BULLETIN

Bulletin is a utility that works a lot like VMS MAIL but that maintains
many message folders and is designed to allow many to many communication
like that of Usenet news. Many options to shift messages from Bulletin
to or from VMS MAIL exist and it can act as a USENET news reader as
well. It is very handy for communication within groups or companies.

The following are instructions for creating and installing the BULLETIN
utility. None of the command procedures included here are sophisticated, so it
is likely that several modifications will have to be made by the installer.
The installer should enable all privileges before installation.

Once installation is complete, it is suggested that the installer enter
BULLETIN and read HELP FOLDERS to see the options available when creating
or modifying folders.  BULLETIN creates a default folder called GENERAL
which is a SYSTEM folder (allows messages to be posted which are displayed
in full when people login.)  This folder can be modified (name changed,
SYSTEM setting removed, etc.), but it will remain the default folder
which is selected when BULLETIN is entered, and it cannot be deleted.

One of the main uses of BULLETIN, besides storage of messages that are manually
entered by users, is storage of messages from network mailing lists.  This is
done by using the BBOARD feature, which is enabled using the SET BBOARD command
inside BULLETIN.  The alternative method is for mail messages to be written
directly by a mailing program by calling internal BULLETIN routines.  Such a
a program has been written for the popular mail utilities PMDF and MX.  If you
wish to do so for another utility, read the text file WRITEMSG.TXT.  I would be
glad to include any such programs with my distribution if you think such a
program would be of use to other users.

By default, BULLETIN uses the format IN%"email-address" when sending mail via
VMS MAIL.  The IN% is hardcoded in BULLNEWS.INC.  If you use a different
protocol, you should either change the reference in that file, or you can
define logical name BULL_NEWS_MAILER to point to the new protocol, i.e.
DEFINE/SYSTEM BULL_NEWS_MAILER "MX%". 
                   
If for some reason this is inappropriate, you can define BULL_MAILER
to point to a command procedure, and which will be run instead of VMS MAIL.
The parameters passed to this procedure are P1 = username and P2 = subject.

1) CREATE.COM
   This will compile and link the BULLETIN sources. Also, there are several
   INCLUDE files for the fortran sources (.INC files). BULLETIN will create it's
   data files in the directory pointed to by the logical name BULL_DIR.  If you
   elect not to use this definition, BULLFILES.INC should be modified.
   Note that after this procedure compiles the sources, it puts the objects
   into an object library, and then deletes all the OBJ files in the directory.

   CREATE.COM will automatically determine if you are running on an alpha
   rather than a vax and will issue the appropriate commands for that cpu.
   Of course, separate executables are needed for the two cpus, so if your 
   site has both, you will have to run this procedure separately on each.

   NOTE 1: If you plan on using the USENET NEWS reader capability of BULLETIN,
   read NEWS.TXT for installation instructions before compiling.

   NOTE 2: The maximum number of folders for this distribution is 96 folders.
   If you wish to increase this, modify BULLUSER.INC and recompile the sources.
   When the new executable is run, it will create a new BULLUSER.DAT data file
   and rename the old one to BULLUSER.OLD.  You cannot reduce the number of
   folders.

2) INSTALL.COM
   The following procedure copies the executable image to BULL_DIR and
   installs it with certain privileges.  It also installs the necessary
   help files in SYS$HELP.  (BULLETIN help file is installed into the
   system help library HELPLIB.HLB.  If you don't wish this done, delete
   or modify the appropriate line in the procedure.  Also, the help
   library for the BULLETIN program, BULL.HLB, can be moved to a different
   directory other than SYS$HELP.  If this is done, the system logical name
   BULL_HELP should be defined to be the directory where the library is
   to be found.)

3) LOGIN.COM
   This contains the commands that should be executed at login time
   by SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGIN.COM.  It defines the BULLETIN commands.
   It also executes the command BULLETIN/LOGIN in order to notify
   the user of new messages.  NOTE: If you wish the utility to be a
   different name than BULLETIN, you should modify this procedure.
   The prompt which the utility uses is named after image executable.
   If you want messages displayed upon logging in starting from
   oldest to newest (rather than newest to oldest), add /REVERSE to
   the BULLETIN/LOGIN command.  Note that users with the DISMAIL
   flag setting in the authorization file will not be notified of
   new messages.  See help on the SET LOGIN command within the BULLETIN
   utility for more information on this.  Also, please note that when
   a brand new user to the system logins, to avoid overwhelming the new
   user with lots of messages, only PERMANENT SYSTEM messages are displayed.

   If you want SYSTEM messages, i.e. messages which are displayed in full
   when logging in, to be continually displayed for a period of time rather
   than just once, you should add the /SYSTEM= qualifier.  This is documented
   in BULLETIN.HLP, although there it is referred to only with respect to
   a user wanting to review system messages.  It can be added with /LOGIN.

   DECWINDOWS users should note the following: Both SYLOGIN and LOGIN are
   executed twice, once before the terminal is actually created, while
   SYS$OUTPUT is still a mailbox, the other time after the terminal is
   created.  To avoid this, place the following code in both procedure. 
   It causes them to execute only when the output is a terminal. This code
   also helps to allow programs to be placed in LOGIN.COM that prompt for
   terminal input.  BULLETIN does this if you select READNEW mode for
   displaying messages when logging in, as READNEW mode will ask you if
   you want to display the messages text.  Attempts to read terminal input
   under DECWINDOWS when SYS$OUTPUT is still a mailbox will cause DECTERM
   creation to fail.  (This problem is fixed under MOTIF).

   $ IF F$LOCATE("_TW",F$GETJPI("","PRCNAM")) .NE. 0 THEN GOTO START
   $ IF "''F$MODE()'" .NES. "INTERACTIVE" THEN GOTO START
   $ IF F$GETDVI("SYS$OUTPUT","TRM") THEN GOTO START
   $ GOTO FINISH
   $START:
   .
   .
   body of SYLOGIN.COM (including BULLETIN command)
   .
   .
   $FINISH:
   $ EXIT

4) BULLSTART.COM
   This procedure contains the commands that should be executed after
   a system startup.  It should be executed by SYS$MANAGER:SYSTARTUP.COM.
   It installs the BULLETIN utility with correct privileges.  It also
   includes the command BULLETIN/STARTUP.  This starts up a detached process
   with the name BULLCP.  It periodically checks for expire messages,cleanups
   empty space in files, and converts BBOARD mail to messages.  It also allows
   other DECNET nodes to share it's folders.  If you don't want this feature
   and don't plan on having multiple folders or make use of BBOARD, you could
   eliminate this command if you like.  However, it is highly recommended that
   you create this process to avoid extra overhead when users login.  NOTE:
   BULLCP normally is created so it is owned by the DECNET account.  If that
   account does not exist, BULLCP will be owned by the account that issues
   the BULLETIN/START command.  In that case, access via other DECNET nodes
   will not be available.

   If you are installing BULLETIN on a cluster and plan to have the bulletin
   files be shared between all of the cluster nodes, you only need to have
   this process running on one node. On all other nodes, the system logical
   name BULL_BULLCP should be defined (to anything you want) so as to notify
   BULLETIN that BULLCP is running. (On the local node where BULLCP is running,
   this logical name is automatically defined.)

   The system logical name BULL_CUSTOM can be defined to enable several 
   features.  It is equated to a hex number string.  
	Bit 0 set = need privileges to create folder.
	    1 set = captive account can write files.
	    2 set = captive account can use editor. 
   
   If you want to have more than one database, you can do so by redefining 
   BULL_DIR to another directory.  However, only directories that are 
   defined in the list of equivalence names pointed to by the system logical 
   name BULL_DIR_LIST are allowed.  For example:

	DEFINE/SYSTEM BULL_DIR_LIST SITE$ROOT:[SYSEXE],USER1:[MRL]

   Then BULL_DIR can be defined as SITE$ROOT:[SYSEXE] or USER1:[MRL].  
   BULL_DIR_LIST must be defined on all nodes in a cluster.
   
   The use of the MARK command to mark messages require that a file be
   created for each user which saves the marked info.  That file file is
   stored in the directory pointed to by the logical name BULL_MARK.  You can
   either let users who want to use this command define it themselves, or
   you can define it for them, i.e. DEFINE/SYSTEM BULL_MARK SYS$LOGIN.

5) INSTRUCT.COM
   This procedure adds 2 permanent messages which give a very brief
   description about the BULLETIN utility, and how to turn off optional
   prompting of non-system messages (via SET NOREADNEW).

6) BOARD_SPECIAL.COM
   This command procedure describes and illustrates how to use the
   SET BBOARD/SPECIAL feature.  This feature allows the use of BBOARD
   where the input does not come from VMS MAIL.  For example, this could
   be used in the case where mail from a non-DEC network is not stored
   in the VMS MAIL.  Another example is BOARD_DIGEST.COM.  This file
   takes mail messages from "digest" type mailing lists and splits them
   into separate BULLETIN messages for easier reading.

   To use this feature, place the special command procedure into the
   bulletin file directory using the name BOARD_SPECIAL.COM.  If you want
   to have several different special procedure, you should name the command
   procedure after the username specified by the SET BBOARD command.

7) UPGRADE.COM
   This procedure is used to upgrade to a new version of BULLETIN.
   See comments for instructions.

8) MASTER.COM
   If you are using PMDF, and want to use the BBOARD option, a set of
   routines are included which will allow PMDF to write message directly
   into folders, which is a much more effecient way of doing it than
   the normal BBOARD method of using VMS MAIL.  Read PMDF.TXT for how
   to do this.

9) OPTIMIZE_RMS.COM
   This routine optimizes index files.  To run, type @OPTIMIZE_RMS.COM
   followed by the filename.  If you omit the filename, it will prompt
   you to allow you to turn off or on several different types of RMS
   compression.  The default is to turn on all types of compression.
   The optimization will cause the file to be compressed.

   If you use the NEWS feature, it is suggest that you run this procedure
   on BULLNEWS.DAT after it is created.  Compressing that file greatly speeds
   up the NEWS update process.  If you are tight on space, and have been
   running BULLETIN for a long time, it might also be useful to compress
   BULLINF.DAT if that file is very large.  However, compressing that (or
   the other BULLETIN data files) don't appear to save any execution time,
   unlike BULLNEWS.DAT.
