Synchronet v3.19b-Win32 (install) has been released (Jan-2022).

You can donate to the Synchronet project using PayPal.

XTRN.DAT

The Synchronet v2 External Program Data File (a.k.a. drop file), xtrn.dat format.

In DOS and OS/2 versions of Synchronet, this file was named XTRN.DAT but later (in Synchronet v3), the case of the created file was configurable (either all upper or all lower case).

This file should normally be created in the current node's directory (example: C:\sbbs\node1). The current node's directory can be easily passed to external programs via command line (using the %n command line specifier in SCFG) or more easily retrieved by external programs be reading the SBBSNODE environment variable.

The xtrn.dat is a plain text file consisting of CRLF-delimited lines of up to 80 characters each, parsed one line at a time.

Line Example Description
01 Digital Man User's name or alias
02 Vertrauen BBS name
03 Digital Man Sysop's name
04 The Guru System Guru (AI engine)
05 ..\CTRL\ Control directory
06 ..\DATA\ Data directory
07 9 Total nodes on system
08 7 Current node
09 30000 Time left (in seconds)
10 Yes ANSI? (Yes,No, or Mono)
11 24 Screen lines
12 209087929 Credits
13 99 Security level1)
14 99 Security level (same as above)
15 12/31/69 Birth date in MM/DD/YY format
16 M Gender (e.g. M or F)
17 1 User's number
18 714-529-6328 Phone Number
19 0 COM Port (0 if local)
20 4 IRQ (or channel number if FOSSIL/Digi/etc.)
21 3f8 I/O address (or D:Digi,F:Fossil, P:PS/2 bios)
22 0 DTE rate (0 if local)
23 Yes Hardware flow ctrl (Yes or No)
24 Yes Locked DTE rate (Yes or No)
25 AT&FS0=0S2=128E0V0X4&C1&D2 Modem init string
26 AT%C0\V1 Modem special (additional) init string
27 ATE1V1\V2 Modem terminal init string
28 ATDT Modem dial string
29 ATM0H1 Modem off-hook string
30 ATA Modem answer string
31 533922058 Address of MSR memory copy (in decimal)
32 20 Total external programs
33 Domain Bulletins Each external program's name 2)
34 - 53 External Program name The Name of an External Program
54 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Flags from flag set #1 (A-Z)
55 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Flags from flag set #2 (A-Z)
56 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Exemptions (A-Z)
57 Restrictions (A-Z)
58 0 Expiration date (in hex unix format)
59 Po Box 501 Address
60 Yorba Linda, Ca City, state
61 92686 Zip/Postal code
62 Flags from flag set #3 (A-Z)
63 E Flags from flag set #4 (A-Z)
64 1 Time slice APIs supported
65 Rob Swindell User's real name or company name
66 14400 DCE Rate

See Also

1)
Referred to in earlier documentation as “Transfer Level” and being obsolete
2)
Use the previous line (in this case 20) and that many lines will hold the names of the External Programs. From this point on, the line numbers are the line number shown + the number of external programs.