Sysop Guide

The long-form admin overview. Newer than the README, less prescriptive
than the Tutorial. Something broken? Check Troubleshooting
first — it collects the fixes for errors sysops actually hit in
production.

What runs

ANetBBS is a handful of services:

systemctl status anetbbs-web anetbbs anetbbs-mrc-bridge anetbbs-finger anetbbs-binkp
shows the lot.

Daily

• Glance at the Sysop Control Panel for service health and
  who's online.
• Check the NodeSpy panel for any stuck sessions; kick if needed.
• Echomail polling runs on its own — a background poller thread
  inside anetbbs-web polls each network on its configured interval
  (default every 60 min), no cron needed. Verify
  /admin/echomail/logs for errors.
• Approve any files flagged by the virus scanner.
• If you run the network hub: peek at the hatch/hold queue under
  Hub Management (see below) — a backlog there means outbound files
  or messages aren't reaching peers.
• Check the notification bell: it flags five things that need a
  sysop's review — MSP federation join requests, QWK node
  applications, users pending NUV approval, unknown/bad echomail
  areas, and network join applications. Each admin can toggle these
  independently at /notifications/settings (admin-only toggles).

Weekly

• Run Backup.
• Skim site activity — top users, new registrations, message
  counts.
• Read the latest fido news area, post a hello if you've been
  quiet.

Monthly

• Rotate logs — there's no external logrotate config; it's
  built in as the log_rotate scheduled event (any <install>/logs/*.log
  over a size threshold, default 50MB, gets renamed to .1 and a
  fresh file starts). See Scheduled events below to check its
  schedule or run it manually.
• Review user registrations: ban obvious spam accounts.
• Update door binaries if their authors have patched.
• Check peers for dead links (/admin/peers/health).

Hub Management

If this install is the designated network hub
(REGISTRY_MODE_ENABLED=true — see ANotherNetwork), an extra
admin surface appears at /admin/echomail/hub/:

• BinkP nodes and QWK nodes — add/edit/delete downstream
  nodes, subscribe/unsubscribe them from areas, reset a QWK node's
  high-water mark.
• Hold queue — BinkP-only: outbound echomail queued per
  downstream node, flushed on its next poll. Purely a delivery queue
  (pending/sent status) — no moderation step involved.
• Node requests — the approve/deny queue for BBSes applying for
  a node number (terminal wizard or the peer-facing /qwkhub/apply
  endpoint both land here).
• Join Form (/admin/echomail/hub/join/requests) — a SEPARATE
  review queue from Node requests above, for the public self-service
  /join/ application form (see ANotherNetwork) — a prospective
  member fills in their BBS name/location/software/telnet address, an
  optional BinkP address (crash/hold) and/or QWK packet ID, notes, and
  acknowledges the rules; no file upload or echo/file-echo picker is
  part of the form. Each pending application has a full detail/View
  page before you decide, with Approve/Deny/Archive actions right
  there. Approving auto-creates the BinkP and/or QWK node record(s)
  (BinkP node numbers auto-assign from the hub's own configured
  zone:net) and emails credentials; a rules-file upload and other
  config for the form itself live under Join Form too.
• Generation & Distribution — generate the nodelist right now
  (in addition to its weekly schedule), preview a QWK packet for a
  node without marking anything as sent, and see TIC/file
  distribution status.

A peer install (not the hub) doesn't see this section — it has
nothing of its own to manage there.

PETSCII custom menus

If PETSCII (C64/128) support is enabled, build custom PETSCII
menus at /admin/petscii-menus/ — a separate tree from the ANSI
custom-menu system, with a much smaller action set (boards, echomail,
PMs, files, who's-online, profile, Number Guessing, goto-another-menu,
logoff) since most ANSI actions have no PETSCII equivalent. No
default menu is required — without one, PETSCII sessions fall back
to the built-in Phase 1 menu unchanged.

Scheduled events

/admin/events/ lets a sysop automate routine maintenance instead
of doing it by hand, each on its own daily/hourly/weekly/interval
schedule (times are UTC). Ten built-in handlers ship: a noop test
handler, log rotation, a security-update check, SQLite VACUUM,
TradeWars 2002 daily maintenance, generating the ANotherNetwork
nodelist, an arbitrary shell command, and three InterBBS inbound-sync
handlers (Wall, Last Callers, Game Scores) that auto-appear when
those features are turned on. Worth a look if you're tired of
remembering to do the Monthly items above yourself. Full handler
table and worked examples: Scheduled Events.

On upgrade

1. Take your own backup if you want extra safety beyond what
   update.sh snapshots automatically (see Backup).
2. sudo bash update.sh --install-dir /opt/anetbbs — this stops
   services, backs up .env/the DB/systemd units, applies the new
   code, migrates the schema, and restarts everything itself. No
   manual stop/start needed.
3. Hard-refresh your browser to bust cached CSS.
4. Watch journalctl -u anetbbs-web -f for a minute to catch
   any column-add migration noise.

Where things live

• Install: /opt/anetbbs/ (this site)
• Data: /opt/anetbbs/data/ (sqlite + uploads)
• Logs: /opt/anetbbs/logs/ (rotated)
• Doors: /opt/anetbbs/doors/<name>/
• Echomail spool: /opt/anetbbs/data/echomail/binkp/{inbound,outbound}/

Admin tools reference

Smaller admin pages that don't warrant their own wiki page, grouped by
what they manage. All are under Admin in the navbar.

Users & access

Messages

Network

System

See also

• Sysop Control Panel
• Door Setup
• BinkP Setup
• PETSCII
• Backup
• Tutorial
• Troubleshooting