enigma-bbs/docs/messageareas/bso-import-export.md

layout	title
page	BSO Import / Export

BSO Import / Export

The scanner/tosser module ftn_bso provides Binkley Style Outbound (BSO) import/toss and scan/export of messages EchoMail and NetMail messages. Configuration is supplied in config.hjson under scannerTossers.ftn_bso.

ℹ️ ENiGMA½'s ftn_bso module is not a mailer and makes no attempts to perfrom packet transport! An external mailer such as Binkd is required for this!

Let's look at some of the basic configuration:

Config Item	Required	Description
schedule	👍	Sets import and export schedules. Later style text parsing supported. import also can utilize a @watch:<path/to/file> syntax while export additionally supports @immediate.
packetMsgEncoding	👎	Override default utf8 encoding.
defaultNetwork	👎	Explicitly set default network (by tag in messageNetworks.ftn.networks). If not set, the first found is used.
nodes	👍	Per-node settings. Entries (keys) here support wildcards for a portion of the FTN-style address (e.g.: 21:1/*). archiveType may be set to a FTN supported archive extention that the system supports (TODO); if unset, only .PKT files are produced. encoding may be set to override packetMsgEncoding on a per-node basis. If the node requires a packet password, set packetPassword
paths	👎	An optional configuration block that can set a additional paths or override defaults. See "Paths" below.
packetTargetByteSize	👎	Overrides the system target packet (.pkt) size of 512000 bytes (512k)
bundleTargetByteSize	👎	Overrides the system target ArcMail bundle size of 2048000 bytes (2M)

Paths

Paths for packet files work out of the box and are relative to your install directory. If you want to configure reject or retain to keep rejected/imported packet files respectively, set those values. You may override defaults as well.

Key	Description
outbound	Base path to write outbound (exported) packet files and bundles.
inbound	Base path to write inbound (ie: those written by an external mailer) packet files an bundles.
secInbound	Base path to write secure inbound packet files and bundles.
reject	Path in which to write rejected packet files.
retain	Path in which to write imported packet files. Useful for debugging or if you wish to archive the raw .pkt files.

Scheduling

Schedules can be defined for importing and exporting via import and export under schedule. Each entry is allowed a "free form" text and/or special indicators for immediate export or watch file triggers.

• @immediate: A message will be immediately exported if this trigger is defined in a schedule. Only used for export.
• @watch:/path/to/file: This trigger watches the path specified for changes and will trigger an import or export when such events occur. Only used for import.
• Free form Later style text — can be things like at 5:00 pm or every 2 hours.

See Later text parsing documentation for more information.

Example Schedule Configuration

{
  scannerTossers: {
    ftn_bso: {
      schedule: {
        import: every 1 hours or @watch:/path/to/watchfile.ext
        export: every 1 hours or @immediate
      }
    }
  }
}

Nodes

The nodes section defines how to export messages for one or more uplinks.

A node entry starts with a FTN address (up to 5D) as a key in config.hjson. This key may contain wildcard(s) for net/zone/node/point/domain.

Config Item	Required	Description
packetType	👎	2, 2.2, or 2+. Defaults to 2+ for modern mailer compatiability.
packetPassword	👎	Optional password for the packet
encoding	👎	Encoding to use for message bodies; Defaults to utf-8.
archiveType	👎	Specifies the archive type (by extension) for ArcMail bundles. This should be zip for most setups. Other valid examples include arc, arj, lhz, pak, sqz, or zoo. See docs on archiver configuration for more information.

Example:

{
  scannerTossers: {
    ftn_bso: {
      nodes: {
        "21:*": { // wildcard address
          packetType: 2+
          packetPassword: D@TP4SS
          encoding: cp437
          archiveType: zip
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

A More Complete Example

Below is a more complete example showing the sections described above.

scannerTossers: {
  ftn_bso: {
    schedule: {
      //  Check every 30m, or whenever the "toss!.now" file is touched (ie: by Binkd)
      import: every 30 minutes or @watch:/enigma-bbs/mail/ftn_in/toss!.now

      //  Export immediately, but also check every 15m to be sure
      export: every 15 minutes or @immediate
    }

    // optional
    paths: {
      reject: /path/to/store/bad/packets/
      retain: /path/to/store/good/packets/
    }

    //  Override default FTN/BSO packet encoding. Defaults to 'utf8'
    packetMsgEncoding: utf8

    defaultNetwork: fsxnet

    nodes: {
      "21:1/100" : {            //  May also contain wildcards, ie: "21:1/*"
        archiveType: ZIP        //  By-ext archive type: ZIP, ARJ, ..., optional.
        encoding: utf8          //  Encoding for exported messages
        packetPassword: MUHPA55 //  FTN .PKT password, optional

        tic: {
          //  See TIC docs
        }
      }
    }

    netMail: {
      //  See NetMail docs
    }

    ticAreas: {
      //  See TIC docs
    }
  }
}

Binkd

Since Binkd is a very common mailer, a few tips on integrating it with ENiGMA½:

Scheduling Polls

Binkd does not have it's own scheduler. Instead, you'll need to set up an Event Scheduler entry or perhaps a cron job:

First, create a script that runs through all of your uplinks. For example:

#!/bin/bash
UPLINKS=("21:1/100@fsxnet" "80:774/1@retronet" "10:101/0@araknet")
for uplink in "${UPLINKS[@]}"
do
	/usr/local/sbin/binkd -p -P $uplink /home/enigma/xibalba/misc/binkd_xibalba.conf
done

Now, create an Event Scheuler entry in your config.hjson. As an example:

eventScheduler: {
  events: {
    pollWithBink: {
      //  execute the script above very 1 hours
      schedule: every 1 hours
      action: @execute:/path/to/poll_bink.sh
    }
  }
}

Additional Resources

• Blog entry on setting up ENiGMA + Binkd on CentOS7. Note that this references an older version, so be wary of the config.hjson refernces!