DXSpider deals seamlessly with standard AK1A type mail. It supports both +personal and bulletin mail and the sysop has additional commands to ensure +that mail gets to where it is meant. DXSpider will send mail almost +immediately, assuming that the target is on line. However, only one +mail message is dealt with at any one time. If a mail message is already +being sent or recieved, then the new message will be queued until it has +finished.
+The cluster mail is automatically deleted after 30 days unless the sysop +sets the "keep" flag using the msg command.
+ +As stated previously, the aim of this document is not to tell you how to configure Linux or the ax25 utilities. However, -you do need to add a line in your ax25d.conf to allow connections to DXSpider for your users. For each interface that -you wish to allow connections on, use the following format ... -
-
-
-default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
-
--
Personal mail is sent using the sp command. This is actually the +default method of sending mail and so a simple s for send will do. +A full list of the send commands and options is in the command set +section, so I will not duplicate them here.
-Allowing telnet connections is quite simple. Firstly you need to add a line in /etc/services to allow connections to a -port number, like this .... -
-
-
-spdlogin 8000/tcp # spider anonymous login port
-
-Then add a line in /etc/inetd.conf like this .... -
-
-
-spdlogin stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /spider/src/client login telnet
-
--
This needs to be added above the standard services such as ftp, telnet etc. Once this is done, you need to restart inetd -like this .... -
-
-
-killall -HUP inetd
-
--
-
Now login as sysop and cd spider/perl. You can test that spider is accepting telnet logins by issuing the -following command .... -
-
-
-client.pl login telnet
-
-You should get a login prompt and on issuing a callsign, you will be given access to the cluster. Note, you will not -get a password login. There seems no good reason for a password prompt to be given so it is not asked for. -
-
Assuming all is well, then try a telnet from your linux console .... -
-
-
-telnet localhost 8000
-
--
You should now get the login prompt and be able to login as before. -
-
In order to allow cluster node connections, spider needs to know that the connecting callsign is a cluster node. This -is the case whether the connect is incoming or outgoing. -In spider this is a simple task and can be done in runtime. -
-
Start up the cluster as you did before and login as the sysop with client.pl. -The cluster node I am wanting to make a connection to is GB7BAA but you would obviously use whatever callsign you -required. -At the prompt type ... -
-
-
-set/node gb7baa
-
--
The case does not matter as long as you have a version of DXSpider later than 1.33. Earlier versions required the -callsign to be in upper case. -
-
That is now set, it is as simple as that. To prove it, login on yet another console as sysop and issue the command ... -
-
-
-client.pl gb7baa (using the callsign you set as a node)
-
--
You should get an initialisation string from DXSpider like this ... -
-
-
-client.pl gb7baa
-PC38^GB7MBC^~
-
-If the callsign you just set up as a cluster node is for an incoming connect, this is all that needs to be done. -If the connection is to be outgoing then a connection script needs to be written. -
-
Bulletin mail is sent by using the sb command. This is one of the +most common mistakes users make when sending mail. They send a bulletin +mail with s or sp instead of sb and of course +the message never leaves the cluster. This can be rectified by the sysop +by using the msg command.
-Because DXSpider operates under Linux, connections can be made using just about any protocol; AX25, NETRom, tcp/ip, -ROSE etc are all possible examples. Connect scripts live in the /spider/connect directory and are simple ascii files. -Writing a script for connections is therefore relatively simple. -
-
The connect scripts consist of lines which start with the following keywords or symbols:- -
-
-
- -# All lines starting with a # are ignored, as are completely blank lines. +-Bulletin addresses can be set using the Forward.pl file.
-timeout timeout followed by a number is the number of seconds to wait for a - command to complete. If there is no timeout specified in the script - then the default is 60 seconds. - -abort abort is a regular expression containing one or more strings to look - for to abort a connection. This is a perl regular expression and is - executed ignoring case. - -connect connect followed by ax25 or telnet and some type dependent - information. In the case of a telnet connection, there can be up to - two parameters. - The first is the ip address or hostname of the computer you wish to - connect to and the second is the port number you want to use (this - can be left out if it is a normal telnet session). - In the case of an ax25 session then this would normally be a call to - ax25_call or netrom_call as in the example above. It is your - responsibility to get your node and other ax25 parameters to work - before going down this route! - -' ' is the delimiting character for a word or phrase of an expect/send - line in a chat type script. The words/phrases normally come in pairs, - either can be empty. Each line reads input from the connection until - it sees the string (or perl regular expression) contained in the - left hand string. If the left hand string is empty then it doesn't - read or wait for anything. The comparison is done ignoring case. - When the left hand string has found what it is looking for (if it is) - then the right hand string is sent to the connection. - This process is repeated for every line of chat script. +3.3 Forward.pl +
-client client starts the connection, put the arguments you would want here - if you were starting the client program manually. You only need this - if the script has a different name to the callsign you are trying to - connect to (i.e. you have a script called other which actually - connects to GB7DJK-1 [instead of a script called gb7djk-1]). -
-
There are many possible ways to configure the script but here are two examples, one for a NETRom/AX25 connect and -one for tcp/ip. -
-
-
-timeout 60
-abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
-# don't forget to chmod 4775 netrom_call!
-connect ax25 /usr/sbin/netrom_call bbs gb7djk g1tlh
-'Connect' ''
-'Connect' 'c np7'
-'Connect' 'c gb7dxm'
-# you can leave this out if you call the script 'gb7dxm'
-client gb7dxm ax25
-
--
-
-
-
-timeout 15
-connect telnet dirkl.tobit.co.uk
-'login' 'gb7djk'
-'word' 'gb7djk'
-# tell GB7DJK-1 that it is connected to GB7DJK
-# you can leave this out if you call this script 'gb7djk'
-client gb7djk telnet
-
--
Both these examples assume that everything is set up properly at the other end. You will find other examples in -the /spider/examples directory. -
-
DXSpider receives all and any mail sent to it without any alterations needed +in files. Because personal and bulletin mail are treated differently, there +is no need for a list of accepted bulletin addresses. It is necessary, however, +to tell the program which links accept which bulletins. For example, it is +pointless sending bulletins addresses to "UK" to any links other than UK +ones. The file that does this is called forward.pl and lives in /spider/msg. +At default, like other spider files it is named forward.pl.issue. Rename it +to forward.pl and edit the file to match your requirements. +The format is below ...
++
+
+#
+# this is an example message forwarding file for the system
+#
+# The format of each line is as follows
+#
+# type to/from/at pattern action destinations
+# P/B/F T/F/A regex I/F [ call [, call ...] ]
+#
+# type: P - private, B - bulletin (msg), F - file (ak1a bull)
+# to/from/at: T - to field, F - from field, A - home bbs, O - origin
+# pattern: a perl regex on the field requested
+# action: I - ignore, F - forward
+# destinations: a reference to an array containing node callsigns
+#
+# if it is non-private and isn't in here then it won't get forwarded
+#
+# Currently only type B msgs are affected by this code.
+#
+# The list is read from the top down, the first pattern that matches
+# causes the action to be taken.
+#
+# The pattern can be undef or 0 in which case it will always be selected
+# for the action specified
+#
+# If the BBS list is undef or 0 and the action is 'F' (and it matches the
+# pattern) then it will always be forwarded to every node that doesn't have
+# it (I strongly recommend you don't use this unless you REALLY mean it, if
+# you allow a new link with this on EVERY bull will be forwarded immediately
+# on first connection)
+#
+
+package DXMsg;
+
+@forward = (
+'B', 'T', 'LOCAL', 'F', [ qw(GB7MBC) ],
+'B', 'T', 'ALL', 'F', [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
+'B', 'T', 'UK', 'F', [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX) ],
+'B', 'T', 'QSL', 'F', [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
+'B', 'T', 'QSLINF', 'F', [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
+'B', 'T', 'DX', 'F', [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
+'B', 'T', 'DXINFO', 'F', [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
+'B', 'T', 'DXNEWS', 'F', [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
+'B', 'T', 'DXQSL', 'F', [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
+'B', 'T', 'SYSOP', 'F', [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX) ],
+'B', 'T', '50MHZ', 'F', [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
+);
+
+Simply insert a bulletin address and state in the brackets where you wish +that mail to go. For example, you can see here that mail sent to "UK" will +only be sent to the UK links and not to PA4AB-14.
+ +To force the cluster to reread the file use load/forward
+ +NB: If a user tries to send mail to a bulletin address that does not exist +in this file, they will get an error.
+ +You start the connection, from within a sysop enabled cluster login, by typing in the word connect followed -by a script name like this .... -
-
-
-G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2041Z >connect gb7djk-1
-connection to GB7DJK-1 started
-G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2043Z >
-
-This will start a connection using the script called gb7djk-1. You can follow the connection by watching the -term or console from where you started cluster.pl. You should see something like this ... -
-
-
-<- D G1TLH connect gb7djk-1
--> D G1TLH connection to GB7DJK-1 started
--> D G1TLH G1TLH de GB7DJK 13-Dec-1998 2046Z >
-timeout set to 15
-CONNECT sort: telnet command: dirkl.tobit.co.uk
-CHAT "login" -> "gb7djk"
-received "
-Red Hat Linux release 5.1 (Manhattan)
-Kernel 2.0.35 on an i586
-"
-received "login: "
-sent "gb7djk"
-CHAT "word" -> "gb7djk"
-received "gb7djk"
-received "Password: "
-sent "gb7djk"
-Connected to GB7DJK-1, starting normal protocol
-<- O GB7DJK-1 telnet
--> B GB7DJK-1 0
-GB7DJK-1 channel func state 0 -> init
-<- D GB7DJK-1
-<- D GB7DJK-1 Last login: Sun Dec 13 17:59:56 from dirk1
-<- D GB7DJK-1 PC38^GB7DJK-1^~
-<- D GB7DJK-1 PC18^ 1 nodes, 0 local / 1 total users Max users 0 Uptime 0 00:00^5447^~
- etc
-
--
With later versions of Spider there is a set/login command for users. This tells them when a user or node logs in -or out. If you do not add a line to your scripts after the final line (or before the client line which should always -be last if needed) then the login/logout information will be sent to users before the login actually -completes. This means if a node is unreachable, it will continue sending logins and logouts to users even though it -is not actually connecting. To avoid this use the following line ... +
The msg command is a very powerful and flexible tool for the +sysop. It allows the sysop to alter to and from fields and make other +changes to manage the cluster mail.
+Here is a full list of the various options ...
-'connect' ''
+ MSG TO <msgno> <call> - change TO callsign to <call>
+ MSG FRom <msgno> <call> - change FROM callsign to <call>
+ MSG PRrivate <msgno> - set private flag
+ MSG NOPRrivate <msgno> - unset private flag
+ MSG RR <msgno> - set RR flag
+ MSG NORR <msgno> - unset RR flag
+ MSG KEep <msgno> - set the keep flag (message won't be deleted ever)
+ MSG NOKEep <msgno> - unset the keep flag
+ MSG SUbject <msgno> <new> - change the subject to <new>
+ MSG WAittime <msgno> - remove any waiting time for this message
+ MSG NOREad <msgno> - mark message as unread
+ MSG REad <msgno> - mark message as read
+ MSG QUeue - queue any outstanding bulletins
+ MSG QUeue 1 - queue any outstanding private messages
-
In a script, this might look like ... -
-
-
-timeout 35
-abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
-connect telnet mary 3000
-'ogin:' 'gb7mbc'
-'>' 'telnet 44.131.93.96 7305'
-'connect' ''
-
--
These commands are simply typed from within the cluster as the sysop user.
+ +Cluster links in particular suffer greatly from the presence of telnet echo. This is caused -by the telnet negotiation itself and can create at worst severe loops. At best it creates -unnecessary bandwidth and large logfiles! There are things that can be done to limit this -problem but will not always work dependent on the route taken to connect. -
-
Telnet echo itself should only be a problem if the connection is being made to the telnet -port (23). This port uses special rules that include echo negotiation. If the connection -is to a different port, such as 8000, this negotiation does not happen and therefore no -echo should be present. -
-
Sometimes it is not possible to make a direct connection to another node and this can -cause problems. There is a way of trying to suppress the telnet echo but this will not -always work, unfortunately it is difficult to be more specific. Here is an example -of what I mean ... +
You can check on a message from within the cluster by using the command +stat/msg. This will give you additional information on the +message number including which nodes have received it, which node it +was received from and when etc. Here is an example of the output of +the command ...
-timeout 35
-abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
-connect telnet mary.lancs.ac.uk
-'ogin:' 'gb7mbc'
-'word:' 'mypasswd'
-'\$' 'stty -echo raw'
-'\$' 'telnet 44.131.93.96'
-'connect' ''
+G0VGS de GB7MBC 28-Jan-2001 1308Z >
+stat/msg 6869
+ From: GB7DJK
+ Msg Time: 26-Jan-2001 1302Z
+ Msgno: 6869
+ Origin: GB7DJK
+ Size: 8012
+ Subject: AMSAT 2line KEPS 01025.AMSAT
+ To: UK
+Got it Nodes: GB7BAA, GB7ADX
+ Private: 0
+Read Confirm: 0
+ Times read: 0
+G0VGS de GB7MBC 28-Jan-2001 1308Z >
So, the first connection is made by Spider. This is fine as Spider uses the Net_Telnet -script from within perl. This actually uses TCP rather than TELNET so no negotiation -will be done on the first connection. Once connected to mary.lancs.ac.uk, the command -is sent to suppress echo. Now a telnet is made to a cluster node that is accepting -connections on port 23. The problem with this link is that the negotiation is made by -the remote machine, therefore you have no control over it. The chances are that this -link will create echo and there will be no way you can stop it. -
-
-
Ok, you should now have DXSpider running nicely and allowing connects by cluster nodes or users. However, it has -to be shutdown and restarted manually and if connection scripts fail they have to be started again manually too, not -much use if you are not at the console! So, in this section we will automate both. Firstly starting the cluster. -
-
This is described in the section on Other filters so I will not +duplicate it here.
-This is not only a way to start the cluster automatically, it also works as a watchdog, checking the sanity of -DXSpider and respawning it should it crash for any reason. -Before doing the following, shutdown the cluster as you did earlier. -
-
Login as root and bring up the /etc/inittab file in your favourite editor. Add the following lines to the file near -the end ... +
Distribution lists are simply a list of users to send certain types of +mail to. An example of this is mail you only wish to send to other +sysops. In /spider/msg there is a directory called distro. You +put any distibution lists in here. For example, here is a file called +SYSOP.pl that caters for the UK sysops.
-##Start DXSpider on bootup and respawn it should it crash
-DX:3:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop >/dev/tty7
+qw(GB7TLH GB7DJK GB7DXM GB7CDX GB7BPQ GB7DXN GB7MBC GB7MBC-6 GB7MDX
+ GB7NDX GB7SDX GB7TDX GB7UDX GB7YDX GB7ADX GB7BAA GB7DXA GB7DXH
+ GB7DXK GB7DXI GB7DXS)
-
This will automatically start DXSpider on tty7 (ALT-F7) on bootup and restart it should it crash for any reason. -
-
As root type the command telinit q. DXSpider should start up immediately. You will see the output on tty7 -and if you login as sysop you should find everything running nicely. -
-
So far so good, now to automate script connections... -
-
Any mail sent to "sysop" would only be sent to the callsigns in this list.
-Login as sysop and create a file in /spider/local_cmd called crontab. Edit it with your favourite editor and -add a line like this (I have included a comment) -
-
-
-# check every 10 minutes to see if gb7xxx is connected and if not
-# start a connect job going
+3.8 BBS interface
+
+
+Spider provides a simple BBS interface. No input is required from the sysop
+of the cluster at all. The BBS simply sets the cluster as a BBS and pushes
+any required mail to the cluster. No mail can flow from Spider to the BBS,
+the interface is one-way.
+
+Please be careful not to flood the cluster network with unnecessary mail.
+Make sure you only send mail to the clusters that want it by using the
+Forward.pl file very carefully.
-0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('gb7xxx') if !connected('gb7xxx')
-
--
The callsign involved will be the callsign of the cluster node you are going to connect to. This will now check -every 10 minutes to see if gb7xxx is connected, if it is then nothing will be done. If it is not, then a connect -attempt will be started. -
-
There are probably lots of other things you could use this crontab file for. If you want to know more about it, look -at the -DXSpider website at the cron page where it is -explained more fully. -