axgetmsg(1)

💌 axgetmsg — bestie's guide to grabbing messages off an F6FBB BBS

okay so real talk: this is a page from the AX.25 Mail Utilities manual, and it's all about axgetmsg, a lil command that goes and fetches the messages you want from an F6FBB BBS. no cap, it's genuinely useful. let's get into it ✨

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

axgetmsg — download selected messages from F6FBB BBS 🫶

---

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

axgetmsg -p <port> -c <mycall> -b <bbs> [-f <listfile>] [-d <dir>] [-v]
[-D] [nr1 [nr2] ...]

---

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so axgetmsg connects to the BBS and downloads the messages you picked, using the compressed forward protocol (fancy, iconic, we love her). every single message gets stored to its own file in the destination directory. one message = one file. clean. organized. main character energy. 👑

---

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -p port — tells it the AX.25 port name you're using to talk to the BBS. literally the phone line to your pen pal.
• -c mycall — sets the callsign of axgetmsg. that's your name in the group chat, bestie.
• -b bbs — the AX.25 path to the BBS, written like BBS_call [digi [digi] ...]. it's giving "route to the function".
• -f listfile — listfile holds the message numbers you wanna download, separated by whitespaces. ⚠️ heads up: when you specify the listfile, the message numbers you passed on the command line get ignored. the listfile is the one running the show, periodt.
• -d dir — specify the destination directory where the messages get stored.
• -v — verbose operation. she will yap about what she's doing and honestly? we love that for her.
• -D — display debugging information. for when you need to see everything going on under the hood. 🐛

---

🔢 MESSAGE NUMBERS 🔢

you tell it which messages you want either on the command line or through the listfile. easy.

for personal messages, you can slap a p letter in front of the message number — like p30981. 🌟

the difference between bulletins and personal messages? axgetmsg will remove the personal messages from the BBS after downloading them. so they're gone-gone. snatched. downloaded and deleted, iykyk. 💀

---

🔐 AUTHORIZATION 🔐

once it's successfully connected to the BBS, axgetmsg tries to run the script /var/ax25/auth_agent and redirects its stdin and stdout to the BBS. the BBS callsign is passed as the first command line argument. the script is supposed to do whatever actions are needed for the user's authorization to the BBS.

and if that script execution fails? no stress — axgetmsg just keeps on downloading the messages without authorization. the show goes on. 🫶

---

📁 FILES 📁

• /var/ax25/auth_agent
• /etc/ax25/axports

---

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• ulistd(8)
• axgetmail(1)
• msgcleanup(1)
• ax25(4)

---

👑 AUTHOR 👑

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

---

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one shipped on Linux, dated 22 January 2002, and it lives in the manual as axgetmsg(1). go forth and download those messages 💖✨🎀