Glossary

Short definitions of common terms used in QWK.NET documentation.

Format Terms

BBS - Bulletin Board System. A computer system that provided message boards, file downloads, and online services in the 1980s and 1990s.

QWK - Quick BBS Mail Packet format. The original offline mail packet format for BBS systems.

REP - Reply packet format. A QWK-compatible format for offline readers to send replies back to BBS systems.

QWKE - QWK Extended. An extension to the QWK format that adds long headers, file attachments, and reader configuration.

File Names

CONTROL.DAT - Required metadata file in QWK packets containing BBS information, user details, and conference listings.

DOOR.ID - Optional metadata file in QWK packets advertising the mail door’s name, version, system type, and supported capabilities. Parsed into a DoorId record; absent when the door software does not generate it.

MESSAGES.DAT - Required file containing all message headers and bodies in a QWK packet.

.NDX - Index file extension. Conference-specific binary files providing random access to messages (e.g., 0.NDX, 1.NDX).

Message Terms

Conference - A message board or forum area within a BBS. Each conference has a numeric identifier.

Message Header - A 128-byte record containing message metadata (sender, recipient, subject, date, etc.).

Message Body - The text content of a message, stored in 128-byte blocks with 0xE3 line terminators.

Kludge - A machine-readable control line embedded at the top of a QWK message body, before the human-readable content. Three conventions are recognised: QWKE extended headers (To:, From:, Subject:), @-kludges (lines beginning @KEY:), and Ctrl-A kludges (lines beginning with U+0001 or its CP437 glyph). The prefix character is stripped from the stored key in all cases. See Reading Packets for details.

Ctrl-A kludge - A kludge line whose first character is U+0001 (ASCII SOH, Ctrl-A) or U+263A (the CP437 visual glyph for byte 0x01 — a white smiling face). Widely used in FidoNet-style messaging to carry routing and identification data such as MSGID and REPLY.

@-kludge - A kludge line beginning with @KEY:, e.g. @MSGID: or @TZ:. The @ is a syntax marker and is not stored in the key.

Unknown files - Archive files bundled in a QWK packet that are not part of the standard QWK or QWKE file set (MESSAGES.DAT, CONTROL.DAT, DOOR.ID, TOREADER.EXT, TODOOR.EXT, WELCOME, NEWS, GOODBYE). Accessible via QwkPacket.UnknownFiles and QwkPacket.OpenFile().

Encoding Terms

CP437 - Code Page 437, also known as DOS Latin US or OEM-US. The character encoding used by DOS-era BBS systems.

0xE3 - The byte value used as line terminator in QWK message bodies. Represents π (pi) in CP437 encoding.

Validation Terms

Validation Mode - The strictness level for parsing and validation: Strict, Lenient, or Salvage.

Strict Mode - Validation mode that throws exceptions immediately on any specification violation.

Lenient Mode - Validation mode that logs warnings but continues parsing with default values. Default and recommended for most scenarios.

Salvage Mode - Validation mode that attempts best-effort recovery from damaged or corrupted packets.

Validation Report - A collection of validation issues (errors, warnings, informational messages) found during packet parsing.

Archive Terms

Archive - A container file (typically ZIP) holding QWK packet files. QWK packets are distributed as archives.

Archive Extension - A separate package that adds support for archive formats beyond ZIP (e.g., TAR, RAR).

Door Terms

DoorCapability - An enumeration of capabilities a QWK mail door may advertise in its DOOR.ID file. Capabilities include conference management operations (Add, Drop, Reset, ResetAll), message retrieval options (Yours, Mail, DeleteMail), and protocol features (Attach, FileRequest, Index, TimeZone, Via, MessageId, Control). Unrecognised values map to Unknown. See the API Overview for the full list.

CONTROLTYPE - A key in DOOR.ID that advertises a single door capability, e.g. CONTROLTYPE = ADD. Multiple CONTROLTYPE lines may appear in one DOOR.ID file; each maps to a DoorCapability value.