# Binkley-Style Outbound

This chapter explains the general principles of the Binkley-style Outbound structure, used by Argus mailing system.

Binkley-style Outbound was introduced in BinkleyTerm mailing system by Bit Bucket Software, soon it became a standard for the outbound section of mailing systems.

Explained briefly, The Binkley-style Outbound is a directory structure containing outgoing packets. The outbound directory for Default outbound zone is the directory specified in the Outbound entry field of the Directories Configuration dialogue. Outbound directories for other zones are created as directories with the same name as default outbound zone directory, but the name extension of such directory is hexadecimal representation of 12-bit number of the zone. (This is the reason to limit maximal zone number with 4095, which is FFF hex).

    OUTBOUND
| The outbound directory for Default outbound zone)
    OUTBOUND.001
| The outbound directory for Zone number 1 (North America)
    OUTBOUND.03F
| The outbound directory for Zone number 63 (3F hex)

All outbound packets are divided into two groups: Mail bundles and Attachment lists. Each group has four (actually three, because Direct is equal either to Crash or to Normal - it is determined in the terms of a particular mailing system) subtypes determining the urgency of a packet:

Subtype | Initiates a poll | Packet contents is transferred during outgoing connection | Mail bundle extension | Attachment list extension
Crash | yes | yes |
    .CUT
    .CLO
Direct | yes | yes |
    .DUT
    .DLO
Normal | no | yes |
    .OUT
    .FLO
Hold | no | depends on setup |
    .HUT
    .HLO

A Mail bundle is a standard FTS-0001 or P2K message packet, so before sending it, the system changes its name to `XXXXXXXX.PKT`, where each `X` represents a random hexadecimal digit (usually that hexadecimal combination is actually the time of a packet creation in UNIX format, but it is not relevant in modern mailing systems).

The Attachment list is a text file containing text lines, each of these lines contains the full path name of an outbound file. The very first character in a line may also determine the action after the target file is sent: '`^`' character placed in the beginning of a line means that the target file must be deleted, '`#`' means that the target file shall be truncated after its transfer.

The name of each outbound packet for a node has a format `NNNNFFFF.EXT`, where `NNNN` is the hexadecimal representation of 16-bit Net number, `FFFF` is the hexadecimal representation of 16-bit Node number and EXT is the extension determining the group and subtype of the packet (see the table above). Thus, all outbound packets for node with address `469/38.0` will have names `01D50026.EXT`

Outbound packets for points are stored in sub-directories of an Outbound directory. Those directories have names of format `NNNNFFFF.PNT`, `NNNN` and `FFFF` have the same meanings as for a node's outbound packet, `.PNT` is the extension symbolising that it is a point outbound. Outbound packets for points are names as `0000PPPP.EXT`, `PPPP` is the hexadecimal representation of 16-bit Point number and `EXT` is the extension determining the group and subtype of the packet (see the table above). Thus, point 25 of node 469/38 (469/38.25) will have outbound packets named `00000019.EXT` placed in the sub-directory `01D50026.PNT\` of an appropriate outbound directory.

There are some additional Binkley-style extensions, supported by Argus:

    .BSY
| Indicates that the node is busy
    .REQ
| List of file to request from remote
    .HRQ
| List of files, requested by remote

Argus has an ability to open .BSY-files without DELETE_ON_CLOSE mode. Files will be deleting using DeleteFile command. This may be useful on some network file system which don't support DELETE_ON_CLOSE mode. To turn this option on, add the following registry value:

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RIT\ARGUS\CurrentVersion\IniFile.ini]
    "SimpleBSY"=dword:00000001

Outbound SmartMenu is a powerful tool provided for Binkley-style Outbound operation.