(c) 2020 - 1998 by David Ranch KI6ZHD
3 LinPac controls
3.1 Keyboard
3.2 Entering commands
3.3 Initiating a connection
3.4 Receiving and sending files
3.5 Remote commands
3.6 Character encoding
3.7 Huffman compression
4 Variables
4.1 Special variables
5 Station database
5.1 The station.data file format
5.2 The 'Name' command
5.3 Using the database
6 About macros
6.1 Creating macros
6.2 Commands used in macros
6.3 Special system macros
8 Standard applications
8.1 File transfer protocols
8.2 Automatic password generation
8.2.1 Login passwords
8.2.2 Sysop and general use passwords
8.3 Utilities for mail exchange
8.4 Mail client
8.5 Logbook
10 Copying
Appendix A: List of LinPac commands
Appendix B: Linpac FAQ / Questions and Answers / Getting more help
Appendix C: Errata
All functions described in this manual match the standard configuration that comes with the distribution package.
LinPac
in the running user's home
directory. This directory will contain the user's personal LinPac configuration
settings. After creating this directory, LinPac asks for basic callsign, port
and other information and prepares a useable configuration for you. An example setup
dialog is as shown, where we are using the bogus call "n0call" logging into
the local home BBS "n0ary-1":
$ linpac Hello dear user. You seem to run LinPac for the first time. LinPac has to create a directory in your home directory for storing your personal configuration. For creating your personal configuration please answer following questions: Your callsign: n0call Enter your home BBS callsign with SSID : n0ary-1 Enter the name of port to connect N0ARY-1 d710 Enter the digipeaters used to connect N0ARY-1 or press enter when no digipeaters are used: Enter the full hierarchical address of N0ARY-1 (e.g. #MOR.CZE.EU) #NCA.CA.USA.NOAM Thank you, N0CALL Please wait a moment for creating your personal configuration Installation done. Press ENTER to run LinPac
The above information is then stored in the $HOME/LinPac/macro/init.mac
file as
various 'functions'. These functions are based on the very simple interpreted
language (actually it's not a language but something like the batch files in
DOS). In the LinPac/macro directory are all the scripts written in this
language. The init.mac macro is loaded at start of loading Linpac and contains
the commands to setup the callsigns and other settings. You can modify this file
to change the initial configuration of LinPac. Other macros can be run in LinPac
as desired or required. The simplest case of a macro is a normal text file that is
just printed to the screen (or sent to the remote peer) when executed. The language
is described in chapter 6.
You may also want to review or change following macro files:
After this you should be able to make your first connection.
After automatically running the LinPac setup routine, the main screen should appear. If you see a segmentation fault, please see Linux AX.25 issues with long predictable network interface names for a work around. Moving on, in Linpac's main interface in the standard configuraion, the screen is divided into five parts (described from the top of the screen to the bottom):
LinPac is mostly driven by commands. The commands are entered using the editor and must start with a colon (':') in the first column. Lines that don't begin with a colon are sent to the peer, if connected.
LinPac allows up to eight connections to be made simultaneously. For each connection one channel is used. You can switch between channels by pressing the F1 - F8 keys. Each has its own QSO window, status line and editor. The channel list and the monitor are common across all the channels.
There is a special channel invoked by pressing F10. This channel has no QSO window and doesn't allow making a connection. The text written is sent out immediately using UI frames (beacon).
Global
F1 - F8 : switch to channel 1 - 8
F10 : switch to monitor
Alt-X : end of LinPac
QSO Window
PgUp, PgDn, ctrl-R, ctrl-V : scroll one page
up / down
ctrl-E, ctrl-X : scroll one line up / down
ctrl-B : skip to end of buffer
Editor
Cursor keys, Home, End, Backspace, Del
: text editing
ctrl-Y : delete current line
Enter : send current line
Some applications (e.g. mailer) can use the whole screen. Each channel can run only one such application at a time. It's possible to switch to this application using Alt-<channel_number> (e.g. Alt-5) and switch back to terminal using F1 - F10.
Examples:
:color red blue
- calls the 'color' command with two arguments
- 'red' and 'blue' :color 'light red'
or :color "light red"
- calls the 'color' command with one argument
'light red'
Most of the commands work on the currently selected channel. If you want to execute the command on some other channel, you can enter the number of the channel this way. For example, to make an OUTGOING connection to destination OK0PAB on Linpac channel 5:
:connect@5 OK0PAB
In this case the 'connect' command is executed on channel 5.
The complete list of commands with descriptions is available in Appendix A.
:Connect
command is used. Just
switch to the channel you want to use by pressing F1 - F8 and
enter the following command:
:connect CALLSIGN
Replace the CALLSIGN with the real callsign of the station you want to connect. The command can be abbreviated to the first letter only. Example:
:c OK0PAB
This command will initiate the connecting sequence to OK0PAB. To close
the connection, you can use the :Disconnect
command by entering
:d
When your system has multiple radio ports, you can specify its name before the callsign like this:
:c 2:OK0PAB
This command will try to connect OK0PAB via port 2. When no port name is
specified, the default one is used. Initially the default port is
the first port in /etc/axports
(your system AX.25 port configuration
file). If you want to change the default port, just use the command :port
.
:port 2
This will change the default port name to '2'. In some cases it is useful
to set another default port for some selected channels. For this the variable
CHN_PORT
can be used (see chapter 4). When set,
the content of this variable overrides the default port selection for
the particular channel. For example, when you set the variable for channel
4 using
:set CHN_PORT@4 1
the port '1' will be used as the default one for the channel 4. For other
channels, the previously set default port will be used.
:Write <filename>
The incoming text will be saved until you stop the saving using
:Write off
For receiving a plain binary file, the corresponding command :WBin
can be used. This way of transferring binary files is not recommended; use
the autobin or yapp protocol instead.
The following commands are available for sending files:
:rprg <filename>
- sends the file using the Autobin
protocol :yput <filename>
- sends the file using the YAPP
protocol :rbin <filename>
- sends the binary file (no protocol
- not recommended) :read <filename>
- semds the text file
The remote command must start with the //
sequence. For example
if some connected user sends you the text '//info
' your terminal
will send back the station information.
The remote commands can be disabled using the command :remote off
and enabled by :remote on
. You can also specify that only some commands
be available for remote users. The default list of available remote commands
is defined in the init.mac file (the DEF_RCMD line). It is also
possible to enable various commands for each user. This is described
in chapter 5.
*.ctt
in the LinPac home directory.
All known encodings must be defined in the file called encodings
in the LinPac home directory. This file contains a single line for each encoding
that specifies its alias (name which will identify the encoding in
LinPac), encoding name (an official name such as iso-8859-1) and optionally
the name of the translation table file to be used (without the extension
.ctt
).
Note that LinPac does not support multi-byte encodings such as UTF-8 or other Unicode encodings.
The current encoding can be switched using the :TRanslate command separately for each channel. To specify the default encoding for each user you can add the line
ENC=<alias>
to the appropriate record in the station database. (The station database is described in chapter 5.) When no encoding is specified for the user, the default one is used. The default encoding alias is stored in the DEF_ENC@0 variable which is set in the macro init.mac.
When the conversion table is not specified in the encodings file LinPac only changes the name of currently used encoding but doesn't provide any conversion. However some applications (such as QLinPac which works in unicode) are able to do their own conversions.
The line compression in LinPac is activated using the :comp
command.
The compression is switched on using :comp on
and switched off
using :comp off
. To ensure that the compression is activated or
deactivated on both ends of the link simultaneously LinPac sends the remote
command :comp 1
or :comp 0
to the other station automatically.
The arguments 1 and 0 have the same effect as on
and off,
but they don't cause sending any command to the other station.
In the case in which the remote system doesn't support the :comp
command
it's necessary to switch on the compression on the remote system manually
and then use the:comp 1
command in LinPac.
Each channel has its own set of variables. Some of the variables are used to store the configuration data. The user can create and remove variables and change the values of existing variables using following commands:
:set <variable> <value>
- sets the
value of the variable. If the variable doesn't exist, a new one is created.
:get <variable>
- prints the value of the variable
:unset <variable>
- removes the variable
Some examples:
:set NAME John
:set WHOLE_NAME 'John Big'
:get NAME
:unset NAME
The name of the variable can contain the specification of the channel.
For example the variable NAME@5
is the variable 'NAME
'
defined on channel 5.
When LinPac finds the character '%
' followed by the name of variable,
it automatically replaces this text with the value of the variable. Considering the
previous example, the text %NAME
will be replaced with John.
%V
- LinPac version (e.g. 0.26) %C
- The callsign of connected station %N
- The name of connected station (when known), else replaced
by the contents of %U macro %Y
- Channel callsign (mycall) %K
- Current channel number %T
- Current time %D
- Current date %B
- Audible bell %Z
- Current time zone %U
- The text used when the name is unknown. This can contain
other macros (typicaly %C). %P
- The port number %M
- The number of connected users %A
- The time since the last operator activity %_
- End of line (CR) %<
- Contents of the last line received, this is cleared by
reading %#number
- Replaced by a character with an ASCII value
<number> (e.g. %#27 means ESC) %(command)
- Replaced by the command result. %[expression]
- Replaced by the result of mathematical
expression
Variables for use in macros only:
%R
- the number of macro arguments (up to 9) %0
- the name of the macro %1
- %9
- macro arguments
For example try to write following text in the editor and press enter:
The time is %T and the date is %D.
station.data
' file and can be
changed using the normal text editor or using the LinPac :Name
command.
<item_name>=<value>
A typical station information paragraph might look like this:
[OK0NMA]
NAME=PC/FlexNet Brno
TYPE=FLEXNET
LOC=JN89HE
QRG=144.8125 MHz
SYSNUM=85946
There are no mandatory items; the user can add various items depending on what information he wants to store. The current LinPac distribution uses following item names for standard information:
TYPE - The type of the station. For standard stations the types FLEXNET, THENET, FBB, BAYBOX, DIEBOX, TNOS, JNOS, DXC and TERM for user terminals are recomended, but you can add any other type.
LANG - The language to communicate with the station. This is currently
supported by macros only. When this item is set, LinPac will try to
find the macro in the directory macro/<LANG>/
.
NICKNAME - The nickname of the operator.
The standard LinPac configuration also uses these item names:
ansi
' is set,
LinPac switches to the ansi-color mode after connecting this station. The :Name
command is used to modify the station database. Running
the command without arguments results printing the name of currently connected
station. Arguments can be used to modify the data:
<name>
- modify the NAME item -l <locator>
- modify the LOC item -t <type>
- TYPE -L <language>
- LANG -n <nickname>
- NICKNAME -s <item>=<value>
- modify other item
The command 'Name -i
' prints all information about the station.
When you need to change the information about a station other than the connected
station, add the argument -c <callsign>
.
Examples:
:Name David
:Name -c KI6ZHD -l CM97ai David
:Name -i
STN_<database_item_name>
containing the values
of the items. These variables can be used in macros as described below.
macro/<command_name>.mac
. It's
possible to define an abbreviated form of the command; this is described
in chapter 7. There are two ways to define a macro:
a) Text macros
This way is suitable for commands which are intended to produce a larger
text output (for example station information). When executing this macro,
each line that doesn't start with ':' is printed (sent out). All commands
must start with the colon. This is suitable for modifying the text output
using the IF ~ ELSE ~ ENDIF commands or for including some other commands.
b) Command macros
A command macro must start with the line
:MACRO <name>
Each line of a command macro is interpreted as a command (doesn't start
with the colon and doesn't need to start at the begining of line). Text
output is provided by the 'echo' command. This way is more synoptical and
allows including comments that must start with the sequence ';;
'
and end at the end of the line.
A macro is called with its name. When the first arguments starts with
the '@' symbol the macro is executed from the specified label. For example
the command :convers @SEND
will execute the macro 'convers.mac'
from the label 'SEND' (see next chapter to see how to define the label).
MACRO [name]
Start of the command script definition (see previous section).
LABEL <label_name>
Creates a label with specified name. In the command scripts the notation
:<label_name> can be used.
GOTO <label_name>
Jump to specified label.
IF ~ ELSE ~ ENDIF
Conditional commands. There are two ways to specify a condition:
IF <condition>
.
.
(commands to be executed when the condition is true)
.
.
ELSE
.
.
(commands to be executed when the condition is false)
.
.
ENDIF
The ELSE part is not necessary - the IF ~ ENDIF notation is possible.
IF (<condition>) command
The parentheses are necessary in this case.
a) The solution using a text macro (the comments are actually not allowed in the text macros, they are here for explanation only)
:if %(exist STN_NICKNAME) == 1 ;; when NICKNAME is defined
Hello %STN_NICKNAME
;; greet with the nickname
:else
;; else (not defined)
Hello %N !
;; greet with the name
:endif
;;(following commands are always executed)
You have connected to %Y at %T. ;; Say your callsign and current time
b) The solution using a command macro
:macro GREETING ;; start the command macro
if %(exist STN_NICKNAME) == 1 ;; when NICKNAME is defined
echo Hello %STN_NICKNAME ;; greet with the
nickname
else
;; else (not defined)
echo Hello %N !
;; greet with the name
endif
;; (following commands are always executed)
echo You have connected to %Y at %T. ;; Say your callsign and current
time
There are some special macros that are executed automaticaly by LinPac in some cases:
cinit.mac - This is always executed when a connection is established. The distribution version of this macro sets the channel parameters in order to configure station settings from the station database (allowed remote commands, i/o encoding, terminal type) and executes the logbook command to sign the start of a connection. LinPac always passes two arguments to this macro. The first (%1) argument is the callsign of the connected station and the second (%2) argument is the callsign of the previously connected station that provides the connection, or empty in case of direct connection.
ctext.mac - This macro is executed when some station connects to the terminal. It should print some greeting text. No arguments are passed.
cexit.mac - This is always executed when a connection closes. The distribution version of this macro just executes the logbook command to sign the end of the connection and clears the list of allowed remote commands. There is always one argument passed by LinPac (%1), containing the callsign of the disconnected station.
A new command can be represented by a macro or by an external program
(standard linux program or special LinPac application). Macros are placed
in the $LINPACDIR/macro
directory and external programs are placed
in the $LINPACDIR/bin
directory. In both of these directories is
the file 'commands
' that contains the list of commands in that directory.
You should specify here the name of the file, the name of the command in LinPac
(use upper case to specify the mandatory part of the command). It's
not necessary to include the macros here if you don't want to define the
abbreviation.
In case of external programs, it is also possibile to specify program flags. Currently the following flags are supported:
At present LinPac supports two protocols for transferring files:
Usage of these protocols is described in chapter 3.4.
LinPac can also automatically save incomming 7+ files. After saving all parts of a file LinPac tries to call the '7plus' program to decode the file. Received 7+ files are not removed automatically.
LinPac provides automatic replies to the login authorization requests for the following systems: F6FBB BBS (VE2BLY C_FILTER), BAYBOX, TNOS (numeric MD5). Each station which requests a login password must have an entry in the station database containing at least following fields:
A
TYPE=<station_type>
(FBB, BAYBOX or TNOS) LOGINPW=<login_password>
PWPROMPT=<BBS_prompt>
BBS_prompt
is the text which the BBS sends when requesting
the authorization. Usually it looks like 'Password>' or 'OK0XYZ>'.
LinPac provides automatic authorization to the following systems: F6FBB BBS (MD2 password), FLEXNET (older versions, the 'magic' numbers system and newer TheNet-like system), THENET and BAYBOX. Each station you want to authenticate with must have an entry in the station database. For password generation, the following fields must be set:
TYPE=<station_type>
PWD=<your_password> or
SYSNUM=<magic_number>
Known station types are:
In case of FBB the authorization algorithm can be chosen by setting the MD field in the station database:
MD=5
- this value will select the MD5 algorithm MD=2
- this value will select the MD2 algorithm
When no value is set, MD2 algorithm is used.
After connecting to the station you want to authenticate with, the authorization
sequence begins with the :PW
command. LinPac will send the authorization
command to the station and tries to answer the authorization request using
your password. If the password is correct, authorization should finish successfully.
The PW command accepts the following parameters:
:PW [<command> [<system> [<password>]]]
where
<command>
is the command to be sent to the remote
station to start the authorization sequence (sys by default)<system>
is one of the above-mentioned supported
systems; this system is used instead of the one specified in station database<password>
is the password that will be used instead
of the one specified in the station databaseIt's recommended that you create simple macros for frequently used authorizations that require special arguments to the PW command.
LinPac contains support for exchanging messages with remote Kantronics PBBSs as well as F6FBB BBS systems. This support utilizies some tools from the ax25mail-utils so please install that package first. THe next step would be to configure Linpac and ax25mail-utils's configuration settings with the following variables either in Linpac's channel 0 or in Linpac's init.mac file:
Example #1: Kantronics KPC3:
d710:AA6WK-1
means use the d710
AX.25 port as defined
in the /etc/ax25/axports
configuration file and connect to the PBBS AA6WK-1
.
It's important to note that the callsigns in Linpac are CaSe-SeNsItIvE so make sure these
two variables use the SAME case.AA6WK.#NCA.CA.USA.NOAM
.To set the variable while in Linpac, the :SET
command can be used. You can also
put this same line (but without the colon) in Linpac's init.mac file:
:set HOME_TYPE "PBBS"
:set HOME_BBS@0 "d710:AA6WK-1"
:set HOME_ADDR "AA6WK.#NCA.CA.USA.NOAM"
The recommended place to set this variables is in the startup macro init.mac
.
The default version of this macro contains an example of setting these variables.
After setting these variables, the following commands are available:
Example #2:
kiss:OK0PAB OK0NMA
means use the kiss
AX.25 port
as defined in the /etc/ax25/axports
configuration file and connec to the BBS
OK0PAB
via the digipeater OK0NMA
. It's important to note that the
callsigns are CaSe-SeNsItIvE in Linpac so make sure these two variables use the SAME case.OK0PAB.#MOR.CZE.EU
.To set the variable while in Linpac, the :SET
command can be used. You can also
put this same line (but without the colon) in Linpac's init.mac file:
:set HOME_TYPE "FBB"
:set HOME_BBS@0 "kiss:OK0PAB OK0NMA"
:set HOME_ADDR "OK0PAB.#MOR.CZE.EU"
The recommended place to set this variables is in the startup macro init.mac
.
The default version of this macro contains an example of setting these variables.
After setting these variables, the following commands are available:
Now you need to configure the ax25mail-utils program by editing the /etc/ax25/axgetlist.conf file. The following example is to support connecting to PBBSes in example #1 above:
[AA6WK-1] MYCALL N0CALL BBSCALL AA6WK-1 BBSPORT d710 CMD_LIST LO +;L CMD_LIST_FROM LO +;L $ CMD_DISC B HEADER_LINES 1 FORMAT <NUM> <FLAGS> <SIZE> <TO> <FROM> <DATE> <TIME> <SUBJ> DATEFMT mm/dd/yyyy BPFPOS 1--
Each remote BBS gets it's own section, unique callsign, and any other specific settings to support the sending and receiving of messages.
NOTE: the associated ax25mail-utils /etc/ax25/axgetmail.conf
configuration file
NOT currently mentioned in this documentation is only used for remote "FBB" setups. That
support is currently not documented yet.
Urgent: Linpac's packet messaging support is still a work in progress so some quirks exist for now:
/var/ax25/ulistd/
. In
the future, this filename should include the -SSID#
/var/ax25/mail/<callsign-SSID>
/var/ax25/mail/<callsign-SSID>
mkdir LinPac/mail/<callsign-SSID>
ln -s LinPac/mail/<callsign-SSID> LinPac/mail/<callsign>
Now that the basics (and workarounds) are setup, let's fetch any pending messages for you on your configured remote BBS system. Enter in the following command on the Linux prompt (this example is following example #1 above):
axgetlist -b AA6WK-1
NOTE: The above Linux command must be run as the same Unix user that is running the Linpac program.
The axgetlist utility will now fetch an index of all messages on the remote BBS system and
store this list in /var/ax25/ulistd/<bbs-name>
(all SSIDs are currently stripped).
While this Linux command line-based index capture occurs, the packet traffic will NOT show up in
Linpac's main send/receive UI as this command is running outside of Linpac. You will see the AX.25
traffic if you have Linpac's AX.25 traffic monitor working. The resulting downloaded index file
will then be used to manually download any messages with the getmsg
command or interact
with those remote messages them via Linpac's :mail interface
:GETMSG <message_number> [<message_number>
...]
From the main Linpac interface, this command reads specified messages from the remote BBS and
stores them into /var/ax25/mail/<BBS_callsign>/<message_number>
.
The file system directory for the remote BBS must be created before using this command (use upper
case for the BBS callsign). When the message number starts with the letter 'p', the message
is considered a PERSONAL one and it's killed automatically after download. You can specify the kill
command by setting the KILLPERS
variable in channel 0 using the # character for
the number of the message (e.g. :set KILLPERS@0 "kill #"
). When this variable is not
set, the default command K #
is used. This can also be set in the init.mac file.
:SP <address>
or :SB <address>
These commands can be used for creating new private messages or bulletins.
The usage is the same as for the FBB BBS.
:FORWARD
Transfers all new messages to the BBS.
:DELMSG <message_number>
Marks the message for delete.
:PACK
Deletes all marked messages.
This application allows full screen message editing and browsing. It provides
a graphical (Ncurses) frontend to mail exchange utilities. The mail client is started
by the :MAIL
command from Linpac's Channel 0 (aka.. the F1-key view). If
you run this command from any other Linpac channel, it won't display any messages!
After the mail interface opens, the H key shows the operating instructions.
In the INCOMING mail folder, you should see a list of messages available to download. Toggle the messages you want to fetch with the SPACEBAR and then use the "d" key to download those messages.
QRG
field of the station entry in station database.
If the station has no QRG defined, the value from the QRG@0
variable
is taken.
LinPac accepts following command line options:
-s : disable ax25spyd. Linpac normally tries to connect ax25spyd to get monitor data and when the connection fails, the listen utility is used instead. When -s swicth is used, LinPac doesn't try to connect ax25spyd at all.
-d : daemon mode. LinPac doesn't initialize the screen and runs in the background.
-p <string> : specify the arguments for the listen
program. Default value is ar8
.
LinPac is Copyright (c) 2002-2020 by David Ranch KI6ZHD and Copyright (c) 1998-2002 by Radek Burget, OK2JBG
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details (contained in file 'license').
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
ABort [address]
Cancels an action. Some commands are cancelled without specifying any address
(e.g. autobin). Addresses for some commands:
Action | Address for abort |
autobin RX/TX | autobin (or none) |
yapp RX/TX | yapp (or none) |
7plus autosave | 7plus (or none) |
read / RBin | read (or none) |
write / WBin | write (or none) |
forward | forward (mandatory) |
Most of the other commands don't need any address.
COMPress [on | off | 1 | 0]
Switch the link compression on or off. The arguments 1 and 0 have the
same meaning as on or off but the remote station is not synchronized.
Connect [port:]call [digi [digi...]]
Initiate a connection to the specified station.
Disconnect
Disconnect the channel.
Echo <text>
Print (send) the specified text.
FLUSH
Flush an output buffer (for example in scripts before disconnect or before
requesting input).
SYstem
End of LinPac, cancel all connections.
UNproto <text>
Send specified text in a UI frame.
VERsion
Print version information.
b) Commands for variable handling
SET <variable> <value>
Assign a value to the variable. If the variable doesn't exist, it is created.
UNSET <variable>
Remove the variable.
GET <variable>
Return the value of the variable. Usually is better to use macro %variable
(see file macros.txt)
EXISTs <variable>
Return 1 when variable exists, 0 when it doesn't exist.
c) information commands
ENVINFO
Display information about the variable environment.
ISCONnected
Return "1" when the channel is connected, "0" otherwise.
MAXCHannels
Return the number of LinPac channels (typically 8).
PCALL
Return the physical callsign of the connected station (first station connected)
UTCTime
Return current UTC time (operating system value).
d) setup commands
CBell [on|off]
When on, LinPac gives an audio signal when any station connects or
disconnects.
FIXPath [on|off]
When FIXPath=ON then the paths to files mentioned in the parameters are
ignored for external commands marked with a P flag. That means only the
default paths are usable.
INFOLEvel [0 | 1 | 2]
Set the mode of information line:
0 - off (no connection info)
1 - show importatnt informations
2 - show all available informations
KNax [on|off]
Enable/disable sound signal when data is received.
Language [language]
Sets the language used. Currently supported in scripts only.
LIsten [on|off]
When listen is off, all connect requests are ignored by LinPac. Default
value is on.
MBIN [on|off]
When switched on, the monitor shows binary data. When switched off, the
binary data is hidden and replaced with the <Binary data> information.
MONitor [on|off]
Enable/disable monitor function. This command is usually followed by STATLINE
and CHNLINE commands to adjust the screen layout.
MONPort <port_specification>
Monitor the specified port(s) only. Port specification is either a port name
(as defined in /etc/ax25/axports) or * for monitoring all the ports.
MYcall <call>
Change the channel callsign.
Port <port_name>
Set the default port for the Connect command. This is usually the first
port defined in the /etc/ax25/axports file but can be overriden here.
This can be overriden for particular channels by setting the CHN_PORT
variable for the channel (see chapter 3.3).
PRIVate [on|off]
Mark the channel as private. No stations are allowed to connect on this
channel.
RCMD [<command list>]
Specify the list of available external commands. Only commands
from this list are available to a remote user. It's possible to include abbreviated
commands. The remote commands can be executed only on a channel which provides
a connection. Adding the @ character just after the command name in
the list (e.g. GET@) means that the remote user is allowed to specify the
channel on which the command should be executed (e.g. //GET@5 NAME).
REMote [on|off]
Enable or disable remote commands.
RXFlow [on|off]
Enable or disable data RX. The data is received only when RXFlow
is enabled on all channels.
TIMEZone [zone]
Set the time zone. Used for information only, doesn't affect time.
UNDest [call]
The destination address for UI / unconnected frames. You can use up to a maximum
of seven digipeaters by by including the remote digis in a space delinated list. Here
is an example where you MUST include the double quotes to complete the proper syntax:
undest "DAVID KLPRC3 KBETH KBANN KBULN"
UNPort <port_name>
Set the default port for the UI frames / unproto traffic command or F10
unproto traffic area. This is usually the first port defined in the
/etc/ax25/axports file but can be overriden here. This can be overriden
for particular channels by setting the unport variable for the channel.
UNSrc [call]
The source callsign for UI frames.
WAtch <port | 0> <pattern> <command/text>
Start to watch the specified port (0 for all ports). When the specified pattern
is received then the specified command is executed or text is sent. (Commands
must start with a colon.)
e) Screen control commands
STATLINE <n>
Place the status line at the n-th line of the screen.
CHNLINE <n>
Place the channel line at the n-th line of the screen.
SWAPEDit
Replace the editor window with the QSO window and vice versa.
INFOLine <nm> <text>
Change the specified info line text. If the info line doesn't exist, it's
created.
REMOVEINFO <nm>
Remove the specified info line.
TRanslate <alias>
Switch I/O character translation (see chapter 3.6).
Running this command on channel 0 (unproto channel) switches the translation
table in all channels including the unproto channel and the monitor window.
TErm <type>
Set the terminal type. If 'ansi' is entered then ANSI-color control sequences
are interpreted.
SCRLimit <low-limit> <high-limit>
When the size of the window buffer exceeds the high limit, then the size
of the buffer is truncated to low-limit. The values are in bytes; default is
356352 and 524288 (384 and 512 kB).
DEFColor <color_name> <foreground_color> <background_color>
Change the color of some part of screen. The color_name parameter specifies
which part of screen to change. The following values can be used:
QSO_RX - received text in QSO window
QSO_TX - sent text in QSO window
QSO_INFO - local information in QSO window
QSO_CTRL - control characters in QSO window
ED_TEXT - normal text in editor
ED_INFO - command results in editor
ED_CTRL - control characters in editor
CI_NORM - channel info line - channel numbers
CI_SLCT - selected channel
CI_NCHN - normal channel
CI_PRVT - private channel
IL_TEXT - status lines
For specifying foreground and background colors, these values can be used:
BLACK, RED, GREEN, BROWN, BLUE, MAGENTA, CYAN, LIGHTGRAY
These additional colors can be used for foreground only:
DARKGRAY, LIGHTRED, LIGHTGREEN, YELLOW, LIGHTBLUE, LIGHTMAGENTA, LIGHTCYAN,
WHITE
f) system commands
RESULT <text>
Return the text as the result of a script.
g) string commands
STRMid <start> <length> <string>
Return the substring starting at <start> position and <length>
characters long.
STRLeft <length> <string>
Return the left substring of specified length.
STRRight <length> <string>
Return the right substring of specified length.
STRLen <string>
Return the length of the string.
STRPos <substring> <string>
Return the position of the substring in the string or -1 when the string
doesn't contain the substring.
UPCASE <string>
Return the string converted into upper case.
Compose [p|b] <address> [<subject>] [<filename>] Create either a Private message or a Bulletin packet message for the specified callsign or fully formatted packet BBS address. When no subject is specified, the user is prompted for the subject. When filename is specified, the message is created from the file, otherwise the text is read from the LinPac console.
CATCH -iol <pattern> <command/text>
Catch is the extended version of WAtch command. It scans one or
more data streams (-i = input stream, -o = output stream, -l = local info
stream) for the configured pattern. The pattern can contain * and ? wildcards.
The command can contain string $1
.. $n
which are replaced
with the string corresponding to the n-th wildcard in the pattern. The $0
string is replaced with the whole string that matches the pattern. See catch
-h
for extended parameters.
DELMSG <message_number>
Mark the packet message for deletion
FORWARD
Transmit all new packet messages to a BBS
GETMsg <numers>
Fetch packet messages from the configured BBS
JOIN <channel_number>
This is a form of a group chat feature where you can join the specified Linpac
channel to current Linpac channel. All data received on any of these channels is
automatically redirected to the other channel. Stop with :ABort join.
MAIL
Simple full-screen packet message client
MHeard
List of heard stations.
Name
Store station name or change a station database entry. (see Name -h)
PACK
Delete all packet messages marked for deletion
Read <filename>
Send the specified text file (see Wbin / Rbin commands for BINARY files)
RPRg <filename>
Transmit the specified file using Autobin protocol
RTt
Measure the round trip time to the other connected Linpac station. Think of this
as a "ping" time but results can be highly variable due to on-frequency packet
collisions, poor packet decodes, RF propogation, etc.
SENDFile [p|b] <file> <address> [<num_messages>]
This command takes a binary file, splits the file into num_messages
parts using 7plus and creates a separate packet message for each part.
When num_messages is not specified, the command tries to use
the variable BLOCK7P@0
which should contain the maximum size of
one block. If this variable is not set, blocks of 5 KB are created.
WBin / RBin
The same as Read / Write file transfers but to be used with BINARY files.
(See Read / Write commands for TEXT files)
Write <filename>
Start to write received TEXT to the file. (see Wbin / Rbin commands for
BINARY files)
YPUT <filename>
Transmit the file using the YAPP protocol.
Activity
Show the time since the last operator activity. This is also posted when
users first log into the Linpac system
Conv
Enter the conference.
Info
Print local station information.
Help
Print brief help information.
PW [<command> [<system> [<password>] ] ]
Start the authorization to the BBS or the node. See chapter 8.2.2 .
Quit
Send the quit text and disconnect.
Users / CStatus
Print list of connected users.
MACRO [name]
Start of the command script definition (see below).
LABEL <label_name>
Create a label with specified name. In the command scripts the notation
:<label_name> can be used.
GOTO <label_name>
Jump to specified label.
IF ~ ELSE ~ ENDIF
Conditional commands. There are two ways to specify a condition:
IF <condition>
.
.
(commands to be done when the condition is true)
.
.
ELSE
.
.
(commands to be done when the condition is false)
.
.
ENDIF
The ELSE part is not necessary - the IF ~ ENDIF notation is possible.
abbreviated notation (for one conditional command)
IF (<condition>) command
The parentheses are necessary in this case.
RETURN [<data>]
Abort the macro execution and return the data as a result.
SLEEP <seconds>
Pause the macro for specified time in seconds.
WAITFOR <condition>
Pause the macro until the condition is true.
monitor.screen
window*.screen
and restart Linpac
03/30/2020 - dranch
04/01/2019 - dranch
Last update: March 30 2020
Please report any errors to linpac@trinnet.net