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14 <h2>a messaging and collaboration platform for BBS and groupware applications</h2>
15 Copyright ©1987-2003 by the Citadel development team:<br>
18 <table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" border="0" align="center">
21 <td valign="top">Steven M. Bellovin<br>
23 <td valign="top"><i>author of public domain 'parsedate' function<br>
27 <td valign="top">Nathan Bryant<br>
29 <td valign="top"><i>build system, security, database access,
34 <td valign="top">Art Cancro<br>
36 <td valign="top"><i>overall system design and lead developer<br>
40 <td valign="top">Brian Costello<br>
42 <td valign="top"><i>cosmetics, additional commands<br>
46 <td valign="top">Michael Hampton<br>
48 <td valign="top"><i>client software development<br>
52 <td valign="top">Andru Luvisi<br>
54 <td valign="top"><i>troubleshooting and development assistance<br>
58 <td valign="top">Daniel Malament<br>
60 <td valign="top"><i>string compare function for IMAP server<br>
64 <td valign="top">Stu Mark<br>
66 <td valign="top"><i>additional client features, IGnet protocol
71 <td valign="top">Ben Mehlman<br>
73 <td valign="top"><i>additional client features<br>
77 <td valign="top">Ari Samson<br>
79 <td valign="top"><i>assistance with project management<br>
83 <td valign="top">John Walker<br>
85 <td valign="top"><i>author of public domain base64 encoder/decoder<br>
89 <td valign="top">Steve Williams<br>
91 <td valign="top"><i>documentation<br>
95 <td valign="top">Ethan Young<br>
97 <td valign="top"><i>IGnet protocol design<br>
106 <div align="justify">The entire package is open source; you can redistribute
107 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
108 published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License,
109 or (at your option) any later version.<br>
111 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
112 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
113 or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
114 for more details.<br>
118 <div align="justify">You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
119 License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
120 Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.<br>
122 For more information, visit either of these locations on the web:<br>
125 <li>The Citadel home page: <a href="http://www.citadel.org">http://www.citadel.org</a></li>
126 <li>UNCENSORED! BBS, the home of Citadel: <a
127 href="http://uncensored.citadel.org">http://uncensored.citadel.org</a></li>
131 <hr width="100%" size="2">
132 <h2 align="center">Table of Contents</h2>
135 <li><a href="#GPL">License</a></li>
136 <li><a href="#Installation">Installation</a></li>
137 <li><a href="#sysop">System Administration</a></li>
144 <hr width="100%" size="2"><br>
146 <h2 align="center"><a name="GPL"></a>GNU General Public License<br>
150 <p> Version 2, June 1991 </p>
152 <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>
154 <h3 align="justify">Preamble</h3>
156 <div align="justify"> </div>
158 <p align="justify"> The licenses for most software are designed to take
159 away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General
160 Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change
161 free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
162 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's
163 software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some
164 other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Library General
165 Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too. </p>
167 <div align="justify"> </div>
169 <p align="justify"> When we speak of free software, we are referring to
170 freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure
171 that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge
172 for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
173 if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in
174 new free programs; and that you know you can do these things. </p>
176 <div align="justify"> </div>
178 <p align="justify"> To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions
179 that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the
180 rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you
181 if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it. </p>
183 <div align="justify"> </div>
185 <p align="justify"> For example, if you distribute copies of such a program,
186 whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights
187 that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
188 source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.
191 <div align="justify"> </div>
193 <p align="justify"> We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright
194 the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission
195 to copy, distribute and/or modify the software. </p>
197 <div align="justify"> </div>
199 <p align="justify"> Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want
200 to make certain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for
201 this free software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed
202 on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original,
203 so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
204 authors' reputations. </p>
206 <div align="justify"> </div>
208 <p align="justify"> Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by
209 software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
210 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program
211 proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must
212 be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all. </p>
214 <div align="justify"> </div>
216 <p align="justify"> The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution
217 and modification follow. </p>
219 <div align="justify"> </div>
221 <h3>TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION</h3>
223 <div align="justify"> </div>
225 <p align="justify"> <strong>0.</strong> This License applies to any program
226 or other work which contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying
227 it may be distributed under the terms of this General Public License. The
228 "Program", below, refers to any such program or work, and a "work based
229 on the Program" means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright
230 law: that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either
231 verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another language.
232 (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in the term "modification".)
233 Each licensee is addressed as "you". </p>
235 <p align="justify"> Activities other than copying, distribution and modification
236 are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
237 running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
238 is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program
239 (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that
240 is true depends on what the Program does. </p>
242 <p align="justify"> <strong>1.</strong> You may copy and distribute verbatim
243 copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided
244 that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
245 copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices
246 that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give
247 any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the
250 <p align="justify"> You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring
251 a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange
254 <p align="justify"> <strong>2.</strong> You may modify your copy or copies
255 of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program,
256 and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section
257 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions: </p>
259 <p align="justify"> </p>
261 <div align="justify">
263 <li><strong>a)</strong> You must cause the modified files to
264 carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the
268 <li><strong>b)</strong> You must cause any work that you distribute
269 or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the
270 Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge
271 to all third parties under the terms of this License.
275 <li><strong>c)</strong> If the modified program normally reads
276 commands interactively when run, you must cause it, when started running
277 for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display
278 an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
279 notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
280 a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under these
281 conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this License.
282 (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but does not normally
283 print such an announcement, your work based on the Program is not required
284 to print an announcement.) </li>
287 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable
288 sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably
289 considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License,
290 and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as
291 separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a
292 whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole
293 must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees
294 extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of
297 <p align="justify"> Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights
298 or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent
299 is to exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective
300 works based on the Program. </p>
302 <p align="justify"> In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based
303 on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on
304 a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work
305 under the scope of this License. </p>
307 <p align="justify"> <strong>3.</strong> You may copy and distribute the
308 Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable
309 form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do
310 one of the following: <!-- we use this doubled UL to get the sub-sections indented, -->
311 <!-- while making the bullets as unobvious as possible. --> </p>
313 <div align="justify">
315 <li><strong>a)</strong> Accompany it with the complete corresponding
316 machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms
317 of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software
321 <li><strong>b)</strong> Accompany it with a written offer, valid
322 for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no
323 more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a
324 complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to
325 be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
326 customarily used for software interchange; or,
330 <li><strong>c)</strong> Accompany it with the information you
331 received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code.
332 (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and
333 only if you received the program in object code or executable form with
334 such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.) </li>
337 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
338 making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code
339 means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated
340 interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation
341 and installation of the executable. However, as a special exception, the
342 source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed
343 (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel,
344 and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless
345 that component itself accompanies the executable. </div>
347 <p align="justify"> If distribution of executable or object code is made
348 by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
349 access to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution
350 of the source code, even though third parties are not compelled to copy
351 the source along with the object code. </p>
353 <p align="justify"> <strong>4.</strong> You may not copy, modify, sublicense,
354 or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License.
355 Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program
356 is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
357 However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this
358 License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties
359 remain in full compliance. </p>
361 <p align="justify"> <strong>5.</strong> You are not required to accept
362 this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants
363 you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works.
364 These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.
365 Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on
366 the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
367 all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Program
368 or works based on it. </p>
370 <p align="justify"> <strong>6.</strong> Each time you redistribute the Program
371 (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a
372 license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program
373 subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions
374 on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible
375 for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License. </p>
377 <p align="justify"> <strong>7.</strong> If, as a consequence of a court
378 judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not
379 limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court
380 order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License,
381 they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
382 distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
383 License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may
384 not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would
385 not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive
386 copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy
387 both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution
390 <p align="justify"> If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable
391 under any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended
392 to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.
395 <p align="justify"> It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to
396 infringe any patents or other property right claims or to contest validity
397 of any such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
398 integrity of the free software distribution system, which is implemented
399 by public license practices. Many people have made generous contributions
400 to the wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance
401 on consistent application of that system; it is up to the author/donor to
402 decide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other system
403 and a licensee cannot impose that choice. </p>
405 <p align="justify"> This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what
406 is believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License. </p>
408 <p align="justify"> <strong>8.</strong> If the distribution and/or use of
409 the Program is restricted in certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted
410 interfaces, the original copyright holder who places the Program under this
411 License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
412 those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries
413 not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the limitation
414 as if written in the body of this License. </p>
416 <p align="justify"> <strong>9.</strong> The Free Software Foundation may
417 publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License from time
418 to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version,
419 but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. </p>
421 <p align="justify"> Each version is given a distinguishing version number.
422 If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies
423 to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms
424 and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by
425 the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version
426 number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free
427 Software Foundation. </p>
429 <p align="justify"> <strong>10.</strong> If you wish to incorporate parts
430 of the Program into other free programs whose distribution conditions are
431 different, write to the author to ask for permission. For software which
432 is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software
433 Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions for this. Our decision will be
434 guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives
435 of our free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
438 <p align="justify"><strong>NO WARRANTY</strong></p>
440 <div align="justify"> </div>
442 <p align="justify"> <strong>11.</strong> BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED
443 FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED
444 BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT
445 HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY
446 OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
447 THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
448 THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH
449 YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY
450 SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. </p>
452 <p align="justify"> <strong>12.</strong> IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY
453 APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY
454 OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE,
455 BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL
456 OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM
457 (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE
458 OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM
459 TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS
460 BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. </p>
462 <p align="justify"> </p>
464 <h3>END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS</h3>
467 <hr width="100%" size="2"><br>
470 <h2><a name="Installation"></a>Installation</h2>
473 <div align="justify">
476 <p>Citadel/UX is an advanced, multiuser, client/server, room-based BBS program.
477 It is designed to handle the needs of both small dialup systems and large-scale
478 Internet-connected systems. It was originally developed on an Altos system
479 running Xenix, and has been installed and tested on various Unix and Unix-like
480 platforms. The author's current development environment (and BBS) is an
481 ordinary Linux system. The current distribution includes: </p>
484 <li>The Citadel/UX server (this is the back end that does all processing)
486 <li>A text-based client program designed with the traditional Citadel
487 "look and feel" (room prompts, dot commands, and the like) </li>
488 <li>Setup programs </li>
489 <li>A set of utilities for system administration and maintenance </li>
490 <li>Documentation </li>
494 <p>Some knowledge of the Unix system is necessary to install and manage the
495 system. It is mandatory that the sysop have "root" access to the operating
496 system. The following are required to install Citadel/UX: </p>
499 <li>A Unix operating system (Linux, BSD, Solaris, Tru64, HP/UX) </li>
500 <li>C compiler (such as gcc or egcs) and "make" </li>
501 <li>POSIX threads (the "pthreads" library) </li>
503 <li><a href="http://www.sleepycat.com">Berkeley DB</a> v4.1 or newer
504 (GDBM also works, but its use is officially depracated. If you are building
505 a new system, do <i>not</i> use GDBM. If you have an existing system which
506 uses GDBM, you should migrate it to Berkeley DB as soon as possible.) </li>
507 <li>Enough disk space to hold all of the programs and data </li>
511 <p>If you are running Citadel/UX on a Linux system, it is STRONGLY recommended
512 that you run it on a recent distribution (such as <a
513 href="http://www.redhat.com">Red Hat</a> 7.3 or newer). A new-ish distribution
514 will have most or all of the prerequisite tools and libraries already integrated
517 <h3>Now available:</h3>
520 <li>"WebCit", a gateway program to allow full access to Citadel via the
521 World Wide Web. Interactive access through any Web browser. </li>
522 <li>Access to Citadel via *any* standards-compliant e-mail program,
523 thanks to Citadel's built-in SMTP, POP, and IMAP services. </li>
527 <h3>Coming soon:</h3>
530 <li>Newer and better GUI-based clients. </li>
534 <h3>Everything in its place...</h3>
536 <p>Hopefully you've unpacked the distribution archive into its own directory.
537 This is the directory in which all Citadel files are located and in which
538 all activity will take place. Several subdirectories have already been
539 created during the unpacking process, and others may be created by the software
540 if needed. Make sure you have Berkeley DB installed on your system, and
541 that you have all the development libraries and headers in place so that
542 you can compile against them. If you don't, you can get the latest Berkeley
543 DB at <a href="http://www.sleepycat.com">http://www.sleepycat.com</a>.
544 If your operating system uses a separate library to support POSIX threads
545 (pthreads), make sure that library is installed as well. This is almost
546 never the case with Linux, but some commercial Unix flavors might need it.</p>
548 <h3>The BBS Login</h3>
550 <p>As with many Unix programs, Citadel wants to run under its own user ID.
551 Unlike other programs, however, this user ID will do double-duty as a public
552 login for your system if you are running a BBS. This account is typically
553 called "bbs" or "citadel" or something to that effect. You will tell Citadel
554 what the user-id of that account is, and when someone logs in under that
555 account, Citadel will prompt for a user name.</p>
557 <p>The Citadel user should have a unique uid. The home directory should be
558 the one your Citadel installation resides in (in this example we will use
559 /usr/local/citadel) and the shell should be either "citadel" in that directory,
560 or a script that will start up citadel (you may wish to set up an external
561 text editor; see below). Example:</p>
563 <pre>bbs::100:1:BBS Login:/usr/local/citadel:/usr/local/citadel/citadel<br></pre>
565 <p>When you run setup later, you will be required to tell it what the Citadel
566 user's numeric user ID is, so it knows what user to run as. If you create
567 an account called <tt>bbs</tt>, <tt>guest</tt>, or <tt>citadel</tt>, the
568 setup program will automatically pick up the user ID by default.</p>
570 <p>For all other users in /etc/passwd, Citadel will automatically set up
571 an account using the full name (or 'gecos' in Unixspeak) of the user. It'll
572 also ignore any password you supply, because it uses the user's password
573 on the host system. This allows a 'single sign on' type of environment. Note
574 that this does have to be enabled at compile time -- it's the configure option
575 called <tt>--enable-autologin</tt>. Keep in mind that these users can use
576 *either* their Citadel login name or their login name on the host computer,
577 and their password on the host computer.</p>
579 <h3>Bypassing the <tt>login:</tt> prompt</h3>
581 <p>If you normally log in to your host system using some method other than
582 telnet (such as ssh), you might want the telnet service to go straight to
583 the Citadel BBS, instead of displaying the <tt>login:</tt> prompt first.
584 You can do this by having telnetd start citadel directly instead of <tt>/bin/login</tt>.
585 This is actually very simple to implement; all you need to do is make a simple
586 change to your <tt>inetd</tt> or <tt>xinetd</tt> configuration. Here are
587 some configuration examples.</p>
589 <p>An example for <tt>inetd</tt> (put the following line in
590 <tt>/etc/inetd.conf</tt>,
591 replacing any existing telnet configuration line already there):</p>
594 telnet stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.telnetd -L /usr/local/citadel/citadel
597 <p>An example for <tt>xinetd</tt> (if you have a file called <tt>/etc/xinetd.d/telnet</tt>
598 then simply replace that file with this one):</p>
606 server = /usr/sbin/in.telnetd
607 server_args = -L /usr/local/citadel/citadel
608 log_on_failure += USERID
613 <p>Please make sure you know what you're doing before you install
614 this! If you are going to put Citadel somewhere other than <tt>/usr/local/citadel</tt>
615 then change the directory name accordingly. If you know of any other local
616 peculiarities which need to be observed, edit the above configuration accordingly
617 as well. And, of course, if you're working remotely, make sure you can successfully
618 log in using SSH before you start changing your telnet configuration, otherwise
619 you could lock yourself out of your system (ask any networking specialist
620 about the dangers of "working inline" -- then pull up a chair and get a fresh
621 cup of coffee, because you're going to hear some war stories).</p>
623 <h3>Compiling the programs</h3>
625 <p>You can easily compile the Citadel system with the following commands:</p>
632 <p>The 'configure' script will generate a Makefile from the Makefile.in,
633 and it will also write the file "sysdep.h" to your Citadel directory. Please
634 do not edit sysdep.h or Makefile.in yourself. The configure script will
635 figure out your system dependencies and set everything correctly.</p>
637 <p>Mac OS X 10.1 and later are now supported. (Sorry, 10.0 cannot
638 be supported, now or in the future.) You need to install the Developer Tools
639 CD, which you can purchase or download for free from
640 <a href="http://developer.apple.com">http://developer.apple.com</a>. Then run
641 configure like this:</p>
644 env CC=/usr/bin/cc ./configure (options - see below)
647 <p>By default, the Citadel system will install in <tt>/usr/local/citadel</tt>.
648 If you wish to place it in a different directory, you can instead do:</p>
651 ./configure --prefix=/export/home/citadel (or whatever)
654 <p>If you've got Berkeley DB installed in a non-standard location,
655 you can help the configure script find it by doing something like this:</p>
658 ./configure --with-db=/usr/local/BerkeleyDB-4.1
661 <p>The configure script prefers Berkeley DB if it is available, but
662 will fall back to GDBM if it has to.</p>
664 <p>File permissions are always a bother to work with. You don't want
665 Citadel to crash because someone couldn't access a file, but you also don't
666 want shell users peeking into the binaries to do things like reading others'
667 mail, finding private rooms, etc. The Citadel server needs to be started
668 as root in order to bind to privileged ports, but as soon as its initialization
669 is finished, it changes its user ID to your BBS user ID in order to avoid
674 <p>Upgrading to a new version uses the same build procedure as compiling
675 the program for a fresh install, except that you want to do <tt>make install-exec</tt>
676 instead of <tt>make install</tt>. This will overwrite the programs but not
677 your data. <b>Be sure to shut down citserver during this process!</b> If
678 Citadel is running while you upgrade, you may face data corruption issues.</p>
680 <h3>The <tt>citadel.rc</tt> file</h3>
682 <p>The text-based client included with Citadel is suitable for BBS
683 applications. Much of its command set and other behavior is configurable
684 through a Run Control (RC) file. The standard client looks for this file
685 in the following locations:
687 <li><tt>$HOME/.citadelrc</tt></li>
688 <li><tt>/usr/local/lib/citadel.rc</tt></li>
689 <li><i>your-Citadel-directory</i><tt>/citadel.rc</tt></li>
691 The next couple of sections deal with client-side configuration.</p>
693 <h3>Using an external editor for message composition</h3>
695 <p>Citadel/UX has a built-in message editor. However, you can also
696 use your favorite text editor to write messages. To do this you simply put
697 a line in your citadel.rc file like this:</p>
703 <p>The above example would make Citadel call the vi editor when using
704 the <tt><b>.E</b>nter <b>E</b>ditor</tt> command. You can also make it the
705 default editor for the <tt><b>E</b>nter</tt> command by editing the <tt>citadel.rc</tt>
706 file. <b>But be warned:</b> external editors on public systems can be a
707 security hole, because they usually provide users with the ability to drop
708 into a shell on the host system, or save files using names other than the
709 name of the temporary file they are editing. If you intend to use an external
710 editor on a public BBS, make sure you use one that has been hardened for
711 such a purpose -- one which has had the 'shell' and 'save as' commands disabled,
712 as well as any other functions which a destructive user could use to gain
713 unauthorized access to your host system.</p>
715 <h3>Printing messages</h3>
717 <p>Citadel/UX can send messages to a printer, or just about anywhere
718 else in your system. The variable <tt>PRINTCMD</tt> in <tt>citadel.rc</tt>
719 specifies what command you use to print. Text is sent to the standard input
720 (stdin) of the print command.</p>
722 <p>So if you did this:</p>
725 printcmd="nl|pr|lpr -Plocal"
728 <p>...that would add line numbers, then paginate, then print on the
729 printer named "local". There's tons of stuff you can do with this feature.
730 For example, you could use a command like <tt>cat <<$HOME/archive</tt>
731 to save copies of important messages in a textfile. Again, this is probably
732 something you don't want to configure for a public BBS host -- most system
733 administrators don't want remote users sending arbitrary things to local
738 <p>This is one more feature which is appropriate for local users.
739 While reading a message that has Internet URL's in it, you can select the
740 <tt><b>U</b>RL-view</tt> command, and it will perform some pre-defined action
741 (usually, this is to open up the URL in a web browser). For example:</p>
744 urlcmd=netscape -remote "openURL(%s)"
747 <p>In the above example, it would open up the URL in an open
748 <a href="http://www.netscape.com/download">Netscape</a> window.</p>
750 <h3>Setup and login</h3>
752 <p>Before logging in for the first time, you must run the setup program.
753 To begin this procedure, enter the following commands:</p>
756 cd /usr/local/citadel
760 <p>The setup program will guide you through a simple configuration
761 procedure. It will ask you what directory to place your data files in --
762 the default is the current directory, which is usually the sensible thing
763 to select. If you want to run more than one instance of Citadel on the same
764 host, however, you can specify a different directory here -- just remember
765 to specify the directory name again when you start up the server later on.</p>
767 <p><tt>setup</tt> will then shut down the Citadel service if it is
768 found to be running.</p>
770 <p>You will then be prompted for the name of the system administrator.
771 This is not merely a cosmetic option -- when you log in to your system a
772 little while from now, you'll log in with this name, and it will automatically
773 assign your account the highest access level.</p>
775 <p>Next, you will be prompted for the User ID of the Citadel account
776 on your host system. If you have an account called <tt>bbs</tt>, <tt>guest</tt>,
777 or <tt>citadel</tt>, that account's UID will be the default. If you are
778 upgrading or reconfiguring an existing system, the existing value will be
781 <p>Then you will be prompted for a server port number. This is the
782 TCP port which Citadel clients use to connect to your Citadel server. In
783 almost all cases, you want to use the default -- port 504, which is the official
784 port number assigned by the IANA for Citadel implementations.</p>
786 <p>The Citadel service will then be started, and you will see the
787 following message:</p>
790 Setup is finished. You may now log in.
793 <p>Setup is now complete, on most systems, anyway. Please see below
794 to find out if you need to do anything else:</p>
796 <h3>Configuring your host system to start the service</h3>
798 <p><b>Please note:</b> this topic involves modifications made to
799 <tt>/etc/services</tt> and <tt>/etc/inittab</tt> in order to configure your
800 host system to automatically start the Citadel service. <tt>setup</tt> will
801 automatically perform these steps if it can, and if you allow it to -- just
802 answer 'Yes' when prompted, and everything will be taken care of for you.
803 If you answer 'No' -- or if your system is a little bit odd (for example,
804 BSD systems don't have <tt>/etc/inittab</tt>) -- read this section and do
805 what you need to in order to get things configured.</p>
807 <p>Before you can use Citadel, you must define the "citadel" service
808 to your system. This is accomplished by adding a line to your /etc/services
809 file that looks something like this:</p>
811 <pre>citadel 504/tcp # Citadel/UX Server<br></pre>
813 <p>504 is the port number officially designated by the IANA for use
814 by Citadel. There should not be any need to use a different port number,
815 unless you are running multiple Citadels on the same computer and therefore
816 need a different port for each one.</p>
818 <p>The next step is to arrange for the server to start. The <tt>citserver</tt>
819 program is the main Citadel server. Before we cover the recommended method
820 of starting the server, let's examine its usage options:</p>
822 <pre>citserver [-hHomeDir] [-xDebugLevel] [-tTraceFile] [-d] [-f]<br></pre>
824 <p>The options are as follows:</p>
826 <p><tt>-hHomeDir</tt> - the directory your BBS data files live in.
827 This should, of course, be a directory that you've run the <tt>setup</tt>
828 program against to set up some data files. If a directory is not specified,
829 the directory name which was specified in the <tt>Makefile</tt> will be used.</p>
831 <p><tt>-xDebugLevel</tt> - Set the verbosity of trace messages printed.
832 The available debugging levels are: </p>
834 <li>1 - Internal errors (failed thread creation, malloc problems,
836 <li>2 - Network errors (broken sockets, failed socket creation)
838 <li>3 - Begin and end of sessions, startup/shutdown of server </li>
839 <li>5 - Server commands being sent from clients </li>
840 <li>7 - Entry and exit of various functions </li>
841 <li>8 - Entry and exit of critical sections </li>
842 <li>9 - Various debugging checkpoints (insanely verbose) </li>
845 <p><tt>-tTraceFile</tt> - Tell the server where to send its debug/trace
846 output. Normally it is sent to stdout.</p>
848 <p><tt>-d</tt> - Run as a daemon; i.e. in the background. This switch
849 would be necessary if you were starting the Citadel server, for example,
850 from an rc.local script (which is not recommended, because this won't allow
851 the server to automatically restart when it is shut down).</p>
853 <p><tt>-f</tt> - Defragment all the databases upon startup. This
854 isn't normally necessary due to the nature of the data stored in Citadel,
855 but the option is provided in case you need it. (Note that this only applies
856 to GDBM installations; if you are using Berkeley DB it has no effect.)</p>
858 <p>The preferred method of starting the Citadel server is to place
859 an entry in your /etc/inittab file. This will conveniently bring the server
860 up when your system is up, and terminate it gracefully when your system
861 is shutting down. The exact syntax for your system may vary, but here's
862 an entry that could be used on a Linux system:</p>
865 cit:2345:respawn:/usr/local/citadel/citserver -h/usr/local/citadel -t/dev/tty9 -x3
868 <p>In this example, we've chosen debugging level 3, and have the
869 trace stuff output to one of the virtual consoles. It's important to remember
870 to turn off any getty that is set up on that virtual console, if you do this.
871 After making this change, the command <tt>init q</tt> works on most systems
872 to tell init to re-read the file. If in doubt, just reboot the computer.</p>
874 <h3>Logging in for the first time</h3>
876 <p>At this point, your system is ready to run. Run the <tt>citadel</tt>
877 program from the shell and log in as a new user. NOTE: the first user account
878 to be created will automatically be set to access level 6 (Aide). This overcomes
879 some obvious logistical problems - normally, Aide access is given by another
880 Aide, but since there aren't any on your system yet, this isn't possible.</p>
882 <h3>Welcoming new users</h3>
884 <p>Sometimes you might decide that you want a welcome message (or
885 several different messages) automatically mailed to new users upon their
886 first login. Now there is a way to do this. If you create a room called <tt>New
887 User Greetings</tt>, and it is a <i>private</i> room (invitation-only probably
888 makes the most sense), any messages you enter into that room will automatically
889 be delivered to all new users upon registration.</p>
891 <p>You can put anything you want there: a welcome message, system
892 policies, special information, etc. You can also put as many messages there
893 as you want to (although it really doesn't make sense to clutter new users'
894 mailboxes with lots of junk).</p>
896 <p>Don't worry about wasting disk space, either. Citadel has a single-instance
897 message store, so all the new users are actually looking at the same copy
898 of the message on disk.</p>
900 <h3>Space for adding your own client features (doors)</h3>
902 <p><b>Please take note!</b> This function really represents the
903 "old" way of doing things, and it doesn't fit in well with the client/server
904 paradigm. Please consider it "deprecated" because it may be removed someday.</p>
906 <p>The "doorway" feature is just a generic way to add features to
907 the system. I called it "Doorway" to make it resemble the doors on non-Unix
908 boards, but as we all know, us Unix types don't have to write special code
909 to access the modem. :-) Anyway, when a user hits the <tt><b>*</b></tt>
910 (doorway) command, Citadel does...</p>
913 USERNAME=(username); export USERNAME
914 ./subsystem (user-number) (screen-width) (access level)
917 <p>...so you can put whatever you want in there. I suggest putting
918 in a menu program to allow the users to pick one of a number of programs,
919 etc. Do be aware that door programs will only be available when the client
920 and server programs are running on the <i>same</i> computer, and when the
921 user is running the text-mode client. Because of these restrictions, Door
922 programs are being utilized less and less every day.</p>
924 <h3>Troubleshooting and getting help</h3>
926 <p>That's just about all the information you need to install the
927 system. But if you get stuck, you can visit UNCENSORED! BBS and report a
928 problem or ask for help. But if you intend to report a problem getting the
929 Citadel server to run, <i>please</i> double-check the following things first:
932 <li>Did you do <tt>./configure && make && make install</tt>
934 <li>Did you run setup? </li>
935 <li>Did you start the server? </li>
938 <p>To report a problem, you can log on to UNCENSORED! or any other
939 BBS on the Citadel network which carries the <tt>Citadel/UX></tt> room.
940 Please DO NOT e-mail the developers directly. Post a request for help on
941 the BBS, with all of the following information: </p>
943 <li>The exact nature of your difficulty </li>
944 <li>A transcript of the error message(s) if possible </li>
945 <li>The version of Citadel you are running </li>
946 <li>The version of Berkeley DB present on your system </li>
947 <li>Which operating system you are running, and what version </li>
948 <li>If you are running a Linux system, we need to know which distribution,
949 and the version of the kernel, libc, and pthreads you are using (it would
950 help to post the output of a <tt>ldd ./citserver</tt> command). </li>
956 <hr width="100%" size="2">
957 <h2><a name="sysop"></a>System Administration</h2>
964 <p>Citadel/UX, when installed properly, will do most of its maintenance by
965 itself. It is intended to be run unattended for extended periods of time, and
966 most installations do just that without any software failures.</p>
968 <p>The system has seven access levels. Most users are at the bottom and have
969 no special privileges. Aides are selected people who have special access within
970 the Citadel program. Room Aides only have this access in a certain room.
971 Preferred users can be selected by Aides for access to preferred only rooms. A
972 sysop is anyone who has access to the various sysop utilities - these are in
973 their own executable files, which should have their permissions set to allow
974 only sysops to run them. You should either create a sysops group in
975 /etc/group, or use some other existing group for this purpose.</p>
977 <p>Aides have access to EVERY room on the system, public and private (all
978 types). They also have access to commands starting with
979 <TT>.<b>A</b>ide</TT> in addition
980 to being able to delete and move messages. The system room,
981 <tt>Aide></tt>, is accessible only by those users designated as Aides.</p>
983 <h3>Aide commands</h3>
985 <p>Aides have the following commands available to them that are not available
986 to normal users. They are:</p>
989 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
990 .<b>A</b>ide <b>K</b>ill this room
992 Deletes the current room from the system.
995 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
996 .<b>A</b>ide <b>E</b>dit this room
998 Allows editing of the properties of the current room. This is explained in
999 greater detail below.
1002 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1003 .<b>A</b>ide <b>W</b>ho knows room
1005 For private rooms with access controls, or mailbox rooms, this command displays
1006 a list of users who have access to the current room.
1009 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1010 .<b>A</b>ide edit <b>U</b>ser
1012 Allows editing of the properties of any user account on the system.
1015 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1016 .<b>A</b>ide <b>V</b>alidate new users
1018 For public access systems, this command reviews all new user registrations
1019 and allows you to set each new user's access level (or simply delete the
1023 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1024 .<b>A</b>ide enter <b>I</b>nfo file
1026 Each room may contain a short textual description of its purpose, which is
1027 displayed to users upon entering the room for the first time (or in the
1028 room banner, for users of the Web client). This command allows you to enter
1029 or edit that description.
1032 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1033 .<b>A</b>ide <b>R</b>oom <b>I</b>nvite user
1035 Access control command to grant any specific user access to a private room.
1038 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1039 .<b>A</b>ide <b>R</b>oom <b>K</b>ick out user
1041 Access control command to revoke any specifc user's access to the current
1042 room. This works regardless of whether the room is public or private.
1045 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1046 .<b>A</b>ide <b>F</b>ile <b>D</b>elete
1048 If the current room has an associated file directory, this command may be
1049 used to delete files from it.
1052 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1053 .<b>A</b>ide <b>F</b>ile <b>S</b>end over net
1055 If the current room has an associated file directory, this command may be
1056 used to transmit a copy of any file in that directory to another node on a
1060 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1061 .<b>A</b>ide <b>F</b>ile <b>M</b>ove
1063 If the current room has an associated file directory, this command may be
1064 used to move any file in that directory to another room. The target room
1065 must also have an associated file directory.
1068 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1069 .<b>A</b>ide <b>M</b>essage edit
1071 This command allows editing of any of the various system banners and messages
1072 which are displayed to users. Type the name of the banner or message you
1076 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1077 .<b>A</b>ide <b>P</b>ost
1079 This is the functional equivalent of the <TT><b>E</b>nter message</tt> command
1080 available to all users, except that it allows you to post using any user
1084 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1085 .<b>A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration <b>G</b>eneral
1087 This command allows configuration of a large number of global settings for
1088 your Citadel system. These settings will be explained in greater detail
1092 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1093 .<b>A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration <b>I</b>nternet
1095 This command allows configuration of settings which affect how your Citadel
1096 system sends and receives messages on the Internet.
1099 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1100 .<b>A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration check <b>M</b>essage base
1102 Perform a consistency check on your message store. This is a very
1103 time-consuming operation which should not be performed unless you have
1104 reason to believe there is trouble with your database.
1107 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1108 .<b>A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration <b>N</b>etwork
1110 Configure networking (e-mail, room sharing, etc.) with other Citadel nodes.
1113 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1114 .<b>A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration network <b>F</b>ilter list
1116 If you are on a large public or semi-public network of Citadel nodes and you
1117 find content from certain systems or individuals objectionable, you can use
1118 this command to define a rule set to automatically reject those messages when
1119 they arrive on your system.
1122 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1123 .<b>A</b>ide <b>T</b>erminate server <b>N</b>ow
1125 Immediately shut down the Citadel service, disconnecting any users who are
1126 logged in. Please keep in mind that it will start right back up again if you
1127 are running the service from <tt>/etc/inittab</tt>, so in practice this command
1128 will probably not get much use.
1131 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1132 .<b>A</b>ide <b>T</b>erminate server <b>S</b>cheduled
1134 Shut down the Citadel service the next time there are zero users connected.
1135 This allows you to automatically wait until all users are logged out.
1138 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1139 .<b>A</b>ide mailing <b>L</b>ist recipients
1141 Any room may be made into a mailing list. Enter this command to open an
1142 editor window containing the list of Internet e-mail addresses to which every
1143 message posted in the room will be sent.
1146 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1147 .<b>A</b>ide mailing list <b>D</b>igest recipients
1149 Similar to the regular mailing list command, except the messages will be
1150 sent out in 'digest' form -- recipients will see messages from the address
1151 of the room itself rather than the address of the author of each message, and
1152 a digest may contain more than one message. Each room may have any combination
1153 of List and Digest recipients.
1156 <TR><TD WIDTH=30%><TT>
1157 .<b>A</b>ide <b>N</b>etwork room sharing
1159 Configures the sharing of the current room's contents with other Citadel
1160 nodes. Messages posted in this room on any Citadel system will automatically
1161 be replicated to other Citadel systems carrying the room.
1166 <h3>Editing rooms</h3>
1168 <P>This command allows any aide to change the parameters of a room. Go to
1169 the room you wish to edit and enter the
1170 <TT><B>.A</B>ide <B>E</b>dit room</TT> command. A series of prompts will
1171 be displayed. The existing parameters will be displayed in brackets; simply
1172 press return if you want to leave any or all of them unchanged.</P>
1175 Room name [IG's Fun Room]:
1178 <P>...the name of the room.</P>
1184 <P>...enter Yes if you wish to restrict access to the room, or no if the room
1185 is to be accessible by all users. Note that Citadel doesn't bother users
1186 about access to rooms every time they need to access the room. Once a user
1187 gains access to a private room, it then behaves like a public room to them.
1188 The following four questions will only be asked if you selected Private...</p>
1191 Accessible by guessing room name [No]?
1194 <P>...if you enter Yes, the room will not show up in users'
1195 <TT><B>K</B>nown rooms</TT>
1196 listing, but if they
1197 <TT><B>.G</B>oto</TT> the room (typing the room's full name), they
1198 will gain access to the room.</p>
1201 Accessible by entering a password [No]?
1202 Room password [mypasswd]:
1205 <P>...this adds an additional layer of security to the room, prompting users
1206 for a password before they can gain access to the room.</P>
1208 <P>If you did not select guessname or passworded, then the only way users can
1209 access the room is if an Aide explicitly invites them to the room using the
1210 <TT><B>.A</B>ide <B>R</B>oom <B>I</B>nvite user</TT> command.</P>
1213 Cause current users to forget room [No] ? No
1216 <P>Enter Yes if you wish to kick out anyone who currently has access to
1220 Preferred users only [No]? No
1223 <P>Enter Yes if you wish to restrict the room to only users who have level 5
1224 (Preferred User) status (and Aides too, of course). You should make the room
1225 public if you intend to do this, otherwise the two restrictions will be
1229 Read-only room [No]? No
1232 <P>If you set a room to Read-Only, then normal users will not be allowed to
1233 post messages in it. Messages may only be posted by Aides, and by utility
1234 programs such as the networker and the "aidepost" utility. This is useful
1235 in situations where a room is used exclusively for important announcements,
1236 or if you've set up a room to receive an Internet mailing list and posting
1237 wouldn't make sense. Other uses will, of course, become apparent as the
1240 <P>Now for a few other attributes...</P>
1243 Directory room [Yes]? Yes
1246 <P>...enter Yes if you wish to associate a directory with this room. This can
1247 be used as a small file repository for files relevant to the topic of the room.
1249 enter Yes, you will also be prompted with the following four questions:</p>
1252 Directory name [mydirname]:
1255 <P>...the name of the subdirectory to put this room's files in. The name of
1256 the directory created will be
1257 <TT><I><your BBS directory></i>/files/<I><room dir
1258 name></i></tt>.</p>
1261 Uploading allowed [Yes]? Yes
1264 <P>...enter Yes if users are allowed to upload to this room.</P>
1267 Downloading allowed [Yes]? Yes
1270 <P>...enter Yes if users are allowed to download from this room.</P>
1273 Visible directory [Yes]? Yes
1276 <P>...enter Yes if users can read the directory of this room.</P>
1279 Network shared room [No]? No
1282 <P>...you can share a room over a network without setting this flag, and
1283 vice versa, but what this flag does is twofold:
1285 <LI>It prevents people with no network access from entering messages here
1286 <LI>Messages are displayed with the name of their originating system in
1291 Permanent room [No]? No
1294 <P>Citadel contains an 'auto purger' which is capable of removing rooms which
1295 have not been posted in for a pre-defined period of time (by default this is
1296 set to two weeks). If you wish to keep this from happening to a particular
1297 room, you can set this option. (Keep in mind that
1300 any private mailbox rooms, any network shared rooms, and any rooms with a
1301 file directory are automatically permanent.)</P>
1304 Anonymous messages [No]? No
1305 Ask users whether to make messages anonymous [No]? No
1308 <P>...you can have rooms in which all messages are automatically anonymous,
1309 and you can have rooms in which users are prompted whether to make a message
1310 anonymous when they enter it. The real identity of the author of each
1311 message is still revealed to the Room Aide for this room, as well as any
1312 system-wide Aides.</P>
1315 Room aide [Joe Responsible]:
1318 <P>...on larger systems, it helps to designate a person to be responsible for
1319 a room. Room Aides have access to a restricted set of Aide commands, ONLY
1320 when they are in the room in which they have this privilege. They can edit
1321 the room, delete the room, delete and move messages, and invite or kick out
1322 users (if it is a private room), but they cannot perform aide commands that
1323 are not room-related (such as changing users access levels).</P>
1329 <P>This is just a simple way to try to control the order rooms are listed in
1330 when users call up a <TT><B>K</B>nown Rooms</tt> listing. Rooms with a lower
1331 listing order are displayed prior to rooms with a higher listing order. It
1332 has no other effect. For users who list rooms in floor order, the display
1333 will sort first by floor, then by listing order.</p>
1336 Message expire policy (? for list) [0]:
1339 <P>This provides you with the opportunity to select how long each message will
1340 remain in a room before automatically being deleted. Press <tt><b>?</b></tt>
1341 for a list of options. You can choose to keep messages around forever (or
1342 until they are manually deleted), until they become a certain number of days
1343 old, or until a certain number of additional messages are posted in the room,
1344 at which time the oldest ones will scroll out.</P>
1346 <P>You will notice that you can also fall back to the default expire policy for
1347 the floor upon which the room resides. This is the default setting. You can
1348 change the floor's default with the
1349 <TT><b>;A</b>ide <b>E</b>dit floor</tt> command. The default setting for
1350 the floor default, in turn, is the system default setting, which can be
1352 <tt><b>.A</b>ide <B>S</b>ystem configuration <b>G</b>eneral</tt> command.</p>
1355 Save changes (y/n)? Yes
1358 <P>...this gives you an opportunity to back out, if you feel you really
1359 messed things up while editing.</p>
1361 <h3>File directories</h3>
1363 <p>If you have created any directory rooms, you can attach file descriptions to
1364 the filenames through a special file called <tt>filedir</tt>. Each line contains
1365 the name of a file in the directory, followed by a space and then a description
1366 of the file, such as:</p>
1369 myfile.txt This is a description of my file.
1370 phluff A phile phull of phluff!
1373 <P>...this would create file descriptions for the files <tt>myfile.txt</tt>
1375 which would be displayed along with the directory. It should also be noted
1376 that when users upload files to your system, they will be prompted for file
1377 descriptions, which will be added to the <tt>filedir</tt> file. If one does
1378 not exist, it will be created.</p>
1380 <h3>Creating and editing user accounts</h3>
1382 <p>Anyone with Aide level access may use the
1383 <tt><b>.A</b>ide edit <b>U</b>ser</tt>
1384 command to create and/or edit user accounts. There are several
1385 parameters which can be set here.</p>
1387 <p>To create a user:</p>
1390 Lobby> . Aide edit User
1391 User name: New User Name
1393 Do you want to create this user? Yes
1396 <p>At this point, the new user account has been created, and the command will
1397 continue as if you were editing an existing account. Therefore the remainder
1398 of this procedure is the same for creating and editing:</p>
1401 Lobby> . Aide edit User
1402 User name: person of significance
1403 User #70 - Person of Significance PW:
1410 Current access level: 4 (Network User)
1413 <P>The blank lines are the user's 'registration' information -- personal
1414 information such as full name, address, telephone number, etc. This
1415 information will comprise the user's vCard in both their user profile and
1416 in the Global Address Book.</p>
1419 Change password [No]: No
1422 <P>...answer Yes to set or change the password for this account.</p>
1428 <P>...this allows you to set or change the access level for this account. The
1429 access levels available are as follows:
1431 <LI>0 - Deleted. (This immediately deletes the account.)
1432 <LI>1 - New, unvalidated user
1433 <LI>2 - Problem user (severely restricts account - use for probationary access)
1434 <LI>3 - User with no network privileges. Same access as a normal user except
1435 cannot post messages in rooms shared on a network.
1437 <LI>5 - Preferred user (access is granted to privileged rooms)
1438 <LI>6 - Aide (administrative access to the whole system)
1443 Permission to send/receive Internet mail [ No]? No
1446 <P>If your system is configured to only allow Internet mail privileges to
1447 certain users, this is where you can grant or revoke that privilege.</p>
1450 Ask user to register again [Yes]: Yes
1453 <P>If you answer Yes to this question, the user will be presented with a
1454 'registration' screen or set of prompts, the next time they log in using a
1455 Citadel client. This will prompt them for their full name, address,
1456 telephone number, etc.</p>
1460 Messages posted [0]:
1463 <P>These statistics are available for informational purposes only, so there
1464 is normally no need to change them.</p>
1467 Set last call to now [No]: No
1468 Purge time (in days, 0 for system default [0]:
1471 <P>Citadel contains an auto-purger which is capable of automatically deleting
1472 accounts which have not been accessed in a predefined period of time. If
1473 you choose to perform this operation, you can 'touch' the account of a wayward
1474 user by setting their 'last call' time to 'now'. You can also adjust, on a
1475 per-user basis, the amount of time which must pass before their account is
1476 purged by the system. This time is set in days. You can also specify 0 days
1477 to indicate that you wish to use the system default setting.</P>
1480 <H3>Deleting and moving messages</h3>
1482 <P>Aides and Room Aides have the ability to delete and move messages. After
1483 each message, the normal prompt appears:</p>
1486 (8) <B>ack <A>gain <Q>uote <R>eply <N>ext <S>top m<Y> next <?>help ->
1489 <P>Entering <TT><B>D</B>elete</TT> will delete the message.
1490 A <TT>(y/n)</TT> prompt will appear to confirm
1491 that you really want to delete the message.
1492 Entering <TT><B>M</B>ove</tt> will prompt for a room to which the message
1493 should be moved.</P>
1495 <h3>Customizing the help files</h3>
1497 <P>The subdirectory called <TT>help</TT> contains your system's help files.
1499 nothing hard-coded into the system that dictates what files should be there.
1500 Whenever a user types the command
1501 <TT><B>.H</B>elp</TT> followed by the name of a help
1502 file, it displays the contents of that help file.</p>
1504 <P>The help files that come with the system, of course, are enough to guide
1505 a user through its operation. But you can add, change, or remove help files
1506 to suit whatever is appropriate for your system.</P>
1508 <P>There are several strings that you can put in help
1509 files that will be automatically substituted with other strings. They are:</p>
1512 ^nodename = The node name of your system on a Citadel/UX network
1513 ^humannode = Human-readable node name (also your node name on C86Net)
1514 ^fqdn = Your system's fully-qualified domain name
1515 ^username = The name of the user reading the help file
1516 ^usernum = The user number of the user reading the help file
1517 ^sysadm = The name of the system administraor (i.e., you)
1518 ^variantname = The name of the BBS software you're running
1519 ^bbsdir = The directory on the host system in which you have
1520 installed the Citadel system.
1523 <P>So, for example, you could create a help file which looked like:</P>
1526 "Lots of help, of course, is available right here on ^humannode. Of
1527 course, if you still have trouble, you could always bug ^sysadm about it!"
1531 <h3>Site configuration</h3>
1533 <p>Once your Citadel server is up and running, the first thing you'll
1534 want to do is customize and tune it. This can be done from the
1535 text-based client with the
1536 <tt><b>.A</b>ide <b>S</b>ystem configuration <b>G</b>eneral</tt>
1538 or from WebCit (if you have it installed) by clicking 'Advanced Options'
1539 followed by 'Edit site-wide configuration.' Either method will offer the
1540 same configuration options. This document shows the text mode client
1543 <p>The first set of options deal with the identification of your system.</p>
1546 Lobby> . Aide System configuration General
1547 Node name [uncnsrd]:
1548 Fully qualified domain name [uncensored.citadel.org]:
1549 Human readable node name [Uncensored]:
1550 Modem dialup number [US 914 999 9999]:
1551 Geographic location of this system [Mount Kisco, NY]:
1552 Name of system administrator [IGnatius T Foobar]:
1553 Paginator prompt [<jinkies! more text on the next screen!>]:
1556 <p>'Node name' refers to the short, unqualified node name by which your
1557 system is known on a Citadel network. Generally it will be the same as the
1558 unqualified host name of your computer; this is, in fact, the default
1561 <p>Then enter the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of your system. If you
1562 are not on the Internet, you can simply set it to the same as your
1563 unqualified host name. Otherwise you should set this value
1564 to the host name by which your system is most commonly known.</p>
1566 <p>The field called 'Human-readable node name' (also known as the 'node
1567 title' or 'organization name' in other software) is used solely for display
1568 purposes. Set it to the actual name of your system as you want it to appear
1569 in banners, messages, etc.</p>
1571 <p>If you have a modem or bank of modems answering data calls for your
1572 system, enter it in the field marked 'Modem dialup number.' Otherwise you
1573 may leave it blank.</p>
1575 <p>'Geographic location of this system' is another display field. Enter a
1576 city and state, or city and country. </P>
1578 <p>'Name of system administrator' is important! Any user who logs on with
1579 the name you enter here will automatically be granted Aide privileges.
1580 This is one of two ways for the system administrator to grant
1581 himself/herself Aide access to the system when initially setting it up. (The
1582 other is simply to have the first account created on a new installation.)</p>
1585 <p>The next set of options are your system's security settings. Before
1586 delving into the actual options, we should review the various access
1587 levels available on the system. Citadel has seven access levels:</p>
1590 <li>0 (Deleted). A user whose access level is set to 0 will
1591 automatically be deleted by the system.
1592 <li>1 (New User). Users at this level may only read messages. Entering
1593 messages is prohibited, except in the <tt>Mail></tt> room, where a message
1594 to 'sysop' may be entered.
1595 <li>2 (Problem User). Also known as 'Twit.'
1596 <li>3 (Local User). May enter messages, except in rooms shared on a
1598 <li>4 (Network User). May enter messages in every accessible room.
1599 <li>5 (Preferred User). Use of this level is up to the whim of the
1600 system administrator.
1601 <li>6 (Aide). Access is granted to the administrative functions of the
1602 system. (This access level may also be granted to a user only for
1603 a specific room, please see 'Room Aide' for
1608 Require registration for new users [No]: No
1609 Disable self-service user account creation [No]: No
1610 Initial access level for new users [4]:
1611 Access level required to create rooms [4]:
1612 Automatically give room aide privs to a user who creates a private room [No]: No
1614 Automatically move problem user messages to twit room [Yes]: Yes
1615 Name of twit room [Trashcan]:
1616 Restrict Internet mail to only those with that privilege [No]: No
1617 Allow Aides to Zap (forget) rooms [Yes]: Yes
1618 Allow system Aides access to user mailboxes [Yes]: Yes
1619 Log all pages [No]: No
1622 <p>'Registration' refers to the process of a user entering various personal
1623 contact information (real name, address, telephone number, etc.) into the
1624 system. When enabled, this information is stored as a vCard object on
1625 the system in two places: the user's <tt>My Citadel Config></tt>
1627 the <tt>Global Address Book></tt>
1628 room. (Note: the latter should be made private
1629 on publicly-accessible systems, for obvious reasons.)</p>
1631 <p>If you answer Yes to 'Require registration for new users' then each new
1632 user, upon creating a new account, will immediately be entered into the
1633 registration process. On the other hand, if you answer Yes to
1634 'Disable self-service user account creation' then new users will not
1635 be able to log in at all -- all accounts must be created by an Aide.</p>
1637 <p>'Initial access level for new users' should be set to 1 (New User) if you
1638 would like to review each new user's registration info before granting
1639 them higher access. This would be done periodically with the
1640 <tt><b>.A</b>ide <b>V</b>alidate new users</tt>
1641 command. If you do not require registration, you
1642 should set the initial access level to 4 (Network User).</p>
1644 <p>Given the above options, it then becomes clear that there are generally
1645 two ways you can set up your Citadel system, depending on its purpose:</p>
1648 <li><b>A public access BBS or message board</b> - since you do not know who
1649 might want to log in, self-service account creation needs to stay enabled.
1650 If you want to be strict about users identifying themselves, then you should
1651 also require users to register (just remember to post a privacy policy if
1652 you're going to collect personal information) -- then set the initial
1653 access level to 1 (New User), so new users cannot post messages until after
1654 you've validated them. For a more lax environment, you can remove the
1655 registration requirement and grant new accounts level 4 (Normal User)
1656 access on the first visit.
1657 <li><b>A private email/groupware system for your organization</b> - in this
1658 case, disable self-service account creation; you don't want strangers welcoming
1659 themselves to your system. You'll probably also want to disable registration,
1660 because you or some other site administrator will be entering users' contact
1661 info when you create their accounts. Since this is also how you assign
1662 their Internet e-mail addresses, it's probably a good idea to do it yourself
1663 instead of expecting them to do it.
1666 <p>'Access level required to create rooms' is up to you. You might wish to
1667 restrict the creation of new rooms only to Aides, or you might wish to
1668 allow anyone to create a room. The latter is one of the Citadel
1669 culture's most long-standing traditions; the former may be appropriate if
1670 users are abusing this privilege.</p>
1672 <p>You have the ability to 'Automatically give room aide privs to a user who
1673 creates a private room.' If you answer Yes, then any user who creates a
1674 guess-name, passworded, or invitation-only room will automatically become
1675 the room aide, and will have access to a subset of the <tt><b>.A</b>ide</tt>
1676 command set while in that room. If you would rather grant this permission
1677 manually, answer No.</p>
1679 <p>Another tradition in the Citadel culture is to refrain from deleting
1680 problem users, but instead to 'twit' them (reduce their access level to 2
1681 [Problem User]). You can then 'Automatically move problem user messages
1682 to twit room' (answer Yes, then specify 'Name of twit room' and remember
1683 to create that room). If you employ this logic, any user with level 2
1684 (Problem User) access will continue to have access to the same set of
1685 rooms, but all messages posted will automatically be routed to the
1686 Trashcan (or whatever you call your twit room).</p>
1688 <p>If you have Internet mail configured, you have the option of
1689 restricting its use on a user-by-user basis. If you wish to do this,
1690 answer Yes to 'Restrict Internet mail to only those with that privilege.'
1691 Obviously this makes no sense for an internal e-mail system, but for a
1692 public BBS it might be appropriate.</p>
1694 <p>Normally, Aides have access to every room, public or private, except
1695 for user mailboxes. They are also forbidden from <tt><b>Z</b>ap</tt>ping
1696 rooms, because the review of content is considered one of their roles. If
1697 you wish to change these policies, the next two options allow you to. You
1698 may 'Allow Aides to Zap (forget) rooms', in which case they may use the
1699 <tt><b>Z</b>ap</tt> command just like any other user. Furthermore, if you
1700 'Allow system Aides access to user mailboxes', then they may
1701 <tt><b>.G</b>oto</tt> any private mailbox belonging to any user, using a
1702 special room name format.</p>
1704 <P>If your local security and/or privacy policy dictates that you keep a
1705 log of all pages (instant messages) that go through the system, then answer
1706 Yes to 'Log all pages'. If you answer Yes, you will be prompted for the
1707 name of a room to which all pages will be logged. If you answer No, then
1708 only the sender and recipient of each individual message will receive a
1711 <p>The next set of options deals with the tuning of your system. It is
1712 usually safe to leave these untouched.</p>
1715 Server connection idle timeout (in seconds) [900]:
1716 Maximum concurrent sessions [20]:
1717 Maximum message length [2147483647]:
1718 Minimum number of worker threads [5]:
1719 Maximum number of worker threads [256]:
1722 <p>The 'Server connection idle timeout' is for the connection between client
1723 and server software. It is <b>not</b> an idle timer for the user interface.
1724 900 seconds (15 minutes) is the default and a sane setting.</p>
1726 <p>'Maximum concurrent sessions' is the highest number of user sessions you
1727 wish to allow on your system at any given time. Citadel can scale to
1728 hundreds of concurrent users, but if you have limited hardware or (more
1729 likely) limited bandwidth, you might wish to set a maximum. You can also
1730 set it to zero for no limit.</p>
1732 <p>'Maximum message length' is just that. This could be a good way to
1733 prevent enormous multimedia files from finding their way into your
1734 message base. This maximum is enforced in all protocols and is also
1735 advertised by the ESMTP service.</p>
1737 <p>The minimum and maximum number of worker threads can be tuned to your
1738 liking. Citadel will attempt to keep one worker thread running per
1739 session, within these constraints. You should be aware that due to the
1740 use of the worker thread model, Citadel can handle a large number of
1741 concurrent sessions with a much smaller thread pool. If you don't know
1742 the programming theory behind multithreaded servers, you should leave
1743 these parameters alone.</p>
1745 <p>The next set of options affect how Citadel behaves on a network.</p>
1748 How often to run network jobs (in seconds) [3600]:
1749 SMTP server port (-1 to disable) [25]:
1750 POP3 server port (-1 to disable) [110]:
1751 IMAP server port (-1 to disable) [143]:
1754 <P>'How often to run network jobs' refers to the sharing of content on a
1755 Citadel network. If your system is on a Citadel network, this configuration
1756 item dictates how often the Citadel server will contact other Citadel
1757 servers to send and receive messages. In reality, this will happen more
1758 frequently than you specify, because other Citadel servers will be contacting
1759 yours at regular intervals as well.</p>
1761 <P>Then you can specify TCP port numbers for the SMTP, POP3, and IMAP
1762 services. For a system being used primarily for Internet e-mail, these are
1763 essential, so you'll want to specify the standard port numbers: 25, 110,
1764 and 143. If Citadel is running alongside some other mail system, though, then
1765 you might want to choose other, unused port numbers, or enter -1 for any
1766 protocol to disable it entirely.</p>
1768 <p>The final set of options configures system-wide defaults for the
1772 Default user purge time (days) [120]:
1773 Default room purge time (days) [30]:
1774 System default message expire policy (? for list) [2]:
1775 Keep how many messages online? [150]:
1778 <p>Any user who does not log in for the period specified in 'Default user
1779 purge time' will be deleted the next time a purge is run. This setting
1780 may be modified on a per-user basis.</p>
1782 <p>'Default room purge time' behaves the same way, and may also be modified
1783 on a per-room basis.</p>
1785 <p>'System default message expire policy' defines the way in which old
1786 messages are expired (purged) off the system. You can specify any of:</p>
1789 <LI>Purge by age (specify in days)
1790 <LI>Purge by message count in the room (specify number of messages)
1791 <LI>Do not purge at all
1794 <p>Again, this setting may be overridden on a per-floor basis, and the
1795 floor setting may be overridden on a per-room basis.</p>
1798 Save this configuration? No
1801 <P>When you're done, enter 'Yes' to confirm the changes, or 'No' to discard
projects / citadel.git / blob