🚀 go-pugleaf

-> questions I have are really basic.  I have seen programs that run in
-> "doors" but I don't know how they are implemented.  I first
-> envisioned a BBS which was shelling out to DOS to run a program but
-> this is quite impossible.  So my question is how do doors work, can

A shell door is quite possible.  We run a number of them.

-> anyone give me a basic definition to work with.  I already have all
-> the serial routines done.  My board will be primarily message and
-> file based, no games and such but I'm considering a version which
-> would provide this capability.  Help ?

A door is any comm-aware application that will run either
on a shell-to-DOS or through a batch file after the BBS
program has exited.

Most doors are written to support a variety of BBS systems
through the common user info formats: DOOR.SYS, PCBOARD.SYS,
etc.  These files pass specific information to the door app,
like carrier/connect rate, username, security level, time left,
etc.

A typical door batch file looks like:

TW
--
cd \PCB\TW2
tw2 /P P:\PCB\TW2\TW2PCB%node%.DAT
CD \NODES\YNODE%node%
board

or, for a (non-multiuser) "fossil" door:

LOD
---
@Echo off
p:
cd \pcb\door\lod
if exist user.onl goto onl
copy node.onl user.onl
bnu /L0:38400 /F+
game /Pp:\nodes\ynode%node% /CHECK
bnu /U
erase user.onl
:onl
if exist user.onl copy user.onl p:\nodes\ynode%node%\pcbdoor.txt
p:
cd \nodes\ynode%node%
board

where board is the master bbs batch file (for each node)

BOARD.BAT
---------
@echo off
if NOT "%ECHO%"=="" echo %ECHO%

  P:

  if exist remote.bat rename remote.bat remote.sys
  if exist event.bat rename event.bat event.sys
  if exist door.bat del door.bat
  if exist endpcb del endpcb

  p:\PCB\PCB145.EXE

  if exist remote.bat remote
  if exist door.bat door
  if exist event.bat event
  if exist endpcb goto end

  BOARD

:END


There are a number of door "libraries" available for various
languages: DORPCH38.ZIP, DRAME30.ZIP, etc..

Note, these comments apply to a bbs program that is capable of
running an arbitrary DOS program.  TBBS, MajorBBS and others do
not have this capability.
--
Channel 1 (R)   Cambridge, MA