New subject: [PiDP-11] Announcing TCP/IP for RSX-11M-PLUS

3 Jan 2020

Time for a new release announcement of TCP/IP for RSX-11M-PLUS.

Highlights:

. The installation and configuration tools have been totally rewritten 
to make it easier to use for novice people, while at the same time 
making updating and customization easier to to do.
   (*** IMPORTANT, READ NOTE AT BOTTOM OF MAIL ***)
. MAIL now have an API for access from programs both to read and send 
mail, and also hooks to have a program run when new mail is received.

Detailed information on things that have been done since the last release:

Installation and configuration:
. Totally rewritten scripts to configure and install BQTCP.
   (*** IMPORTANT, READ NOTE AT BOTTOM OF MAIL ***)

TCP:
. Improved TCP ACK handling. Fast to slow machine caused excessive ACK 
packets to be generated.
. Correct TCP daemon accept so that two different requests with the same 
source and destination, but different sequence numbers don't end up 
creating two sockets.
. Correct ACK # if doing an RST to a SYN, which could be wrong.
. Improve handling of duplicate Syn in Syn Recv state.
. Improved TCP receive window update strategy.
. Bugfix in TCP ICMP error handling reception. Improved handling of 
problems during TCP Syn Sent state.
. Rewritten TCP retransmit and congestion avoidance logic to better 
match RFC 5681.
. Improved TCP retransmit and FIN logic.
. Improve TCP Nagle. Under some circumstances, it failed to perform.

SPOOF:
. Added address exception handling for spoof.

MAILD:
. Improved MAILD local list handling and SMTP DNS lookup error handling
. Correct MAIL address rewriting rules when transitioning between protocols.
. Added in MAIL that just a number as command means read that mail.
. Improved MAILD address rewrite logic, and smtp sending to better 
handle various error situations.
. Bugfix in MAILD. CC could accidentally be set for mails under some 
circumstances.
. Added handling of in-reply-to and references in MAIL.
. MAIL have been split into a mail queue manager (MQM) and a mail reader 
(MAI).
. Bugfix in MAILD. Unprivileged users did not work right.
. Bugfix. MAILD didn't enable privs before trying to send notifications, 
causing them to sometimes fail.
. MAILD didn't turn on privs before entering mails in the mail queue, 
causing this to sometimes fail.
. Added API for user programs to easily access mail box.
. Added API for programs to be run when mail is received.
. Added API for programs to send mails.

LPT:
. Bugfix in LPT. Symbiont did not respond to start and stop messages 
from queue manager.

C library:
. Bugfix in BQTC. RCVDW function was not working right.

HTTPD:
. Correct URL matching in HTTPD to not overly match wildcards.

*** IMPORTANT - NEW INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION ***

The installation and configuration scripts have been totally rewritten 
for this release.
The main reasons are to simplify configuration for novice users, to 
simplify future updates, to simplify customization, and to also make it 
easier for expert users to change things as needed.

IPINS.CMD and IPAPPL.CMD have been rewritten, and are now installed
and used from the distribution. If any local customization have been
done on these file in the past, they will not be applied any more.
The old version of these files are kept, so you can go back and look
at them and see what customization you had done. But going forward,
no editing should be done to these two files. Instead there are hooks
for customization available from these scripts, which should be used
for any special configuration on a host. However, most normal 
configuration should happen through the IPCONFIG mechanism instead.

Any current installation should do an update as usual by fetching and 
installing the new version, after which IPGEN should be run.
IPGEN now will only ask a few questions, even if doing a "full" 
installation.
At the end of IPGEN, a check is made if a configuration exists, and if 
not, IPCONFIG is also run.
At the first update, this will be the case, so expect to have to 
redefine your system's TCP/IP configuration again.
Any subsequent update should not require any further configuration work 
to be done. However, if any new configuration values are introduced, 
this will also be indicated at this point, and optionally, IPCONFIG will 
be run to correct the assumed defaults for these new values.

If IPCONFIG have not been run before trying to bring the TCP/IP services 
up, IPCONFIG will be automatically invoked at this point as well, and if 
configuration is not done then, TCP/IP will not start.

This also means that a system for distributing to others can be done 
while leaving the TCP/IP configuration undone, and it will be done at 
startup.

As before, there is two scripts that should be invoked at system 
startup. IPINS, which should be invoked early in startup, but after 
DECnet, if DECnet is also installed, and IPAPPL, which should be invoked 
close to the end of the startup process.

If required, configuration of TCP/IP can be redone at any time by just
running LB:[IP]IPCONFIG.CMD. The current configuration will be provided
as the default answers to all questions.

If required, an existing config can be removed by just renaming or 
deleting LB:[1,2]IPPARAM.CMD.

More details, as well as information about customization, can be found 
in the manual.

*** IMPORTANT - NEW INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION ***

As usual, the distribution is available from:
ftp://mim.update.uu.se/bqtcp.dsk
ftp://mim.update.uu.se/bqtcp.tap
ftp://ftp.update.uu.se/pub/pdp11/rsx/tcpip/tcpip.dsk

The documentation is also available through ftp on Mim, or also at 
http://mim.update.uu.se/tcpipdoc

I hope people find this update useful.

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol