Re: Differing origin lines from Vertrauen on Dove-Net
By: Nightfox to Digital Man on Sat Feb 21 2026 10:21 am

Hi DM,

I've noticed something a bit odd in some messages from Vertrauen on Dove-Net: The origin line in messages from Tmccaf seem to be slightly different than the origin in other messages. As a result, when reading with msglist.js (or DDMsgReader.js) on an 80-column UTF-8 terminal, the origin line in messages from Tmccaf is wrapped. Also, it seems that after the wrap point, the rest of the line on the screen isn't clared. The stock Synchronet reader doesn't have this issue. On a non-UTF8 terminal it looks as expected, because msglist.js uses utf8_cp437() to translate the text.

While reading Dove-Net Synchronet Discussion with msglist.js, I took some screenshots of one of Tmccaf's messages and one of yours to compare (including hex output showing the origin line).
From Tmccaf: http://www.digitaldistortionbbs.com:81/synchronet_stuff/msgs/Tmccf_msg.png

Hex output from Tmccaf's message: http://www.digitaldistortionbbs.com:81/syn chronet_stuff/msgs/Tmccf_msg_hex.png

A message from you: http://www.digitaldistortionbbs.com:81/synchronet_stuff/msgs/DM_msg.png

Hex output from your message: http://www.digitaldistortionbbs.com:81/synchronet_stuff/msgs/DM_msg_hex.png

Can you dump/paste the SMB header for the message and compare? Maybe the entire message is the body and the tear and tag aren't going into the tail? UTF-8 encoding is likely the trigger. I'll post a message using UTF-8 here in a second as test.

I can't see the issue here on Vertrauen of course because the QWKnet taglines are added upon export.
--
digital man (rob)

Breaking Bad quote #46:
If I ever get anal polyps, at least I know what to name them. - Saul Goodman Norco, CA WX: 71.6øF, 24.0% humidity, 2 mph S wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)

Re: Differing origin lines from Vertrauen on Dove-Net
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sat Feb 21 2026 03:32 pm

Can you dump/paste the SMB header for the message and compare? Maybe the entire message is the body and the tear and
tag aren't going into the tail? UTF-8 encoding is likely the trigger. I'll post a message using UTF-8 here in a
second
as test.

Here's another reply, this time in UTF-8. Compoare those SMB headers for me (using smbutil if need-be)?
--
digital man (rob)

Synchronet/BBS Terminology Definition #57:
NNTP = Network News Transfer Protocol
Norco, CA WX: 71.0øF, 26.0% humidity, 0 mph SSE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)

Re: Differing origin lines from Vertrauen on Dove-Net
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sat Feb 21 2026 03:43 pm

Re: Differing origin lines from Vertrauen on Dove-Net
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sat Feb 21 2026 03:32 pm

Can you dump/paste the SMB header for the message and compare? Maybe the entire message is the body and the tear and tag aren't going into the tail? UTF-8 encoding is likely the trigger. I'll post a message using UTF-8 here in a second
as test.

Here's another reply, this time in UTF-8. Compoare those SMB headers for me (using smbutil if need-be)?

I think I know what's at play here. Since you said the issue does not happen with the internal message reader, that's a clue: The internal message reader does not word-wrap message tails (where tear/origin/tag lines normally go). msglist.js doesn't read/display message tails separate from message bodies, so it doesn't do that and I suspect your message reader doesn't either. So that's the first difference.

The second difference (and might be a bug) is that because the message tail was UTF-8 encded, it appears the word_wrap function is miscalculating the display width somewhere and inserting a line break in the middle of the Vertrauen QWKnet tagline. It shouldn't be doing that either.

So the first difference is a matter of design/opinion (should tails be word-wrapped on display?) and the second is likely a bug.
--
digital man (rob)

Sling Blade quote #24:
Karl: Kaiser blade. I hit my mother upside the head with it. Mmm... Killed her. Norco, CA WX: 70.8øF, 25.0% humidity, 3 mph E wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)

Re: Differing origin lines from Vertrauen on Dove-Net
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sat Feb 21 2026 04:06 pm

Re: Differing origin lines from Vertrauen on Dove-Net
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sat Feb 21 2026 03:43 pm

Re: Differing origin lines from Vertrauen on Dove-Net
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sat Feb 21 2026 03:32 pm

Can you dump/paste the SMB header for the message and compare? Maybe the entire message is the body and the tear and tag aren't going into the tail? UTF-8 encoding is likely the trigger. I'll post a message using UTF-8 here in a second
as test.

Here's another reply, this time in UTF-8. Compoare those SMB headers for me (using smbutil if need-be)?

I think I know what's at play here. Since you said the issue does not happen with the internal message reader, that's a clue: The internal message reader does not word-wrap message tails (where tear/origin/tag lines normally go). msglist.js doesn't read/display message tails separate from message bodies, so it doesn't do that and I suspect your message reader doesn't either. So that's the first difference.

The second difference (and might be a bug) is that because the message tail was UTF-8 encded, it appears the word_wrap function is miscalculating the display width somewhere and inserting a line break in the middle of the Vertrauen QWKnet tagline. It shouldn't be doing that either.

So the first difference is a matter of design/opinion (should tails be word-wrapped on display?) and the second is likely a bug.

So I created a small file to hopefully replicate the issue but have not been able to. Here's the file (with UTF-8 encoded high ASCII chars and Ctrl-A codes):

00000000 20 01 67 ef bf ad 01 6e 20 53 79 6e 63 68 72 6f | .g....n Synchro| 00000010 6e 65 74 20 01 68 ef bf ad 01 67 20 56 65 72 74 |net .h....g Vert| 00000020 72 61 75 65 6e 20 ef bf ad 20 01 77 48 6f 6d 65 |rauen ... .wHome| 00000030 20 6f 66 20 53 79 6e 63 68 72 6f 6e 65 74 20 ef | of Synchronet .| 00000040 bf ad 01 67 20 5b 76 65 72 74 2f 63 76 73 2f 62 |...g [vert/cvs/b| 00000050 62 73 5d 2e 73 79 6e 63 68 72 6f 2e 6e 65 74 0a |bs].synchro.net.|

Displaying this with console.printfile() with the P_UTF8 and P_WORDWRAP flags correctly does not insert a line-break in the output to an 80-column terminal.

Are you having Vertrauen word-wrap the message bodies of posts in your downloaded QWK packets or are you (as all modern Synchronet BBSes should) doing the word-wrap on your (the QWKnet node) side? And if the latter, are you using the built-in Synchronet word-wrap functions are did you write your own?
--
digital man (rob)

Rush quote #32:
Begging hands and bleeding hearts will only cry out for more
Norco, CA WX: 67.0øF, 26.0% humidity, 1 mph SSE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)

Hi DM,

I've noticed something a bit odd in some messages from Vertrauen on Dove-Net: The origin line in messages from Tmccaf seem to be slightly different than the origin in other messages. As a result, when reading with msglist.js (or DDMsgReader.js) on an 80-column UTF-8 terminal, the origin line in messages from Tmccaf is wrapped. Also, it seems that after the wrap point, the rest of the line on the screen isn't clared. The stock Synchronet reader doesn't have this issue. On a non-UTF8 terminal it looks as expected, because msglist.js uses utf8_cp437() to translate the text.

While reading Dove-Net Synchronet Discussion with msglist.js, I took some screenshots of one of Tmccaf's messages and one of yours to compare (including hex output showing the origin line).
From Tmccaf: http://www.digitaldistortionbbs.com:81/synchronet_stuff/msgs/Tmccf_msg.png

Hex output from Tmccaf's message: http://www.digitaldistortionbbs.com:81/synchronet_stuff/msgs/Tmccf_msg_hex.png

A message from you: http://www.digitaldistortionbbs.com:81/synchronet_stuff/msgs/DM_msg.png

Hex output from your message: http://www.digitaldistortionbbs.com:81/synchronet_stuff/msgs/DM_msg_hex.png

Nightfox

---
þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)

Re: Differing origin lines from Vertrauen on Dove-Net
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sat Feb 21 2026 06:12 pm

msglist.js doesn't rely on putmsg() to do the word-wrapping and instead calls the JS global function word_wrap(), but only when appropriate. It likely should *not* be using this to word-wrap the message tails, but it currently treats the tails as just part of the message body (and so they go through word-wrap too).

I'm not having Vertrauen do word-wrapping; I'm doing that on my side.

How are you doing the word wrap on your side - calling the JS global word_wrap() or your own functions?

I'm using word_wrap().

Sure, or you can check and confirm that the messages in question all have 2 data fields each (a separate body and tail), e.g.

data_field[0] TEXT_BODY, offset 0, length 1181 data_field[1]
TEXT_TAIL, offset 1181, length 71

Yes, they have those 2 fields.

I'm curious how you determine what's a tail and what the message body is? When you get a message body from the messagebase in JS, it always looked to me like it returns all of that (including the tails?) as part of the message body. If you examine data_fields and see the TEXT_BODY and TEXT_TAIL entries, does the 'offset' specify the index in the message body where it starts?

Nightfox

---
þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)

Re: Differing origin lines from Vertrauen on Dove-Net
By: Nightfox to Digital Man on Sun Feb 22 2026 01:57 pm

Re: Differing origin lines from Vertrauen on Dove-Net
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sat Feb 21 2026 06:12 pm

msglist.js doesn't rely on putmsg() to do the word-wrapping and instead calls the JS global function word_wrap(), but only when appropriate. It likely should *not* be using this to word-wrap the message tails, but it currently treats the tails as just part of the message body (and so they go through word-wrap too).

I'm not having Vertrauen do word-wrapping; I'm doing that on my side.

How are you doing the word wrap on your side - calling the JS global word_wrap() or your own functions?

I'm using word_wrap().

Sure, or you can check and confirm that the messages in question all have 2 data fields each (a separate body and tail), e.g.

data_field[0] TEXT_BODY, offset 0, length 1181 data_field[1] TEXT_TAIL, offset 1181, length 71

Yes, they have those 2 fields.

I'm curious how you determine what's a tail and what the message body is? When you get a message body from the messagebase in JS, it always looked to me like it returns all of that (including the tails?) as part of the message body. If you examine data_fields and see the TEXT_BODY and TEXT_TAIL entries, does the 'offset' specify the index in the message body where it starts?

The offset species the byte offset into the data record for the message, but that's abstracted away in JS. In JS, you get just the message body by calling MsgBase.get_msg_body() with the 'include_tails' argument passed as 'false' and then call get_msg_tail() to get the tail(s) if you want them.
--
digital man (rob)

Rush quote #61:
He's a rebel and a runner, he's a signal turning green .. New World Man
Norco, CA WX: 60.5øF, 44.0% humidity, 0 mph SSE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)

Re: Differing origin lines from Vertrauen on Dove-Net
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sat Feb 21 2026 16:06:47

So the first difference is a matter of design/opinion (should tails be word-wrapped on display?) and the second is likely a bug.

JM2C: I think it depends on the max. allowed # of characters, if there is one. If there isn't, and you allow word-wrap, I can see some jokers posting paragraphs of text, just to be cute. If no WW, and the excess just falls off the edge of the world, that'll discourage such behavior.

---
þ Synchronet þ End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)