ELIST Maintenance Program
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This document is shows in basic format what is needed to submit a MOD-ADD or MOD-UPD or a rules file submission to the elist maintainer at
2:250/1 or 2:25/21 using a file only, at least for the moment.

There are a few keywords that MUST always be used and are therefore mandatory for all submissions.

These are listed below along with all others and marked by an * at the beginning
of the keyword name. The keywords consist of two elements the characters that are tested for, in upper case (capitialised) and the remainder in lower case that makes them more readable. You must always supply the characters in capitals, the rest are ignored.

Xnn is the maximum size in characters of the field after the keyword, i.e.,.
x75 means you can use up to 75 characters a to z, A to Z and 0 to 9 with
full stop, comma and hyphen ( - ) etc.


List of keywords that can be used in any submission the first block are the one's that MUST be always supplied in the suggested order.

Keyword Sub keywords or other text
------- --------------------------

Always required:

*SUBJect MOD-UPD or MOD-ADD or MOD-DEL
When netmail and emails submissions are accepted
MOD-ADD, MOD-UPD or MOD-DEL must be in the message subject
line - hence one of the reasons for the need of this keyword.

*GROUP <Abbrev. of Network; i.e. FIDO) X16.
Default is FIDO but this keyword must be provided.

*TAGname <areatag> X36.

*FROM <Contact Address> See lower for the format of this.
Details of the sender of message where any replies regarding
errors or confirmation of status of submission is made to.
<Node as a Netmail address format: zone:net/node{@domain}
Moderator node address (can be a registered echo Co-Moderator)
{} Shows a optional extension and therefore can be omitted.
Normally this address should be the Mod or a Co-Mod and can
change depending on who sent in the submission. There is no
option for an email address element but you should include
your name.

*TITLe <A one line brief area description> X72.

*DESCription <Description of the echo> A maximum of 15 lines where the text
is a maximum of 75 characters (not including the keyword
'DESC').

*MODerator Contact Address. See lower for the format of this.
This keyword MUST be submitted before any COMODn keywords.
For COMODn see more information below.

*LANG Language used in this echo X16 (default is ENGLISH).
Should always be provided.

*PASSword <current password>, <new password> X36, X36.
[Note the required space after the comma (',') if new
password is used.]
Any standard characters can be used and is case sensitive
ABCD is NOT the same as aBcD.

The following keywords can be used as required for the specific echo.

RULEs <A one line description of the rules> x75
Can also be DELETE | NONE | spaces
DELETE will remove any existing rule file and then be treated
as if NONE was supplied.
NONE There are no rules for this echo.
The same as if the keyword is not supplied.
Can be omitted, also see RULETEXT.
If both RULES and RULETEXT omitted then there are no rules.
If both are supplied, the content from RULETEXT overrides.
NOTE that the above symbol '|' means or, i.e., a choice.
For a multi line set of rules see keyword RULETEXT.

COMODn Where n = 1, 2, 3 or 4.
Next word <Contact Address>
See below for more details of the format for this.
This keyword replaces the old keyword COMOD and should be
placed any where after the MOD keyword.
It's usage allows the moderator to control precisely where
each Co-Moderator sits in the list of four.
It is recommended therefore to use this
option over using just the COMOD keyword as
this option will be removed soon.
Next word can also be DELETE which will clear all contact
information for that Co-Moderator position.

REPLY-to Contact Address.
Usually same as one in keywords MOD or FROM
Note that usage of Email address is optional for all
Keywords that use contact address as shown above
and that the address in the FROM keywords is normally used.

VOLume <number of messages> nnnnn per month.
Use a realistic number. Anything after the number is
ignored as per month is automatically assumed.
This is only used to show a number in the ELIST.RPT
otherwsie serves no real use.

RESTrictions </SYSop, /MODerator, /REAl> (only first four letters
are needed) and / or text> x72.
You can have one, two or all three of these predefined
values and you can add additional text at the end
an example is :
/SYS Region 1234 write access only.

The following are accepted :
/REAl [ Real Names only ]
/SYS [ SYSops only ]
/MOD [ Moderators (and Co-Mods) only) ]
NONE or Blank - No restrictions - Use NONE to remove any
others present and make it NONE.
The restrictions can be cumulative, i.e., you could have
/REL /SYS /MOD which implies:

Only for moderators who have a registered nodelist entry and
they must use their real names.

Do not use the other additional descriptions in the [ ] as those
get created for the ELIST.RPT and the posted report into the
ELIST echo after each echo update.

ORIGin <origination net address of the echo distribution> x36.
More used in the days where almost all posts originated
from one netmail address.

DISTribution <distribution> Any text describing x72.

GATEway <gateways> Any text describing x72.

RULETEXT <Signifies start of appended Rules text data>
MUST be the LAST Keyword that finishes with the end line '---'
or '-+-'. x75 wide but NO line limits - as many as you need.
This will generate a file as TAGname.RUL
and the content will be listed in the ELIST.RPT reports.
It will be treated exactly the same as a .RUL file and will
in fact create one, replacing any existing rules file.
Any and all lines even if consisting of spaces will be
included.

HELP <Respond with help message>
The latest version of the longer help file !

NEWPASSword Updated password that must be used with PASS and does
the same job as the second parameter to PASS keyword.
This keyword was used for testing but has been left
in use in case it is needed.

--- Or "-+-" terminates a RULETEXT keyword block.
Also useful as you can place other text after, such as
unused keywords, as they will be totally ignored.


Contact Address
===============

Formed of three elements where the first two are required, separated by
commas in the form:

- Element one - - - - - - Element two - - - - - Element three
FirstName LastName, Zmmmm:Nmmmm.Kmmmm {.Pmmmm}{@demain} {, email@address}
Z = zone, N = Net, K = Node with {optional P = Point or/and Domain}.
mmmm = A number between 0 and 4095.
The first two are required for responses posted to ELIST and if errors
or expiry warnings issued direct to the network address.
Point and domain are totally optional and are not required.
Note the leading commas for elements 2 and 3.
{} Signify optional.
You can use the characters {at} or =at= in place of the @ in the

email address. They will be replaced by the @ symbol.
Support for Email is not yet available.
Support for receiving submissions via netmail not yet available.


Redundant keywords
------------------

COMODerator Contact Address. [ Use COMODn instead ]
This keyword must always appear at any point AFTER a
MOD keyword.
See notes on New Keywords below and above.
This keyword has been replaced by COMODn



For HELP (to be sent via netmail, no other keywords are needed other than FROM
but the file must have the .ECO extension but the name could be anything.


Notes on RULES Processing:
-------------------------

Rules can be provided in one of two ways

1. Recommended by send a rules file with the file name of Echo Tag as upper
case plus extension of .RUL, i.e., MBSE.RUL

It can be ANY number of lines but each line must not exceed 75 characters
but can include blank lines for readability.
(for those Bulletin Board Systems that have such restrictions).

2. Sending as part of a MOD-ADD or MOD-UPD file where the rules text lines
follow immediately after the keyword RULETEXT and before the last line
which is the terminator '---' or '-+-', or the end of the file.
Again blank lines can be embedded within the text.
Note the same text block can be transferred to a ECHOtag.RUL file as is
but without the terminator line '---' or '-+-'.

In any event all RULETEXT content IS transferred to a ECHOtag.RUL file
overwriting any existing file.

Further notes on submissions
----------------------------

All MOD-ADD, MOD-UPD and MOD-DEL files use the extensions '.ECO'.
You MUST include the keyword SUBJ in each of the above i.e., MOD-ADD, MOD-UPD or
MOD-DEL.

These files must be sent as echo tag name as the filename, for example the echo
MBSE the file would be : MBSE.ECO and if needed MBSE.RUL for the rules.

Note that any moderator and this includes a co-moderator can submit a MOD-UPD or
MOD-DEL providing they are on record as one, in the echo being changed. This is
so that if the moderator has a major system problem or leaves the network for any reason, another can take over and send a MOD-UPD submission even as a
one off.

A moderator taking over from a previous one should get the existing moderator to send in a MOD-UPD with their contact address as a CoMODn (1 thru 4) and if all are in use just over write one of these entries.

After that is sent in and acknowledged, the new moderator can send in a update MOD-UPD containing their contact address details via keywords MOD and with a keyword COMOD1 DELETE to remove the previously created entry.
If needed use PASS oldpassword, newpassword to change the existing password or use :
PASS oldpassword
NEWPASS anewpassword

The password, as a one word string with the letters 0 - 9, a - z, A - Z
and any standard symbol character as found on a standard keyboard using one key
stroke (shift allowed), i.e., no key sequences using the ALT or CTL keys as they
can interfere with file processing. Do NOT use a space character as that will mark the end of the password.
Examples are ¬`!"£$%^&*()_+-=}{[]~@:;'#?><,.

The password is case specific so ABCD is not the same as abcd which is not the same as AbCd.
Maximum size is 36 characters.

Note that the slash keys \ and / MUST not be used in case of file processing using a database such as Mysqld or Mariadb etc and no, they do not like them for some reason.

A Reminder, a change of password can also be done using the PASS keyword i.e., PASS old-password, new-password Note the space after the comma ','.

Examples for change of moderator - the current moderator sends:

SUBJ MOD-UPD
FROM 1:345/6
TAG echoname
PASS current-password {can also be current-password, new-password}
GROUP FIDO
COMOD1 new moderator Contact address, etc, Fred Blogs, 2:234/5, fboggs@gmailcom
Note the comma separators between each segment.
Then the new moderator sends after the previous MOD-UPD has been acknowledged in the echo ELIST:

SUBJ MOD-UPD
FROM 1:234/5
TAG echoname
PASS password [ using the currently existing password ]
NEWPASS newpassword If needed.
or use
PASS old-password, new-password
GROUP FIDO
MOD Fred_Blogs, 1:234/5 [ Changing the moderator name and address ]
COMOD1 DELETE [ to remove all comod details as should not have a
duplicate address if not done by previous
moderator. ]

For subsequent updates then change PASS to reflect the new password after receiving an acknowledgement message via ELIST or netmail.
Remove the NEWPASS and COMOD entries, adding any other keywords that require changes if any.


Expiry Warnings
---------------

Up to four are issued with the first one sent to the moderator on record and in
ELIST after six months have lapsed since the last update.
This is the reason why the WARN process is not run until all MOD-UPD processes have finished after 23:30 on the 1st of the month.

Warnings 2, 3 & 4 (the final) is sent to the moderator and all Co-Moderators on
record at their registered netmail address as well as in ELIST.

If an update has not arrived at the elist maintainer before the end of month 5 then the echo WILL be deleted with the tag and title transferred to the ELIST.NO
file.

Reminder:
Any registered moderator including Co-moderators for a given echo can send in MOD-UPD .ECO file and/or a Rules file.

Note that the content of a MOD-UPD only requires at a minimum the following keywords :

FROM
SUBJ
TAG
PASS
GROUP FIDO

Providing the contact address in the FROM keyword is one of the registered moderators then the Update will be considered valid proving there is no errors within any keyword or secondary parameters.

Note that each MOD-ADD, UPD or DEL is validated for correctness and if any errors are found the request is rejected with a message regarding the problem/s
found, sent to the sender's netmail address (as on the FROM keyword) and the ELIST echo.

Example for a new echo :

SUBJ MOD-ADD
TAG MBSE
FROM Vince Coen, 2:250/1, vbcoen{at}gmail.com
MOD Vince Coen, 2:250/1, vbcoen=at=gmail.com
GROUP FIDO
LANG ENGLISH
TITL The Linux/FreeBSD/OSX MBSE BBS Support Echo
DESC The main aim of this echo is to help provide support and to pass on
DESC problems regarding the Mbse BBS system software that runs under
DESC Linux/FreeBSD/OSX operating systems between users and the programmmers. DIST All Official Fidonet Backbones
GATE NONE.
VOLume 10/month
ORIG 2:250/1
PASS YourPaSsWord
REST /Real

If just updating in full, replace the above MOD-ADD with MOD-UPD

If just updating to reset the warnings etc then this will do:

SUBJ MOD-UPD
TAG MBSE
FROM Vince Coen, 2:250/1, vbcoen{at}gmail.com
GROUP FIDO
PASS YourPaSsWord



--- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.13 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: The Elist Maintainer (2:250/1)