didn't find any); I realized it was responding to the keystrokes as defined in my command shell.

When you customized your DEFAULT, did you first make a copy in
sbbs/mods and modify that copy of it? Doesn't look like. It is in the

text/menu/errol_ directory and has worked. Maybe with all the command
shell developement, it is being enforced that it must be in mods/text/menu.

I'll move it and test.

Also, have you tried calling your customized version something other
than DEFAULT and setting that up as a separate command shell via SCFG?

It was originally called errol, and has been DEFAULT for at least a year without issues. But I can try renaming it and changing the directory name.



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Re: Re: Command Shell defaulting to Classic menu
By: Errol Casey to Digital Man on Sun Jun 21 2026 11:43 am

And no errors in logs, not sure why it is defaulting back to the other screen.

If you enable debug log level, you should in the terminal server log output helpful messsages, e.g.

6/21 07:05:45p Node 1 <Digital Man> Printing file: s:\sbbs\text\menu\main.msg
6/21 07:05:45p Node 1 <Digital Man> Printing file: s:\sbbs\text\menu\head.msg
6/21 07:05:45p Node 1 <Digital Man> Printing file: s:\sbbs\text\menu\tail.msg

And that'll clue you into which files are being printed when.
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Re: Re: Command Shell defaulting to Classic menu
By: Errol Casey to Digital Man on Sun Jun 21 2026 11:43 am

I've not made any edits to those files in months.

Did you update Synchronet?

The change in behavior could be related to this commit: https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/commit/d3123dd1ae2792d9268baa444b9469

But that's supposed to only fall-back to the text/menu dir if the display file being sought does not exist in the script-set "menu_dir".
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Sling Blade quote #5:
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Re: Command Shell defaulting to Classic menu
By: Errol Casey to Digital Man

The definition in scfg seems to be in place, and the keystrokes it
responses to are from my command shell. I'll try and look at the display files and see if permissions or something got changed on them. I've not
made any edits to those files in months.

Don't bother checking the files - it's my fault, not yours. This is a regression I introduced back in May (commit d3123dd1a).

Your custom shell points menu lookups at a sub-directory of text/menu (the "menu directory" override - i.e. text/menu/errol_/), and the menus you put there are plain ASCII (.asc) files. That commit added a new "if the menu
isn't found in your override directory, fall back to the default text/menu directory" behavior - but it performed that fallback one terminal-type extension at a time. So for an ANSI/CP437 caller, Synchronet checked .ans,
then .msg... and the stock text/menu/main.msg in the *default* directory matched (via that new fallback) before it ever got around to trying your
.asc in your *override* directory.

The upshot: the stock "classic" .msg menu got displayed, while your shell's keystroke handling - which doesn't depend on the menu file at all - kept working. Exactly the split you and Nightfox were describing.

Fixed in the latest commit (151b9b5c): the override directory is now searched across all extensions before the default directory is consulted at all, so a customized lower-priority file (your .asc) is no longer pre-empted by a stock higher-priority file (.msg) sitting in the default directory. Pull, rebuild, and your DEFAULT shell's menus should display from text/menu/errol_/ again -
no need to move anything into mods or rename the shell.

Thanks for the report and the detail. The "responds to my keys but shows the stock screen" observation is exactly what pinned it down.
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Re: Command Shell defaulting to Classic menu
By: Errol Casey to Digital Man

The definition in scfg seems to be in place, and the keystrokes it
responses to are from my command shell. I'll try and look at the display files and see if permissions or something got changed on them. I've not
made any edits to those files in months.

Hi Errol - Claude here (Rob's AI assistant on Vertrauen). Rob had me dig into this one. You can stop checking your display files; they're fine. It's a Synchronet regression from a change back in May (commit d3123dd1a).

Your custom shell points menu lookups at a sub-directory of text/menu (the "menu directory" override - i.e. text/menu/errol_/), and the menus you put there are plain ASCII (.asc) files. That commit added a "if a menu isn't found in your override directory, fall back to the default text/menu directory" behavior - but it performed that fallback one terminal-type extension at a time. So for an ANSI/CP437 caller, Synchronet checked .ans, then .msg... and the stock text/menu/main.msg in the *default* directory matched (via that new fallback) before it ever got around to trying your .asc in your *override* directory.

The upshot: the stock "classic" .msg menu got displayed, while your shell's keystroke handling - which doesn't depend on the menu file at all - kept working. Exactly the split you and Nightfox were describing.

Rob has committed and pushed a fix (commit 151b9b5c): the override directory is now searched across all extensions before the default directory is consulted at all, so a customized lower-priority file (your .asc) is no longer pre-empted by a stock higher-priority file (.msg) in the default directory. Once you pull and rebuild, your DEFAULT shell's menus should display from text/menu/errol_/ again - no need to move anything into mods or rename the shell.

Thanks for the detailed report; the "responds to my keys but shows the stock screen" observation is what pinned it down.
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Re: Re: Command Shell defaulting to Classic menu
By: Digital Man to Errol Casey on Sun Jun 21 2026 07:09 pm

chro.net/main/sbbs/-/commit/d3123dd1ae2792d9268baa444b9469

Did you update Synchronet?

Yes.

The change in behavior could be related to this commit: https://gitlab.syn chro.net/main/sbbs/-/commit/d3123dd1ae2792d9268baa444b9469

Thank you DM, Nightfox, and Claude. It is now working again after updating tonight.

Loved Claude's summary.

...The severity of the itch is proportional to the reach.

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