On 2018 Apr 25 11:37:18, you wrote to Thomas Bampi:
Failing that, it probably wouldn't be too great a challenge to dissect RA's user database format. Maybe it's just a text file, maybe it's documented somewhere.
it is a binary file... the tricky thing is if the operator enabled the password
to be hidden behind a md5 checksum... if it was, there is no password to extract... if there is a password, it may be up to 15 characters in length... in the user record, bits are used for two attribute fields... one stores bits for deleted, CLS, more prompt, ANSI, no-kill, xfer prority, full screen msg editor, and quiet mode... the other attribute field holds bits for hot-keys, AVT/0, full screen message viewer, hide from user list, page priority, no echomail in mailbox scans, guest account and post billing (posts use credits)... there is a 3rd attribute field which for now has only one bit in use which determines if the mailbox scan scans only the users selected (joined)
areas... names and handles can by 35 characters in length... aside from that, there's likely a lot of settings that just won't cross over... access flags being one of the largest features...
RA uses bit flags (IIRC) to determine if someone has access to a message and file area... users have one set of eight flags... a flag is on or off...
message areas have three sets of eight flags... one set for read access, one set for write access and one set for sysop level access... access to an area may be determined by a flag being ON or Off... in other words, if a user has flag A1 on and a message area requires that flag A1 is off, the user will not be allowed access no matter what their security level is... if the user's A1 is
off and the area requires the flag to be on, they are also denied access...
file areas work the same way that message areas work... they have three sets of
eight flags for download access, listing access and upload access... just like
message areas, access is determined if a flag is on or off...
message and file areas can also be restricted via these flags... they work the same as for message and file areas...
these flags are in addition to the security level which RA has available as level 0 (zero - locked out) up to level 65535...
the structures are officially available in pascal format... one might find them
in C format... there is no export tool available that i'm aware of...
the above is all for RA v2.50... v2.6 started using some empty space to store the first two digits of the year for y2k compatibility without altering the record size and also allowing older programs to still operate on the record as long as they left unused areas of the record alone... modifying unused space or
filling those spaces with garbage would cause problems with the dates...
RA also had new y2k compliant date fields that it used... it still wrote to the
old fields for compatibility... RA 2.62beta is the last one i have here and it
was roughly in the middle of the conversion process to new data file structures that were not limited for dates by using only two digits for the year...
all in all, i wouldn't worry about it... let the users sign up all over again... there's probably not enough active users to even worry about trying to
convert from one format to another...
)\/(ark
Always Mount a Scratch Monkey
Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it wrong...
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