SOLAR v0.95.2 - FORMATS.TXT

This document describes file formats used in Solar which are not
documented elsewhere.

NEWSRC.SLR :

  Solar keeps track of each individual user's message area subscriptions
  and associated information in NEWSRC.SLR in the user's home directory.
  This file is not backwards compatible with previous versions of Solar.

  Format:

    news.group.name:keyword:index_high:msg_high

    Example:

    alt.usenet.offline-reader:a:0:0
    comp.bbs.waffle:s:0:0
    comp.os.msdos.mail-news:s:0:0

    Keyword:

      The message area keyword is used by Solar's slrnews.exe program to
      decide how to process a message area. Valid keywords are:

        a    = All, include both MSG and IDX files in SOUP packet.
        s    = Summarize, include only IDX files in SOUP packet.

      The value for keyword is stored internally as a single character
      value.

    Index_High:

      Index_high is used by slrnews.exe to keep track of the high
      message number which has been included in the IDX files downloaded
      by the user for the particular group. The value is stored as a
      long integer.

    Msg_High:

      Msg_high is used by slrnews.exe to keep track of the high message
      number which has been included in the MSG files downloaded by the
      user for the particular group. The value is stored as a long
      integer.

  Source:

    All functions handling the NEWSRC.SLR file directly are contained in
    the source module ~\src\common\newsrc.c. The filename is compiled in
    as specified by the "#define NEWSRC" line in newsrc.c.

  Notes:

    Although Solar _can_ use Waffle's JOIN file for message area
    processing, use of JOIN for SOUP v1.2 usage is highly discouraged.
    When tracking high article number read only, there is no separation
    between full article (MSG and IDX) and index only (IDX) processing.
    A summarized group will appear to Solar as a read group, where the
    two meanings are entirely different.

