Howdy,

When MBSE tosses incoming files, is there a setting to stop it creating a symlink? I was going to look through the code, but I thought I'd ask here
too, in case this route provides a quicker answer ;)

...deon

_--_|\ | Deon George
/ \ | Chinwag BBS - A BBS on a PI in Docker!
\_.__.*/ |
V | Coming from the 'burbs of Melbourne, Australia

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 2018/12/27 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Chinwag | MysticBBS in Docker! (3:633/509.1)

Hello Deon!

16 Mar 19 11:44, you wrote to all:

When MBSE tosses incoming files, is there a setting to stop it
creating a symlink? I was going to look through the code, but I
thought I'd ask here too, in case this route provides a quicker answer
;)

There isn't a setting to prevent the creation of symlinks. MBSE creates symlinks to ensure that every file has both an 8.3 DOS compatible filename and the "real" full filename.

Andrew

--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Phoenix BBS * phoenix.bnbbbs.net (1:320/219)

Hey Andrew,

On 16 Mar 2019, Andrew Leary said the following...

There isn't a setting to prevent the creation of symlinks. MBSE creates symlinks to ensure that every file has both an 8.3 DOS compatible
filename and the "real" full filename.

OK, I think there are opportunities for the TIC processing to be improved.
This is something I wanted to look at for a long time, but I just cant seem
to find the time or headspace to look into it.

Here is an example of what I see:
-rw-r--r-- 1 mbse bbs 1063026 Dec 2 21:55 NULL003L32.Z
-rw-r--r-- 1 mbse bbs 1027027 Dec 2 21:55 NULL003RPI.Z
-rw-r--r-- 1 mbse bbs 780512 Dec 2 21:55 NULL003W32.Z
lrwxrwxrwx 1 mbse bbs 12 Dec 7 20:29 null003l32.zip -> NULL003L32.Z lrwxrwxrwx 1 mbse bbs 12 Dec 7 20:29 null003rpi.zip -> NULL003RPI.Z lrwxrwxrwx 1 mbse bbs 12 Dec 7 20:29 null003w32.zip -> NULL003W32.Z

and
-rw-r--r-- 1 mbse bbs 238387 Oct 2 21:13 TDFSTUDIO110
lrwxrwxrwx 1 mbse bbs 12 Nov 8 21:39 tdfstudio110_l32.zip ->
TDFSTUDIO110
lrwxrwxrwx 1 mbse bbs 12 Nov 8 21:39 tdfstudio110_rpi.zip ->
TDFSTUDIO110

In the second output, you'll see that I received something inbound, it was converted to uppercase and truncated to 12 chars (the DOS format?) and then symlinked to the unix format (name untouched). In the process, one of these links is wrong.

I would like to see incoming files be tossed and stored "as received"
(since MBSE is running on Linux - converted to lowercase if necessary), and
the symlink be created to support DOS conventions (if it cannot be disabled). Additionally, the DOS link should be 8.3 chars and if there is no extension,
it should just be 8 chars (and all uppercase). (The first output above is
wrong for DOS).

I have a mess of a badtic dir and file areas because MBSE doesnt handle large filenames well - and I know you've just released an update (which I'm yet to look at) - I'm not sure if it will help the issue I'm seeing.

...deon

_--_|\ | Deon George
/ \ | Chinwag BBS - A BBS on a PI in Docker!
\_.__.*/ |
V | Coming from the 'burbs of Melbourne, Australia

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 2018/12/27 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Chinwag | MysticBBS in Docker! (3:633/509.1)

Hello Deon!

Saturday March 16 2019 11:44, you wrote to All:

Howdy,

When MBSE tosses incoming files, is there a setting to stop it
creating a symlink? I was going to look through the code, but I
thought I'd ask here too, in case this route provides a quicker answer
;)

Why ?

Symlinks take up next to no spaces on ext4 etc.


In any event we must maintain the dos 8.3 standard just on case,
1. Downlinks use a dos based BBS - it is possible.
2. When tossing we have to allow for (1.)
3. We should consider enforcing the 8.3 max. rule and not up the name size to go to 11
chars as that is not compilying with the DOS standard.



Now all that said, even with old versions of Windows and the latest OS versions of dos
there is support for extended file names as FAT has been replaced for all.

The issue is will it break other systems and I suspect that it could.


1. Another possible upgrade is to go through all of the code base creating new coding to
support access to the current Data bases where said code is called as required to open,
close, read, write etc each DB (file).

2. Create same again but this time supporting a rdb - MySQL.

This is one of the reasons for (1) but the obvious is to upgrade any system from flat
files to rdb.

Now with that done we can create a simple (or not) editor to edit/change etc the file
descriptions database.

Next is to be able to produce extra stats during normal ops.

Make it easier to run multi copies of mbse on more than one platform - I do find it
annoying to have to run rsync often to keep them in sync as I also have mbse on a
Raspberry Pi3B+ and (at one point) a Mac Pro but will be selling it off on Ebay soo as it
is not being used at all.
Also a Laptop or two is in the mix as well as my media system which is 24/7 just to record
on-air programming so it has more than enough space and can also have a instance of mbse
the media stuff uses MySql already.

Hopefully this will start cutting down of systems in 24/7 ops and therefore the Electricity
bill.

The Pi come on does a rsync then shuts down if needed just as a back up system JIC.
It does have a 1Tb drive for boot and data etc.

Vince

--- Mageia Linux v6 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.11/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.501-b20150715
* Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)

On 17 Mar 2019, Vince Coen said the following...

Why ?

Symlinks take up next to no spaces on ext4 etc.

I know - but my filebase areas is a mess.

In any event we must maintain the dos 8.3 standard just on case,

As I posted earlier, it needs work (IMHO it is broken). I have no problem supporting DOS in addition to Unix/Linux - in fact I welcome it. But as I posted previously I think it needs work.

I've just compiled .12 (I make a DEB if anybody is interested), and I just
need to build my docker container, then I'll try out the updates in 12 (which
I know were focused on long file names). But (I only had a quick glance at
the source), I dont think it addresses the issue I'm seeing...

The Pi come on does a rsync then shuts down if needed just as a back up system JIC.

I run MBSE on a PI (in docker) - and I use "restic" as my backup tool. With a machine running S3 (minio), I can have a daily backup that is efficiently stored (de-duped, compressed and encrypted - so it could be in the cloud
too). But I digress...

...deon

_--_|\ | Deon George
/ \ | Chinwag BBS - A BBS on a PI in Docker!
\_.__.*/ |
V | Coming from the 'burbs of Melbourne, Australia

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 2018/12/27 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Chinwag | MysticBBS in Docker! (3:633/509.1)

Hello Deon!

Monday March 18 2019 01:20, you wrote to me:

I know - but my filebase areas is a mess.

In any event we must maintain the dos 8.3 standard just on case,

As I posted earlier, it needs work (IMHO it is broken). I have no
problem supporting DOS in addition to Unix/Linux - in fact I welcome
it. But as I posted previously I think it needs work.

I have now reread your mail and yes that bug has been there a very long time.

A bit of history : files coming through filegate are all as standard 8.3.

This way mbse can deal as needed but the issue as far as I remember is when non standard
file names come through it does a poor job of converting the format for Linux when the
input file name is not confirming to dos std (8.3).

Are these files from other sources i.e., you downloaded them and hatched them etc ?
As this scenario is where I see this problem so just have to remember to name them
correctly.

Vince

--- Mageia Linux v6 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.11/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.501-b20150715
* Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)

On 18 Mar 2019, Vince Coen said the following...

Are these files from other sources i.e., you downloaded them and hatched them etc ?

No, these files have coming in from various uplinks and nets.

...deon

_--_|\ | Deon George
/ \ | Chinwag BBS - A BBS on a PI in Docker!
\_.__.*/ |
V | Coming from the 'burbs of Melbourne, Australia

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 2018/12/27 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Chinwag | MysticBBS in Docker! (3:633/509.1)

Hello Deon!

Monday March 18 2019 20:07, you wrote to me:

On 18 Mar 2019, Vince Coen said the following...

Are these files from other sources i.e., you downloaded them and
hatched them etc ?

No, these files have coming in from various uplinks and nets.

Suggest at least for now you ask uplinks to send files conforming to the 8.3 standards.

That said mbse does need looking at to see where the problem is.

Worse comes to it we can always use rendom naming when getting a duplicate name error.
That is the drawback of shortening file names down to eight chars.



Vince

--- Mageia Linux v6 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.11/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.501-b20150715
* Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)

Hello Deon!

Monday March 18 2019 20:07, you wrote to me:

On 18 Mar 2019, Vince Coen said the following...

Are these files from other sources i.e., you downloaded them and
hatched them etc ?

No, these files have coming in from various uplinks and nets.

Have you created a bug report for this ?

If not please do so.



Vince

--- Mageia Linux v6 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.11/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.501-b20150715
* Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)

On 21 Mar 2019, Vince Coen said the following...

Suggest at least for now you ask uplinks to send files conforming to the 8.3 standards.

Yeah, I dont think that will happen.

I thought my suggestion would would at least improve the handling. IE: The current handling looses incoming files if two files have the same first 12 chars. My suggestion would be to keep the files as is and create the symlinks for DOS purposes - and if they are wrong, its an easier manual fix by the sysop.

...deon

_--_|\ | Deon George
/ \ | Chinwag BBS - A BBS on a PI in Docker!
\_.__.*/ |
V | Coming from the 'burbs of Melbourne, Australia

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 2018/12/27 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Chinwag | MysticBBS in Docker! (3:633/509.1)

On 21 Mar 2019, Vince Coen said the following...

Have you created a bug report for this ?

No, dont know where to.

I thought posting here was enough :)

...deon

_--_|\ | Deon George
/ \ | Chinwag BBS - A BBS on a PI in Docker!
\_.__.*/ |
V | Coming from the 'burbs of Melbourne, Australia

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 2018/12/27 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Chinwag | MysticBBS in Docker! (3:633/509.1)

Hello Deon!

21 Mar 19 23:58, you wrote to Vince Coen:

Have you created a bug report for this ?

No, dont know where to.

I thought posting here was enough :)

You can create a ticket at https://sourceforge.net/p/mbsebbs/tickets/ with your report. This will help us track the reported issues.

I do see that there are situations where the current setup can cause problems. Michiel Broek originally designed mbfido's .TIC processing to work with 8.3 DOS style filenames. I need to do some thinking about a way to create 8.3 DOS filenames from incoming long filenames, without breaking existing setups.

The safest way to avoid problems is to store a long filename archive in a .ZIP file with an 8.3 name and then hatch that.

Andrew

--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Phoenix BBS * phoenix.bnbbbs.net (1:320/219)