QwkNet 1.3.0

QWK.NET Library

QWK.NET is a preservation-grade C# library for reading, writing, and validating QWK, REP, and QWKE offline message packets used by bulletin board systems (BBS) from the 1980s and 1990s. The library provides byte-accurate parsing and generation whilst maintaining compatibility with historical BBS software implementations.

Purpose and Scope

The library supports:

• QWK packets - Standard offline mail packets (CONTROL.DAT, MESSAGES.DAT, .NDX index files)
• REP packets - Reply packets generated by offline readers
• QWKE extensions - Extended format features (TOREADER.EXT, TODOOR.EXT, long headers, kludges)

Main Entry Points and Workflow

Typical workflow: Open → Inspect → Validate → Read optional files.

using QwkNet;

// Open packet
using QwkPacket packet = QwkPacket.Open("DEMO1.QWK");

// Inspect contents
Console.WriteLine($"BBS: {packet.Control.BbsName}");
foreach (Message message in packet.Messages)
{
  Console.WriteLine($"{message.From} → {message.To}: {message.Subject}");
}

// Validate
ValidationReport report = packet.Validate();
if (!report.IsValid)
{
  Console.WriteLine($"Errors: {report.Errors.Count}");
}

Validation Modes

Three modes control handling of malformed packets:

Strict - Fails on any specification violation:

QwkPacket packet = QwkPacket.Open("packet.qwk", ValidationMode.Strict);

Lenient (default) - Logs warnings, continues parsing:

QwkPacket packet = QwkPacket.Open("packet.qwk", ValidationMode.Lenient);

Salvage - Best-effort recovery from damaged packets:

QwkPacket packet = QwkPacket.Open("damaged.qwk", ValidationMode.Salvage);

Byte Fidelity and Preservation

QWK.NET prioritises byte-accurate preservation:

• CP437 encoding preserved (no UTF-8 conversion)
• MSBIN floats maintained in index files
• 128-byte records with space padding preserved
• 0xE3 line terminators maintained
• Round-trip fidelity (QWK → REP → QWK preserves all bytes)

The library treats QWK specifications as historical artifacts to preserve, not modernise.

Extension Points

Archive format support is extensible via IArchiveExtension:

using QwkNet.Archive;
using QwkNet.Archive.Extensions;

ArchiveFactory.RegisterExtension(new MyArchiveExtension());

Important: Extensions must be explicitly registered. No auto-discovery or assembly scanning. Only ZIP (1991+) format is built-in.

Documentation

• docs/ - Library documentation (building, architecture, API overview, compatibility)
• wiki/ - Deep dives, format notes, troubleshooting, and extended examples

Licence

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.