Hi DM,

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?

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? 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?

Nightfox

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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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Re: scan_ptr and 0xffffffff
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sun Aug 11 2024 02:35 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?

DM> Correct, but only temporarily (for that first logon).

>> 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?

DM> That depends on the sysop's setting of SCFG->System->New User Values->Days
DM> of New Messages. When set to 0 (days), the scan pointer would be
DM> initialized to 0xffffffff during the logon and correctly set to the last
DM> 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?

DM> A message reader should just treat the base as "already read" in that case
DM> (no new messages).

Thanks for your reply. I'll need to update DDMsgReader so that it behaves accordingly.

Nightfox

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