From: root@datasoft.north.net (Datasoft Communications Admin) Subject: Re: BBS package Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 01:18:45 GMT
Kristian Koehntopp (kris@black.toppoint.de) wrote:
: In <26ggf0$c8a@nwfocus.wa.com> ralphs@halcyon.com (Ralph Sims) writes:
: >>How about waffle? See comp.bbs.waffle for details.
: >A user in waffle would become userid 'bbs' in the shell, unless
: >a 'wrapper' (setname, in this case) were used.
: IMHO this is the main structural bug in most "BBS"-setups for
: UNIX. There you have an operating system that went through
: great pains to stick an owner-ID to each system object (files,
: processes, devices and so on) and the first thing a UNIX-BBS
: does is to put all its users under a single UID. The second
: thing the BBS does is to duplicate the effort the OS made to
: seperate the BBS users and their data again - apparently a
: major braindamage.
: IMHO a BBS setup for UNIX should consist mainly of two parts.
: The first is the BBS program in form of a users shell with
: integrated news and mail users agent. Such a program should
: utilize native UNIX news and mail transport agents and not try
: to implement a propietary data format.
: The second part would be an administrators shell for easy
: creation and removal of users.
Egads...someone that agrees with me! I posted thing idea before and
lots of nice BBS sysadmins trying to tell me to run XYZ BBS software
which does require a single BBS account. Talk about ludicous.
If it matters to you or anyone. I am creating a BBS program or, more
appropriately, a set of BBS like utilities to:
1) Get the new user information and create the account by logining in
as new (optional).
2) Act as the menu system or shell (The PSC Menu I use now has
limitations) (optional)
3) Act as a file section shell (Utree is limited in this respect)
4) Use whatever UNIX mailer an newsreader is available. (I use Elm and
tin current). Why re-invent the wheel?
5) All users will have a UNIX account such that accounting can be done
on the user for time online.
6) Provide Sysop Tools to manage users (create, delete, validate, etc).
My first attempt was using bash shell scripts...no C code!
Alpha releases will be out most likely next month for Linux. Full
ncurses and color support done in C. If anyone has any good ideas for
this type of BBS setup, please email me. Flames to /dev/nul.
Mark