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  • jam error message

    From Paul Hayton@3:770/100 to All on Sun Mar 29 16:00:19 2026
    I'm seeing this in my HPT logs related to a JAM base for netmail

    3 Mar:29:2026:15:55:16 Linking area NETMAIL
    A Mar:29:2026:15:55:16 JAM ERROR: wrongly sized subfield occured!
    A Mar:29:2026:15:55:16 JAM ERROR: wrongly sized subfield occured!
    A Mar:29:2026:15:55:16 JAM ERROR: wrongly sized subfield occured!
    A Mar:29:2026:15:55:38 JAM ERROR: subfield is suspiciously large! (825360384 bytes)

    any thoughts on how best to resolve the problem?

    Best, Paul

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (3:770/100)
  • From Paul Hayton@3:770/100 to All on Sun Mar 29 16:51:35 2026
    On 29 Mar 2026 at 04:00p, Paul Hayton pondered and said...

    3 Mar:29:2026:15:55:16 Linking area NETMAIL
    A Mar:29:2026:15:55:16 JAM ERROR: wrongly sized subfield occured!
    A Mar:29:2026:15:55:16 JAM ERROR: wrongly sized subfield occured!

    I tried hptutil fix -j /pathto/netmail

    But it seemed to do nothing ... ended up removing the database and starting over :(

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (3:770/100)
  • From Tommi Koivula@2:221/360 to Jay Harris on Mon Mar 30 10:27:39 2026
    On 30.3.2026 0.41, Jay Harris wrote:
    On 29 Mar 2026, Mike Powell said the following...

    I haven't tried, but another thing you could do is use MK Message Utilit https://flisterz.throwbackbbs.com/filelist/BBS_Utilities/mkmu103.zip

    Does your second suggestion work on linux?

    It looks like MK Message Utilities was only released as an .exe

    DOS exe, year 1994. :)

    There is also a program called MBMERGE that can copy messages from msgbase to another. It runs on linux, windows and os/2.

    'Tommi

    ---
    * Origin: nntp://rbb.fidonet.fi - Finland (2:221/360.0)
  • From Wilfred van Velzen@2:280/464 to Tommi Koivula on Mon Mar 30 12:04:44 2026
    Hi Tommi,

    On 2026-03-30 10:27:39, you wrote to Jay Harris:

    There is also a program called MBMERGE that can copy messages from
    msgbase to another. It runs on linux, windows and os/2.

    Or even more simple, just use GoldED to copy messages between areas... ;-)

    Bye, Wilfred.

    --- FMail-lnx64 2.3.2.6-B20251227
    * Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)
  • From Jay Harris@1:229/664 to Paul Hayton on Mon Mar 30 12:34:46 2026
    On 29 Mar 2026, Paul Hayton said the following...

    I'm seeing this in my HPT logs related to a JAM base for netmail

    A Mar:29:2026:15:55:16 JAM ERROR: wrongly sized subfield occured!

    any thoughts on how best to resolve the problem?

    I've seen others have success in using Claude AI to make them a purpose-built utility, so decided to give it a try.

    I pointed Claude at JAMLib on Sourceforge and SMAPI from the Husky Project on GitHub and asked it to make me a utility that can scan & repair damaged JAM message bases. A little trial & error and it spit something out that seems to work for my limited uses. I asked it if it's easy to compile for Linux or Windows and it updated the C source code & Makefile to make sure it can do a 32 or 64 bit .exe.

    For Linux you just have to run "make" in the same directory and it'll spit out an executable for you.

    I tested the Linux version on some test bases (Claude also included two python scripts to generate a damaged JAM base to test). I mostly just opened up a JAM file with nano and messed it up to see if the utility can fix it, and to my surprise it did/can.

    If you have a backup of that damaged base, I'd be interested to see if this works for you.

    I've not thoroughly tested this utility (and I am by no means a coder), so I wouldn't run this on anything you don't already have a backup of. But hopefully someone somewhere finds this useful.


    .c source and 32 & 64bit .exe's included:
    https://nrbbs.net/jamrepair.zip


    Jay

    ... If it breaks then you get to keep both pieces

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Northern Realms (1:229/664)
  • From Mike Powell@1:2320/107 to JAY HARRIS on Mon Mar 30 14:30:44 2026
    I haven't tried, but another thing you could do is use MK Message Utilit https://flisterz.throwbackbbs.com/filelist/BBS_Utilities/mkmu103.zip

    Does your second suggestion work on linux?

    It looks like MK Message Utilities was only released as an .exe

    Thanks!

    I have also been running into some JAM bases that are getting corrupted
    somehow so I am on the lookout for something that might fix them. Figuring
    out how they are getting corrupted to begin with might be enough. ;)

    Mike

    * SLMR 2.1a * A reasonable man accomplishes nothing.
    --- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
    * Origin: Capitol City Online (1:2320/107)
  • From Paul Hayton@3:770/100 to Jay Harris on Wed Apr 1 13:25:21 2026
    On 30 Mar 2026 at 12:34p, Jay Harris pondered and said...

    I've not thoroughly tested this utility (and I am by no means a coder),
    so I wouldn't run this on anything you don't already have a backup of. But hopefully someone somewhere finds this useful.

    thanks Jay :)

    I'll have a crack and let you know.

    Thanks to all who replied... it's an interesting thread.

    Best, Paul

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (3:770/100)
  • From Kai Richter@2:240/77 to Paul Hayton on Wed Apr 1 17:31:12 2026
    Hello Paul!

    29 Mar 26, Paul Hayton wrote to All:

    3 Mar:29:2026:15:55:16 Linking area NETMAIL
    A Mar:29:2026:15:55:16 JAM ERROR: wrongly sized subfield occured!
    A Mar:29:2026:15:55:38 JAM ERROR: subfield is suspiciously large!

    any thoughts on how best to resolve the problem?

    Do not use JAM for netmail. Really. Especially for routing systems with in tranist netmail a broken indexed area could destroy many netmails. With FTS1/OPUS style one message per file (*.msg) the risk is reduced to each message only.

    Regards

    Kai

    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.4.7
    * Origin: Monobox (2:240/77)