anetbbs-cfg — the terminal config tool

A full-screen curses admin tool for sysops who'd rather not leave a
terminal — think Synchronet's SCFG or Mystic's mystic -cfg, but
for ANetBBS. It edits the same database and .env file the running
BBS reads, so there's nothing separate to keep in sync with the web
admin — changes made here take effect the same way a web admin change
would (immediately for DB-backed settings; after a service restart for
.env settings, exactly like the web admin's own Settings page says).

It is not a superset of the web admin. Sixteen sections cover most
of the day-to-day surface (message areas, echomail, files, users,
games, menus, events, and more), but anything that needs a rich
canvas (the ANSI art/theme editor), a file upload, or a genuinely
dangerous multi-step flow (backup restore, in-place upgrades, the
full network-join applicant-approval email flow) is deliberately left
web-only. Every section that has a gap like this says so directly in
its own help text or docstring — this doc calls out each one too, so
you know before you go looking.

Launching it

Two ways in, both landing in the exact same tool:

1. Directly, from a real shell (SSH into the box, or console
   access):
   bash anetbbs-cfg # or, if the console-script entry point isn't on PATH for some reason: python -m anetbbs.cfg
   No login prompt of its own — whoever can already run a command on
   the box has at least as much access as this tool could grant them.

2. From inside a live BBS session, via the in-BBS Sysop Tools menu
   (Sysop Tools → [X] Config Tool). This runs the same anetbbs-cfg
   program, bridged into your terminal session through the same PTY
   machinery every other door game uses — so it looks and feels
   identical to launching it from a shell.

This menu option is SSH-only. It's gated twice over: the sysop
menu only ever adds the [X] entry when your current session is
SSH (telnet users never see the key at all, so there's no key that
could dispatch to it), and the launcher function re-checks the same
thing independently before doing anything. The reason is direct:
this tool edits user security levels and echomail/hub credentials,
and telnet carries all of that in plaintext. If you try it over
telnet, or the menu entry isn't there, that's why — connect over
SSH instead.

Startup is fast on purpose — a couple of seconds even on a Raspberry
Pi 3. It deliberately skips loading the full web server (eventlet,
Flask-SocketIO, ~76 blueprints, the background service starters) and
only initializes a plain database connection, since a config screen
doesn't need any of that.

One real prerequisite worth knowing: this tool assumes the
database schema is already current. It calls db.create_all() (a
no-op on tables that already exist, so it's harmless — this covers
the one edge case of a brand-new install where the main service has
never booted yet), but it does not run the main service's own
column-migration sweep. In practice this is never an issue, because
the real anetbbs/anetbbs-web service applies that sweep on every
boot, and by the time you reach for this tool it's already run at
least once — but after an in-place code upgrade (update.sh /
anetbbs-upgrade) that adds new database columns, make sure the main
service has actually restarted at least once before relying on
anetbbs-cfg to see brand-new fields.

How to drive it

Everything in this tool is one of two screen types, navigated the same
way everywhere:

List screens (pick a board, a network, a user, a game, ...):

Edit forms (editing one row's fields):

A blank value on a "nullable" field (shown as (none)) means
"unset," not the empty string — that distinction matters for a few
fields (e.g. a file area's Min Upload Level blank vs. 0).

The 16 sections

Boards & Message Areas

Local message boards: name, description, category, sort order, read/write
access levels, active flag. Web admin only: the ANSI banner shown
above the board (needs the rich art editor).

Echomail Networks & Areas

Two-level: pick a network (BinkP or QWK transport), then drill into
its echo areas. Network-level editing ([S]ettings from the network
list) covers host/port/password, AreaFix password, poll interval, and
active flag. Web admin only: TLS, CRAM-MD5, the FTS-0001 packet
password, hub-identity assignment, and per-network outbound-bundle
compression (compress_outbound) — all grouped as "advanced/rare"
fields on this same network-settings form, deliberately kept out of
the terminal form to keep it from growing unwieldy. If you need those,
use the web admin's Echomail → Networks page.

Per-area fields here: tag, name, description, category, sort order,
minimum access level, sysop-only flag, active/subscribed flags,
require-real-name flag.

Echomail Hub (AreaFix/Poll Log/QWK Requests)

Read-only log browsing for the AreaFix request log and the echomail
poll log, plus full approve/deny handling for incoming QWK node
requests (mirrors the web admin's own approval logic exactly — packet
ID validation, uniqueness check, random password generation).

Known gap: this section does not manage BinkPNode rows
(downstream peers who poll you as a hub) at all — creating, editing,
or deleting a downstream node, including its per-node outbound
compression preference and dial-out schedule, is web-admin-only today
(Admin → Hub Management). A peer's own sysop can still turn
compression on/off remotely for themselves via the AreaFix
%COMPRESS GZIP / %COMPRESS OFF command without any admin action on
either side — see 06 — Echomail.

File Areas

Tag, name, description, storage path, access/upload levels, upload
permission (users/sysop/none), active/subscribed/sysop-only flags,
area password, and WaZOO FREQ settings (allow-FREQ toggle + optional
FREQ password — see 06 — Echomail for what FREQ is).
Web admin only: which echomail network a file area's TIC routing
belongs to (reassigning it is rare and interacts with routing, so it's
read-only here).

File Bulletins

Files dropped into FILE_BULLETINS_DIR are auto-registered here the
same way the web admin's own bulletins page does it — this section
just edits the metadata (title, sort order, active flag, minimum
access level) for files already found on disk; it doesn't manage file
content itself.

Users & Security

Five sub-screens under one menu:
- Users — search by username, edit display name/access
level/admin flag/active flag/lock flag, reset a password (generates
and shows a random temporary one, once).
- IP Bans — add/edit/delete, with an optional expiry date.
- Word Filters — pattern/replacement pairs, active flag.
- Login Auto-Ban Settings — the single shared config row (enabled,
attempt limit, time window, ban duration).
- Registration Attempts — read-only log.

Web admin only: the IpWhitelist table (rarely touched).

Games

Three sub-screens: Games (the full Game field set — type, drop
file, executable/script paths, DOSBox/FOSSIL flags, InterBBS
score-sharing area, web/terminal enablement, and more — mirrors the
web admin's own game form field-for-field, including all eleven
game_type values), Categories (name, slug, sort order, submenu
flag), and Active Sessions (disconnect one, or mark every active
session stale after an unclean shutdown).

Known gap: the InterBBS score-sharing area is entered as a raw
numeric EchoArea id here rather than a picker — check the Echomail
section for the id you want first.

Image Galleries

Not database-backed — this edits the same gallery-config.json file
the web admin's gallery pages read/write directly (label, slug,
directory path, description, active flag, sort order), so there's
exactly one implementation of that file format shared between both
UIs.

BBS Menus

Two-level, like Echomail: pick a menu (name, title, prompt, default
flag, minimum access), drill into its items (hotkey, label, action
type, action args, minimum access, sort order, visible flag). All 18
action types are covered. Web admin only: the raw ANSI art banner
shown above the menu prompt (same reasoning as the Boards section's
gap — needs the art editor).

PETSCII Menus

The equivalent tree for Commodore 64/128 sessions — a completely
separate, simpler menu system from the ANSI one above (PETSCII
sessions can't use most ANSI action types, so this has its own
smaller, purpose-built action-type list: goto, boards, echo, pm,
files, who, profile, games, logoff).

Scheduled Events

Name, handler (picked from every currently-registered handler, so this
list can never drift from what the scheduler actually supports),
schedule and params as raw JSON (validated on save — see
21 — Scheduled events for the JSON shapes),
enabled flag, and a [R]un Now action that fires the exact same
code path the web admin's "Run now" button uses.

Graffiti Wall

Post moderation: browse/delete/restore individual posts, or clear
every active post at once. Web admin only: InterBBS Wall-sharing
settings (which BinkP network relays it, color scheme) — turning this
on provisions a real echomail area as part of the same flow, which
isn't something to partially reimplement here.

Login Modules

Logon/logoff action chains (wall prompt, ANSI screen, file bulletin,
shell command, native door, Python door) — name, description,
event type, module type, params (raw JSON, with per-type example
shapes shown in the form's help text), minimum access, sort order,
active flag.

Last Callers

Read-only login-history viewer (most recent 300). Web admin only:
InterBBS Last-Callers sharing settings, same reasoning as the Wall
section's gap.

Backups

Browse and delete update.sh's pre-update snapshots (created/from
version/to version/size/file list). Deliberately excluded:
restoring a backup — that's a genuine "can corrupt a live install"
operation gated behind a privileged, sudoers-controlled helper script,
and stays web-admin-only (Admin → Backups) where that confirmation
flow already lives. A backup created by an older update.sh version
may also be root-owned on disk; deleting one of those here will fail
with a clear message pointing you at the web admin's privileged-helper
fallback instead.

System / Network Settings

The odd one out — not database-backed at all, this is a grouped editor
directly over your install's .env file, organized into: Server
Ports, Application Settings, Logging, BinkP, MSP/Finger, MRC Bridge,
Files/FTP, Games, Echomail, New User Verification, and Wiki Edit Gate.
Editing here writes straight to .env with the same round-trip
guarantee the web admin's Settings page has — comments and unrelated
lines elsewhere in the file are never disturbed.

This tool does not restart any service. Like Synchronet's SCFG
or Mystic's -cfg, most of these settings are read once at process
start — after saving a change here, restart the affected systemd
unit(s) yourself (the tool tells you this on every save).

Known gaps, all in one place

For quick reference, everything currently web-admin-only across every
section:
- Board/menu ANSI art banners (needs the rich canvas editor)
- BinkPNode (downstream hub-peer) management — create/edit/delete, including per-node outbound compression
- EchomailNetwork's advanced fields: TLS, CRAM-MD5, packet password, hub-identity assignment, per-network outbound compression
- File area → echomail network (TIC routing) reassignment
- IpWhitelist management
- Wall and Last-Callers InterBBS-sharing settings (each provisions a real echomail area as part of turning it on)
- Backup restore (backup browsing/deletion works fine here)
- The ANSI art/theme editor, avatar/file uploads, in-place upgrades, and the full network-join applicant-approval email flow

None of these are oversights — each is a deliberate scope call made
when that section was built, usually because the excluded thing needs
either a rich canvas UI a terminal can't provide, or because it's
genuinely dangerous enough to want the web admin's confirmation flow
specifically. If one of these becomes a real day-to-day need for
console-only/no-root use, it's worth raising rather than working
around.