Pancake Documentation

1. Table of Contents
2. Credits
3. Software Requirements
4. Getting Started
5. System Prefs
6. Port Prefs
7. Groups
8. Sections
9. Menus
10. Commands
11. Acs's
12. Percent Variables
13. TidBits

2. Credits

Pancake is written by Darrell Turner

Many portions of this manual were originally written by Keith Whitehead.
mailto:sir@office.manawatu.gen.nz or mailto:K.J.Whitehead@massey.ac.nz
Many thanks to Mr. Whitehead's efforts.

The rest of the documentation is by me, Darrell Turner.

3. Software Requirements

Pancake requires:
System 7
4 Megabytes of Memory
2 Megabytes of Disk space

For UUCP you will need UUCP 3.x or MacUCP. For Fidonet you will need mailer software such as Tabby, MacKennel, F1. There is no discussion here on how to set these programs up, this is covered in their manuals.

4. Getting Started

1. Launch Pancake
2. Configure Port Prefs (See Section 6 for more info)
3. Configure System Prefs and configure (See Section 7 for more info)
4. Setup the Groups (See section 8)
5. Create folders in the Files folder of Pancake and Setup the File Sections (section 9)
6. Edit the texts in "Open Special" to meet your needs
7. Local Logon and create NEW user, this is the user that fast login will login, ususally the main sysop.
8. Make an Global Alias file that points the name sysop to you (See Tidbits)

5. Port Prefs

There is always 1 port set, the local one for sysop use. The fully functional unregistered release of Pancake supports 2 ports. One for local logon, and one to setup as you please (TCP/IP, Serial, or AppleTalk). If you need more, the price is just 10 dollars per port! (Subject to change in the future of course).

To create a new port select New. Select the 'Num' drop box and choose port just created. (Ports are always added to the end, and deleted from the end). From here the type of port can be selected with the 'Type' drop box.

Local

Idle Timeout - Number of minutes idle before Pancake will automatically log user out.

Conn Acs - Access nessesary to login to this type port.

Serial

Port - Selects which port you modem is connected to.

Pagable - If set allows Pancake's built-in paging to use this modem to dial out to page the sysop.

Baud - Sets the rate at which Pancake will talk to the modem,the maximum serial speed that your modem supports would normally be selected, this will be different in many cases from the maximum baud rate the modem can transmit at.

Carrier Detect - Pancake needs to be able to detect if the modem is still connected to the remote user. The most common setting is DCD Chip. If this crashes you computer, try DCD Driver. CTS is only used if you have a modem cable that doesn't support Hardware Handshaking.

Modem - This sets which modem initalization string to use. If your modem is not found you can try the Hayes Compatible one, or write your own. Terminal is a special modem setting. It is used when you hook up a dumb terminal up to Pancake with a null modem cable.

Hardware Handshaking - Check this if you have a Hardware Handshaking Cable. Most High Speed modems come with one, and it is the best option for running a BBS.

Call Sound - Sound you here when a user connects.

TCP/IP

You will need to have MacTCP installed, and working before you try this. This allows you to set-up a port that can be telneted to.

Port - Usually set to 23, only use something else if you know what your doing.

Max Connects - How many nodes can connect to a this port.

Enable Finger - It checked a finger server is installed with the telnet node. If a user is fingered the Plan file in a users directory is listed.

AppleTalk

ADSP Name - Name ADSP Clients will see to connect to.

6. System Prefs

The System Prefs contain many options essentail for the correct operation
of the BBS. Read this section carefully as it has the most affect on how
you BBS will work. A little care here can save hours of agravation later.

General

BBS Name - The name of your BBS

Organ - The name of your organization or BBS name (Used in usenet posts mainly)

Require NUP - The "Require NUP" check box can be set if you wish to limit new users to those who know the New User Password. This can be useful in limiting new users to authorized people.

Local Protection - When enabled, a password is required to do anything more than Local Login. This is useful if the BBS Computer is in a public place and you wish to have some security preventing unauthorized changes.

Password - The password required if local protection is checked

Enable Screen Saver - If checked pancake will display a screen saver whenever the idle time specified is reached, or the cursor is in the bottom right corner.

Saver Idle Time - Minutes the system must be idle before screen saver appears.

Strict Phone - If checked the phone number must be in the format specified by the string. If not checked any characters will do.

Format - Format the phone number must be in. Easily customizable for foriegn countries phone number format.

Logging

Pancake's different errors and summaries appear in different log files. These check boxes enable you to set what information should appear in the general log. In the beginning it is advisable to leave all of the check boxes checked. This will enable you to more easily see where any problems may be occuring. The use of the separate errors log will be also of use if problems occur. Some of the options are not yet implemented such as the scheduler, however leaving these options checked will have no affect on the logs.

Network

These boxes are to setup the paths that the system requires if you are
going to be gating any network (UUCP/Fidonet) newsgroups. Simply click in any of the boxes and a dialog box will appear so you can find the relevant file/folder.

UUCP - This is usuallly set to an application by Dave Platt, names UUPC. Set this up to the application itself to launch. UUPC requires many settings independent of Pancake. The manual that comes with UUPC covers what you will need to know to set it up and is not covered further in this manual.

UUCP File - Allows you to launch UUPC with a call initiation file that will call the systems needed and then quit. Read the manual that comes with UUPC for information on call initiation files.

Parse News - Parse News is an aplication that comes with Pancake. Parse News will unbatch any incoming news via UUCP/Fidonet. Set this path to the application.

NNTP Suck - Application to receive NNTP news. NNTP Sucker is the recommended program, also written by Darrell Turner.

Term Prog - This enables you to use your existing terminal program with Pancake. Pancake does not have any terminal package built in but has the ability to sieze the port back from a terminal package after it has quit. The recommended term program is ZTerm a Shareware package by David Alverson.

Spool Dir - The directory all outgoing mail (and possibly news) will be written to. Usually set to the UUPC spool directory. News is only written here if Suck Spool is empty.

Suck Spool - The directory outgoing news will be written to. If blank, news will be written to the Spool Dir.

Mail Dir - The UUPC mail directory, used for incoming UUCP mail.

Paging

This is unique among BBS's, built in numeric paging. You should have knowledge of your pager and how to call it before you set this option. If set this will allow users to call you on your pager, this will happen as soon as they have logged off the BBS as it uses the modem to dial your paging service. If you have more than one node and the other node is free it can send the page immediatly.

Paging On - Turn this on if you wish to use the paging features.

Acs To Beep - This limits who can beep you. Unless the user has a high enough access level they will not be allowed to page you.

Phone Number - This is the number to your automated paging service. You will probably need commas to delay until it is ready to accept the numbers. Also, If you have a pulse phone (don't laugh, why pay a $1 for a BBS line?) you'll need to precede the phone number with a p and put at the end a t (to switch it to tone). If you are using tone dialing make sure the t is at the begining.

Max Calls Per Day - Use this option to limit the number of calls your pager will receive per day.

Max Digits - Set this to the maximum number of digits that your pager is able to display.

Encode Letters - If checked this will encode any letters the users put into numeric strings, based on the letter to number matching on the phone dial.

Max segments - This is the maximum number of segments a long page can be split into.

Paths

These are the paths to folders that are used by the system to store various information. Normally these are all found in the same folder as Pancake. But you can move them to another disk, and configure Pancake to use the new ones. Just click in the boxes and Pancake will bring up a dialog box that will enable you to find the relevant folders.

Settings - The most important folder. This is where the users are kept, and where the System Prefs and Port Prefs are located.

Users - This is the folder where Pancake will create folders for every user on the BBS. Important information particular to each user is stored in their folder. Users can also manipulate data in their folders, much like unix's home directories.

News - This is the folder where Pancake stores the newsgroups. Pancake creates folders inside the News folder for each news group. The folders are created on a heirachial basis. For example the news group comp.sys.mac.comm will create a folder called comp, inside that will be a folder called sys, inside that mac and inside that comm.

Help - Inside the Help folder can be text files created by you that will act
as help files when a user request help on any subject. These are plain text files with the names of the file being used by the system to select which help file the use wants. See the section on the Help System for more information.

Files - This is where all your files/folders for the bbs goes. To include files or folders on remote volumes just include an alias to it.

Bulletins - Files in here are displayed to users once. It displays a file if file Modified Date > User Last Logon Date.

Extern - Files in here are used to extend the functionality of Pancake.

Logs - All logging files are put here.

Mail and News

Mail and News allows you setup the headers for outgoing internet mail/posts, and also allows you to setup the access levels required to do each. If you are not using Pancake with UUCP or TCP/IP, skip this section.

Domain - This is the full domain name of you BBS.

News From - This is percent subsituted to get the "From: " line in outgoing news posts. To ensure that the correct headers are generated, this line differs from many UUCP set ups. The line correctly set up should read%A@<you full domain name>, ie for my site it reads "%A@source.manawatu.gen.nz". You can optionally add a (%W) to the end as shown above (It will add the real name of the user in paranathesis. Read up on percent variables before changing this.

Mail From - This is percent subsituted to get the "From: " line in outgoing MAIL posts. In almost all cases this should be the same as the News From above.

Time Zone - This is the time zone you are in. EST, PST, or -500 forms are accepted.

Post Acs - This is the minimum access level that a user must have to post news to a usenet group.

Send Mail Acs - The level of access required to send Email.

Receive Mail Acs - Like send mail, however this is the required access level to receive mail.

UUCP

This is some information that the system uses when exporting news and mail via UUCP. You should have an understanding of how UUCP works to set this up.

Post Locally - This is normally checked. If not checked outgoing UUCP posts will not be posted to the local system. You will want the checkbox off if you are using NNTP Sucker, beacause the outgoing posts are received back after posting, and if on it would make a duplicate post. UUPC on the other hand will not send you a post that orginated from your system, so you will want it on for that.

UUCP Node - This is the name of your uucp node

UUCP Mail - If checked internet mail will be send via UUCP (Pancake will try to send it TCP/IP first if you have that setup).

Mail Service - This is the name of the smart host that your email is gated from. Do NOT place the full domain name here, it will be a simple node name which may be different from their node name.This name must be the same as the one set up in UUPC. If you do not understand the setting up of UUPC find someone who does.

Launch UUCP - Setup this to launch UUCP every hour, 2 hours, etc.

Hangup on users - If checked when it is time to do UUCP it will hangup on the users. If not checked, it will launch UUCP after all users are off.

Launch Sucker - Setup this to launch NNTP Sucker every hour, 2 hours, etc.

Sucker Hangup - The same as Hangup on users except it's for Sucker.

TCP/IP

This is the information the system uses to do STMP and POP via MacTCP.
If you do not have MacTCP up and running leave both check boxes unchecked.

STMP Mail - If checked the system will send mail via STMP. If for some reason it can't send the mail via STMP, and UUCP Mail is checked above, it will try that second.

STMP Relay - This is the site STMP Mail sends any mail to. Set this like you would Eudora.

Use POP Server - If checked any time a user logs in Pancake will try and do a POP retrieve from POP Site with the name of that user as the POP Name, and the password of the user as the POP Password. (Also make sure the POP checkbox for that user is checked in the user edit).

POP Site - This is the site the POP Server is located on.

POP3 - Check if the server is a POP3 server (most often the case). If not checked Pancake will do a POP2 retrieve.

POP Opens PPP - If checked the POP retrieve will open the PPP connection if not already open. If not checked it will simply skip a POP retrieve if the PPP connection is not active. If POP is already up it will get it like normal regardless of this setting.

POP Port - The TCP/IP port contacted for POP. Usual settings are 109 for POP2, and 110 for POP3.

Telnet Acs - Users must have this access to do a telnet.

Finder Outside Acs - Users must have this access to do a finger to a remote site.

Port Sharing

Port Sharing is where you setup the information Pancake uses for it's port negotiation. All port numbers are refering to pancake's ports. The port numbers are the exact same as ones from Port Prefs. Only ports that are of type Serial should be used. (All the port negotiation is with Serial ports).

Sucker Port - When sucker is run which port must be free? If you use a port for both dial-in serial, and MacTCP, set sucker port to that. If you have a dedicated internet connection, or use a dedicated serial port for MacTCP, set the sucker port to None.

UUCP Port - When UUCP is run which port must be free? If you use a port for both dial-in serial, and UUCP, set uucp port to that. If you have a dedicated uucp connection, or use a dedicated serial port for uucp set the uucp port to None.

Term Port - This is used to release and grab back the serial port when you choose to launch the terminal program. If you use the terminal on a dedicated serial port set this to None.

PPP Enable - Pancake has the ability to see when MacPPP or FreePPP is up or down. If you wish for port negotiation with MacPPP or FreePPP then check this.

PPP Port - The port that MacPPP or FreePPP shares with Pancake. Only used if PPP Enable is set.

MacPPP - Set this for MacPPP connection checking.

FreePPP - Set this if you are using FreePPP.

Open PPP - If checked and a user tries to send a mail, or telnet with PPP down this will start it up.

Close PPP - If Pancake started up PPP with this checked it will close it before continuing

Hard Close - When closing if this is checked Pancake will perform a hard close. See MacPPP for more information. Not used for FreePPP.

Chat

These are all the different options for users requesting chat's with you. SOS is like requesting a chat but with a different sound (to get your attention).

Chat Sound - Sound to use when user requests a chat

Speak Reason - If selected the Speech Manager will speak the reason for chat.

SOS Sound - Default sound to use when user types SOS at main menu. SOS can take a parameter to play a different sound.

Excuse Before - If set Pancake will first display the Chat Excuse if the sysop is not available, and ask to send feedback. If not set a reason will be asked and then it will display the Chat Excuse.

Chat Acs - User must have this access to do chat.

SOS Acs - User must have this access to do SOS.

Commands

Commands allows you to set the access level allowed to perform any command. If the user doesn't have access Pancake will act as if it doesn't know what the user is talking about.

Main Menu - List of 1 or more commands to limit access to. (These will also be enforced for the Hotkey menus).

Execute Acs - The access needed to execute any of the main menu commands listed.

New - Adds a new comand entry.

Delete - Deletes the selected command entry

Time Limits

Time Limits allows you to set up different time limits for different access levels.
Up to 15 can be declared. The key is the entry that the user has access to with the greatest amount of time is the one that is used.

Acs - Access level users needs to meet

Time Per Call - Amount of minutes user is allowed to spend on the BBS for a single call.

Time Per Day - Minutes user is allowed each day cumulative.

New - Add new time limit entry.

Delete - Deletes selected time limit entry.

Tracker

These are settings for registering your Pancake BBS with the Pancake Tracker. The Tracker keeps track of the bbs' running pancake and their IP addresses. This allows you to run a bbs with a dynamic IP address (eg. a temporary PPP connection).

Enable Tracker - Turns on the registration with the Pancake Tracker. It only will send if a internet connection has been established.

Tracker Name - The domain name or IP for the Pancake Tracker. Right now it will always be mageetech.tusd.k12.az.us

Mins To Live - This is how long the tracker will wait before receiving another packet. Set this high 30 - 60 for a bbs that stays up long times, and doesn't change addresses (T1 connections). Set this low 1-10 for dynamic PPP connections. Pancakes sends a UDP packet every half the time specified.

Use Domain Name - If checked it will send your domain name specified in Mail and News instead of your current IP address.

Port - Port to telnet to.

Description - Little blurb put on the Tracker.

Pict URL - Tracker will soon be able to put in a gif or jpeg by your bbs in the Tracker too.

Misc

These are the miscellanious settings that don't fit anywhere else.

Print Acs - The access a user must have to Rrint

Redirect - The access a user must have to Redirect.

Passwords Echo X's - If checked Pancake will echo X's for passwords instead of echoing nothing. This is a little bit less security (people see how long your password is), but is more understandable for kids (in a educational lab setting).

Show Hotkey Menu First - This will automatically display the hotkey menu instead of requiring the user to press ?. Intended for educational lab setting.

Show Always - Always shows the Hotkey Menu, very annoying, but also intended just for kids.

Proccessor Time - Setting this higher will increase the performance of the BBS, but will degrade the time background processes get.

File Admin - The file section has a few (only one is implemented currently) administration features (accessed by the / key). This is the Acs needed to use these features.

7. Groups

Name - These are the message/news groups that you have on your system, take care in what you name them, especially if you are going to support any network groups from usenet and/or fidonet.

Read Acs - Security level required to be able to read a group

Post Acs - Security level required to be able to post a message to the group, this is generally higer than reading

Keep - Number of messages to keep, this may vary from 1 to more than 10000

Type -
Local - These groups are local to the BBS and are NOT exported to usenet or fidonet.

Usenet - These groups are exported/imported via UUCP to usenet. Make sure you only have valid news groups.

Fidonet - These groups are exported/imported via a fido gateway such as Tabby/Formula1/etc to fidonet. Make sure you only have valid news groups. (Currently TabbyNet export is not implemented, bug me to implement if you feel it is important).

Allow Anon - If checked this will allow users to "dis-own" a posting by placing anonymous rather than their name as the sender (Not implemented yet).

Default Joined - If checked it will be added to every new users join file.

8. Sections

File Sections is where you configure the settings for the file section of Pancake.

Name - The name of the file section.

Look Acs - Access needed to look at files, or even see directory listed.

Upload - Access neeed to upload files.

Download - Acess needed to download files.

Re-Scan - Pancake will look through all folders and aliases to folders found in the Files folder of Pancake. Any that are found and are not already entered will be entered. Old sections not found will NOT be deleted. (This allows you to have multiple CD-Roms, with only one in at a time. Make an alias to each CD-Rom, and do a seperate Rescan for each CD, and it'll include all the sections).

Delete - Deletes a file section.

9. Menus

Menu Editor is where you setup the hotkey menu, and any other sub menus.

The first scrolling list is the menu, the second list is all the defined keys.

Menu Prompt - The desired prompt for the menu.

Command Key - The one letter (optionally prefixed with a /) command to execute a main menu command.

Enabled - Users allowed to select (makes it easy to temporarily unselect something).

Main Menu - The one letter command is replaced with this and run as if it was typed in the Waffle style shell.

Description - The description for a particular command when the user presses ?, only used for menus other than the hotkey.

Execute Acs - Access needed to press the command.

10. Commands

These are all the commands you can put in the "Main Menu" field of the Menu Editor or you can type any of these in the Waffle shell.

MAN give help on command
OFF logs user off (If hotkey does Are You Sure)
USERS lists all users
FEEDBACK sends Feedback to user 'Sysop'
RN read news
READ read only selected group
REDIRECT take control over first available serial port
ONELINER send onliner to another node
JOIN setup rn groups (can take parameter)
UNJOIN ditto
MULTICHAT multi-node chat
CHAT request chat with the sysop
SOS play selected sound (or no sound if user doesn't have access)
CD.. go up one directory
CD change directory
WAFFLE if user is in hotkey makes a temp waffle shell
SELECT prompt for newsgroup to make current
PROMPT change prompt to parameter
SHOW lists last 240 lines of a log file
LAST shows last 10 lines of the callers file
TAIL "filename" [lines] shows last lines of a file
SZ send file with zmodem
SY send file with ymodem
SX send file with xmodem
RZ receive file with zmodem
RY receive file with ymodem
RX receive file with xmodem
ACS tool for testing out ACS strings
REEXT tool for debugging externals (or installing them remotely) re-loads
all externals
SHELL change shell
EDITOR change editor
PASSWORD change password
PAGE page sysop's beeper
UUCP launches the uucp app must have a priv of 9!
SUCK launches the suck app must have priv 9
ONLINE lists users online
FINGER finger a local user, or a remote one if tcp is up
TELNET telnet to remote site paramters are: site:port [-l filename] send-
expect sequence
POST post to local group
MAIL read mail
GETPOP retrives POP mail from server
[ or < flip through groups
] or > flip through groups the other way
FILES goes to file section
EDIT edit files in home directory
? shows menu
HELP goes into help
INFO goes into info
CLS clear screen
LOGIN re-login
TYPE or CAT lists a file
MD or MKDIR make a directory
DEL or RM delete a file
DIR or LS get directory of current directory
EXIT or QUIT logs User Out (If user is in temp Waffle Shell returns to
hotkey)
BYE or /O or LOGOUT or LOGOFF Logs user off

A few other things can be called from a command:

1. The names of externals are compared to current command, if one matches
the external is started.
2. Menus are searched, if one on the names matches the current command, the
menu is switched to.
3. If User has a "Aliases" file in their directory and an entry for current
command the alias is resolved (ie a new command is run)
4. Groups are searched to see if user is selecting a new current message
group

11. Acs's

Acs Dependant Texts

Text files (The ones in the Open Special) can be configured to display different parts depending on acs'. Just enclose your acs in a braket [] pair with a preceding tilde ~. Pancake will display anything after the ~[] up to the next ~[] or end of file, if and only if the acs returns true.

For example:

Good ~[!t1200]Morning~[t1200!t1800]Afternoon~[t1800]Night~[], local time ~%T.

Aliases

This is an example Aliases file:

lynx telnet unix5 login: ferrari word: pass % "lynx %i"
unix telnet unix5 login: ferrari word: pass % "%i"
unix2 telnet unix2 login: ferrari word: pass % "%i"
alamut telnet alamut.st.hmc.edu Login ferrari word: pass

The first word MUST be in all lower caps. This is the main menu command to be aliased. The Aliases file must be put in the home directory of a user. It is only used for that user. There is also a GLOBAL Aliases file that is put in the Settings folder. Everything after the first word is what is replaced by the command. For example, if you type "lynx www.bob.com" the first alias will translate it into "telnet unix5 login: ferrari word: pass % "lynx www.bob.com". The example telnets to a remote machine

There is a second type of Aliases file, it it used in the Help directory.
This is an example:

faqs Info:Faqs
1 DocOne
2 DocTwo

It does the same thing as the first Aliases file. The first word is replaced with the last two or more words. It like all Aliases and Nicknames files must have the first word in all lower caps.

Example global "Nicknames" file:

1 sysop
postmaster sysop
sysop ferrari

Multi-Chat Actions

Only a couple default actions are provided with Pancake, but you are free to add as many as you want. Actions are used in Multi-Chat for example:

Ferrari> kiss bart
You take Bart into your arms and passionately kiss him.
Ferrari > kill bart
You take out your sword and slice Bart into little tiny pieces.

UUCP Editable Texts

Str# 208 Controls the filenames used for the 3 files produced.
Text 201-204 Controls the contents of the files. Modify these only if you have read up on UUCP and know what you are doing.

Prompts

Str# 200-211 Can be modified to display new prompts, status lines, etc. It will eventually have it's own editor (tried to write one once but it didn't work, and had to trash it). Edit them in the Strings file with ResEdit.

Default User

If you wish new users to be setup differently than the default, create a user called "Default". Set up the user like you want each new user to be. Whenever a new user logs in, the Default user is copied to make the default settings for that user. You can use this for example to make all new users have a Waffle style shell. Make sure the Default user has a non-ovious password, so people don't hack it. Or use a lowercase password which makes it impossible for someone to login.

Cookies

Cookies are quotes, often humorous, that are displayed randomingly when a %C percent is used. The format of the Cookies file is up to 255 char of a quote ending with a | char.

Example Cookies file:

Anyone having fun? Please pass the fun!|
Taco Bell is not a mexican phone company|
"Oh, great altar of passive entertainment, bestow upon me thy discordant images at such speed as to render linear thought impossible!"
-Calvin and Hobbes|