Unix BBS

[Sanford 'Sandy' Zelkovitz]

In article <12427 at steinmetz.ge.com>, davidsen at steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) writes:
> In article <10181 at conexch.UUCP> root at conexch.UUCP (Larry Dighera) writes:
> | In article <22400004 at uxh.cso.uiuc.edu> fleming at uxh.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
> | >
> | >	Would somebody please point me in the direction of a public
> | >	domain or shareware bbs that will run on a unix mainframe?
> 	...
> 
> | With out a doubt, XBBS is the best BBS software available for UNIX (tm).
> 
>   I believe that the author of XBBS posts from the same site as the
> poster of this praise, so it may not be totally objective.
> 

That comment was completely independent of my own. Larry Dighera, conexch,
is a separate site and has no affiliation, other than friendship, with me.


>   I run a system which offers UNaXcess, XBBS, and Citadel, and has
> Magpie in test. I believe that I have at least a bit of experience with
> all of them beyond the casual user, and I'll share my opinions with you.
> 
> Freeware:
> 
> 
> XBBS:
> 
>   I had an early version and fixed a lot of bugs. I also enhanced a few
> areas and sent the changes on. I don't know if they've been incorporated
> into the latest version. The user interface is like XBBS, with a main
> menu and file and messages submenus. The version I have has a fixed
> number of messages in a non-editable format. When I delete messages and
> repack all the message numbers change. I believe that most if not all of
> this is fixed in the current version, so it's probably not a drawback.
> 

It's all fixed, BILL. I strongly suggest getting the new version. You
will be surprising pleased with the new features and performance
enhancements. The new version even has direct support for USENET.


>   Files are easy to add and remove in this system, and I share files
> between all three systems by links. Messages are not shared. Files
> delivered by uucp can easily be moved into the uploads area, but
> messages can't be faked in the version I have. The system of bulletins
> is quite clean.
> 

There is new support code to transfer bbs messages and mail messages
back and forth.


>    I have no idea how clean the code is in the current version, and it
> is supposedly modular, structured, etc, but the version I have is quite
> hard to maintain, with at least 70% of the code in one hugh module,
> goto's, lines of if's instead of switches, and hundreds of lines of
> duplicated code, right down to the spelling in the comments. The latest
> version I have checked is at least two version old, and what I'm
> running is older than that, so look at the code and make your own
> decision, the technique was improving in every version.
> 

Again, the code has been broken down into many more modules of a
smaller size. Makefiles are available for Xenix286, Xenix386, SysV.3,
and for the 3B1. As far as code technique goes, I guess we all learn
from previous mistakes. I know I have and, I think, the new code shows
just that. As a matter of a fact, very soon now, another new feature will
be available and that is the sharing of message bases between different
XBBS sites. It works very similar to rnews.

>   What I have gives no control voer individual functions, but again uses
> level of authorization. Each group has an authorization level, both for
> messages and files. You may optionally move uploaded files to a
> protected directory until you have a chance to look at them, a feature
> which has saved me from posting viruses at least six times.
> 

Actually, Bill, you don't even have to do that. If you remember about the
tilde option in files.bbs. These files become hidden to you users until
you allow them. If this option is used; however, be sure to make the
R(aw listing) option a higher priority.


> 
>   XBBS takes a bit more care and feeding, manually deleting messages and
> packing the message files, etc. Bear in mind I have an older version and
> some or all of this may be better. It crashes a few times a week, but
> doesn't hurt the users or the files. If I were going to fix one thing I
> would make replies to private sysop messages go in general instead of
> the sysop-only group (where no one can read them).
> 

I strongly suggest getting version 7.24 since it uses much more efficient.
You have COMPLETE control over all the message bases.  As far as crashes,
honestly, I haven't seen that one.



Bill... I ran vmstat on a user as he logged in using an interval of 1 second.
The readings that I got were as follows for idle time: 96, 80, 23, 80, 96.
You are correct about heavy cpu usage time for only the first 4 seconds!
The reason for this is that XBBS has to read in the configfuration file,
the privilege files, and then do a search of the user files. After this is
done, cpu usage is really at a minimum.

XBBS has gone through MANY enhancements, bug fixes, and bug fixes since you
last downloaded the code. As I stated before, I have made MANY changes to
the code and am really proud of its performace as you are with Citadel.
My concept of a BBS may be slightly different than yours. I am sure that
you will find that everyone likes to see different things. If we all had
exactly the same likes and dislikes what a terrible place this would be.
My only wish is that I had more time to spend upgrading the code and the
resources to do so! BTW, there are now over 300 sites running XBBS world
wide and, you wouldn't believe, the number of uucp requests and downloads
being made on a daily basis.
 
Sanford <sandy> Zelkovitz   XBBS   714-898-8634