Hello all,
I see a lot of automated posts of articles, weather and others (Not BBS Ads) and was wondering how they are being generated? Is there a program that does this?
Can anyone elaborate?

Thanks

... One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Mystic Realms - A Social Media Alternative (21:1/216)

On 25 Apr 2025, Jeff Earle said the following...

I see a lot of automated posts of articles, weather and others (Not BBS Ads) and was wondering how they are being generated? Is there a program that does this?

mutil can post automated messages:

[mutil.ini]

; Current abilities (enabled/disabled in the General header below):
;
; - Post text files to message bases

{SNIP}

[General]

; list of functions to perform on startup

PostTextFiles = true

{SNIP}

[PostTextFiles]

; Total number of text files to be posted. For each file there needs to
; be a file definition as show below.

totalfiles = 1

; This defines one file which will be posted to the message base. Each
; file should be prefixed with file# where # is a number from 1 to
; totalfiles.
;
; The delfile option (if true) will remove the filename after the message
; is posted. The baseidx is the permanent index of the message base to
; post the message into (shown as Index at the top of the message base
; editor in Mystic's configuration. Address is the echomail destination
; address

file1_name = myfile.txt
file1_baseidx = 2
file1_from = Sysop
file1_to = All
file1_subj = My subject
file1_addr = 0:0/0
file1_delfile = false

[/mutil.ini]


Jay

... Morality is the attitude we adopt to people whom we personally dislike

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Northern Realms (21:3/110)

I see a lot of automated posts of articles, weather and others (Not B Ads) and was wondering how they are being generated? Is there a progr that does this?

mutil can post automated messages:

This is the way, I generate ansi files with Python, and post with Mutil.

oP!

... Alex, I'll take "Things Only I Know" for $1000.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: TheForze - bbs.theforze.eu:23 (21:3/126)

Warpslide wrote to Vorlonze <=-

On 25 Apr 2025, Jeff Earle said the following...

I see a lot of automated posts of articles, weather and others (Not BBS Ads) and was wondering how they are being generated? Is there a program that does this?

mutil can post automated messages:

[mutil.ini]

; Current abilities (enabled/disabled in the General header below):
;
; - Post text files to message bases

Thanks but it was more of a question of the content of the posts are gathered is automated (or manually gathered), not the how they are posted.
Appreciate the info though.



... Heisenberg may have slept here.
___ MultiMail/Win v0.52

--- Mystic BBS/QWK v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Mystic Realms - A Social Media Alternative (21:1/216)

On 26 Apr 2025, Jeff Earle said the following...

Thanks but it was more of a question of the content of the posts are gathered is automated (or manually gathered), not the how they are
posted. Appreciate the info though.

Ah, gotcha.

I download and post the weather (among other things), which is automated with a script. I grab the weather info for Southern Ontario using curl from here:

https://weather.gc.ca/forecast/public_bulletins_e.html?Bulletin=fpcn11.cwto

And then use various linux tools to strip out the HTML, etc to make it presentable to post.

I also use the same source to post weather for my local city to Mastodon.


Jay

... Good news. Ten weeks from Friday will be a pretty good day

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Northern Realms (21:3/110)

Warpslide wrote to Vorlonze <=-

On 26 Apr 2025, Jeff Earle said the following...

Thanks but it was more of a question of the content of the posts are gathered is automated (or manually gathered), not the how they are
posted. Appreciate the info though.

Ah, gotcha.

I download and post the weather (among other things), which is
automated with a script. I grab the weather info for Southern Ontario using curl from here:

https://weather.gc.ca/forecast/public_bulletins_e.html?Bulletin=fpcn11.c wto

And then use various linux tools to strip out the HTML, etc to make it presentable to post.

I also use the same source to post weather for my local city to
Mastodon.

Thank you. I don't use Linux but I assume these scripts are for Linux only.
I run win10x64 and would like to do exactly the same thing but different content. I can't find any apps or programs for windows that will do
this.
I'll keep searching but I don't think I'll find anything.
Again thank you, the info is appreciated.
If you think of any apps or prgs that would pull from an RSS feed, export/modify the data to a txt file I would be very grateful.




... The number you have dailed...Nine-one-one...has been changed.
___ MultiMail/Win v0.52

--- Mystic BBS/QWK v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Mystic Realms - A Social Media Alternative (21:1/216)

On 27 Apr 2025, Jeff Earle said the following...

Thank you. I don't use Linux but I assume these scripts are for Linux only. I run win10x64 and would like to do exactly the same thing but different content. I can't find any apps or programs for windows that will do this.

I'll keep searching but I don't think I'll find anything.

You can get curl, iconv, grep, sed & awk for Windows:

curl:
https://curl.se/windows/

iconv:
https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/libiconv.htm

grep:
https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/grep.htm

sed:
https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/sed.htm

awk:
https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/gawk.htm


I just tried this on my Windows 10 32bit install with the above programs & it seemed to work:


curl -o weather.tmp https://weather.gc.ca/forecast/public_bulletins_e.html?Bulletin=fpcn11.cwto
sed -i -n "/<pre>/,/<\/pre>/{ /pre>/d; p }" weather.tmp
iconv -f utf-8 -t cp437//translit weather.tmp > weather.txt
awk -v RS="" "/City of Hamilton/" weather.txt > hamilton.txt


After this, you will have three files the directory you ran the commands from.

weather.tmp = The weather forecast downloaded in UTF-8
weather.txt = The weather forecast in CP437
hamilton.txt = Just the forecast for the City of Hamilton


From there you can use mutil to post these to whatever message base you like.

I post the weather for my city to a personal message base three times a day.


Jay

... If you don't know how climb stairs, there is a step by step guide

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Northern Realms (21:3/110)

On 27 Apr 2025, Warpslide said the following...

You can get curl, iconv, grep, sed & awk for Windows:

curl:
https://curl.se/windows/

iconv:
https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/libiconv.htm

grep:
https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/grep.htm

sed:
https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/sed.htm

awk:
https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/gawk.htm

I just tried this on my Windows 10 32bit install with the above programs
& it seemed to work:

curl -o weather.tmp https://weather.gc.ca/forecast/public_bulletins_e.html?Bulletin=fpcn11.cwt sed -i -n "/<pre>/,/<\/pre>/{ /pre>/d; p }" weather.tmp
iconv -f utf-8 -t cp437//translit weather.tmp > weather.txt
awk -v RS="" "/City of Hamilton/" weather.txt > hamilton.txt

After this, you will have three files the directory you ran the commands from.

weather.tmp = The weather forecast downloaded in UTF-8
weather.txt = The weather forecast in CP437
hamilton.txt = Just the forecast for the City of Hamilton

From there you can use mutil to post these to whatever message base you like.

Thank you so much! This might just what I have been looking for.
Much appreciated.

... Reward for a job well done: More work

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Mystic Realms - A Social Media Alternative (21:1/216)

Hello Jeff Earle!

Thank you. I don't use Linux but I assume these scripts are for Linux only. I run win10x64 and would like to do exactly the same thing but different content. I can't find any apps or programs for windows that
will do this.
I'll keep searching but I don't think I'll find anything.

Look for busybox. There's a windows port.

busybox

BusyBox v1.37.0-FRP-5398-g89ae34445 (2024-06-25 08:38:11 BST)
(mingw32-gcc 14.1.1-3.fc40; mingw32-crt 11.0.1-3.fc40; glob)

BusyBox is copyrighted by many authors between 1998-2024.
Licensed under GPLv2. See source distribution for detailed
copyright notices.

Usage: busybox [function [arguments]...]
or: busybox --list[-full]
or: busybox --install [-s] [-u|DIR]
or: busybox --uninstall [-n] file
or: function [arguments]...

BusyBox is a multi-call binary that combines many common Unix
utilities into a single executable. The shell in this build
is configured to run built-in utilities without $PATH search.
You don't need to install a link to busybox for each utility.
To run external program, use full path (/sbin/ip instead of ip).

Currently defined functions:
[, [[, ar, arch, ascii, ash, awk, base32, base64, basename, bash, bc, bunzip2, busybox,
bzcat, bzip2, cal, cat, cdrop, chattr, chmod, cksum, clear, cmp, comm, cp, cpio, crc32,
cut, date, dc, dd, df, diff, dirname, dos2unix, dpkg, dpkg-deb, drop, du, echo, ed, egrep,
env, expand, expr, factor, false, fgrep, find, fold, free, fsync, ftpget, ftpput, getopt,
grep, groups, gunzip, gzip, hd, head, hexdump, httpd, iconv, id, inotifyd, install, ipcalc,
jn, kill, killall, lash, less, link, ln, logname, ls, lsattr, lzcat, lzma, lzop, lzopcat,
make, man, md5sum, mkdir, mktemp, mv, nc, nl, nproc, od, paste, patch, pdpmake, pdrop,
pgrep, pidof, pipe_progress, pkill, printenv, printf, ps, pwd, readlink, realpath, reset,
rev, rm, rmdir, rpm, rpm2cpio, sed, seq, sh, sha1sum, sha256sum, sha3sum, sha512sum, shred,
shuf, sleep, sort, split, ssl_client, stat, strings, su, sum, sync, tac, tail, tar, tee,
test, time, timeout, touch, tr, true, truncate, ts, tsort, ttysize, uname, uncompress,
unexpand, uniq, unix2dos, unlink, unlzma, unlzop, unxz, unzip, uptime, usleep, uudecode,
uuencode, vi, watch, wc, wget, which, whoami, whois, xargs, xxd, xz, xzcat, yes, zcat

--- OpenXP 5.0.64
* Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)

Ogg wrote to Vorlonze <=-

Hello Jeff Earle!

Thank you. I don't use Linux but I assume these scripts are for Linux only. I run win10x64 and would like to do exactly the same thing but different content. I can't find any apps or programs for windows that
will do this.
I'll keep searching but I don't think I'll find anything.

Look for busybox. There's a windows port.

busybox

BusyBox v1.37.0-FRP-5398-g89ae34445 (2024-06-25 08:38:11 BST)
(mingw32-gcc 14.1.1-3.fc40; mingw32-crt 11.0.1-3.fc40; glob)

BusyBox is copyrighted by many authors between 1998-2024.
Licensed under GPLv2. See source distribution for detailed
copyright notices.

Usage: busybox [function [arguments]...]
or: busybox --list[-full]
or: busybox --install [-s] [-u|DIR]
or: busybox --uninstall [-n] file
or: function [arguments]...

BusyBox is a multi-call binary that combines many common Unix
utilities into a single executable. The shell in this build
is configured to run built-in utilities without $PATH search.
You don't need to install a link to busybox for each utility.
To run external program, use full path (/sbin/ip instead of
ip).

Thank you! I will definitey have a look.

... "42? 7 and a half million years and all you can come up with is 42?!"
___ MultiMail/Win v0.52

--- Mystic BBS/QWK v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Mystic Realms - A Social Media Alternative (21:1/216)

Hello Jeff,

I see responses to your question with linux scripts/commands. Windows 10 comes with something called WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). Basically it allows you to run say Ubuntu 24.04LTS alongside windows. You can also access the windows filesystem/drives from it. This might help you use linux scripts on your windows install. I use linux only myself, but have used WSL for work. Just wanted to let you know it exists :)

Cheers,

|15d|07ozo |11t|03gv|11b|03bs|08.|11n|03et|08:|082222|08(|07ssh|08)/|082323(|07telnet|08) |08(|07fsx|08) |0721:1/238 |08(|07agn|08) |0746:20/115
|08(|07tqw|08) |071337:1/117 |08(|07spn|08) |07700:1/117

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Global Village ssh://tgvbbs.net:2222 (21:1/238)

dozo wrote to Vorlonze <=-

Hello Jeff,

I see responses to your question with linux scripts/commands. Windows
10 comes with something called WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). Basically it allows you to run say Ubuntu 24.04LTS alongside windows.
You can also access the windows filesystem/drives from it. This might
help you use linux scripts on your windows install. I use linux only myself, but have used WSL for work. Just wanted to let you know it
exists :)

Thank you. This is interesting. I was not aware of it. The more info
I can get will help me make a better decision. Added to the the list
to look at.



... He does the work of 3 Men...Moe, Larry & Curly
___ MultiMail/Win v0.52

--- Mystic BBS/QWK v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Mystic Realms - A Social Media Alternative (21:1/216)

Re: Automated Posts Question
By: dozo to Jeff Earle on Tue Apr 29 2025 08:09 am

I see responses to your question with linux scripts/commands. Windows 10 comes with something called WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). Basically it allows you to run say Ubuntu 24.04LTS alongside windows. You can also

I don't think that's pre-installed by default though; it's still something you have to tell Windows to install separately.

I used to work for a company that disabled installing WSL on their company laptos. I don't remember why; there must have been something in it they considered a security risk.

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.24-Linux
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

I don't think that's pre-installed by default though; it's still something
have to tell Windows to install separately.

That's true indeed, you need to install it separately. And after installing WSL, you need to install a Linux distro. Ubuntu 24.04LTS should be installable from the M$ store (I have only used 22.04).

I used to work for a company that disabled installing WSL on their company laptos. I don't remember why; there must have been something in it they considered a security risk.

I had to switch to Windows after 8 years of macOS usage when switching employers. Being allowed to use WSL was a godsend for my sanity I must say. But I can see how people who don't understand (or know about) WSL are eager to disable it with policies...

dozo

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Global Village ssh://tgvbbs.net:2222 (21:1/238)

Re: Automated Posts Question
By: dozo to Nightfox on Wed Apr 30 2025 08:19 am

I used to work for a company that disabled installing WSL on their
company laptos. I don't remember why; there must have been something in
it they considered a security risk.

I had to switch to Windows after 8 years of macOS usage when switching employers. Being allowed to use WSL was a godsend for my sanity I must say. But I can see how people who don't understand (or know about) WSL are eager to disable it with policies...

I've never really used Mac computers much, but I've gotten used to some of the command-line utilities from similar systems such as Linux. Most of the GNU command-line tools are available for Windows, and typically I install at least grep for Windows, as I tend to use that a lot. Even though Windows has other ways of searching files, I've gotten used to grep from using Linux.

sed is another I've installed on Windows, though I don't use that one very often.

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.24-Linux
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

dozo wrote to Nightfox <=-

I had to switch to Windows after 8 years of macOS usage when switching employers. Being allowed to use WSL was a godsend for my sanity I must say. But I can see how people who don't understand (or know about) WSL
are eager to disable it with policies...

Infosec at big companies is all about minimizing risk and obfuscating
approval paths. I've been trying to add a program to our list of
available programs and tire of them saying no, just because it's more
work for them. They should vet programs needed, allow or disallow based
on security, and get out of the way.



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I've never really used Mac computers much, but I've gotten used to some of
command-line utilities from similar systems such as Linux. Most of the GNU
command-line tools are available for Windows, and typically I install at le
grep for Windows, as I tend to use that a lot. Even though Windows has oth
ways of searching files, I've gotten used to grep from using Linux.

I never used the separate cli tools on Windows, I was lucky enough start using linux and later macOS at $dayjob :) I was quite impressed by how well WSL actually works when I had to use Windows 10. Today it's a locked down Windows 11 without WSL unfortunately.
I can see how you'd use grep and sed a lot.

dozo

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Global Village ssh://tgvbbs.net:2222 (21:1/238)

Infosec at big companies is all about minimizing risk and obfuscating approval paths. I've been trying to add a program to our list of
available programs and tire of them saying no, just because it's more
work for them. They should vet programs needed, allow or disallow based
on security, and get out of the way.

Exactly, the process should be in place and 'just' work. Apart from the security aspect, there's the licensing and billing issue as well that tends to add to the red tape. Working in hosting pretty much eliminated a lot of that because of FOSS usage (margins, you know). It's not easy to work in an enterprise environment again (with it's lack of FOSS).

dozo

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Global Village ssh://tgvbbs.net:2222 (21:1/238)