PH> But on the new Linux box (running the version in my tear line below) the
 PH> only thing I have changed is the display file to lowercase (as per wiki
 PH> notes) so it's now called  flag1a.ans but the file no longer displays
 PH> when the user logs on. Did I miss something?

This is a little confusing because Mystic actually looks for "flag1X" where X is the uppercased flag (since all flags are displayed as upper cased in Mystic).  So it would actually be "flag1A.ans" in Unix-based versions.

This isn't consistant with other things though, so I think in the next A47 build I am going to change it so that its "flag1a.ans" all lower-cased unless you and/or other think that I shouldn't.

 PH> Using the Window terminal in the A46 win32 version I could call Alt-S to
 PH> engage a split screen chat and a lower case ansichat.ANS would display.
 PH> 
 PH> Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's no equivalent option in Linux.. and
 PH> I need to use Nodespy - sound right? :) 

Things are certainly different as you noted.

Mystic in Windows is meant to mimic DOS BBS software (if you have the node windows enabled) which seems to be what you are used to. If you are coming from DOS this is a very familiar thing as you get a Window for each node and you can watch them and interact with their session directly.

Linux is very different in how it works compared to DOS/Windows and so Mystic in Linux takes a more Unix-like approach where it can run as a daemon and spawn user sessions.  These sessions are not really something you can directly interact with as you would in Windows.  Mystic doesn't even assume you have access to a command shell on the server that runs Mystic.

As you probably know Mystic provides access to just about everything from within the BBS itself with Mystic-DOS and menu commands for all configuration, text/ANSI editors, stuff to snoop and chat with users, etc.  These work in Windows but in Linux they are mostly how you would maintain and interact with users on your BBS.

To do something like ALT+S Linux you would use the NP menu command. If you have SysOp ACS it will allow you to force a user into a split screen private chat. If you are not a SysOp you can page a user and they can decide if they want to chat with you. The template for this is userchat.

There is no ALT+E you simply cannot pop open a user editor with the currently logged in user.  This is one area that should be improved upon though.  It won't be exactly the same but I might be able to get it close with a SysOp menu command where you can select which online user that you'd like to edit, and then it will try to establish an editing session while the user waits.

As you mentioned there is also NodeSpy if you want to run something that is entirely outside of the BBS.  This really needs a lot more work but its not as big of a priority for me right now as adding the online user editor would be... 
Its never going to work exactly like the Windows version but we can get it a little closer than it is today!

... My software never has bugs. It just develops random features...

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/10/22 (Windows/32)