BommaNews Internals

Internal facts in more detail:

Directory structure:

Files

GROUPS.DAT
# bytes Data
2 bytes Length server name
? bytes Server name (*)
2 bytes Length last newsgroup mask
? bytes Last used newsgroup mask (*)
8 bytes Date and time group names last collected
4 bytes Number of newsgroups that follows
Per group 2 bytes Length group name
? bytes Group name
8 bytes Time of last update
4 bytes Index number (server) oldest existing message in group
4 bytes Index number (server) most recent message in group
2 bytes

Flag (0 / FFFF): server allows posting.

*.BPG
# Bytes
Data
4
Number of postings (1 posting can be more than 1 header, but is shown in the message list as a single entry)
Per shown header
4
Number of messages in this posting (found)
4
Number of messages in this posting (indicated in message headers)
4
Total number of lines in all messages of this posting
4
Totaal number of bytes in all messages of this posting (as indicated by server)
4
Number of individual headers in this posting (should be identical to the number of found messages, = the number of "subheaders" following below)
2
Length of identification key
?
Identification key for this posting.
For "alien" posts this is the subject, minus (nn/mm) message counter at the end if there is any.
For bommanews-posts: the unique identification code that all messages belonging to the same file have in the Message-ID header (see below), followed by the start of the subject header.
2
Length of shown subject line
?
Subject line as shown in the message list.
For "alien" posts this is the same as the key.
Per individual message
4
Index number of individual message on server
2
Sequence number of this message in posting ('nn' of the 'nn/mm' counter).
4
Number of text lines in this message (as indicated by server)
4
Size in bytes of this message (as indicated by server)
8
Date & time of posting (binary date format)
2
Length of From header
?
From header
2
Length of "Message-ID" header
?
Message-ID header
2
Length of "References" header
?
References header
2
Length of "Subject" header
?
Subject header
2
Length of "XRef" header
?
XRef header.

Message headers