Files

Last edited 2026-08-03 01:34 EDT · history · 2 views

Files

The BBS file library — uploads, downloads, descriptions, areas.

Layout

Concept What it is
File A single uploaded file with description + uploader
File area A bucket of files — e.g. "Software", "Music"
TIC A FidoNet-distributed file echo (network-replicated)

Browsing

Daily download quota

Sysops can cap how much a user downloads per day, scaled by access
level, under /admin/file-quotas (Admin > File System > Download
Quotas) — a list of (minimum access level, daily quota in MB) tiers. A
user gets whichever tier has the highest access level they still
qualify for; a level with no tier configured at or below it has
unlimited downloads. Admins always bypass. The quota is enforced
everywhere a file can be downloaded — web, terminal (Zmodem/Ymodem/
Xmodem), PETSCII (Xmodem), and FTP — and resets at Eastern midnight.
If you hit your quota mid-download, the transfer is rejected outright
with a message showing how much you have left.

Uploading

Logged-in users can upload to the Uploads area by default.
Sysops can change which areas accept user uploads, and set a minimum
access level per area (an area can also be sysop-only).

Per-file metadata is just a description — optional, since it can be
auto-extracted (see below). There's no tags/license/"replaces older
file" metadata today.

Two safety checks run automatically on every upload: an archive
integrity test
(corrupt zip/tar/7z/rar files are rejected outright)
and a content-hash dedup check (warns if the same file — by
content, not filename — already exists somewhere in the file base).

Virus scanning

The sysop can wire ClamAV via /admin/virus-scan. Uploads are
scanned on arrival; infected files are quarantined to a sysop-only
area.

Descriptions

If you didn't type one, ANetBBS auto-extracts a description from
FILE_ID.DIZ, README.md/README.txt, or DESCRIPT.ION found
inside the upload — supported archive formats are .zip, .rar,
.7z, .lha/.lzh, and .tar.gz/.tar.bz2/.tar.xz. Common
BBS-scene practice, extended to modern archive formats too.

TIC distribution

For files received via TIC Processor, the file lands in the
configured TIC area, its .tic companion is parsed, and the
description is read from the Desc: line.

Every install ships with 9 such areas already configured (though
unsubscribed by default) under ANotherNetwork — tags
ANN.FILES.NODELIST, ANN.FILES.INFOPACK, ANN.FILES.BBSSOFT,
ANN.FILES.DOORS, ANN.FILES.EBOOKS, ANN.FILES.LINUX,
ANN.FILES.RETRO, ANN.FILES.ANSIART, and ANN.FILES.TEST.

This works in both directions: uploading a file into any
network-attached file area (not just ANotherNetwork's) automatically
queues it for outbound distribution to every subscribed peer — no
separate "publish" step. See the Outbound section of
TIC Processor for exactly which upload paths trigger this.