From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

Hi,
Firstly, I'm finding it extremely frustrating to be constrained to 8.3 for filenames. Is this something that is scheduled for change anytime in the future?

Secondly, I want to add Calibre libraries to the BBS. I use Calibre to manage the various eBooks etc that I have access to and which I want to make available. What would be fantastic would be to be able to point to the root directory of the library and have the books appear automagically. I'm guessing that this will require an external program of some sort. Before diving into the incredible time-sink I know that will be, I thought I'd ask if there was anything done already.
Just FYI for those who don't know, the library is simply a file structure. The root directory of the library is a series of folders which reflect the Author's names. Inside each author's directory is another set of directories, one for each book. Inside the book folder, there are a number of files. One each for each format available (ePub, Docx, MOBI, etc), then there is a cover image (always called cover.jpg) and another called metadate.opf ( a simple XML file which holds all the metadata, Description, author, title etc).

If anyone knows of anything like this which exists already, please let me know. All the best
BoonDock



* El Gato de Fuego * The Fire Cat * Pedasi, Panama

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From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

To: BoonDock
BoonDock wrote:

Hi,
Firstly, I'm finding it extremely frustrating to be constrained to 8.3 for filenames. Is this something that is scheduled for change anytime in the future?

If you are using Linux there is a work around, as long as you're not on an openvz platform.

You need to create a vfat file system so you'd do something like.

fallocate -l 10G /sbbs.vfat
mkfs.vfat /sbbs.vfat

Then add an entry to fstab

/sbbs.vfat /home/bbs/sbbs/data/dirs vfat uid=1000,gid=1000 0 0


Make sure you use the full path to your dirs directory and the uid gid of the user that runs sbbs.

Now stop sbbs and move your dirs directory out the way, assuming you have a symlink to /sbbs otherwise use the full path.

mv /sbbs/data/dirs /sbbs/data/dirs.old

and make a new directory

mkdir /sbbs/data/dirs

and mount your new file system

mount /home/bbs/sbbs/data/dirs

Now copy your files back

cp -r /sbbs/data/dirs.old /sbbs/data/dirs

With any luck, you should be able to access files using both the LFN and SFN.

bbs@bbs:/sbbs/data/dirs/bbs/bbc/games/adventure$ file 'YukonG~1.zip' YukonG~1.zip: Zip archive data, at least v2.0 to extract bbs@bbs:/sbbs/data/dirs/bbs/bbc/games/adventure$ file YukonGold.zip YukonGold.zip: Zip archive data, at least v2.0 to extract

In Linux you can use both the SFN and LFN to access the file. When imported into sbbs, it'll still show you the SFN but will be able to access the file anyway.

If this works, maybe you can write it up as a wiki for others to follow.

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From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

To: BoonDock
Re: File areas etc
By: BoonDock to All on Tue Feb 23 2021 03:00 pm

Firstly, I'm finding it extremely frustrating to be constrained to 8.3 for filenames. Is this something that is scheduled for change anytime in the future?

Yes, in v3.19 expected to be released this year and even sooner on git/master.

Secondly, I want to add Calibre libraries to the BBS. I use Calibre to manage the various eBooks etc that I have access to and which I want to make available. What would be fantastic would be to be able to point to the root directory of the library and have the books appear automagically. I'm guessing that this will require an external program of some sort. Before diving into the incredible time-sink I know that will be, I thought I'd ask if there was anything done already.

The "books" you want to appear, are these sub-directories? If yes, then those can be auto-created for you in a couple of ways: either import a "raw" directory listing in SCFG (just point it to the root) or use the "Access to Sub-directories" option to automatically create directories for the sub-directories of a library's parent directory. Then use 'addfiles' to import the files into the file bases.
--
digital man

Synchronet/BBS Terminology Definition #21:
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From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

To: Nelgin
Re: Re: File areas etc
By: Nelgin to BoonDock on Tue Feb 23 2021 14:41:01

If you are using Linux there is a work around, as long as you're not on an openvz platform.

Thanks Nelgin. I'll store that as a possible solution. Not suitable for what I'm looking for at the moment unfortunately.

I'm working on getting all the pieces together for a distributed community project for improving communication with people in really poorly resourced communities. I'm collaborating with a friend of mine, so once I have all the issues figured out, we'll start implimenting, me here in Panama and him in a few African countries. The starting point is to use the available hardware, and from both of our experiences, that generally means a communally used windows machine of some sort, sometimes the "Chief's" laptop or an old battered tower in the mayor's office. Perfect for Linux if we had control of the machines, but the point of this is to give them a small piece of software which runs relatively unobtrusively on their current machines. We'll see. Maybe we can get some funding or hardware donations. It's one of the points on our agenda.

As for the LFN/SFN issue, even with your solution it doesn't work. If the local farmer wants to access the document that the Agricultural rep distributed, he needs to get the "This is a long stupid name.doc" not "somethin.doc". This is probably even more important for the generally over-worked and barely literate person who will end up adding the document in the first place.

One of the primary reasons why I'm looking at the BBS as a solution is that it's pretty intuative and easy to tech people how to use. The other major one is that almost everything is based on "store and forward" protocols so "sneaker-net" is viable as a distribution mechanism.

Thanks again

All the best
BoonDock

* El Gato de Fuego * The Fire Cat * Pedasi, Panama

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From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

To: Digital Man
Re: File areas etc
By: Digital Man to BoonDock on Tue Feb 23 2021 13:20:40

Firstly, I'm finding it extremely frustrating to be constrained to 8.3 for filenames. Is this something that is scheduled for change anytime in the future?

Yes, in v3.19 expected to be released this year and even sooner on git/master.

Fantastic! Thank you!

The "books" you want to appear, are these sub-directories? If yes, then those can be auto-created for you in a couple of ways: either import a "raw" directory listing in SCFG (just point it to the root) or use the "Access to Sub-directories" option to automatically create directories for the sub-directories of a library's parent directory. Then use 'addfiles' to import the files into the file bases.

Ok, that makes sense. I'll work on figuring that out.

Thanks again for fantastic software!

BoonDock

* El Gato de Fuego * The Fire Cat * Pedasi, Panama

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From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

To: Digital Man
Rob,

Firstly, I'm finding it extremely frustrating to be constrained to 8.3 for filenames. Is this something that is scheduled for change anytime in the future?

Yes, in v3.19 expected to be released this year and even sooner on git/master.

Will those of us who prefer the shorter filenames, still be able to
do such with 3.19??

Daryl

... Make Friends With The Sysop: Page Them At 3am. NOT!!
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From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

To: Daryl Stout
Re: Re: File areas etc
By: Daryl Stout to Digital Man on Tue Feb 23 2021 10:38 pm

Rob,

Firstly, I'm finding it extremely frustrating to be constrained to 8.3 for filenames. Is this something that is scheduled for change anytime in the future?

Yes, in v3.19 expected to be released this year and even sooner on git/master.

Will those of us who prefer the shorter filenames, still be able to
do such with 3.19??

Of course.
--
digital man

Rush quote #69:
He's a writer and a ranger, and a young boy bearing arms .. New World Man Norco, CA WX: 66.6øF, 33.0% humidity, 0 mph ENE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs --- Synchronet 3.18c-Win32 NewsLink 1.113
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From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

To: Digital Man
Rob,

Will those of us who prefer the shorter filenames, still be able to
do such with 3.19??

Of course.

Thanks for the confirmation. I used to download the updates of
SBBS_DEV.ZIP and SBBS_RUN.ZIP, but the file transfer function with
my terminal program quit working. Right now, I don't have any other
issues, but unless there's a need for me to download the updated
SBBS_DEV.ZIP and SBBS_RUN.ZIP, I'm not going to worry about it. I
figure everything will be out in the next release.

Daryl

... I have disposable income. I dispose of it awfully fast.
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From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

To: Daryl Stout
Re: Re: File areas etc
By: Daryl Stout to Digital Man on Wed Feb 24 2021 06:23 pm

Rob,

Will those of us who prefer the shorter filenames, still be able to
do such with 3.19??

Of course.

Thanks for the confirmation. I used to download the updates of SBBS_DEV.ZIP and SBBS_RUN.ZIP, but the file transfer function with
my terminal program quit working.

Those files are also available via HTTP or FTP or even SMTP. <shrug>
--
digital man

Rush quote #34:
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From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

To: Digital Man
Rob,

Thanks for the confirmation. I used to download the updates of SBBS_DEV.ZIP and SBBS_RUN.ZIP, but the file transfer function with
my terminal program quit working.

Those files are also available via HTTP or FTP or even SMTP. <shrug>

Well, I got them that way..the problem was with the terminal program,
it wouldn't do file transfers.

Daryl

... Have any Grey Poupon? No, you got bird poop on your windshield.
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