axgetmail(1)

📦 version 0.15, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💌 axgetmail(1) — the AX.25 Mail Utilities era

okay bestie, quick vibe check before we dive in: this page lives in section 1 of the AX.25 Mail Utilities manual, and the star of the show inside it is axgetlist 💖

✨ NAME ✨

axgetlist — literally just reads the message list off the BBS 📬

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

axgetlist [-b bbsname] [-s startnum]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So axgetlist is out here doing the absolute most as a glow-up replacement for ulistd(8) 👑 — specifically for the girlies who don't have permission to use the unproto lists, or who just find those lists lowkey unreliable. relatable tbh.

What it does is: it connects to your home BBS, sends the commands to pull the list of new messages, and then drops that list into the same file that ulistd writes to. no cap. which means you get to use all the mail utilities exactly the same way you would with ulistd. it's giving seamless, it's giving plug-and-play, it's giving iconic ✨

Now, plot twist: every BBS can use a different format for its message lists 🙈. So the format for your BBS has to be specified super carefully in the configuration file /etc/ax25/axgetlist.conf. (go look at the example configuration file for more info, it's right there, it's not shy.)

fr fr, "carefully specified" is not a suggestion, bestie. get the format wrong and the whole thing vibes wrong.

🔐 AUTHORIZATION 🔐

Once the connect to the BBS succeeds, axgetlist goes ahead and tries to execute the script /var/ax25/auth_agent, redirecting that script's stdin and stdout straight to the BBS 🫶

The BBS callsign gets passed along as the first command line argument. the script should then do whatever actions are needed to authorize the user to the BBS — that's its whole moment, that's its main character arc 💅

And if the script execution fails? no drama: axgetlist just keeps on downloading the message list without authorization. periodt.

📂 FILES 📂

  • /etc/ax25/axgetlist.conf
  • /etc/ax25/axports
  • /var/ax25/auth_agent
  • /var/ax25/ulistd/*

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Radek Burget OK2JBG <radkovo@centrum.cz> — thank you for your service, king 🎀

and that's the whole page, bestie 🌈 this Linux-era edition dropped on 22 January 2002 and it's still serving axgetmail(1) energy to this very day. mwah 💋

📦 where this page comes from