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4 <title>Citadel/UX Documentation</title>
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11 <h2>a messaging and collaboration platform for BBS and groupware
13 Copyright ©1987-2003 by the Citadel development team:<br>
15 <table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" border="0" align="center">
18 <td valign="top">Clint Adams<br>
20 <td valign="top"><i>portability enhancements<br>
24 <td valign="top">Steven M. Bellovin<br>
26 <td valign="top"><i>author of public domain 'parsedate' function<br>
30 <td valign="top">Nathan Bryant<br>
32 <td valign="top"><i>build system, security, database access, and
37 <td valign="top">Art Cancro<br>
39 <td valign="top"><i>overall system design and lead
44 <td valign="top">Brian Costello<br>
46 <td valign="top"><i>cosmetics, additional commands<br>
50 <td valign="top">Nick Georbit<br>
52 <td valign="top"><i>additional client features<br>
56 <td valign="top">Michael Hampton<br>
58 <td valign="top"><i>client software development<br>
62 <td style="vertical-align: top;">Urs Jannsen<br>
64 <td style="vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-style: italic;">text
65 search algorithm</span><br>
69 <td valign="top">Andru Luvisi<br>
71 <td valign="top"><i>troubleshooting and development assistance<br>
75 <td valign="top">Daniel Malament<br>
77 <td valign="top"><i>string compare function for IMAP server<br>
81 <td valign="top">Stu Mark<br>
83 <td valign="top"><i>additional client features, IGnet protocol
88 <td valign="top">Ben Mehlman<br>
90 <td valign="top"><i>additional client features<br>
94 <td valign="top">Ari Samson<br>
96 <td valign="top"><i>assistance with project management<br>
100 <td valign="top">John Walker<br>
102 <td valign="top"><i>author of public domain base64
107 <td valign="top">Steve Williams<br>
109 <td valign="top"><i>documentation<br>
113 <td valign="top">Ethan Young<br>
115 <td valign="top"><i>IGnet protocol design<br>
122 <div align="justify">The entire package is open source; you can
123 redistribute and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
124 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
125 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.<br>
127 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
128 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
129 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
130 General Public License for more details. </div>
131 <div align="justify"><br>
132 For more information, visit either of these locations on
135 <li>The Citadel home page: <a href="http://www.citadel.org">http://www.citadel.org</a></li>
136 <li>UNCENSORED! BBS, the home of Citadel: <a
137 href="http://uncensored.citadel.org">http://uncensored.citadel.org</a></li>
139 <hr width="100%" size="2">
140 <h2 align="center">Table of Contents</h2>
142 <li><a href="#GPL">License</a></li>
143 <li><a href="#Installation">Installation</a></li>
145 <li><a href="#Everything_in_its_place...">Everything in its
147 <li><a href="#The_BBS_Login">Creating a system account for Citadel</a></li>
148 <li><a href="#Bypassing_the_login:_prompt">Bypassing the login:
150 <li><a href="#Compiling_the_programs">Compiling the programs</a></li>
151 <li><a href="#Upgrading">Upgrading</a></li>
152 <li><a href="#The_citadel.rc_file">The citadel.rc file</a></li>
153 <li><a href="#Using_an_external_editor_for_message">Using an
154 external editor for message composition</a></li>
155 <li><a href="#Printing_messages">Printing messages</a></li>
156 <li><a href="#URL_viewing">URL viewing</a></li>
157 <li><a href="#Setup_and_login">Setup and login</a></li>
158 <li><a href="#Configuring_your_host_system_to_start">Configuring
159 your host system to start the service</a></li>
160 <li><a href="#Logging_in_for_the_first_time">Logging in for
161 the first time</a></li>
162 <li><a href="#Welcoming_new_users">Welcoming new users</a></li>
163 <li><a href="#Space_for_adding_your_own_client">Space for adding
164 your own client features (doors)</a></li>
165 <li><a href="#Troubleshooting_and_getting_help">Troubleshooting and
169 <li><a href="#sysop">System Administration</a></li>
171 <li><a href="#Overview_">Overview</a></li>
172 <li><a href="#Aide_commands">Aide commands</a></li>
173 <li><a href="#Editing_rooms">Editing rooms</a></li>
174 <li><a href="#File_directories">File directories</a></li>
175 <li><a href="#Creating_and_editing_user_accounts">Creating and
176 editing user accounts</a></li>
177 <li><a href="#Deleting_and_moving_messages">Deleting and moving
179 <li><a href="#Customizing_the_help_files">Customizing the help files</a></li>
180 <li><a href="#Site_configuration">Site configuration</a><br>
183 <li> <a href="#Configuring_Citadel_for_Internet_e-mail">Configuring
184 Citadel for Internet e-mail</a></li>
186 <li><a href="#Introduction">Introduction</a></li>
187 <li><a href="#Basic_site_configuration">Basic site configuration</a></li>
188 <li><a href="#Enabling_the_Internet_mail_protocols">Enabling the
189 Internet mail protocols</a></li>
190 <li><a href="#Hosting_an_Internet_mailing_list">Hosting an Internet
193 <li><a href="#citmail">Using Citadel in conjunction with another MTA</a></li>
195 <li><a href="#Building_or_joining_a_Citadel_network">Building or
196 joining a Citadel network</a></li>
198 <li><a href="#Overview__">Overview</a></li>
199 <li><a href="#Conventions_and_etiquette_when">Conventions and
200 etiquette when connecting to the public Citadel network</a></li>
201 <li><a href="#Getting_ready_to_join_the_network">Getting ready
202 to join the network</a></li>
203 <li><a href="#Defining_neighbor_nodes">Defining neighbor nodes</a></li>
204 <li><a href="#Sharing_rooms">Sharing rooms</a></li>
205 <li><a href="#Sending_mail">Sending mail</a></li>
206 <li><a href="#Changing_the_polling_interval">Changing the polling
209 <li><a href="#Database_maintenance">Database maintenance</a></li>
211 <li><a href="#Introduction_">Introduction</a></li>
212 <li><a href="#Database_repair">Database repair</a></li>
213 <li><a href="#ImportingExporting_your_Citadel">Importing/Exporting
214 your Citadel database</a><br>
217 <li><a href="#utilities">Included utilities</a></li>
219 <li><a href="#overview">Overview</a></li>
220 <li><a href="#aidepost">aidepost</a></li>
221 <li><a href="#whobbs">whobbs</a></li>
222 <li><a href="#stats">stats</a></li>
223 <li><a href="#msgform">msgform</a></li>
224 <li><a href="#userlist">userlist</a></li>
225 <li><a href="#readlog">readlog</a></li>
226 <li><a href="#sendcommand">sendcommand</a></li>
230 <hr width="100%" size="2"><br>
231 <h2 align="center"><a name="GPL"></a>GNU General Public License<br>
234 <p> Version 2, June 1991 </p>
235 <pre>Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc. <br>59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA<br><br>Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies<br>of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.<br></pre>
236 <h3 align="justify">Preamble</h3>
237 <div align="justify"> </div>
238 <p align="justify"> The licenses for most software are designed to take
239 away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General
240 Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and
241 change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its
242 users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
243 Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
244 using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
245 the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
246 your programs, too. </p>
247 <div align="justify"> </div>
248 <p align="justify"> When we speak of free software, we are referring to
249 freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make
250 sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software
251 (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code
252 or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use
253 pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these
255 <div align="justify"> </div>
256 <p align="justify"> To protect your rights, we need to make
257 restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you
258 to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain
259 responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software, or
260 if you modify it. </p>
261 <div align="justify"> </div>
262 <p align="justify"> For example, if you distribute copies of such a
263 program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all
264 the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or
265 can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they
266 know their rights. </p>
267 <div align="justify"> </div>
268 <p align="justify"> We protect your rights with two steps: (1)
269 copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you
270 legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software. </p>
271 <div align="justify"> </div>
272 <p align="justify"> Also, for each author's protection and ours, we
273 want to make certain that everyone understands that there is no
274 warranty for this free software. If the software is modified by someone
275 else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have
277 the original, so that any problems introduced by others will not
279 on the original authors' reputations. </p>
280 <div align="justify"> </div>
281 <p align="justify"> Finally, any free program is threatened constantly
283 software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a
285 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
287 proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent
289 be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all. </p>
290 <div align="justify"> </div>
291 <p align="justify"> The precise terms and conditions for copying,
292 distribution and modification follow. </p>
293 <div align="justify"> </div>
294 <h3>TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION</h3>
295 <div align="justify"> </div>
296 <p align="justify"> <strong>0.</strong> This License applies to any
297 program or other work which contains a notice placed by the copyright
298 holder saying it may be distributed under the terms of this General
299 Public License. The "Program", below, refers to any such program or
300 work, and a "work based on the Program" means either the Program or any
301 derivative work under copyright law: that is to say, a work containing
302 the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications
303 and/or translated into another language. (Hereinafter, translation is
304 included without limitation in the term "modification".) Each licensee
305 is addressed as "you". </p>
306 <p align="justify"> Activities other than copying, distribution and
307 modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its
308 scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output
309 from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work
310 based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the
311 Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does. </p>
312 <p align="justify"> <strong>1.</strong> You may copy and distribute
313 verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any
314 medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on
315 each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty;
316 keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the
317 absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a
318 copy of this License along with the Program. </p>
319 <p align="justify"> You may charge a fee for the physical act of
320 transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty
321 protection in exchange for a fee. </p>
322 <p align="justify"> <strong>2.</strong> You may modify your copy or
323 copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based
324 on the Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or work
325 under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all of
326 these conditions: </p>
327 <p align="justify"> </p>
328 <div align="justify">
330 <li><strong>a)</strong> You must cause the modified files to carry
331 prominent notices stating that you changed the files
332 and the date of any change.
335 <li><strong>b)</strong> You must cause any work that you distribute
336 or publish, that in whole or in part contains
337 or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed
338 as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this
342 <li><strong>c)</strong> If the modified program normally reads
343 commands interactively when run, you must cause it, when started
344 running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or
345 display an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
346 notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a
347 warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under these
348 conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this License.
349 (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but does not normally
350 print such an announcement, your work based on the Program is not
351 required to print an announcement.) </li>
353 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
354 identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
355 and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
356 themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
357 sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
358 distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
359 on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
360 this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
362 whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it. </div>
363 <p align="justify"> Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim
365 or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the
367 is to exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
369 works based on the Program. </p>
370 <p align="justify"> In addition, mere aggregation of another work not
371 based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the
372 Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring
373 the other work under the scope of this License. </p>
374 <p align="justify"> <strong>3.</strong> You may copy and distribute
375 the Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or
376 executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that
377 you also do one of the following:<!-- we use this doubled UL to get the sub-sections indented, --><!-- while making the bullets as unobvious as possible. --> </p>
378 <div align="justify">
380 <li><strong>a)</strong> Accompany it with the complete corresponding
381 machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms
382 of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software
386 <li><strong>b)</strong> Accompany it with a written offer, valid for
387 at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more
388 than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
389 machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
390 distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
391 customarily used for software interchange; or,
394 <li><strong>c)</strong> Accompany it with the information you
395 received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code. (This
396 alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if
397 you received the program in object code or executable form with such an
398 offer, in accord with Subsection b above.) </li>
400 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
401 making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
402 code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
403 associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control
404 compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a special
405 exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that
406 is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the
407 major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system
408 on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies
409 the executable. </div>
410 <p align="justify"> If distribution of executable or object code is
411 made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering
412 equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
413 distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
415 copy the source along with the object code. </p>
416 <p align="justify"> <strong>4.</strong> You may not copy, modify,
417 sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided
418 under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense
419 or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate
420 your rights under this License. However, parties who have received
421 copies, or rights, from
422 you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long
423 as such parties remain in full compliance. </p>
424 <p align="justify"> <strong>5.</strong> You are not required to accept
425 this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else
426 grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its
427 derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not
428 accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the
429 Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate your
430 acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions
431 for copying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on
433 <p align="justify"> <strong>6.</strong> Each time you redistribute the
435 (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically
437 license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the
438 Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any
439 further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted
440 herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third
441 parties to this License. </p>
442 <p align="justify"> <strong>7.</strong> If, as a consequence of a
443 court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other
444 reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you
445 (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the
446 conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions
447 of this License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy
448 simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other
449 pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the
450 Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit
451 royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive
452 copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could
453 satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from
454 distribution of the Program. </p>
455 <p align="justify"> If any portion of this section is held invalid or
456 unenforceable under any particular circumstance, the balance of the
457 section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to
458 apply in other circumstances. </p>
459 <p align="justify"> It is not the purpose of this section to induce you
461 infringe any patents or other property right claims or to contest
462 validity of any such claims; this section has the sole purpose of
463 protecting the integrity of the free software distribution system,
464 which is implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
465 generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
466 through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
467 system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
468 to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
469 impose that choice. </p>
470 <p align="justify"> This section is intended to make thoroughly clear
471 what is believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License. </p>
472 <p align="justify"> <strong>8.</strong> If the distribution and/or use
474 the Program is restricted in certain countries either by patents or by
476 interfaces, the original copyright holder who places the Program under
478 License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation
480 those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
482 not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the
484 as if written in the body of this License. </p>
485 <p align="justify"> <strong>9.</strong> The Free Software Foundation
486 may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License
487 from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the
488 present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or
490 <p align="justify"> Each version is given a distinguishing version
491 number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which
492 applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following
493 the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version
494 published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not
495 specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version
497 the Free Software Foundation. </p>
498 <p align="justify"> <strong>10.</strong> If you wish to incorporate
499 parts of the Program into other free programs whose distribution
500 conditions are different, write to the author to ask for permission.
501 For software which is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation,
502 write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions for
503 this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals of preserving the
505 derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse
506 of software generally. </p>
507 <p align="justify"><strong>NO WARRANTY</strong></p>
508 <div align="justify"> </div>
509 <p align="justify"> <strong>11.</strong> BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS
510 LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE
511 EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN
512 WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM
513 "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED,
514 INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
515 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK
516 AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD
517 THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY
518 SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. </p>
519 <p align="justify"> <strong>12.</strong> IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED
520 BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR
521 ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS
522 PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL,
524 INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY
525 TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA
526 BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES
527 OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN
528 IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
531 <p align="justify"> </p>
532 <h3>END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS</h3>
534 <hr width="100%" size="2"><br>
536 <h2><a name="Installation"></a>Installation</h2>
538 <div align="justify">
540 <p>Citadel/UX is an advanced, multiuser, client/server messaging system
541 suitable for BBS, e-mail, and groupware applications. It is designed to
542 handle the needs of both small dialup systems and large-scale
543 Internet-connected systems. It was originally developed on an Altos
544 system running Xenix, and has been installed and tested on various Unix
545 and Unix-like platforms. The current development environment (and
546 public BBS) is an ordinary Linux system. The current distribution
549 <li>The Citadel/UX server (this is the back end that does all
551 <li>A text-based client program designed with the traditional Citadel
552 "look and feel" (room prompts, dot commands, and the like) </li>
553 <li>Setup programs </li>
554 <li>A set of utilities for system administration and maintenance </li>
555 <li>Documentation </li>
557 <p>Some knowledge of the Unix system is necessary to install and manage
558 the system. It is mandatory that the sysop have "root" access to the
559 operating system. The following are required to install Citadel/UX: </p>
561 <li>A Unix operating system (Linux, BSD, Solaris, Tru64, HP/UX) </li>
562 <li>C compiler (<a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/">GCC</a> with <a
563 href="http://www.gnu.org/software/make/make.html">gmake</a> is the
564 recommended build environment) </li>
565 <li>POSIX threads (already present on most systems) </li>
567 <li><a href="http://www.sleepycat.com">Berkeley DB</a> v4.1 or newer</li>
568 <li><a href="http://softwarestudio.org/libical/">libical</a> v0.24 or
569 newer (if you want the calendar service to work)<br>
571 <li>Enough disk space to hold all of the programs and data </li>
573 <p>If you are running Citadel/UX on a Linux system, it is STRONGLY
574 recommended that you run it on a recent distribution (such as <a
575 href="http://www.redhat.com">Red Hat</a> 7.3 or newer). A new-ish
576 distribution will have most or all of the prerequisite tools and
577 libraries already integrated for you.</p>
578 <h3>Now available:</h3>
580 <li>"WebCit", a gateway program to allow full access to Citadel via
581 the World Wide Web. Interactive access through any Web browser. </li>
582 <li>Access to Citadel via <i>any</i> standards-compliant e-mail
583 program, thanks to Citadel's built-in SMTP, POP, and IMAP services.
584 You can use Netscape/Mozilla, Evolution, Eudora, Pine, or even
586 VirusSpreader (better known as "Outlook") with Citadel. </li>
588 <h3>Coming soon:</h3>
590 <li>Newer and better GUI-based clients.</li>
592 <h3><a name="Everything_in_its_place..."></a>Everything in its place...</h3>
593 <p>Hopefully you've unpacked the distribution archive into its own
594 directory. This is the directory in which all Citadel files are located
596 which all activity will take place. Several subdirectories have already
597 been created during the unpacking process, and others may be created
598 by the software if needed. Make sure you have Berkeley DB installed on
599 your system, and that you have all the development libraries and
601 in place so that you can compile against them. If you don't, you can
602 get the latest Berkeley DB at <a href="http://www.sleepycat.com">http://www.sleepycat.com</a>.
603 If your operating system uses a separate library to support POSIX
604 threads (pthreads), make sure that library is installed as well. This
605 is almost never the case with Linux, but some commercial Unix flavors
609 <h3><a name="The_BBS_Login"></a>Creating a system account for Citadel</h3>
610 <p>As with many Unix programs, Citadel wants to run under its own user
611 ID. Unlike other programs, however, this user ID will do double-duty as
612 a public login for your system if you are running a BBS. This account
613 is typically called "bbs" or "citadel" or something to that effect. You
614 will tell Citadel what the user-id of that account is, and when someone
615 logs in under that account, Citadel will prompt for a user name.</p>
616 <p>The Citadel user should have a unique uid. The home directory should
617 be the one your Citadel installation resides in (in this example we
618 will use <tt>/usr/local/citadel</tt>) and the shell should be either
620 that directory, or a script that will start up the citadel client.
622 <pre>bbs::100:1:Citadel Login:/usr/local/citadel:/usr/local/citadel/citadel<br></pre>
623 <p>When you run setup later, you will be required to tell it the
624 username or user ID of the account you created is, so it knows what
625 user to run as. If you create an account called <tt>bbs</tt>, <tt>guest</tt>,
626 or <tt>citadel</tt>, the setup program will automatically pick up the
627 user ID by default.</p>
628 <p>For all other users in /etc/passwd, Citadel will automatically set
630 an account using the full name (or 'gecos' in Unixspeak) of the user.
631 It'll also ignore any password you supply, because it uses the user's
633 on the host system. This allows a 'single sign on' type of environment.
634 Note that this does have to be enabled at compile time -- it's the
636 option called <tt>--enable-autologin</tt>. Keep in mind that these
638 can use *either* their Citadel login name or their login name on the
640 computer, and their password on the host computer.<br>
643 <h3><a name="Bypassing_the_login:_prompt"></a>Bypassing the <tt>login:</tt>
645 <p>If you normally log in to your host system using some method other
646 than telnet (such as ssh), you might want the telnet service to go
647 straight into Citadel, instead of displaying the <tt>login:</tt>
649 can do this by having telnetd start citadel directly instead of <tt>/bin/login</tt>.
650 This is actually very simple to implement; all you need to do is make a
651 simple change to your <tt>inetd</tt> or <tt>xinetd</tt>
652 configuration. Here are some configuration examples.</p>
653 <p>An example for <tt>inetd</tt> (put the following line in <tt>/etc/inetd.conf</tt>,
654 replacing any existing telnet configuration line already there):</p>
655 <pre>telnet stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.telnetd -L /usr/local/citadel/citadel<br></pre>
656 <p>An example for <tt>xinetd</tt> (if you have a file called <tt>/etc/xinetd.d/telnet</tt>
657 then simply replace that file with this one):</p>
658 <pre>service telnet<br>{<br> flags = REUSE<br> socket_type = stream<br> wait = no<br> user = root<br> server = /usr/sbin/in.telnetd<br> server_args = -L /usr/local/citadel/citadel<br> log_on_failure += USERID<br> disable = no<br>}<br></pre>
659 <p>Please make sure you know what you're doing before you install this!
661 you are going to put Citadel somewhere other than <tt>/usr/local/citadel</tt>
662 then change the directory name accordingly. If you know of any other
663 local peculiarities which need to be observed, edit the above
665 accordingly as well. And, of course, if you're working remotely, make
666 sure you can successfully log in using SSH <b>before</b> you start
668 your telnet configuration, otherwise you could lock yourself out of
670 system (ask any networking specialist about the dangers of "working
672 -- then pull up a chair and get a fresh cup of coffee, because you're
674 to hear some war stories).<br>
677 <h3><a name="Compiling_the_programs"></a>Compiling the programs</h3>
678 <p>You can easily compile the Citadel system with the following
680 <pre>./configure<br>make<br>make install<br></pre>
681 <p>The 'configure' script will generate a Makefile from the
683 and it will also write the file "sysdep.h" to your Citadel directory.
684 Please do not edit sysdep.h or Makefile.in yourself. The configure
686 figure out your system dependencies and set everything correctly.</p>
687 <p>Mac OS X 10.1 and later are now supported. (Sorry, 10.0 cannot be
688 supported, now or in the future.) You need to install the Developer
689 Tools CD, which you can purchase or download for free from <a
690 href="http://developer.apple.com">http://developer.apple.com</a>. Then
691 run configure like this:</p>
692 <pre>env CC=/usr/bin/cc ./configure (options - see below)<br></pre>
693 <p>By default, the Citadel system will install in <tt>/usr/local/citadel</tt>.
694 If you wish to place it in a different directory, you can instead do:</p>
695 <pre>./configure --prefix=/export/home/citadel (or whatever)<br></pre>
696 <p>If you've got Berkeley DB installed in a non-standard location, you
697 can help the configure script find it by doing something like this:</p>
698 <pre>./configure --with-db=/usr/local/BerkeleyDB-4.1<br></pre>
699 <p>The configure script prefers Berkeley DB if it is available, but
701 back to GDBM if it has to.</p>
702 <p>File permissions are always a bother to work with. You don't want
703 Citadel to crash because someone couldn't access a file, but you also
704 don't want shell users peeking into the binaries to do things like
705 reading others' mail, finding private rooms, etc. The Citadel server
706 needs to be started as root in order to bind to privileged ports, but
707 as soon as its initialization is finished, it changes its user ID to
708 your Citadel user in order to avoid security holes.</p>
709 <h3><a name="Upgrading"></a>Upgrading</h3>
710 <p>Any existing Citadel installation which is at version 5.50 or newer
711 may be upgraded in place without the need to discard your existing data
713 <p>Upgrading to a new version uses the same build procedure as
715 the program for a fresh install, except that you want to do <tt>make
716 install-exec</tt> instead of <tt>make install</tt>. This will
717 overwrite the programs but not your data. <b>Be sure to shut down
718 citserver during this process!</b> If Citadel is running while you
719 upgrade, you may face data corruption issues.<br>
721 <p>After doing <tt>make install-exec</tt>, you should run <tt>setup</tt>
722 again to bring your data files up to date. Please see the setup section
723 below for more information on this.</p>
724 <h3><a name="The_citadel.rc_file"></a>The <tt>citadel.rc</tt> file</h3>
725 <p>The text-based client included with Citadel is suitable for BBS
726 applications. Much of its command set and other behavior is
727 configurable through a Run Control (RC) file. The standard client looks
728 for this file in the following locations: </p>
730 <li><tt>$HOME/.citadelrc</tt></li>
731 <li><tt>/usr/local/lib/citadel.rc</tt></li>
732 <li><i>your-Citadel-directory</i><tt>/citadel.rc</tt></li>
734 The next couple of sections deal with client-side configuration.
735 <h3><a name="Using_an_external_editor_for_message"></a>Using an
737 for message composition</h3>
738 <p>Citadel/UX has a built-in message editor. However, you can also use
739 your favorite text editor to write messages. To do this you simply put
740 a line in your citadel.rc file like this:</p>
741 <pre>editor=/usr/bin/vi<br></pre>
742 <p>The above example would make Citadel call the vi editor when using
743 the <tt><b>.E</b>nter <b>E</b>ditor</tt> command. You can also make
744 it the default editor for the <tt><b>E</b>nter</tt> command by editing
745 the <tt>citadel.rc</tt> file. <b>But be warned:</b> external editors
746 on public systems can
747 be a security hole, because they usually provide users with the ability
748 to drop into a shell on the host system, or save files using names
750 than the name of the temporary file they are editing. If you intend to
751 use an external editor on a public BBS, make sure you use one that has
753 hardened for such a purpose -- one which has had the 'shell' and 'save
755 commands disabled, as well as any other functions which a destructive
756 user could use to gain unauthorized access to your host system.</p>
757 <h3><a name="Printing_messages"></a>Printing messages</h3>
758 <p>Citadel/UX can send messages to a printer, or just about anywhere
759 else in your system. The variable <tt>PRINTCMD</tt> in <tt>citadel.rc</tt>
760 specifies what command you use to print. Text is sent to the standard
761 input (stdin) of the print command.</p>
762 <p>So if you did this:</p>
763 <pre>printcmd="nl|pr|lpr -Plocal"<br></pre>
764 <p>...that would add line numbers, then paginate, then print on the
765 printer named "local". There's tons of stuff you can do with this
766 feature. For example, you could use a command like <tt>cat
767 <<$HOME/archive</tt> to save copies of important messages in a
768 textfile. Again, this is probably something you don't want to configure
769 for a public BBS host -- most system administrators don't want remote
770 users sending arbitrary things to local printers.</p>
771 <h3><a name="URL_viewing"></a>URL viewing</h3>
772 <p>This is one more feature which is appropriate for local users. While
774 a message that has Internet URL's in it, you can select the <tt><b>U</b>RL-view</tt>
775 command, and it will perform some pre-defined action (usually, this is
776 to open up the URL in a web browser). For example:</p>
777 <pre>urlcmd=netscape -remote "openURL(%s)"<br></pre>
778 <p>In the above example, it would open up the URL in an open <a
779 href="http://www.netscape.com/download">Netscape</a> window.<br>
782 <h3><a name="Setup_and_login"></a>Setup and login</h3>
783 <p>Before logging in for the first time, you must run the setup
784 program. To begin this procedure, enter the following commands:</p>
785 <pre>cd /usr/local/citadel<br>./setup<br></pre>
786 <p>The setup program will guide you through a simple configuration
787 procedure. It will ask you what directory to place your data files in
788 -- the default is the current directory, which is usually the sensible
789 thing to select. If you want to run more than one instance of Citadel
790 on the same host, however, you can specify a different directory here
791 -- just remember to specify the directory name again when you start up
792 the server later on.</p>
793 <p><tt>setup</tt> will then shut down the Citadel service if it is
796 <p>You will then be prompted for the name of the system administrator.
797 This is not merely a cosmetic option -- when you log in to your system
798 a little while from now, you'll log in with this name, and it will
799 automatically assign your account the highest access level.</p>
800 <p>Next, you will be prompted for the User ID of the Citadel account on
801 your host system. If you have an account called <tt>bbs</tt>, <tt>guest</tt>,
802 or <tt>citadel</tt>, that account's UID will be the default. If you
803 are upgrading or reconfiguring an existing system, the existing value
804 will be preserved.</p>
805 <p>Then you will be prompted for a server port number. This is the TCP
806 port which Citadel clients use to connect to your Citadel server. In
807 almost all cases, you want to use the default -- port 504, which is the
808 official port number assigned by the IANA for Citadel implementations.</p>
809 <p>The Citadel service will then be started, and you will see the
810 following message:</p>
811 <pre>Setup is finished. You may now log in.<br></pre>
812 <p>Setup is now complete, on most systems, anyway. Please see below to
813 find out if you need to do anything else:</p>
814 <h3><a name="Configuring_your_host_system_to_start"></a>Configuring
816 system to start the service</h3>
817 <p><b>Please note:</b> this topic involves modifications made to <tt>/etc/services</tt>
818 and <tt>/etc/inittab</tt> in order to configure your host system to
819 automatically start the Citadel service. <tt>setup</tt> will
820 automatically perform these steps if it can, and if you allow it to --
821 just answer 'Yes' when prompted, and everything will be taken care of
822 for you. If you answer 'No' -- or if your system is a little bit odd
823 (for example, BSD systems don't have <tt>/etc/inittab</tt>) -- read
824 this section and do what you need to in order to get things configured.</p>
825 <p>Before you can use Citadel, you must define the "citadel" service to
826 your system. This is accomplished by adding a line to your
827 /etc/services file that looks something like this:</p>
828 <pre>citadel 504/tcp # Citadel/UX Server<br></pre>
829 <p>504 is the port number officially designated by the IANA for use by
830 Citadel. There should not be any need to use a different port number,
831 unless you are running multiple Citadels on the same computer and
833 a different port for each one.</p>
834 <p>The next step is to arrange for the server to start. The <tt>citserver</tt>
835 program is the main Citadel server. Before we cover the recommended
836 method of starting the server, let's examine its usage options:</p>
837 <pre>citserver [-hHomeDir] [-xDebugLevel] [-tTraceFile] [-d] [-f]<br></pre>
838 <p>The options are as follows:</p>
839 <p><tt>-hHomeDir</tt> - the directory your Citadel data files live in.
840 This should, of course, be a directory that you've run the <tt>setup</tt>
841 program against to set up some data files. If a directory is not
842 specified, the directory
843 name which was specified in the <tt>Makefile</tt> will be used.</p>
844 <p><tt>-xDebugLevel</tt> - Set the verbosity of trace messages printed.
846 available debugging levels are: </p>
848 <li>1 - Internal errors (failed thread creation, malloc problems,
850 <li>2 - Network errors (broken sockets, failed socket creation) </li>
851 <li>3 - Begin and end of sessions, startup/shutdown of server </li>
852 <li>5 - Server commands being sent from clients </li>
853 <li>7 - Entry and exit of various functions </li>
854 <li>9 - Various debugging checkpoints (insanely verbose) </li>
856 <p><tt>-tTraceFile</tt> - Tell the server where to send its debug/trace
857 output. Normally it is sent to stdout.</p>
858 <p><tt>-d</tt> - Run as a daemon; i.e. in the background. This switch
859 would be necessary if you were starting the Citadel server, for
860 example, from an rc.local script (which is not recommended, because
861 this won't allow the server to automatically restart when it is shut
863 <p><tt>-f</tt> - Defragment all the databases upon startup. This
864 currently has no effect, as it is a vestige from the old data store.</p>
865 <p>The preferred method of starting the Citadel server is to place an
866 entry in your /etc/inittab file. This will conveniently bring the
867 server up when your system is up, and terminate it gracefully when your
868 system is shutting down. The exact syntax for your system may vary, but
869 here's an entry that could be used on a Linux system:</p>
870 <pre>cit:2345:respawn:/usr/local/citadel/citserver -h/usr/local/citadel -t/dev/tty9 -x3<br></pre>
871 <p>In this example, we've chosen debugging level 3, and have the trace
872 stuff output to one of the virtual consoles. It's important to remember
873 to turn off any getty that is set up on that virtual console, if you do
874 this. After making this change, the command <tt>init q</tt> works on
875 most systems to tell init to re-read the file. If in doubt, just reboot
879 <h3><a name="Logging_in_for_the_first_time"></a>Logging in for the
881 <p>At this point, your system is ready to run. Run the <tt>citadel</tt>
882 program from the shell and log in as a new user. NOTE: the first user
883 account to be created will automatically be set to access level 6
884 (Aide). This overcomes some obvious logistical problems - normally,
885 Aide access is given by another Aide, but since there aren't any on
886 your system yet, this isn't possible.<br>
889 <h3><a name="Welcoming_new_users"></a>Welcoming new users</h3>
890 <p>Sometimes you might decide that you want a welcome message (or
891 several different messages) automatically mailed to new users upon
892 their first login. Now there is a way to do this. If you create a room
893 called <tt>New User Greetings</tt>, and it is a <i>private</i> room
894 (invitation-only probably makes the most sense), any messages you enter
895 into that room will automatically be delivered to all new users upon
897 <p>You can put anything you want there: a welcome message, system
898 policies, special information, etc. You can also put as many messages
899 there as you want to (although it really doesn't make sense to clutter
900 new users' mailboxes with lots of junk).</p>
901 <p>Don't worry about wasting disk space, either. Citadel has a
902 single-instance message store, so all the new users are actually
903 looking at the same copy of the message on disk.<br>
906 <h3><a name="Space_for_adding_your_own_client"></a>Space for adding
908 client features (doors)</h3>
909 <p><b>Please take note!</b> This function really represents the "old"
910 way of doing things, and it doesn't fit in well with the client/server
911 paradigm. Please consider it "deprecated" because it may be removed
913 <p>The "doorway" feature is just a generic way to add features to the
914 system. It is called "Doorway" to make it resemble the doors on
915 non-Unix boards, but as we all know, us Unix types don't have to write
916 special code to access the modem. :-) Anyway, when a user hits the <tt><b>*</b></tt>
917 (doorway) command, Citadel does...</p>
918 <pre>USERNAME=(username); export USERNAME<br>./subsystem (user-number) (screen-width) (access level)<br></pre>
919 <p>...so you can put whatever you want in there. I suggest putting in a
921 program to allow the users to pick one of a number of programs, etc. Do
922 be aware that door programs will only be available when the client and
924 programs are running on the <i>same</i> computer, and when the user is
926 the text-mode client. Because of these restrictions, Door programs are
928 utilized less and less every day.<br>
931 <h3><a name="Troubleshooting_and_getting_help"></a>Troubleshooting and
933 <p>That's just about all the information you need to install the
934 system. But if you get stuck, you can visit <a
935 href="http://uncensored.citadel.org">UNCENSORED! BBS</a> and report a
936 problem or ask for help. But if you intend to report a problem getting
937 the Citadel server to run, <i>please</i> double-check the following
940 <li>Did you do <tt>./configure && make && make
941 install</tt> ?? </li>
942 <li>Did you run setup? </li>
943 <li>Did you start the server? </li>
945 <p>To report a problem, you can log on to <a
946 href="http://uncensored.citadel.org">UNCENSORED!</a> or any other BBS
947 on the Citadel network which carries the <tt>Citadel/UX></tt> room.
948 Please DO NOT e-mail the developers directly. Post a request for help
949 on the BBS, with all of the following information: </p>
951 <li>The exact nature of your difficulty </li>
952 <li>A transcript of the error message(s) if possible </li>
953 <li>The version of Citadel you are running </li>
954 <li>The version of Berkeley DB present on your system </li>
955 <li>Which operating system you are running, and what version </li>
956 <li>If you are running a Linux system, we need to know which
957 distribution, and the version of the kernel, libc, and pthreads you
958 are using (it would help to post the output of a <tt>ldd ./citserver</tt>
963 <hr width="100%" size="2">
964 <h2><a name="sysop"></a>System Administration</h2>
966 <div align="justify">
967 <h3><a name="Overview_"></a>Overview</h3>
968 <p>Citadel/UX, when installed properly, will do most of its maintenance
969 by itself. It is intended to be run unattended for extended periods of
970 time, and most installations do just that without any software failures.</p>
971 <p>The system has seven access levels. Most users are at the bottom and
973 no special privileges. Aides are selected people who have special
975 the Citadel program. Room Aides only have this access in a certain
976 room. Preferred users can be selected by Aides for access to preferred
977 only rooms. A sysop is anyone who has access to the various sysop
979 are in their own executable files, which should have their permissions
981 to allow only sysops to run them. You should either create a sysops
983 in /etc/group, or use some other existing group for this purpose.</p>
984 <p>Aides have access to EVERY room on the system, public and private
985 (all types). They also have access to commands starting with <tt>.<b>A</b>ide</tt>
986 in addition to being able to delete and move messages. The system room,
987 <tt>Aide></tt>, is accessible only by those users designated as
989 <h3><a name="Aide_commands"></a>Aide commands</h3>
990 <p>Aides have the following commands available to them that are not
991 available to normal users. They are:</p>
995 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>K</b>ill this room </tt></td>
996 <td> Deletes the current room from the system. </td>
999 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>E</b>dit this room </tt></td>
1000 <td> Allows editing of the properties of the current room. This
1001 is explained in greater detail below. </td>
1004 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>W</b>ho knows room </tt></td>
1005 <td> For private rooms with access controls, or mailbox rooms,
1006 this command displays a list of users who have access to the current
1010 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide edit <b>U</b>ser </tt></td>
1011 <td> Allows editing of the properties of any user account
1012 on the system. </td>
1015 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>V</b>alidate new users </tt></td>
1016 <td> For public access systems, this command reviews all new user
1017 registrations and allows you to set each new user's access level (or
1018 simply delete the accounts). </td>
1021 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide enter <b>I</b>nfo file </tt></td>
1022 <td> Each room may contain a short textual description of
1023 its purpose, which is displayed to users upon entering the room for the
1024 first time (or in the room banner, for users of the Web client). This
1025 command allows you to enter or edit that description. </td>
1028 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>R</b>oom <b>I</b>nvite
1030 <td> Access control command to grant any specific user access to
1031 a private room. </td>
1034 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>R</b>oom <b>K</b>ick
1036 <td> Access control command to revoke any specifc user's access
1037 to the current room. This works regardless of whether the room is
1038 public or private. </td>
1041 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>F</b>ile <b>D</b>elete </tt></td>
1042 <td> If the current room has an associated file directory, this
1043 command may be used to delete files from it. </td>
1046 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>F</b>ile <b>S</b>end
1048 <td> If the current room has an associated file directory, this
1049 command may be used to transmit a copy of any file in that directory to
1050 another node on a Citadel network. </td>
1053 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>F</b>ile <b>M</b>ove </tt></td>
1054 <td> If the current room has an associated file directory, this
1055 command may be used to move any file in that directory to another room.
1056 The target room must also have an associated file directory. </td>
1059 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>M</b>essage edit </tt></td>
1060 <td> This command allows editing of any of the various system
1061 banners and messages which are displayed to users. Type the name of
1062 the banner or message you wish to edit. </td>
1065 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>P</b>ost </tt></td>
1066 <td> This is the functional equivalent of the <tt><b>E</b>nter
1067 message</tt> command available to all users, except that it allows you
1068 to post using any user name. </td>
1071 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration <b>G</b>eneral
1073 <td> This command allows configuration of a large number of
1074 global settings for your Citadel system. These settings will be
1075 explained in greater detail below. </td>
1078 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration <b>I</b>nternet
1080 <td> This command allows configuration of settings which affect
1081 how your Citadel system sends and receives messages on the Internet. </td>
1084 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration
1085 check <b>M</b>essage base </tt></td>
1086 <td> Perform a consistency check on your message store. This is a
1087 very time-consuming operation which should not be performed unless you
1088 have reason to believe there is trouble with your database. </td>
1091 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration <b>N</b>etwork
1093 <td> Configure networking (e-mail, room sharing, etc.) with other
1094 Citadel nodes. </td>
1097 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration
1098 network <b>F</b>ilter list </tt></td>
1099 <td> If you are on a large public or semi-public network of
1100 Citadel nodes and you find content from certain systems or individuals
1101 objectionable, you can use this command to define a rule set to
1102 automatically reject those messages when they arrive on your system. </td>
1105 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>T</b>erminate server <b>N</b>ow
1107 <td> Immediately shut down the Citadel service, disconnecting any
1108 users who are logged in. Please keep in mind that it will start
1109 right back up again if you are running the service from <tt>/etc/inittab</tt>,
1110 so in practice this command will probably not get much use. </td>
1113 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>T</b>erminate server <b>S</b>cheduled
1115 <td> Shut down the Citadel service the next time there are zero
1116 users connected. This allows you to automatically wait until all users
1117 are logged out. </td>
1120 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide mailing <b>L</b>ist recipients
1122 <td> Any room may be made into a mailing list. Enter this command
1123 to open an editor window containing the list of Internet e-mail
1124 addresses to which every message posted in the room will be sent. </td>
1127 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide mailing list <b>D</b>igest
1128 recipients </tt></td>
1129 <td> Similar to the regular mailing list command, except the
1130 messages will be sent out in 'digest' form -- recipients will see
1131 messages from the address of the room itself rather than the address of
1132 the author of each message, and a digest may contain more than one
1133 message. Each room may have any combination of List and Digest
1137 <td width="30%"><tt> .<b>A</b>ide <b>N</b>etwork room sharing </tt></td>
1138 <td> Configures the sharing of the current room's contents with
1139 other Citadel nodes. Messages posted in this room on any Citadel system
1140 will automatically be replicated to other Citadel systems carrying the
1147 <h3><a name="Editing_rooms"></a>Editing rooms</h3>
1148 <p>This command allows any aide to change the parameters of a room. Go
1149 to the room you wish to edit and enter the <tt><b>.A</b>ide <b>E</b>dit
1150 room</tt> command. A series of prompts will be displayed. The existing
1151 parameters will be displayed in brackets; simply press return if you
1153 to leave any or all of them unchanged.</p>
1154 <pre> <br>Room name [IG's Fun Room]:<br></pre>
1155 <p>...the name of the room.</p>
1156 <pre>Private room [Yes]? <br></pre>
1157 <p>...enter Yes if you wish to restrict access to the room, or no if
1159 is to be accessible by all users. Note that Citadel doesn't bother
1161 about access to rooms every time they need to access the room. Once a
1163 gains access to a private room, it then behaves like a public room to
1165 The following four questions will only be asked if you selected
1167 <pre>Accessible by guessing room name [No]?<br></pre>
1168 <p>...if you enter Yes, the room will not show up in users' <tt><b>K</b>nown
1169 rooms</tt> listing, but if they <tt><b>.G</b>oto</tt> the room (typing
1170 the room's full name), they will gain access to the room.</p>
1171 <pre>Accessible by entering a password [No]?<br>Room password [mypasswd]: <br></pre>
1172 <p>...this adds an additional layer of security to the room, prompting
1173 users for a password before they can gain access to the room.</p>
1174 <p>If you did not select guessname or passworded, then the only way
1175 users can access the room is if an Aide explicitly invites them to the
1176 room using the <tt><b>.A</b>ide <b>R</b>oom <b>I</b>nvite user</tt>
1178 <pre>Cause current users to forget room [No] ? No<br></pre>
1179 <p>Enter Yes if you wish to kick out anyone who currently has access to
1181 <pre>Preferred users only [No]? No<br></pre>
1182 <p>Enter Yes if you wish to restrict the room to only users who have
1183 level 5 (Preferred User) status (and Aides too, of course). You should
1184 make the room public if you intend to do this, otherwise the two
1185 restrictions will be COMBINED.</p>
1186 <pre>Read-only room [No]? No<br></pre>
1187 <p>If you set a room to Read-Only, then normal users will not be
1189 post messages in it. Messages may only be posted by Aides, and by
1190 utility programs such as the networker and the "aidepost" utility. This
1192 useful in situations where a room is used exclusively for important
1193 announcements, or if you've set up a room to receive an Internet
1195 list and posting wouldn't make sense. Other uses will, of course,
1197 apparent as the need arises.</p>
1198 <p>Now for a few other attributes...</p>
1199 <pre>Directory room [Yes]? Yes<br></pre>
1200 <p>...enter Yes if you wish to associate a directory with this room.
1201 This can be used as a small file repository for files relevant to the
1202 topic of the room. If you enter Yes, you will also be prompted with the
1203 following four questions:</p>
1204 <pre>Directory name [mydirname]: <br></pre>
1205 <p>...the name of the subdirectory to put this room's files in. The
1206 name of the directory created will be <tt><i><your Citadel
1207 directory></i>/files/<i><room dir name></i></tt>.</p>
1208 <pre>Uploading allowed [Yes]? Yes<br></pre>
1209 <p>...enter Yes if users are allowed to upload to this room.</p>
1210 <pre>Downloading allowed [Yes]? Yes<br></pre>
1211 <p>...enter Yes if users are allowed to download from this room.</p>
1212 <pre>Visible directory [Yes]? Yes<br></pre>
1213 <p>...enter Yes if users can read the directory of this room.</p>
1214 <pre>Network shared room [No]? No<br></pre>
1215 <p>...you can share a room over a network without setting this flag,
1217 vice versa, but what this flag does is twofold: </p>
1219 <li>It prevents people with no network access from entering messages
1221 <li>Messages are displayed with the name of their originating
1222 system in the header. </li>
1224 <pre>Permanent room [No]? No<br></pre>
1225 <p>Citadel contains an 'auto purger' which is capable of removing rooms
1226 which have not been posted in for a pre-defined period of time (by
1228 this is set to two weeks). If you wish to keep this from happening to
1229 a particular room, you can set this option. (Keep in mind that <tt>Lobby></tt>,
1230 <tt>Aide></tt>, any private mailbox rooms, any network shared rooms,
1231 and any rooms with a file directory are automatically permanent.)</p>
1232 <pre>Anonymous messages [No]? No<br>Ask users whether to make messages anonymous [No]? No<br></pre>
1233 <p>...you can have rooms in which all messages are automatically
1234 anonymous, and you can have rooms in which users are prompted whether
1236 message anonymous when they enter it. The real identity of the author
1237 of each message is still revealed to the Room Aide for this room, as
1239 as any system-wide Aides.</p>
1240 <pre>Room aide [Joe Responsible]: <br></pre>
1241 <p>...on larger systems, it helps to designate a person to be
1242 responsible for a room. Room Aides have access to a restricted set of
1243 Aide commands, ONLY when they are in the room in which they have this
1244 privilege. They can edit the room, delete the room, delete and move
1245 messages, and invite or kick out users (if it is a private room), but
1246 they cannot perform aide commands that are not room-related (such as
1247 changing users access levels).</p>
1248 <pre>Listing order [64]: <br></pre>
1249 <p>This is just a simple way to try to control the order rooms are
1250 listed in when users call up a <tt><b>K</b>nown Rooms</tt> listing.
1251 Rooms with a lower listing order are displayed prior to rooms with a
1252 higher listing order. It has no other effect. For users who list rooms
1253 in floor order, the display will sort first by floor, then by listing
1255 <pre>Message expire policy (? for list) [0]:<br></pre>
1256 <p>This provides you with the opportunity to select how long each
1257 message will remain in a room before automatically being deleted. Press
1258 <tt><b>?</b></tt> for a list of options. You can choose to keep
1259 messages around forever (or until they are manually deleted), until
1260 they become a certain number of days old, or until a certain number of
1261 additional messages are posted in the room, at which time the oldest
1262 ones will scroll out.</p>
1263 <p>You will notice that you can also fall back to the default expire
1264 policy for the floor upon which the room resides. This is the default
1265 setting. You can change the floor's default with the <tt><b>;A</b>ide <b>E</b>dit
1266 floor</tt> command. The default setting for the floor default, in turn,
1267 is the system default setting, which can be changed using the <tt><b>.A</b>ide
1268 <b>S</b>ystem configuration <b>G</b>eneral</tt> command.</p>
1269 <pre>Save changes (y/n)? Yes<br></pre>
1270 <p>...this gives you an opportunity to back out, if you feel you really
1271 messed things up while editing.<br>
1274 <h3><a name="File_directories"></a>File directories</h3>
1275 <p>If you have created any directory rooms, you can attach file
1276 descriptions to the filenames through a special file called <tt>filedir</tt>.
1277 Each line contains the name of a file in the directory, followed by a
1278 space and then a description of the file, such as:</p>
1279 <pre>myfile.txt This is a description of my file.<br>phluff A phile phull of phluff!<br></pre>
1280 <p>...this would create file descriptions for the files <tt>myfile.txt</tt>
1281 and <tt>phluff</tt> which would be displayed along with the directory.
1282 It should also be noted that when users upload files to your system,
1283 they will be prompted for file descriptions, which will be added to the
1284 <tt>filedir</tt> file. If one does not exist, it will be created.<br>
1287 <h3><a name="Creating_and_editing_user_accounts"></a>Creating and
1288 editing user accounts</h3>
1289 <p>Anyone with Aide level access may use the <tt><b>.A</b>ide edit <b>U</b>ser</tt>
1290 command to create and/or edit user accounts. There are several
1291 parameters which can be set here.</p>
1292 <p>To create a user:</p>
1293 <pre>Lobby> . Aide edit User <br>User name: New User Name<br>No such user.<br>Do you want to create this user? Yes<br></pre>
1294 <p>At this point, the new user account has been created, and the
1296 continue as if you were editing an existing account. Therefore the
1298 of this procedure is the same for creating and editing:</p>
1299 <pre>Lobby> . Aide edit User <br>User name: person of significance<br>User #70 - Person of Significance PW: <br><br>,<br><br>Current access level: 4 (Network User)<br></pre>
1300 <p>The blank lines are the user's 'registration' information --
1302 information such as full name, address, telephone number, etc. This
1304 will comprise the user's vCard in both their user profile and in the
1307 <pre>Change password [No]: No<br></pre>
1308 <p>...answer Yes to set or change the password for this account.</p>
1309 <pre>Access level [4]: <br></pre>
1310 <p>...this allows you to set or change the access level for this
1311 account. The access levels available are as follows: </p>
1313 <li>0 - Deleted. (This immediately deletes the account.) </li>
1314 <li>1 - New, unvalidated user </li>
1315 <li>2 - Problem user (severely restricts account - use for
1316 probationary access) </li>
1317 <li>3 - User with no network privileges. Same access as a normal user
1318 except cannot post messages in rooms shared on a network. </li>
1319 <li>4 - Normal user </li>
1320 <li>5 - Preferred user (access is granted to privileged rooms) </li>
1321 <li>6 - Aide (administrative access to the whole system) </li>
1323 <pre>Permission to send/receive Internet mail [ No]? No<br></pre>
1324 <p>If your system is configured to only allow Internet mail privileges
1325 to certain users, this is where you can grant or revoke that privilege.</p>
1326 <pre>Ask user to register again [Yes]: Yes<br></pre>
1327 <p>If you answer Yes to this question, the user will be presented with
1329 'registration' screen or set of prompts, the next time they log in
1331 a Citadel client. This will prompt them for their full name, address,
1334 <pre>Times called [0]: <br>Messages posted [0]: <br></pre>
1335 <p>These statistics are available for informational purposes only, so
1336 there is normally no need to change them.</p>
1337 <pre>Set last call to now [No]: No<br>Purge time (in days, 0 for system default [0]: <br></pre>
1338 <p>Citadel contains an auto-purger which is capable of automatically
1339 deleting accounts which have not been accessed in a predefined period
1340 of time. If you choose to perform this operation, you can 'touch' the
1342 of a wayward user by setting their 'last call' time to 'now'. You can
1343 also adjust, on a per-user basis, the amount of time which must pass
1345 their account is purged by the system. This time is set in days. You
1346 can also specify 0 days to indicate that you wish to use the system
1351 <h3><a name="Deleting_and_moving_messages"></a>Deleting and moving
1353 <p>Aides and Room Aides have the ability to delete and move messages.
1354 After each message, the normal prompt appears:</p>
1355 <pre>(8) <B>ack <A>gain <Q>uote <R>eply <N>ext <S>top m<Y> next <?>help -><br></pre>
1356 <p>Entering <tt><b>D</b>elete</tt> will delete the message. A <tt>(y/n)</tt>
1357 prompt will appear to confirm that you really want to delete the
1358 message. Entering <tt><b>M</b>ove</tt> will prompt for a room to which
1359 the message should be moved.<br>
1362 <h3><a name="Customizing_the_help_files"></a>Customizing the help files</h3>
1363 <p>The subdirectory called <tt>help</tt> contains your system's help
1364 files. There's nothing hard-coded into the system that dictates what
1366 should be there. Whenever a user types the command <tt><b>.H</b>elp</tt>
1367 followed by the name of a help file, it displays the contents of that
1369 <p>The help files that come with the system, of course, are enough to
1370 guide a user through its operation. But you can add, change, or remove
1371 help files to suit whatever is appropriate for your system.</p>
1372 <p>There are several strings that you can put in help files that will
1374 substituted with other strings. They are:</p>
1375 <pre> <br> ^nodename = The node name of your system on a Citadel/UX network<br> ^humannode = Human-readable node name (also your node name on C86Net)<br> ^fqdn = Your system's fully-qualified domain name<br> ^username = The name of the user reading the help file<br> ^usernum = The user number of the user reading the help file<br> ^sysadm = The name of the system administraor (i.e., you)<br> ^variantname = The name of the software you're running<br> ^bbsdir = The directory on the host system in which you have<br> installed the Citadel system.<br></pre>
1376 <p>So, for example, you could create a help file which looked like:</p>
1377 <pre> "Lots of help, of course, is available right here on ^humannode. Of<br>course, if you still have trouble, you could always bug ^sysadm about it!"<br><br></pre>
1378 <h3><a name="Site_configuration"></a>Site configuration</h3>
1379 <p>Once your Citadel server is up and running, the first thing you'll
1380 want to do is customize and tune it. This can be done from the
1381 text-based client with the <tt><b>.A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem
1382 configuration <b>G</b>eneral</tt> command, or from WebCit (if you have
1383 it installed) by clicking 'Advanced Options' followed by 'Edit
1384 site-wide configuration.' Either method will offer the same
1385 configuration options. This document shows the text mode client being
1387 <p>The first set of options deal with the identification of your system.</p>
1388 <pre>Lobby> . Aide System configuration General<br>Node name [uncnsrd]: <br>Fully qualified domain name [uncensored.citadel.org]: <br>Human readable node name [Uncensored]: <br>Modem dialup number [US 914 999 9999]: <br>Geographic location of this system [Mount Kisco, NY]: <br>Name of system administrator [IGnatius T Foobar]: <br>Paginator prompt [<jinkies
1389 !="" more="" text="" on="" the="" next="" screen="">]: <br></jinkies></pre>
1390 <p>'Node name' refers to the short, unqualified node name by which your
1391 system is known on a Citadel network. Generally it will be the same as
1392 the unqualified host name of your computer; this is, in fact, the
1393 default setting.</p>
1394 <p>Then enter the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of your system. If
1396 are not on the Internet, you can simply set it to the same as your
1397 unqualified host name. Otherwise you should set this value to the host
1398 name by which your system is most commonly known.</p>
1399 <p>The field called 'Human-readable node name' (also known as the 'node
1400 title' or 'organization name' in other software) is used solely for
1401 display purposes. Set it to the actual name of your system as you want
1403 banners, messages, etc.</p>
1404 <p>If you have a modem or bank of modems answering data calls for your
1405 system, enter it in the field marked 'Modem dialup number.' Otherwise
1406 you may leave it blank.</p>
1407 <p>'Geographic location of this system' is another display field. Enter
1408 a city and state, or city and country. </p>
1409 <p>'Name of system administrator' is important! Any user who logs on
1410 with the name you enter here will automatically be granted Aide
1411 privileges. This is one of two ways for the system administrator to
1412 grant himself/herself Aide access to the system when initially setting
1413 it up. (The other is simply to have the first account created on a new
1415 <p>The next set of options are your system's security settings. Before
1416 delving into the actual options, we should review the various access
1417 levels available on the system. Citadel has seven access levels:</p>
1419 <li>0 (Deleted). A user whose access level is set to 0 will
1420 automatically be deleted by the system. </li>
1421 <li>1 (New User). Users at this level may only read messages.
1422 Entering messages is prohibited, except in the <tt>Mail></tt> room,
1423 where a message to 'sysop' may be entered. </li>
1424 <li>2 (Problem User). Also known as 'Twit.' </li>
1425 <li>3 (Local User). May enter messages, except in rooms shared on a
1426 Citadel network. </li>
1427 <li>4 (Network User). May enter messages in every accessible
1429 <li>5 (Preferred User). Use of this level is up to the whim of the
1430 system administrator. </li>
1431 <li>6 (Aide). Access is granted to the administrative functions of
1432 the system. (This access level may also be granted to a user only for a
1433 specific room, please see 'Room Aide' for more information.) </li>
1435 <pre>Require registration for new users [No]: No<br>Disable self-service user account creation [No]: No<br>Initial access level for new users [4]:<br>Access level required to create rooms [4]: <br>Automatically give room aide privs to a user who creates a private room [No]: No<br><br>Automatically move problem user messages to twit room [Yes]: Yes<br>Name of twit room [Trashcan]: <br>Restrict Internet mail to only those with that privilege [No]: No<br>Allow Aides to Zap (forget) rooms [Yes]: Yes<br>Allow system Aides access to user mailboxes [Yes]: Yes<br>Log all pages [No]: No<br></pre>
1436 <p>'Registration' refers to the process of a user entering various
1437 personal contact information (real name, address, telephone number,
1438 etc.) into the system. When enabled, this information is stored as a
1439 vCard object on the system in two places: the user's <tt>My Citadel
1441 room, and in the <tt>Global Address Book></tt> room. (Note: the
1443 should be made private on publicly-accessible systems, for obvious
1445 <p>If you answer Yes to 'Require registration for new users' then each
1446 new user, upon creating a new account, will immediately be entered into
1447 the registration process. On the other hand, if you answer Yes to
1448 'Disable self-service user account creation' then new users will not be
1450 log in at all -- all accounts must be created by an Aide.</p>
1451 <p>'Initial access level for new users' should be set to 1 (New User)
1452 if you would like to review each new user's registration info before
1453 granting them higher access. This would be done periodically with the <tt><b>.A</b>ide
1454 <b>V</b>alidate new users</tt> command. If you do not require
1455 registration, you should set the initial access level to 4 (Network
1457 <p>Given the above options, it then becomes clear that there are
1458 generally two ways you can set up your Citadel system, depending on its
1461 <li><b>A public access BBS or message board</b> - since you do
1462 not know who might want to log in, self-service account creation needs
1464 stay enabled. If you want to be strict about users identifying
1466 then you should also require users to register (just remember to post a
1467 privacy policy if you're going to collect personal information) -- then
1469 the initial access level to 1 (New User), so new users cannot post
1471 until after you've validated them. For a more lax environment, you can
1472 remove the registration requirement and grant new accounts level 4
1474 User) access on the first visit. </li>
1475 <li><b>A private email/groupware system for your organization</b> -
1476 in this case, disable self-service account creation; you don't want
1477 strangers welcoming themselves to your system. You'll probably also
1479 to disable registration, because you or some other site administrator
1480 will be entering users' contact info when you create their accounts.
1481 Since this is also how you assign their Internet e-mail addresses, it's
1482 probably a good idea to do it yourself instead of expecting them to do
1485 <p>'Access level required to create rooms' is up to you. You might wish
1487 restrict the creation of new rooms only to Aides, or you might wish to
1489 anyone to create a room. The latter is one of the Citadel culture's
1491 long-standing traditions; the former may be appropriate if users are
1494 <p>You have the ability to 'Automatically give room aide privs to a
1495 user who creates a private room.' If you answer Yes, then any user who
1497 guess-name, passworded, or invitation-only room will automatically
1498 become the room aide, and will have access to a subset of the <tt><b>.A</b>ide</tt>
1499 command set while in that room. If you would rather grant this
1500 permission manually, answer No.</p>
1501 <p>Another tradition in the Citadel culture is to refrain from deleting
1502 problem users, but instead to 'twit' them (reduce their access level to
1504 [Problem User]). You can then 'Automatically move problem user messages
1505 to twit room' (answer Yes, then specify 'Name of twit room' and
1507 to create that room). If you employ this logic, any user with level 2
1509 User) access will continue to have access to the same set of rooms, but
1511 messages posted will automatically be routed to the Trashcan (or
1513 you call your twit room).</p>
1514 <p>If you have Internet mail configured, you have the option of
1515 restricting its use on a user-by-user basis. If you wish to do this,
1516 answer Yes to 'Restrict Internet mail to only those with that
1517 privilege.' Obviously this makes no sense for an internal e-mail
1518 system, but for a public BBS it
1519 might be appropriate.</p>
1520 <p>Normally, Aides have access to every room, public or private, except
1521 for user mailboxes. They are also forbidden from <tt><b>Z</b>ap</tt>ping
1522 rooms, because the review of content is considered one of their roles.
1523 If you wish to change these policies, the next two options allow you
1524 to. You may 'Allow Aides to Zap (forget) rooms', in which case they may
1525 use the <tt><b>Z</b>ap</tt> command just like any other user.
1526 Furthermore, if you 'Allow system Aides access to user mailboxes', then
1527 they may <tt><b>.G</b>oto</tt> any private mailbox belonging to any
1528 user, using a special room name format.</p>
1529 <p>If your local security and/or privacy policy dictates that you keep
1531 log of all pages (instant messages) that go through the system, then
1533 Yes to 'Log all pages'. If you answer Yes, you will be prompted for the
1534 name of a room to which all pages will be logged. If you answer No,
1536 only the sender and recipient of each individual message will receive a
1538 <p>The next set of options deals with the tuning of your system. It is
1539 usually safe to leave these untouched.</p>
1540 <pre>Server connection idle timeout (in seconds) [900]: <br>Maximum concurrent sessions [20]: <br>Maximum message length [2147483647]: <br>Minimum number of worker threads [5]: <br>Maximum number of worker threads [256]: <br></pre>
1541 <p>The 'Server connection idle timeout' is for the connection between
1542 client and server software. It is <b>not</b> an idle timer for the
1543 user interface. 900 seconds (15 minutes) is the default and a sane
1545 <p>'Maximum concurrent sessions' is the highest number of user sessions
1546 you wish to allow on your system at any given time. Citadel can scale
1547 to hundreds of concurrent users, but if you have limited hardware or
1548 (more likely) limited bandwidth, you might wish to set a maximum. You
1549 can also set it to zero for no limit.</p>
1550 <p>'Maximum message length' is just that. This could be a good way to
1551 prevent enormous multimedia files from finding their way into your
1552 message base. This maximum is enforced in all protocols and is also
1553 advertised by the ESMTP service.</p>
1554 <p>The minimum and maximum number of worker threads can be tuned to
1556 liking. Citadel will attempt to keep one worker thread running per
1558 within these constraints. You should be aware that due to the use of
1560 worker thread model, Citadel can handle a large number of concurrent
1562 with a much smaller thread pool. If you don't know the programming
1564 behind multithreaded servers, you should leave these parameters alone.</p>
1565 <p>The next set of options affect how Citadel behaves on a network.</p>
1566 <pre>How often to run network jobs (in seconds) [3600]: <br><br>POP3 server port (-1 to disable) [110]:<br><br>IMAP server port (-1 to disable) [143]:<br><br>SMTP server port (-1 to disable) [25]: <br><br>Correct forged From: lines during authenticated SMTP [Yes]:<br><br></pre>
1567 <p>"How often to run network jobs" refers to the sharing of content on
1569 Citadel network. If your system is on a Citadel network, this
1571 item dictates how often the Citadel server will contact other Citadel
1572 servers to send and receive messages. In reality, this will happen more
1573 frequently than you specify, because other Citadel servers will be
1574 contacting yours at regular intervals as well.</p>
1575 <p>Then you can specify TCP port numbers for the SMTP, POP3, and IMAP
1576 services. For a system being used primarily for Internet e-mail, these
1577 are essential, so you'll want to specify the standard port numbers: 25,
1578 110, and 143. If Citadel is running alongside some other mail system,
1579 though, then you might want to choose other, unused port numbers, or
1580 enter -1 for any protocol
1581 to disable it entirely.</p>
1582 <p>The question about correcting forged From: lines affects how Citadel
1583 behaves with authenticated SMTP clients. Citadel does not ever allow
1584 third-party SMTP relaying from unauthenticated clients -- any incoming
1586 addressed to a user on the system or somewhere in a Citadel network. To
1587 use Citadel with SMTP client software such as Netscape, Outlook,
1589 whatever, users must log in with a username and password. In order to
1591 message forgeries, Citadel discards the <tt>From:</tt> line in any
1593 entered by an authenticated user, and replaces it with a <tt>From:</tt>
1595 containing the user's genuine name and e-mail address. Technically,
1597 violates RFC822, because headers are never supposed to be altered, but
1599 sense dictates that this is a good idea. Nevertheless, if you want to
1601 this behavior, answer 'No' at the prompt (the default is 'Yes') and the
1603 will never be altered.</p>
1604 <p>The final set of options configures system-wide defaults for the
1606 <pre>Default user purge time (days) [120]: <br>Default room purge time (days) [30]: <br>System default message expire policy (? for list) [2]: <br>Keep how many messages online? [150]:<br></pre>
1607 <p>Any user who does not log in for the period specified in 'Default
1608 user purge time' will be deleted the next time a purge is run. This
1609 setting may be modified on a per-user basis.</p>
1610 <p>'Default room purge time' behaves the same way, and may also be
1611 modified on a per-room basis.</p>
1612 <p>'System default message expire policy' defines the way in which old
1613 messages are expired (purged) off the system. You can specify any of:</p>
1615 <li>Purge by age (specify in days) </li>
1616 <li>Purge by message count in the room (specify number of messages) </li>
1617 <li>Do not purge at all </li>
1619 <p>Again, this setting may be overridden on a per-floor basis, and the
1620 floor setting may be overridden on a per-room basis.</p>
1621 <pre>Save this configuration? No<br></pre>
1622 <p>When you're done, enter 'Yes' to confirm the changes, or 'No' to
1623 discard the changes.</p>
1625 <hr width="100%" size="2">
1626 <h2 align="center"><a name="Configuring_Citadel_for_Internet_e-mail"></a>Configuring
1627 Citadel for Internet e-mail</h2>
1628 <div align="justify">
1629 <h3><a name="Introduction"></a>Introduction</h3>
1630 As you know by now, Citadel is a completely self-contained,
1631 full-featured Internet e-mail system. When you run Citadel you do
1632 not need any other mail software on your host system. This
1633 eliminates the need for tedious mucking about with sendmail, qmail,
1634 postfix, Cyrus, the UW IMAP
1635 server, or any of countless other needlessly complex programs that lead
1636 some people to the false assumption that Unix systems are difficult to
1639 Some of the many features supported by Citadel are:<br>
1641 <li>Built-in SMTP and ESMTP service, for delivering and receiving
1642 e-mail on the Internet</li>
1643 <li>Built-in POP3 service, for remote fetching of messages</li>
1644 <li>Built-in IMAP service, for access to mail using any standard mail
1646 <li>Web mail (implemented using the "WebCit" middleware, which is
1647 installed separately)</li>
1648 <li>Support for mailing lists, in both "individual message" and
1649 "digest" formats</li>
1650 <li>Multiple/virtual domain support</li>
1651 <li>Any user may have multiple Internet e-mail addresses, in multiple
1653 <li>Global address book (Users with addresses in a domain may be
1654 spread out across many servers on a Citadel network)</li>
1655 <li>Easy-to-configure integration with <a
1656 href="http://www.spamassassin.org/">SpamAssassin</a> can block spam <i>before</i>
1657 it enters the mail system</li>
1658 <li>Easy-to-configuration integration with most Realtime Blackhole
1659 Lists (RBL) provide further defense against spammers</li>
1661 This section of the documentation will demonstrate how to configure
1664 <h3><a name="Basic_site_configuration"></a>Basic site configuration</h3>
1665 <p>Basic configuration of your Citadel system for Internet e-mail
1667 the <tt><b>.A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration <b>I</b>nternet</tt>
1669 <pre>Lobby> <b>.A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration <b>I</b>nternet<br><br>### Host or domain Record type<br>--- -------------------------------------------------- --------------------<br> 1<br><A>dd <D>elete <S>ave <Q>uit -><br></pre>
1670 <p>This is a "clean" setup. For a simple, standalone e-mail system you
1671 simply have to enter the <tt><b>A</b>dd</tt> command:</p>
1672 <pre><A>dd <D>elete <S>ave <Q>uit -> <b>A</b>dd<br><br>Enter host name: schmeep.splorph.com<br> (1) localhost (Alias for this computer)<br> (2) gateway domain (Domain for all Citadel systems)<br> (3) smart-host (Forward all outbound mail to this host)<br> (4) directory (Consult the Global Address Book)<br> (5) SpamAssassin (Address of SpamAssassin server)<br> (6) RBL (domain suffix of spam hunting RBL)<br><br>Which one [1]:<br></pre>
1673 <p><b>localhost:</b> Basically what you're doing here is telling
1675 what any aliases for your machine are. If your machine were <tt>schmeep.splorph.com</tt>
1676 and you also had a DNS entry set up for <tt>blah.com</tt>, you might
1677 want to enter '1' and enter <tt>blah.com</tt> as your alias, so that
1679 sent to that address won't bounce.</p>
1680 <p><i>Important tip:</i> if your system is known by one name and <i>only</i>
1681 one domain, you might not even need to do this at all. You will recall
1682 that you entered your system's fully qualified domain name earlier when
1683 you went through the <tt><b>.A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration <b>G</b>eneral</tt>
1684 command. The domain name you entered there is automatically considered
1685 by Citadel to be a 'localhost' entry in your Internet mail
1686 configuration. It does not hurt to enter it in both locations, though.</p>
1687 <p><b>gateway domain:</b> this is a simple way of mapping various
1688 Citadel hosts in an Internet domain. For example, if you enter <tt>bar.com</tt>
1689 as a gateway domain, then mail to users at <tt>foo.bar.com</tt> will
1690 be forwarded to the host called <tt>foo</tt> on a Citadel network,
1692 at <tt>kunst.bar.com</tt> will be delivered to the Citadel server
1694 <tt>kunst</tt>, etc. This feature has limited usefulness; if you are
1696 a network of Citadel servers, it is more likely that you will use the
1698 feature, explained below.</p>
1699 <p><b>smart-host:</b> Normally, Citadel sends outbound Internet e-mail
1700 directly to its destination. This may not be appropriate for some
1701 sites; you may require (due to local convention, security policy, or
1702 whatever) that all outbound mail be sent to an SMTP relay or forwarder.
1704 functionality, simply enter the domain name or IP address of your relay
1705 as a 'smart-host' entry.</p>
1706 <p><b>directory:</b> a domain for which you are participating in
1707 directory services across any number of Citadel nodes. For example, if
1708 users who have addresses in the domain <tt>citadel.org</tt> are spread
1709 out across multiple Citadel servers on your network, then enter <tt>citadel.org</tt>
1710 as a 'directory' entry. <i>For this to work, all Citadel servers
1711 participating in directory service <b>must</b> carry and share the <tt>Global
1712 Address Book></tt> room.</i></p>
1713 <p><b>spamassassin:</b> if you are running a <a
1714 href="http://www.spamassassin.org">SpamAssassin</a> service anywhere
1716 <b>local</b> network, enter its name or IP address as a 'spamassassin'
1717 entry. This may be (and, in fact, will usually be) <tt>127.0.0.1</tt>
1719 that the service is running on the same host computer as the Citadel
1721 <p>Please install SpamAssassin as per its own documentation. You will
1722 want to run SpamAssassin in client/server mode, where a <tt>spamd</tt>
1723 daemon is always running on your computer. Citadel does not utilize the
1724 <tt>spamc</tt> client; instead, it implements SpamAssassin's protocol
1726 <p>Connecting to a SpamAssassin service across a wide area network is
1727 strongly discouraged. In order to determine whether an incoming e-mail
1728 is spam, Citadel must feed the <i>entire message</i> to the
1729 SpamAssassin service. Doing this over a wide area network would consume
1731 which would affect performance.</p>
1732 <p>Citadel invokes the SpamAssassin service when incoming messages are
1733 arriving via SMTP. Before a message is accepted, it is submitted to
1734 SpamAssassin. If SpamAssassin determines that the message is spam, the
1736 service <i>rejects the message,</i> causing a delivery failure on the
1738 host. This is superior to software which files away spam in a separate
1739 folder, because delivery failures will cause some spammers to assume
1741 address is invalid and remove it from their mailing lists.</p>
1742 <p><b>RBL:</b> Realtime Blackhole Lists (RBL's) provide defense against
1743 spammers based on their source IP address. There are many such lists
1744 available on the Internet, some of which may be utilized free of
1745 charge. Since they are DNS based, the lists do not require storage on
1746 your server -- they are queried during the SMTP conversation.</p>
1747 <p>Citadel can utilize any RBL that uses the <tt>z.y.x.w.nameoflist.org</tt>
1748 syntax, where <tt>w.x.y.z</tt> is the source IP address which is
1749 attempting to deliver mail to your server. For example, <a
1750 href="http://www.spamcop.net">SpamCop</a> would use the query <tt>2.0.0.127.bl.spamcop.net</tt>
1751 to determine whether the host at <tt>127.0.0.2</tt> is a known spammer
1752 or open relay. In this case, you simply select option '6' to add an RBL
1753 entry, and provide it with the domain suffix of <tt>bl.spamcop.net</tt>
1755 and extra dot will be automatically prepended for each query).</p>
1756 <p>Now select <tt><b>S</b>ave</tt> and you are just about ready for
1757 Internet e-mail.</p>
1758 <h3><a name="Enabling_the_Internet_mail_protocols"></a>Enabling the
1759 Internet mail protocols</h3>
1760 <p>As previously mentioned, Citadel contains its own SMTP, POP3, and
1761 IMAP services. Enabling them is simple.</p>
1762 <p>Check for the existance of a current MTA (sendmail, qmail, etc.) by
1763 connecting to port 25 on your host. If you see something similar to the
1765 you're running an MTA already and you'll need to shut it down:</p>
1766 <pre>smw @ pixel % telnet localhost 25<br>Trying 127.0.0.1...<br>Connected to localhost.<br>Escape character is '^]'.<br>220 pixel.citadel.org ESMTP Sendmail 8.9.3/8.9.3; Wed, 15 Mar 2000 19:00:53 -0500<br></pre>
1767 <p>In the above example, we see that the host already has Sendmail
1768 listening on port 25. Before Citadel can use port 25, Sendmail must be
1769 shut off. Please consult the documentation for your operating system
1770 for instructions on how to do this. (On a Red Hat Linux system, for
1771 example, you can run the <tt>ntsysv</tt> utility, un-checking <tt>sendmail</tt>
1773 the next reboot; then, run <tt>service sendmail stop</tt> to shut off
1775 currently running service.)</p>
1776 <p>If you get a 'connection refused' message when you telnet to port 25
1777 there's nothing running and you should be able to continue. You might
1778 also want to turn off POP (try the above test substituting 110 for 25)
1779 and IMAP (port 143) and use Citadel's POP and IMAP services.</p>
1780 <p>Citadel will look for an existing pop/smtp server on startup. If
1782 don't exist (and you've configured them properly) then Citadel should
1784 them at startup. You can check your logs to be sure, or you can start
1786 server from a shell and watch it load. It might look something like
1788 <font size="-2"> </font>
1789 <pre><font size="-2">smw @ pixel % ./citserver<br><br>Multithreaded message server for Citadel/UX<br>Copyright (C) 1987-2003 by the Citadel/UX development team.<br>Citadel/UX is open source, covered by the GNU General Public License, and<br>you are welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain<br>conditions. There is absolutely no warranty for this software. Please<br>read the 'COPYING.txt' file for details.<br><br>Loading citadel.config<br>Opening databases<br>This is GDBM version 1.8.0, as of May 19, 1999.<br>Checking floor reference counts<br>Creating base rooms (if necessary)<br>Registered a new service (TCP port 504)<br>Registered a new service (TCP port 0)<br>Initializing loadable modules<br>Registered server command CHAT (Begin real-time chat)<br>Registered server command PEXP (Poll for express messages)<br>Registered server command GEXP (Get express messages)<br>Registered server command SEXP (Send an express message)<br>Registered server command DEXP (Disable express messages)<br>Registered a new session function (type 0)<br>Registered a new x-msg function (priority 0)<br>Loaded module: $Id$<br>Registered a new session function (type 1)<br>Registered a new message function (type 201)<br>Registered a new message function (type 202)<br>Registered server command REGI (Enter registration info)<br>Registered server command GREG (Get registration info)<br>Registered a new user function (type 100)<br>Loaded module: $Id$<br>Server-hosted upgrade level is 5.62<br>Loaded module: $Id$<br>Registered server command EXPI (Expire old system objects)<br>Registered server command FSCK (Check message ref counts)<br>Loaded module: $Id$<br><b>citserver: Can't bind: Address already in use<br>ERROR: could not bind to TCP port 25.</b><br>Registered a new service (TCP port 0)<br>Registered a new session function (type 50)<br>Loaded module: $Id$<br><b>citserver: Can't bind: Address already in use<br>ERROR: could not bind to TCP port 110.</b><br>Registered a new session function (type 0)<br>Loaded module: $Id$<br>Registered a new message function (type 202)Loaded module: $Id$<br>Registered server command RWHO (Display who is online)<br>Registered server command HCHG (Masquerade hostname)<br>Registered server command RCHG (Masquerade roomname)<br>Registered server command UCHG (Masquerade username)<br>Registered server command STEL (Enter/exit stealth mode)<br>Loaded module: $Id$<br>Changing uid to 513<br>Starting housekeeper thread<br></font></pre>
1790 <p>The lines emphasized in boldface in the above log output tell you
1791 that Citadel "can't bind" to various ports. The error 'address already
1792 in use' generally means that something else is already running on the
1793 requested port. Make SURE you've followed the above steps to remove
1794 sendmail/pop and start your Citadel server again.</p>
1795 <h3><a name="citmail"></a>Using Citadel in conjunction with another MTA</h3>
1796 <p>Occationally it is not practical to remove a non-Citadel MTA on your
1797 host system. For example, you might have multiple groups of users, some
1799 which are using Citadel and some of which are using a legacy Unix mail
1800 spool. This type of configuration is discouraged, but a tool is
1803 <p>The tool is called <tt>citmail</tt> and it is, quite simply, a
1804 local MDA (Mail Delivery Agent) which you can configure into your MTA
1805 for final delivery of incoming messages to Citadel users. A full
1806 discussion of the finer points of complex Sendmail configurations is
1807 beyond the scope of this document; however, you might want to visit <a
1808 href="http://pixel.citadel.org/citadel/docs/">Pixel BBS</a> where some
1809 useful HOWTO documents are provided.</p>
1810 <p>For outbound mail, you can either allow Citadel to perform
1812 (this won't affect your other mail system because outbound mail doesn't
1814 up port 25) or enter <tt>127.0.0.1</tt> as your smart-host, which will
1816 Citadel to forward all of its outbound mail to your other mail system.</p>
1817 <h3><a name="Hosting_an_Internet_mailing_list"></a>Hosting an Internet
1819 <p>Citadel has built in mailing list service (known in the 'net
1820 vernacular as "listserv") functionality. You can turn any room
1821 into a mailing list. Users can then choose how they participate
1822 -- by logging on to your Citadel server directly, or by having the
1823 room's contents mailed to
1824 them somewhere else. Configuring this is easy.</p>
1825 <p>Citadel supports two modes of mailing list delivery: </p>
1827 <li>"List mode" -- each individual message is delivered as a single
1828 e-mail to each list mode recipient. The "From:" header will
1829 display the address of the message's original author.</li>
1830 <li>"Digest mode" -- groups of one or more messages are delivered
1831 to digest mode recipients. The number of messages in the group
1832 depends on how many new messages arrived since the last batch was
1833 delivered. The "From:" header will display the address of the
1834 room itself, which allows replies to be posted back to the room.</li>
1836 A room may have any combination of list mode and digest mode
1838 <p>As alluded to above, every room on your Citadel system has an
1839 Internet e-mail address of its own. Messages sent to that address
1841 posted in the room (and sent back out to mailing list recipients, as
1843 as to any other Citadels you share the room with). The address
1845 is <tt>room_</tt> plus the name of the room, with any spaces replaced
1847 underscores, followed by <tt>@</tt> and your hostname. For example, if
1849 system is known as <tt>phlargmalb.orc.org</tt> on the Internet, and
1851 a room called <tt>Bubblegum Collectors</tt>, you can post to that room
1853 anywhere on the Internet simply by sending an e-mail to <tt>room_bubblegum_collectors@phlargmalb.orc.org</tt>.
1854 When the message arrives, it's automatically posted in that room.</p>
1855 <p>To manually edit the list of "list mode" recipients, simply enter
1856 the <tt><b>.A</b>ide
1857 mailing <b>L</b>ist management</tt> command. Your text editor will
1859 up and you will be able to create or edit a list of recipients, one per
1860 line. Lines beginning with a hash (<tt>#</tt>) are comments.</p>
1861 <p>To manually edit the list of "digest mode" recipients, enter the <tt><b>.A</b>ide
1862 mailing list <b>D</b>igest recipients</tt> command. As with the
1863 previous command, the text editor will open up and you can edit the
1864 list of digest mode recipients, one per line.</p>
1865 <p>Citadel also has a facility which allows users to subscribe or
1866 unsubscribe to mailing lists using a web browser. In order to do this,
1867 WebCit must also be running on your server in addition to Citadel.
1868 WebCit is obtained and installed separately from the rest of the
1870 <p>In order to prevent "just anyone" from subscribing to any room on
1871 your system, there is a setting in the <tt><b>.A</b>ide <b>E</b>dit
1872 room</tt> command:</p>
1873 <pre>CitaNews} . Aide Edit this room<br>Room name [CitaNews]:<br><br><i>(lots of other stuff omitted for brevity...)</i><br><br>Self-service list subscribe/unsubscribe [No]: Yes<br></pre>
1874 <p>When you answer "Yes" to self-service list subscribe/unsubscribe,
1876 enabling that feature. Now, all you have to do is tell the world about
1878 web page they need to visit. It looks like this:</p>
1879 <center><tt>http://foobar.baz.org:2000/listsub</tt></center>
1880 <p>In this example, the server is called <tt>foobar.baz.org</tt> and
1881 WebCit is running on port 2000. Edit appropriately.</p>
1882 <p>Citadel offers a subscribe/unsubscribe facility that is more
1883 intuitive than other listservs. With most systems, sending commands to
1884 the listserv requires that you e-mail it commands in a special format.
1885 It's easy to get it wrong. Citadel simply uses your web browser. You
1886 select the list you want to subscribe or unsubscribe (hint: it's the
1887 list of rooms you've enabled self-service for), select whether you want
1888 list mode or digest mode, and enter your e-mail address. For security
1889 purposes, a confirmation message is sent to the address you enter. But
1890 you don't have to reply to the message in a weird format, either: the
1891 confirmation contains another URL which
1892 you simply click on (or paste into your browser if you can't click on
1894 in your e-mail software) and the confirmation is automatically
1896 <hr width="100%" size="2">
1898 <h2><a name="Building_or_joining_a_Citadel_network"></a>Building or
1899 joining a Citadel network</h2>
1901 <h3><a name="Overview__"></a>Overview</h3>
1902 <p>If you are running Citadel as a BBS or other forum type of
1903 application, one way to 'keep the conversation going' is to share rooms
1904 with other Citadel systems. In a shared room, a message posted to the
1905 room is automatically
1906 propagated to every system on the network. It's kind of like a UseNet
1908 but without the spam.</p>
1909 <p>If you are using Citadel as the e-mail and groupware platform for a
1910 large organization, you can use its networking features to build a
1911 large network of Citadel servers which share content (think of rooms as
1912 public folders), redistribute e-mail throughout the organization, and
1913 integrate the global address book. It might make sense, for
1914 example, in a large corporation to give each department or location its
1915 own Citadel server. Thanks
1916 to Citadel's global address book features, you could still have all of
1918 users share a single e-mail domain.</p>
1919 <p>Obviously, the first thing you have to do is find another Citadel to
1920 share rooms with, and make arrangements with them. The following
1921 Citadels are a good place to start:</p>
1923 <li>UNCENSORED! - <a href="http://uncensored.citadel.org">uncensored.citadel.org</a>
1925 <li>The Dog Pound II - <a href="http://dogpound2.citadel.org">dogpound2.citadel.org</a>
1927 <li>PixelBBS - <a href="http://pixel.citadel.org">pixel.citadel.org</a>
1930 <p>You don't have to be a part of the citadel.org domain to participate
1931 in the public Citadel network, but the DNS service is provided free of
1932 charge by the Citadel community if you wish to do this.</p>
1933 <h3><a name="Conventions_and_etiquette_when"></a>Conventions and
1934 etiquette when connecting to the public Citadel network</h3>
1935 <p>Before we get into the technical nitty gritty, there are two points
1936 of etiquette to keep in mind. The first thing to keep in mind is that
1937 the operator of any particular Citadel may not be willing to share some
1938 of his/her rooms. Some sites are proud to offer exclusive content in
1939 certain areas. Chances are, if a room is already being shared on the
1940 network, it's available for anyone to share; if not, it can't hurt to
1941 ask -- but take care not to demand it of them. Ask if you may share the
1942 room instead of telling them that you wish to share the room. When
1943 looking at a <tt><b>K</b></tt>nown rooms list, network rooms are the
1944 ones ending in parentheses instead of angle brackets. For example, <tt>Gateway)</tt>
1945 would be a network room, <tt>Lobby></tt> would not.</p>
1946 <p>The other point of etiquette to remember is that you should be
1948 the arrangements in advance, and then set it up. It is extremely rude
1950 simply begin networking with another Citadel, or unilaterally start
1952 a new room, without first obtaining permission from its operator.
1954 ask first. Most Citadel operators are more than happy to network with
1955 you. Also, if later on you decide to take your system down, please take
1957 to notify the operators of any other Citadels you network with, so they
1959 unconfigure their end.</p>
1960 <h3><a name="Getting_ready_to_join_the_network"></a>Getting ready to
1961 join the network</h3>
1962 <p>Ok, first things first. On a Citadel room sharing network, the first
1963 thing you need to know is your own system's node name. Presumably you
1965 this up during installation, but if you want to change it you can do so
1967 the <tt><b>.A</b>ide <b>S</b>ysconfig <b>G</b>eneral</tt> command:</p>
1968 <pre>Lobby> . Aide System configuration General<br>Node name [uncnsrd]:<br>Fully qualified domain name [uncensored.citadel.org]:<br>Human readable node name [Uncensored]:<br></pre>
1969 <p>The "node name" is important, it's how the network identifies
1970 messages coming from your system. The "human readable node name" is
1971 simply a label; it shows up in messages coming from your system. "Fully
1972 qualified domain name" is your DNS name; it's used for routing messages
1973 on the Internet. In the above example, the node name is "uncnsrd".</p>
1974 <h3><a name="Defining_neighbor_nodes"></a>Defining neighbor nodes</h3>
1975 <p>The next thing you need to do is configure your neighbor node(s).
1976 You need to do this for each node you network with. Let's say you
1978 to talk to a Citadel system called "frobozz". Use the <tt><b>.A</b>ide
1979 <b>S</b>ysconfig <b>N</b>etwork</tt> command:</p>
1980 <pre>Lobby> . Aide System configuration Network<br>### Node Secret Host or IP Port#<br>--- ---------------- ---------------- -------------------------------- -----<br><A>dd <D>elete <S>ave <Q>uit -> Add<br><br>Enter node name : frobozz<br>Enter shared secret: frotz<br>Enter host or IP : frobozz.magick.org<br>Enter port number : [504]: 504<br><br>### Node Secret Host or IP Port#<br>--- ---------------- ---------------- -------------------------------- -----<br> 1 frobozz frotz frobozz.magick.org 504<br><A>dd <D>elete <S>ave <Q>uit -> Save<br><br>Lobby><br></pre>
1981 <p>As you can see in the above example, you have to enter the Citadel
1982 node name, the DNS name or IP address of the server, and the port
1983 number the Citadel service is running on. The "shared secret" is a
1984 password to allow the two Citadel nodes to connect to each other to
1985 exchange network data. The password must be <i>identical</i> on both
1986 ends of the connection -- when the operator of the other Citadel node
1987 sets up the connection with
1988 your system, he/she must use the same password.</p>
1989 <h3><a name="Sharing_rooms"></a>Sharing rooms</h3>
1990 <p>Now you're ready to share rooms. You have to do this for each room
1991 you want to share, and you have to do it from BOTH ENDS -- again, when
1993 share a room with another Citadel, they must share it with you as well.
1994 Let's say you have a room called "Quiche Recipes>" and you want to
1996 it with the node you set up above. First, edit the room and flag it as
1999 <pre>Quiche Recipes> . Aide Edit this room<br>Room name [Quiche Recipes]:<br>Private room [No]: No<br>Preferred users only [No]: No<br>Read-only room [No]: No<br>Directory room [No]: No<br>Permanent room [No]: No<br>Network shared room [No]: Yes<br>Automatically make all messages anonymous [No]: No<br>Ask users whether to make messages anonymous [No]: No<br>Listing order [64]:<br>Room aide (or 'none') [none]:<br>Message expire policy (? for list) [0]:<br>Save changes (y/n)? Yes<br>Ok<br><br>Quiche Recipes)<br></pre>
2000 <p>Notice how the prompt changed? It was > before, but it's ) now.
2001 That means it's a network room. Now you can tell Citadel that you want
2003 share the room with frobozz. Enter this command:</p>
2004 <pre>Quiche Recipes) . Aide Network room sharing<br></pre>
2005 <p>Your text editor will pop up (you <i>did</i> configure Citadel to
2007 your favorite text editor, right?) with a screen that looks like this:</p>
2008 <pre># Configuration for room: Quiche Recipes<br># Nodes with which we share this room<br># Specify one per line.<br></pre>
2009 <p>All you have to do is enter the name of the other Citadel node (i.e.
2010 "frobozz" in our example) on a line by itself. As usual, lines starting
2012 "#" are comments. Just go to the end of the file, type "frobozz"
2014 the quotes), save the file... and you're done!</p>
2015 <p>At this point, you just sit back and enjoy. Your Citadel and the
2016 other one will begin polling each other at regular intervals (once per
2018 by default) and sharing messages.</p>
2019 <h3><a name="Sending_mail"></a>Sending mail</h3>
2020 <p>You can send mail to any user on any node of your Citadel network.
2021 It may take a little while for your system to learn the entire node
2022 list, though, as this is done by watching incoming messages on the
2023 network and learning which nodes are out there.</p>
2024 <p>To send a private message, just enter <tt>user @ host</tt> as the
2026 <pre>Mail> Enter message <br>Enter recipient: Some other user @ frobozz<br> Feb 11 2003 11:36pm from I. M. Me to Some other user @ frobozz<br>type message here...<br><br>Entry command (? for options) -><br><br></pre>
2027 <h3><a name="Changing_the_polling_interval"></a>Changing the polling
2029 <p>As previously mentioned, Citadel will poll other Citadel nodes for
2030 messages once per hour. If this is not an acceptable interval, you can
2031 change it using the <tt><b>.A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration <b>G</b>eneral</tt>
2032 command. Enter this command and look for the option:</p>
2033 <pre>How often to run network jobs (in seconds) [3600]:<br></pre>
2034 <p>Change it to whatever you like. For example, 15 minutes is 900
2035 seconds. So if you changed the default value to 900, network polling
2036 would occur every 15 minutes.</p>
2038 <h2 align="center"><a name="Database_maintenance"></a>Database
2040 <h3><a name="Introduction_"></a>Introduction</h3>
2041 The data store used by Citadel is reliable and self-maintaining.
2042 It requires very little maintenance. This is primarily due
2043 to its use of the <a href="http://www.sleepycat.com">Berkeley DB</a>
2044 record manager. It is robust, high-performance, and transactional.<br>
2046 A few small data files are kept in your main Citadel directory, but the
2047 databases are in the <tt>data/</tt> subdirectory. The files with
2048 names that begin with "cdb" are the databases themselves; the files
2049 with names that begin with "log" are the journals. Journal files
2050 will come and go as you use your system; when the database engine has
2051 determined that a particular log file is no longer needed, the file
2052 will automatically be deleted. Nevertheless, you should always
2053 ensure that there is ample disk space for the files to grow.<br>
2055 There is no need to shut down Citadel during backups. The data
2056 store may be backed up "hot." The makers of Berkeley DB suggest
2057 that you should back up the data files <i>first</i> and the log files <i>second</i>.
2058 This is the only method that will guarantee that a database which
2059 is being changed while you back it up will still be usable when you
2061 from the tape later.<br>
2063 <h3><a name="Database_repair"></a>Database repair</h3>
2064 Although Citadel's data store is quite reliable, database corruption
2065 can occur in rare instances. External factors such as an
2067 system crash or an unexpected loss of power might leave the database in
2068 an unknown state. A utility is provided which may be able to
2070 your database if this occurs. If you find that your Citadel
2072 is not running, and reading the logs shows that it is crashing because
2074 an inability to validate a database, follow these steps:<br>
2076 <li>Edit <tt>/etc/inittab</tt> and switch the Citadel service from
2077 "respawn" to "off." Type <tt>init q</tt> to make this setting
2079 <li><b>Make a backup of your data.</b> Either write it out to
2080 tape or copy it to another directory, or a tarball.<br>
2082 <li><tt>cd</tt> to your Citadel directory and type <tt>./database_cleanup.sh</tt></li>
2083 <li>Let the cleanup script run. <b>Do not interrupt this
2084 process for any reason.</b><br>
2086 <li>Edit <tt>/etc/inittab</tt> and switch the Citadel service from
2087 "off" to "respawn". Type <tt>init q</tt> to activate your
2090 If this procedure does not work, you must restore from your most recent
2093 <h3><a name="ImportingExporting_your_Citadel"></a>Importing/Exporting
2094 your Citadel database<br>
2096 <p>Citadel/UX contains an importer/exporter module, affectionately
2097 known as the "Art Vandelay" module (a not-so-obscure Seinfeld
2099 allows you to export the entire contents of your Citadel databases to a
2100 flat file, which may then be imported on another system. (This
2102 is also known as "dump and load" to database gurus.)</p>
2103 <p>Why would you want to do this? Here are some scenarios: </p>
2105 <li>You are moving a Citadel installation to another computer, which
2106 uses a different CPU. Since Citadel stores data in an
2107 architecture-dependent format, the data files wouldn't work on the new
2108 computer as-is. </li>
2109 <li>Your computer crashed, lost power, etc. and you suspect that your
2110 databases have become corrupted. </li>
2111 <li>You want to switch to a different back-end data store. (For
2112 example, from GDBM to Berkeley DB) </li>
2114 <p>So ... how do we work this magic? Follow these steps <i>exactly</i>
2115 as documented and you should be able to do it all with very little
2118 <li>This should be obvious, but it's still worth mentioning: <b>Make
2119 sure you have a backup of everything before you start this! </b>
2120 You're performing a major operation here. Don't risk it. </li>
2121 <li>First, get all the users logged off from your system. Disconnect
2122 it from the network if possible. You don't want anyone logging in while
2123 you're doing this. </li>
2124 <li>Log on as root, or some other user that has read/write access to
2125 all relevant files. </li>
2126 <li>Go to the directory that Citadel is installed in. For example,
2127 issue a command like <tt>cd /usr/local/citadel</tt> </li>
2128 <li>Export the databases with the following command:<br>
2130 <tt>./sendcommand "ARTV export" >exported.dat</tt><br>
2132 This command may run for a while. On a very large system it could take
2133 an hour or more. Please be patient! </li>
2134 <li>When the export completes, check to make sure that <tt>exported.dat</tt>
2135 exists and has some data in it. (Type "ls -l exported.dat") </li>
2136 <li>Shut down the Citadel server. If you have a line in <tt>/etc/inittab</tt>
2137 that reads like this:<br>
2139 <tt>c1:2345:respawn:/usr/local/citadel/citserver
2140 -h/usr/local/citadel</tt> <br>
2141 ...then you should change the <tt>respawn</tt> to <tt>off</tt> and
2142 then type <tt>/sbin/init q</tt> to make the changes take effect. </li>
2143 <li>Now it's time to delete your current binary databases. Type:<br>
2145 <tt>rm -f citadel.config citadel.control data/*</tt> </li>
2146 <li>If you're moving Citadel to another computer, you should move the
2147 <i>entire</i> directory over at this time. <tt>exported.dat</tt>
2148 only contains the information that was in the binary databases.
2149 Information which was stored in portable formats doesn't need to be
2150 exported/imported, so
2151 you must bring it all over in its current form. </li>
2152 <li>Now get Citadel running on the new computer (or whatever). Run <tt>setup</tt>
2153 and turn the service back on (from <tt>/etc/inittab</tt>) but DO NOT
2155 <li>As root, run the import command:<br>
2157 <tt>./sendcommand "ARTV import" <exported.dat</tt><br>
2159 This will import your databases. Again, it may run for a long time. </li>
2160 <li>Restart the Citadel server. You can do this any way you like.
2161 From the command line, you can do it with a command like:<br>
2163 <tt>./sendcommand "DOWN"</tt> <br>
2165 <li>Now you're finished. Log in and test everything. You may delete
2166 exported.dat at this time, or you might want to save it somewhere as a
2167 sort of pseudo-backup. </li>
2171 <h2><a name="utilities"></a>Utilities</h2>
2173 <h3><a name="overview"></a>Overview</h3>
2174 <p>The following utilities will be discussed: </p>
2176 <li><b>aidepost</b> - Post standard input to the Aide> room </li>
2177 <li><b>whobbs</b> - Who is on the system </li>
2178 <li><b>msgform</b> - Format a binary message to the screen (stdin or
2180 <li><b>userlist</b> - Print the userlist </li>
2181 <li><b>sendcommand</b> - Send a server command </li>
2183 <p>It is up to you to decide which utilities should be made accessible
2184 only to system administrators. It is important that you set the file
2185 permissions correctly. All utilities should have access to the Citadel
2187 will attempt to address each program individually.</p>
2188 <h3><a name="aidepost"></a>aidepost</h3>
2189 <p>The nature of this program is rather simple. Standard input (stdin)
2190 is converted into a message, filed in the main message store, and
2191 posted in the Aide> room. This is useful for keeping transcripts of
2192 system activity that has to do with Citadel operations. You might even
2193 elect to send all of
2194 your system logs there, too.</p>
2195 <p><tt>aidepost</tt> also accepts the usage <tt>aidepost -rTargetRoom</tt>,
2196 where TargetRoom is the name of a room to which you'd like the message
2198 <h3><a name="whobbs"></a>whobbs</h3>
2199 <p>This program is similar to the <tt>who</tt> command. It lists all
2200 of the users who are currently connected to your Citadel server, either
2202 across a network. Unless you're running a standalone system, <tt>who</tt>
2203 and <tt>whobbs</tt> will probably not have a one-to-one
2204 correspondence. Remember
2205 that you will see sessions for SMTP, POP, and IMAP users, as well as
2207 running a Citadel client.</p>
2208 <p>One thing to keep in mind is that the <tt>whobbs</tt> utility
2209 actually opens a connection to the server. If the server is maxed out, <tt>whobbs</tt>
2210 will still be able to provide a listing, because it doesn't need to log
2211 in to execute the <tt>RWHO</tt> command. Note that whobbs does not
2212 list its own session.</p>
2213 <p>The <tt>whobbs</tt> utility is smart enough to know when it is
2214 being invoked by a web server as a CGI program. In this situation, it
2215 will output its listing
2216 as a nicely formatted web page instead of plain text. This makes it
2218 to just put a link to the whobbs binary in your cgi-bin directory,
2220 a quick and easy way for web surfers to see who is online.</p>
2221 <p>Running the <tt><b>W</b>ho is online</tt> command from the Citadel
2222 client does <b>not</b> call this utility. It has this functionality
2226 <h3><a name="msgform"></a>msgform</h3>
2227 <p>The <tt>msgform</tt> utility reads its standard input (stdin)
2229 Citadel messages stored in the internal format used on disk and over
2231 network, and sends them in a human-readable format to standard output
2232 (stdout). There is no longer much use for this program, but it is
2235 <h3><a name="userlist"></a>userlist</h3>
2236 <p>This is a program to print the userlist. There are two flags that
2238 set when running this program. When called without any arguments, <tt>userlist</tt>
2239 will display all users (except those who have chosen to be unlisted),
2240 their user numbers, times called, messages posted, screen width, and
2241 date of their most recent call.</p>
2242 <p><tt>userlist</tt> is simply the same user listing code that is in
2244 client, made into a standalone utility for convenience.<br>
2246 <h3><a name="sendcommand"></a>sendcommand</h3>
2247 <p><tt>sendcommand</tt> will interpret its arguments (except for <tt>-hDIRNAME</tt>)
2248 as a server command, which is sent to the server. Commands which
2249 require textual input will read it from stdin. Commands which generate
2250 textual output will be sent to stdout.</p>
2251 <p>This utility is intended to be used to enable Citadel server
2253 be executed from shell scripts. Review the script called <tt>weekly</tt>
2254 which ships with the Citadel distribution for an example of how this
2257 <p><b>NOTE:</b> be sure that this utility is not world-executable. It
2258 connects to the server in privileged mode, and therefore could present
2260 if not properly restricted.</p>
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