LazyTick - The File Mailer for Lazy People

                          Preliminary Documentation May 93
                                (last update: 06/93)

                        *** PUBLIC DOMAIN AND UNSUPPORTED ***
                        
                        

>>> INTRODUCTION
----------------

    LazyTick is a simple file mailer (a program that receives files 
    and .TIC files from other systems and send them to downlinks) for 
    a Pandora Fidonet message base (commonly used on the Atari ST, and 
    used by Bermuda, BED, the Lazy familly of utilities on other 
    computers). Posting in the pandora message base is used for 
    file announces. 

    It uses FILES.BBS-like download areas to put the files coming
    from the net. It gets its configuration data from the Bermuda
    configuration file, or a bermuda-like configuration file
    (binkley.cfg on the unix and ST version of binkley is like that).
    That allows to keep all passwords, addresses, aliasing data in a
    single file.

    It uses FAREAS.BBS, an areas.bbs like, compatible with the
    areas.bbs syntax used by LazyBBS and the LazyFix areafix utility.
    The LazyFix utility is able to cope with suscribtion from sublinks
    for both the AREAS.BBS (echomail) and the FAREAS.BBS (file echos).

    The files sent to others node are put in the outbound dir 
    following TheBox or Binkley outbound format (the old binkley 3D
    format).

    Note: It is not planned to provide a post-preliminary
    documentation.
    

>>> COMMAND LINE
----------------

    <void> (nothing)     
        process incoming TIC files, tb.cfg/bermuda.cfg should 
        be in the current directory.
        eg: ltick
    
    hatch <file> <area> <desc>
        hatch (send into the network) the file <file> in <area>
        with description <desc>. WARNING: command line processing
        consider each word to be a parameter, so if you want to enter
        a description with spaces, read your shell manual to know how
        to do that (usally by putting "" or '' around the desc).
        eg: ltick hatch ltick01b.zip PDNCEE "LazyTick Wonderful Tick"

    debug
        display parsed configuration files


>>> FILE FORMATS
----------------

    LazyTick uses the following files, in the current directory at
    startup, the MAILER environment var is not yet supported:

    tb.cfg
    bermuda.cfg LazyTick tries both names. This are the tosser
                and/or mailer configuration file, and is described in
                your Bermuda or mailer documentation. LazyTick uses 
                the following lines:

                Any line may be prefixed with "application bermuda" 
                or "application lazytick" not to interfere with
                other software.

                address <4D-address> <option> <pointnet>
                    your system address, can be multiple

                key #<aka> <node>
                key !<password> <node>
                    aliasing and passwords, can be multiple

                statuslog <filename>
                    the logile name
                
                loglevel <int>
                    how much log (unused currently)

                netfile <path>
                    the inbound dir path
            
                hold <path>
                    the outbound dir path
    
                binkley 
                    [optional] toggles binkley outbound dir format

                ticktemp <path>
                    Path for temp dir for pending .TICs, it's 
                    better to be different from your system generic 
                    tempfile.

                tickann <echo-area> <group> [<footer>]
                    [optional] Announces files coming in filearea
                    <group> in echomail. The optional footer is a file
                    whose content will be posted at the end of the
                    announce.

    fareas.bbs  It's like the areas.bbs format described in your
                fidonet software documentation.  

                An add-on to this format is groups: all areas placed
                after a "-group grpname" line, will belong to the
                group named (8 ascii letters max) "grpname". There is
                no need to put one -group line before each area. The
                group name starting by _ are reserved for internal
                use.

                Another add-on is description: a "-desc description"
                is used to describe the next area for display when
                needed.

                The difference with areas.bbs is that the (echo)mail
                area radical is now the path to the file area.

                Example:

                First line is origin line
                ;
                -group EPnet
                -desc EPnet ascii text files
                f:\epnet\ascii\     EP-ASCII        2:10/20 2:3/4
                -desc EPnet magazines
                f:\epnet\mags\      EP-MAGS         2:10/20 2:100/100
                -group pdn
                -desc A nice group to hatch lazy software
                f:\pdn\pdnc         PDNCEE          2:242/242
                ; end of fareas.bbs
            
    
>>> PORTING
-----------

    It should be reasonably portable. Watch for timenix/time if your 
    time_t is not time in seconds since a fixed date.

    For use with Binkley, check syntax is compatible with your version
    and change the BERMCFG2 var to "binkley.cfg" in tick.h.

    To port to a system that does not use Pandora message base,
    rewrite postmsg() in misc.c.

    To port to a system that does use another outbound format change
    get_out_fname in config.c and eventually send_tic() in tick.c.

    Parts are tick.c,config.c,announce.c,misc.c,crc32.c to compile
    and link to 'tick'.


>>> MANIFEST
------------

    You should have received the following files in the standard 
    distribution:

    [source]
    tick.h                  TICK config
    tick.c                  Main module
    config.c;config.h       Config file(s) processing
    misc.c;misc.h           Misc funcs
    annouce.c;announce.h    Announce engine
    crc32.c;crc32.h         Calculate CRC32

    [sample config files]
    bermuda.cfg             Sample Bermuda config
    fareas.bbs              Sample fareas.bbs
    areas.bbs               Sample areas.bbs

    [documentation]
    lazytick.txt            (this file)
    readme.txt              Readme file (history/bugs)

    [makefiles]
    makefile.nix            Unix makefile
    makefile.nt             Win32 makefile
    tick.prj                Lattice C 5.5 Project file
    

>>> LICENSE
-----------

    This software is public domain.
    It can be copied and sold freely.

    (yeah, it can be sold, i'm bored by all those restrictive licenses)

>>> SUPPORT
-----------

    This software is not likely to do what you want it to do. It is 
    not supported. Have fun :-).


>>> CREDITS
-----------

    Software & doc originally written by Franck Arnaud.
    Parts by Jac Kersing (Bermuda) & someone else (CRC32).
    LazyTick, LazyBBS, and LazyFix are not trademarks. :-)
    The authors disclaim everything. Whatever happens,
    it IS your own stupid fault.