ifinfo(8)

📦 version 2.14tx8.10, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ ifinfo — the FTN mailer bestie that spills the tea on any node 💅

okay so real quick, before we get into it: this page is ifinfo(8), from the FTN mailer corner of the universe. she's a little 1998 icon and she's about to tell you everything you could ever want to know about one (1) specific node. 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

ifinfo — Query node information. that's it. that's the whole job. she looks up nodes and reports back. no cap. 🔥

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ifinfo [-h] [-x verbosity] [-I file] node

one node, a couple of optional little flags, and she's off. 🦋

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay bestie, here's the vibe: ifinfo displays various information about the specified node, and she pulls it straight out of the nodelist (using the nodelist index for lookup, iykyk). and what exactly does she show you? hold on to your scrunchie, because it's:

  • system name 👑
  • Sysop 🫶
  • Location 🌍
  • PhoneNo ☎️
  • Speed ⚡
  • NL-Flags 🚩
  • PFlag 🏴

like, the whole profile. it's giving background check but make it cute. 💅

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -h — displays a short help message. if you're lost, she'll hand you the map. 🗺️
  • -x Verbosity — sets the debug verbosity, bestie. and Verbosity can be one of two things:
    • a number from 0 to 32, which sets the 'on' bits from bit 1 up to that number, or
    • a string of letters, where 'a' = bit 1, 'b' = bit 2, etc., all the way up to bit 26.

so yeah, two whole ways to say the same thing. pick your fighter. 💫

  • -I File — use the alternate configuration file File. not feeling $IFLIBDIR/config today? say less. 🙈

💀 RETURN CODES 💀

she exits with these, and you will respect them:

  • 0 — Successfull
  • 64 — command line usage error
  • 65 — error reading config file
ngl, 64 and 65 are giving "you did something and she's not mad, just disappointed." 😭

🌈 DEBUG VERBOSITY 🌈

here's the legend for all those bits you're flipping with -x, one letter at a time, and it is lowkey a whole alphabet of gossip:

  • d — lock files
  • f — aka matching
  • g — outbound directories
  • h — call
  • j — session handshake
  • k — file transfer
  • l — filelist
  • m — nodelist flags
  • r — modem
  • t — nodelist index
  • z — hydra protocol

not every letter of the alphabet made the cut and honestly? the ones who did ate. 💅

🍓 FILES 🍓

  • $IFLIBDIR/config — the runtime configuration file. this is the main character. 👑
  • nodelist.??? — a list of nodes in an FTN network. yes, those really are three question marks, it's a whole family of files. 🧚

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

go say hi to her friends, they're all iconic. 🫶

💜 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 💜

shoutout time, because we always credit the girlies:

some ideas taken from the Fidogate/RFmail package, written by Teemu Torma and hacked by Martin Junius.

some tcp code taken from the JE version, written by Tsuneo Tanaka <ttan@twics.com>.

1993, 1994 Eugene Crosser

1997, 1998 Christof Meerwald

this is free software. you can do what you wish with it as long as this copyright notice is preserved. (periodt. keep the notice. 🎀)

manpage and dbz-nodelist-index support by Christof Meerwald <cmeerw@htl.fh-sbg.ac.at>

many thanks to the institute of computer science in Salzburg/Austria and especially to Anton Hofmann <hofmann@wst.edvz.sbg.ac.at> who made further work possible during his lecture in 1997. that's a real one. 🌸

so yeah, that's the whole page — version 3.0.cm.alpha, dated July 1998, and she's been serving node info ever since. mwah, take care of her, bye bestie!! 💖✨🎀🦋🌸💅

📦 where this page comes from