PMDF Obsolete Features

If you choose to configure a BITNET gateway channel and thus have a mailer or mailer gateway on your system, this fact must be registered in a :servers1 tag in your BITNET node entry or entries. (This tag is what is used to generate the contents of the :mailer entries in the XMAILER NAMES file.)

In general the :servers1 tag describes the network services provided by server software to the node in which the tag appears. Currently the only valid server that can be defined is a MAIL server, or mailer. The format of the data associated with this tag is:

:servers1.serverid(servertype,formats,classes,attributes,contacts)

An example of a typical :servers1 tag is:

:servers1.MAILER@YMIR(MAIL,PU,M,BSMTP,P_POSTMAST)

The serverid. is the network address of the mailer in the form USERID@NODE. Messages to be processed by the mailer are sent to this address. You must specify both the USERID and the NODE. The USERID should match whatever name you assigned to your mailer in the alias file. MAILER is the recommended userid for both PMDF and the VM Mailer, but SMTPUSER is also a common choice.

The servertype is the type of server. Currently the only valid type is MAIL, meaning that the server is a mailer.

The formats entry lists the NJE file formats accepted by this server. The acceptable formats depend on the underlying network transport and not PMDF. Both Jnet and ANJE support both PUNCH files and NETDATA format, but most mailers will only send and accept messages in PUNCH format. To indicate PUNCH format, the default format, specify PU. Other formats are described in the NEWTAGS DESCRIPT file available from LISTSERV@BITNIC.

The classes field lists the NJE file classes accepted by this server. The valid classes are the letters A-Z or numbers 0-9. Class M files are customarily recognized as mail and class M is the default.

The attributes field lists message encoding that the mailer accepts. For PMDF this field should always be BSMTP. BSMTP is the default.

The contacts field defines the person responsible for the mailer and who is to be contacted in case any problems arise. The tag used in this entry must be defined in the node entry or in a higher level site or member entry. This entry is not an address in its own right! It is a pointer to a tag defined by another part of the node entry!

If you would like to accept all the defaults simply specify:

:servers1.MAILER@NODE(MAIL,,,,)

where NODE is the BITNET node name for your node.

If you have a mailer or mailer gateway on one node which serves other nodes then you can add a :servers1 tag to the other node entries and reference the mailer at the first node. For example, if you have nodes ABC and XYZ and have a mailer on ABC which also serves node XYZ, you would add a :servers1 tag to node XYZ and specify MAILER@ABC as the serverid.

The NEWTAGS DESCRIPT file, available from LISTSERV@BITNIC describes the :servers1 tag in more detail, as well as all other tags in BITEARN NODES.

Once you have decided how to define the :servers1 tag for your node entry or entries you must submit an update request to UPDATE@BITNIC. The following is an example of an update job to add or modify the :servers1 tag for the node XYZ; (this information is not case sensitive):

modify node xyz :servers1.MAILER@XYZ(MAIL,PU,M,BSMTP,P_POSTMAST)

or

modify node xyz :servers1.MAILER@XYZ(MAIL,,,,)

You can submit this job by using electronic mail or as a file. For more information about updating your node entry using UPDATE@BITNIC, refer to the document Update Procedure, available from LISTSERV@BITNIC.

If you have any questions about or problems with updating your node entry contact the BITNET administrators on BITNIC for additional assistance.