Re: BBS?

[Dave Burgess <burgess@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> 
> I've seen a couple around - NBBS and UBBS are two that come to mind,
> though there's also something called MBOX.
> 
> We're also negotiating to have a serious commercial BBS brought to FreeBSD,
> but I won't say more about that until I actually see it..
> 
> 						Jordan
> 
> > Is there a bbs that will run under FreeBSD?
> > 
> > i want to put one up for my friens but cannot find one?
> > 

Also, there are a few that can do BSDi.  Those should work as well (as
long as FreeBSD is maintaining BSDi compatibility.

Until then, I developed a 'OS neutral' set of rules for a generic BBS
sort of pseudo-menuing thing while I was in college.  The rules are
pretty simple.

1.  List everything that doesn't have a '.' as the first character.

2.  Have the user type in enough of the name to make it unique (or the
first occurence will be used, or an error; specific behaviour is up to
the programmer).

3.  If the entry is a directory, 'cd' to it.

4.  If the entry is a program, run it.

5.  If the file is a text file, 'cat' it.

6.  Pause for a 'continue' of some kind.

7.  Go to 1.

The only tricky part is making sure that there is an 'exit' and a 'cd
..' funtion implemented in each directory.  If you would rather, you can
include these in code.

The whole thing took about 25 lines of 'sh' script.  I didn't keep a
copy of it, but it was really easy to implement.  Most of the work
(surprisingly enough) was done in the design phase.  We even figured out
that if you use the file permissions, you can do things like limit the
user based on groups, or have everyone's E-Mail stored together in one
place.

As your needs expand and more and more stuff is required, you can expand
the basic suite of requirements by adding more programs (or links
thereto) and increase the capability without changing the basic nature
of the system.