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<TITLE>MBSE BBS Programs - mbtask - MBSE BBS Taskmanager.</TITLE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
<h5>Last update 07-Jul-2001</h5>
<P>&nbsp;<P>
<H1>mbtask - MBSE BBS Taskmanager</H1>
<P>
<H3>Sysopsis.</H3>
<P>
<code><strong>mbtask</strong></code>
<P>&nbsp;<P>
<H3>Description.</H3>
<P>
<strong>mbtask</strong> is the taskmanager for the whole MBSE BBS system.
This deamon keeps track of all client actions,
does the logging for the clients, does database locking, authorizes clients,
set/resets users "do not disturb flags", sends and receives chat messages,
keeps track of Zone Mail Hour and the BBS open/close status. Communication
between <strong>mbsed</strong> and the client programs is done via Unix
Datagram sockets. The protocol used to communicate between <strong>mbtask</strong>
and the clients is explained later.
This daemon also watches the semafore directory for some special files.
It also starts programs when they are needed.
The very first time <b>mbtask</b> is started it creates a default config.data and task.data,
the main configuration and task configuration files
<b>mbtask</b> should be started at system boot so the bbs system will start working.
The init script that is installed on your system will do that.
This program is introduced with MBSE BBS v0.33.16
and replaces the run_inout and mailer scripts that were called by cron every minute.
<P>
After startup and initalization <b>mbtask</b> runs internally once per second forever.
If there is nothing to do then this time will slowly increase upto 5 seconds. This time will be reset
to one second as soon as there is work to be done. The actual work is to check a number of external and
internal semafore's and act on these.
But before any program is started a number of things are checked:
<OL>
<LI>Check the system's load average. If it is too busy the processing of background
tasks is suspended until your system load drops.
The default setup is set at 1.50 but you can change that with mbsetup. Experience
will learn what the best value will be and I need some feedback on that.<br>
<LI>The UPS semafore <b>upsalarm</b> will be checked. This means that the system is running on
battery power and no new jobs are started.
<LI>The UPS semafore <b>upsdown</b> will be checked. This is the fatal one, if
this one excists <b>mbtask</b> will try to stop all current running jobs.
If there are no jobs left running then <b>mbtask</b> will stop itself.
The upsdown semafore means that the system
will shutdown and power off, that's why it's fatal and there is no way back.<br>
<LI>The status of the bbs will be checked, is it open or closed. If it is closed, no
jobs will be started.
<LI>The Zone Mail Hour is checked. If ZMH begins the semafore's <b>zmh</b> is created and
a outbound scan is forced.
If ZMH ends the semafore <b>zmh</b> is removed a new outbound scan is forced.
<LI>Each twenty seconds a ping is send to the IP addresses defined with <b>mbsetup</b> to
check if the internet can be reached. If both ping addresses fail, it is assumed that
the internet can't be reached. <i>Note: this is for future use!</i>
</OL>
Each new minute the timestamp of semafore <b>mbtask.last</b> is updated so that you can check that
<b>mbtask</b> is running. Also each minute is checked if the system configuration files are
changed, is so they are reloaded. There is no need to stop and start <b>mbtask</b> if you made
changes to the system configuration.
Then all kind of internal semafore's will be checked. The commands that are executed have default
values, but they can be changed wit mbsetup. The commands can be scripts as well.
The checks and actions are:
<P>
<table border=1 bgcolor=#FFFF99 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 bordercolor=#000080>
<tr>
<th align=left bgcolor=#000080><font color=#FFFFFF>Semafore</font></th>
<th align=left bgcolor=#000080><font color=#FFFFFF>Speed</font></th>
<th align=left bgcolor=#000080><font color=#FFFFFF>Tasktype</font></th>
<th align=left bgcolor=#000080><font color=#FFFFFF>Depends on</font></th>
<th align=left bgcolor=#000080><font color=#FFFFFF>Job to run</font></th>
</tr>
<tr><td>mailout</td><td>Fast</td><td>mbfido</td><td>Max. 1 mbfido task</td><td>mbfido scan web -quiet</td></tr>
<tr><td>mailin</td><td>Fast</td><td>mbfido</td><td>Max. 1 mbfido task</td><td>mbfido tic toss web -quiet</td></tr>
<tr><td>newnews</td><td>Fast</td><td>mbfido</td><td>Max. 1 mbfido task</td><td>mbfido news web -quiet</td></tr>
<tr><td>mbindex</td><td>Fast</td><td>mbindex</td><td>No other tasks</td><td>mbindex -quiet and if excist: goldnode</td></tr>
<tr><td>msglink</td><td>Fast</td><td>mbfido</td><td>No other tasks</td><td>mbmsg link -quiet</td></tr>
<tr><td>reqindex</td><td>Fast</td><td>mbfile</td><td>No other tasks</td><td>mbfile index -quiet</td></tr>
<tr><td>scanout</td><td>Slow</td><td>call</td><td>Only 1 call task</td><td>mbcico -r1</td></tr>
</table>
<P>
The Fast and Slow values mean: Fast is each second, Slow is check each 20 seconds.
As you can see, the system will not do too much at the same time. Jobs like compiling
new nodelists or create file request indexes have a very low priority. Because this
daemon checks the semafore's each second it responds much better that the old scripts
running on the cron daemon. The system will be expanded so that more outgoing calls
will be done at the same time, ie. ISDN and analogue calls, and if they are present
internet calls, will be made at the same time.
<P>
The <b>mbtask</b> program keeps also track of a unique number generator, this is
just a simple counter that is increased each time it is asked for a new number.
It will take years for the numbers to repeat. Even if the status file is lost
the chance that numbers are repeated on your system are almost zero. The first
time the counter is initialized it is set to the current unix time in seconds
since 1 januari 1970. This counter is used by several programs to create unique
.pkt filenames, msgid numbers etc.
<P>&nbsp;<P>
<H3>Environment.</H3>
<P>
In order to run <strong>mbtask</strong> you must set the global variable
<strong>$MBSE_ROOT</strong>. This variable must point to the root directory
of the bbs structure.
<P>&nbsp;<P>
<H3>Security.</H3>
<P>
<strong>mbtask</strong is installed setuid root. This is needed to initialize
a raw socket for the ping function. After that is done the privilege drops to
user <strong>mbse</strong> before the child process is created and the rest
of the initialisation is done.
The child process can never get root privileges because it is spawned by user mbse.
<P>&nbsp;<P>
<H3>Communications.</H3>
<P>
Communication between the server and the clients is established by
Unix datagram sockets. There can be only 1 server running.
The server will accept connections from clients on your local machine only.
The limit for the amount of clients that can connect to the server is set to 100.
<P>
The server creates a Unix datagram socket at startup and waits for connections.
The name of this this socket is /opt/mbse/tmp/mbtask.
When a client connects it creates a Unix datagram socket in /opt/mbse/tmp, the name is
the name of the program, added with the pid of the program. So if <b>mbcico</b> is started
with pid 2312 the socket will be /opt/mbse/tmp/mbcico2312.
<P>
All commands are 4 capital letters followed by a colon, a number indicating
how much data fields will follow. If that number is higher than zero, the
data fields are seperated with commas. The command is terminated
with a ; character. Examples are:<br>
<pre>
GCLO:0; Zero datafields command.
DOPE:1,dbname; One datafield command.
</pre>
All commands will receive a reply as soon as possible. If a
resource is temporary not available, a reply will follow too, telling
this condition. Replies can also contain optional data. Examples:<br>
<pre>
100:0; Response 100, no data.
200:1,Syntax error; One datafield.
</pre>
The server has a 10 minute timeout for receiving data when a connection
is established. The clients need to "ping" the server at regular intervals
to prevent a disconnect. All official MBSE BBS programs do that. The pid
send with most commands is the pid of the calling program. Since this number
is unique, it is used to keep track of the connected clients.
<P>
The commands are divided in 26 catagories, most unused at this time.
<P>
<pre>
Catagories:
Cat. Description
---- -------------------------------------------
Axxx Accounting, system monitor info etc.
Cxxx Chatting
Gxxx Global commands.
Sxxx Status commands.
Group A, Accounting.
Command: AINI:5,pid,tty,uid,prg,city; Initialize connection, and who am I.
Reply: 100:0; Ok.
200:1,Syntax Error; Error.
Command: ADOI:2,pid,doing; What am I doing right now.
Reply: 100:0; Ok.
200:1,Syntax Error; Error.
Command: ACLO:1,pid; Close my connection.
Reply: 107:0; Connection closed.
200:1,Syntax Error; Error, connection is still open.
Command: ALOG:5,fil,prg,pid,grade,txt; Write a line of text in logfile with grade.
Reply: 100:0; Ok.
201:1,errno; Error, number in errno.
Command: AUSR:3,pid,uid,city; Set username and city
Reply: 100:0; Ok.
200:1,Syntax Error; Error.
Command: ADIS:2,pid,flag; Set Do Not Disturb flag.
Reply: 100:0; Ok.
200:1,Syntax Error; Error.
Command: ATIM:1,time; Set new Client/Server timer in seconds.
Reply: 100:0; Ok.
200:1,Syntax Error; Error.
Command: ADEF:0; Set Client/Server timer to default (10 minutes).
Reply: 100:0; Ok.
200:1,Syntax Error; Error.
Command: ATTY:2,pid,tty; Set new tty name.
Reply: 100:0; Ok.
200:1,Syntax Error; Error.
Group C, Chatting (just some ideas).
Command: CIPM:1,pid; Is Personal Message present.
Reply: 100:2,fromname,message; Yes, from .. with message text.
100:0; No.
Command: CSPM:3,fromuser,touser,txt; Send personal message to user.
Reply: 100:1,n; n: 0=Ok, 1=Do not disturb, 2=Buffer full, 3=Error.
100:0; Impossible.
The next commandis are some ideas, they are not implemented.
-CBPM:2,fromuser,txt; Broadcast message to all users.
-CJCH:2,pid,channel; Join Channel
-CCCH:2,pid,channel; Close Channel
-CAML:2,channel,text; Add textline to channel
-CIML:1,channel; Is new textline present
-CSSP:1,user,reason; Send Sysop Page
-CESP:1,user; Retract Sysop Page
-CRSP:1,user; Reject user Page
-CFCH:2,channel,user; Force user in chatmode (for Sysop chat).
-CKCH:2,channel,user; Kill user chatmode (for Sysops and moderators).
Group G, Global commands.
Command: GNOP:0; No OPerations.
Reply: 100:0; Ok.
Command: GPNG:1,data; Ping, echo data.
Reply: 100:1,data; Ping reply.
Command: GVER:0; Give server version.
Reply: 100:1,Version ....; Version reply.
Command: GSTA:0; Get complete mbsed status record. (13 fields)
Reply: 100:19,start,laststart,daily,startups,clients,tot_clients,tot_peak,syntax_errs,
com_errs,today_clients,today_peak,today_syntax,today_comerr,bbsopen,
is_zmh,processing,system_load,sequence;
Command: GMON:1,n; Get registration info line, 1=First, 0=Next line.
Reply: 100:7,pid,tty,user,program,city,isdoing,starttime;
100:0; No more lines.
Command: GDST:0; Get filesystem status (see note below).
100:n,data1, ..., data10; Maximum 10 filesystems datalines.
Command: GSYS:0; Get bbs statistics.
100:7,calls,pots_calls,isdn_calls,network_calls,local_calls,startdate,lastcaller;
Command: GLCC:0; Get Lastcallers count
100,1,n; Return counter value.
Command: GLCR:1,recno; Get Lastcaller record
100:9,user,location,level,tty,time,minsmcalls,speed,cations;
201:1,16; Not available.
Group S, Status commands.
Command: SBBS:0; Get BBS Status (open, zmh, shutdown).
Reply: 100:2,0,The system is open for use;
100:2,1,The system is closed right now!;
100:2,2,The system is closed for Zone Mail Hour!;
Command: SOPE:0; Open the BBS.
Reply: 100:0; Ok.
Command: SCLO:1,mesage; Close the BBS with reason.
Reply: 100:0; Ok.
Command: SFRE:0; Is the BBS Free.
Reply: 100:1,Running utilities: n Active users: n;
100:0; It's free.
Command: SSEQ:0; Get next unique sequence number.
Reply: 100:1,number; Next unique sequence number.
Command: SEST:1,semafore; Get status of internal semafore.
Reply: 100:1,n; 1 = set, 0 = not set.
200:1,16; Semafore not known.
Command: SECR:1,semafore; Set semafore
Reply: 100:0; Ok.
200:1,16; Error.
Command: SERM:1,semafore; Remove semafore
Reply: 100:0; Ok (also if there was no semafore).
200:1,16; Semafore not known.
</pre>
Note: in reply of GDST the reply is 100:n,size free mountpoint fstype,.....
where n = 1 for 1 filesystem, and 10 for a total of 10 filesystems. There
will never be a reply for more then 10 filesystems. The reported filesystems
are retrieved from /etc/mtab which is the actual mountstatus. This is used
by the <b>mbmon</b> program to get a "live" view of your filesystems.
<P>&nbsp;<P>
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