Hello Rob.

07 Mar 24 10:46, you wrote to me:

 >> Hello Rob.
 >>
 >> 06 Mar 24 12:05, you wrote to me:
 >>
 >>  RS> I'm attempting a reply using GoldEd+ here.
 >>
 >>  RS> One thing I noticed, the SBBS config points to the parent of
 >> the
 >>  RS> Synchronet "control" directory rather than the ctrl directory
 >> itself
 >>  RS> (which is normally represnted by the SBBSCTRL environment
 >> variable).
 >>  RS> The control directory is not hard-coded to be "ctrl" anywhere,
 >> thought
 >>  RS> that is the default/stock configuration that most sysops keep.
 >> I would
 >>  RS> recommend that the GoldEd+ config file point to the path of
 >> the
 >>  RS> Synchronet "control" directory and not its parent directory.
 >> Or read
 >>  RS> this from the SBBSCRL env var.
 >>
 >> Currently you may use three different options for Synchronet
 >> AreaFile:
 >>
 >> 1) Path to Synchronet root. And then Golded would assume that
 >> config is is ctrl directory. 2) Path to Synchronet control
 >> directory. 3) Path to msgs.ini itself.

 RS> Only methods 2 and 3 there would be valid. There's no real "Synchronet
 RS> root".

I'm inclining to rework it and use only method 3, but read main.ini first, then mail.ini.

 >> And also GoldEd assumes that message bases located on the same
 >> level as control directory in "data/subs" directory.

 RS> That would be incorrect. Each message base can actually be located
 RS> anywhere (that's what 'data_dir' is used for - but it's it's blank,
 RS> then data/subs can be assumed, but the location of the 'data'
 RS> directory is also configurable in the [dir] section of main.ini).

You're right. It does use data_dir if it's available in message base config. I forgot to mention that. Only if it's empty - it uses data/subs. I'll rework this too.

 >> I didn't invent that logic. Just added parsing ini in addition to
 >> cnf file.
 >>
 >> I'm happy to change the way it configured. But I'm not an expert in
 >> Synchronet design. Could you please describe how it may be
 >> configured?

 RS> SBBSCTRL (env var or other method of discovery) points to Synchronet
 RS> "control" directory (which could be named/located anywhere), where you
 RS> can find main.ini which in turn defines the relative path (from the
 RS> "control" directory) to the "data" directory.

 RS> Then parsing msgs.ini, each message area (sub) can have its own
 RS> "data_dir" defined (where to find the message base files themselves) -
 RS> if the data_dir isn't defined, then the "subs" sub-directory of the
 RS> configured "data" directory is where the message base files are
 RS> expected to be found.

Env var is not a good idea. Better to use path to main.ini. Am I right that all ini files shall be within control directory?

 >> Maybe
 >> would be better to parse main config file first and pull necessary
 >> directories from there?

 RS> Yes, main.ini would need to be parsed as well (first).

Agree.

 RS> Synchronet is open source and the most relevant source file, for
 RS> reference, would be:
 RS> https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/blob/master/src/sbbs3/scfglib1.
 RS> c

I used that file for reference when worked on this change. Thanks.

Wait for the next patch which will make it even better. BTW, I found one issue in my change which will make it fail to read message bases in windows. That will be fixed too.

Thanks for help! Appreciate it!

Vitaliy

... 640K ought to be enough for anybody
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20240305-beta