Re: scan_ptr and 0xffffffff
By: Nightfox to Digital Man on Sun Aug 11 2024 01:10 pm
Quite a while ago, I noticed that the value of scan_ptr in a sub-board can be 0xffffffff - most often, it seemed that was the case for a new user. I have in one of my comments that that value indicates that scan_ptr should point to the latest message in the messagebase - is that correct?
Correct, but only temporarily (for that first logon).
Also, related to my question: I tried a test where I removed my DDMsgReader from the Load Modules configuration, then created a new user account and did a newscan in the messagebases, and it said there were no new messages. I think this seems to line up with that scan_ptr value saying to point to the latest message. Is it expected that a new user should see no new messages if they do a newscan right after creating their account?
That depends on the sysop's setting of SCFG->System->New User Values->Days of New Messages. When set to 0 (days), the scan pointer would be initialized to 0xffffffff during the logon and correctly set to the last message number in each base upon log-off.
And I'm wondering
if the behavior for a message reader should be that if it sees scan_ptr is that value, then set it to the latest message number in the messagebase?
A message reader should just treat the base as "already read" in that case (no new messages).
The scan pointers should never be *stored* with that value. i.e. the "ptr" keys in data/user/*.subs. SBBS automatically stores the correct pointer value upon log-off: if the pointer value is higher than the last message in the base, then it'll be set to (stored as) the number of the last message in the base.
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digital man (rob)
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