YAQN: Yet Another QWK-Net Tosser by Darryl Perry, 2005

What Is YAQN:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YAQN is an interface between the QWK message network, and the JAM and Squish
message base format found on many of today's BBS'es.  If if you don't know what
a BBS is, then this program is not for you.  To find out more about BBSes and
BBSing, go to http://www.bbsing.com.  It has a fine collection of information
on the history and current state of BBSing today.

Just like Newsgroups on the internet where public messages are posted by a
client and uploaded to News server, then propogated to hundreds of other news
servers, some BBSes of old perform similar functionality.  Public messages
posted in networked forums can and would be distributed to other BBSes where
the users there can read those public messages.  QWK is a message format that
lends itself well for message transport.  YAQN recieves QWK messages and adds
them to the JAM format message base of a participating BBS.

Limitations:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Currently, YAQN functions only as client or node capacity.  YAQN cannot be
used as a hub or host for any QWK networks.  See the TODO file for more
information about the inclusion of hub or host functionality.

Licensing:
~~~~~~~~~~
YAQN is distributed under the GNU General Public License, as described in the
LICENSE file found in the YAQN directory.

Bugs:
~~~~~
YAQN v1.0 is has only been tested on Mandrake 9.2 Linux, and is not known to
work with other linux distributions, nor any other platform.

Installation:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read the included INSTALL file for more information on installation

Configureation:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YAQN relies on the single configuration file 'qwk.cfg' for operation.  It is
controlled by keywords:

Syntax:
~~~~~~~

YAQN ignores whitespace in the qwk.cfg, and any text after a '#' is considered
a comment.

Keywords, Value:
~~~~~~~~~

Keywords start at the first column of a line, followed by a whitespace, and
then the keyword's value.
<keyword> <value>

Keywords are not case-sensitive

Aka: The FTN for the client
example:
aka 1:106/324/.100

Inbound: The path where QWK files are found, and REP packets are placed.
example: 
Inbound /home/bbs/qwk

TempPath: The path where temporary files are created
example:
Temppath /home/bbs/temp/

Logfile: The path and filename of the desired logfile
example:
Logfile /home/bbs/logs/yaqn.log

Badpath: The path and filestub (no extensions) of the message base to use
if bad qwk packets are encountered.
BadType: The type of message base for Badpath. Can be either Jam or Squish.

Packer: The information for the various packers in the form:
Packer <arc tag>;<compress path and commands>;<uncompress path and commands>
There is no limit to the number of packers that can be defined.
example:
Packer zip;/usr/bin/zip -j;/usr/bin/unzip -CLj0

Hub: The definition for the Hub where mail is got from.  It is in the form of:
Hub <tag> <packer> <Fido Address> <msg type> <Path to message bases>
<Tab> refers to the unique identifier for this hub.  It also serves as the 
filename for the quick packets.
<packer> refers to the <arc tag> in the packers list.  This packer will be
used for this hosts' packets.
<Fido Address> refers to the fido AKA to be used for this QWK Host/Net.
<Msg Type> refers to either JAM or Squish
<Path> refers to the location that message base files are stored.  The path
must exist.  This will be the default path used when YAQN creates new HUB
entries in the config file for this Hub.

Area: Associates a conference with a hub and message base.
Area <confnum> <Hub tag> <MsgType> <path to msgbase>
Where:
<confnum> refers to the numerical conference designation for this area.
<Hub tag> refers to the Hub that is associated with this area.
<MsgType> refers to either Jam or Squish for this area
<Path> referst to the path AND message base file stub (no extensions) for this
area.  When areas are autocreated, the path and filestub will be the default
path for the hub, and the conference number for the area.
Example:
Area 2001 vert JAM /home/bbs/msgs/dove/2001


Useage:
~~~~~~~
yaqn -ief? [ -c config.file ]

	?	shows a brief useage message
	e	Exports Rep packets
	i	Imports QWK packets
	f	Performs Import and Export functions
	c	config file.  Use the specified config file, instead of the default.
	s	Show Config data and exit.

Support:
~~~~~~~~
Support for YAQN is neither expressed nor implied.

Contact:
~~~~~~~~
YAQN is brought to you by Darryl Perry, with additional coding by and thanks
to Bo Simonson.

Email: dperry.geo@yahoo.com

