Creating a simple BPQ Application

This tutorial shows you how to set up a simple python script connected to linbpq as a telnet application.

In order to do this we'll do the following:

1. Create a location for the script, data, and a python venv
2. Write the script
3. Add the application to BPQ32.cfg
4. Setup a systemd service to keep it running.

To organize this project, I created a python virtual environment called bpq-apps in my .local directory, and installed the telnetlib3 module that it depends on. Within the bpq-apps virtual environment directory, I also created a folder called scripts and a folder called data. I'm going to install various small BPQ applications here.

I'm using the python virtual environment framework to help manage the various dependencies I might want to use for these scripts.

$ cd ~/.local
$ python -m venv bpq-apps
$ cd ./bpq-apps
$ mkdir scripts data
$ source ./bin/activate
(bpq-apps)$ pip install telnetlib3

I chose to write this in Python to be a little more clear than the Perl application provided in the link above.

The BPQ Application, called ROLL uses a file called messages.json to provide it a welcome message and the blocks of text. The script itself was placed under the scripts directory created above, saved as rick.py

This program was adapted from the example for the ''telnetlib3'' Python module

import asyncio, telnetlib3, json
from optparse import OptionParser

parser = OptionParser()
parser.add_option("-f", "--file", dest="filename", help="which json file with message and welcome", metavar="FILE")
parser.add_option("-p", "--port", dest="port", help="on which port?", metavar="PORT")
(options, args) = parser.parse_args()

messages = json.load(open(options.filename,'r'))

async def shell(reader, writer):
    incall = await reader.readline()
    print("%s connected" % incall)
    writer.write("\r\nWelcome %s" % incall)
    writer.write("\r\n%s" % messages["welcome"])
    textblocks = messages["text"].copy()
    leave = False #inp[0].upper() in ["Q", "B"]
    rolled = False
    inp = await reader.read(1)
    while inp and not leave and len(textblocks) > 0:
        print("writing next block")
        writer.write(textblocks.pop(0))
        await writer.drain()
        inp = await reader.readline()
        if not rolled: print("%s rickrolled" % incall)
        rolled = True
        leave = inp[0].upper() in ["Q", "B"] and rolled
    writer.close()

loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
coro = telnetlib3.create_server(port=options.port, shell=shell)
server = loop.run_until_complete(coro)
loop.run_until_complete(server.wait_closed())

{
	"welcome": "We're no strangers to love\r\nYou know the rules and so do I (Do I)\r\nA full commitment's what I'm thinking of\r\nYou wouldn't get this from any other guy\r\nI just wanna tell you how I'm feeling\r\nGotta make you understand\r\n",
	"text": ["Never gonna give you up\r\nNever gonna let you down\r\nNever gonna run around and desert you\r\nNever gonna make you cry\r\nNever gonna say goodbye\r\nNever gonna tell a lie and hurt you\r\n",
		 "\r\nWe've known each other for so long\r\nYour heart's been aching, but you're too shy to say it (To say it)\r\nInside, we both know what's been going on (Going on)\r\nWe know the game, and we're gonna play it\r\n\r\nAnd if you ask me how I'm feeling\r\nDon't tell me you're too blind to see\r\n",
		 "\r\nNever gonna give you up\r\nNever gonna let you down\r\nNever gonna run around and desert you\r\nNever gonna make you cry\r\nNever gonna say goodbye\r\nNever gonna tell a lie and hurt you\r\n",
		 "\r\nNever gonna give you up\r\nNever gonna let you down\r\nNever gonna run around and desert you\r\nNever gonna make you cry\r\nNever gonna say goodbye\r\nNever gonna tell a lie and hurt you\r\n",
		 "\r\nOoh (Give you up)\r\nOoh-ooh (Give you up)\r\nOoh-ooh\r\nNever gonna give, never gonna give (Give you up)\r\nOoh-ooh\r\nNever gonna give, never gonna give (Give you up)\r\n\r\nWe've known each other for so long\r\nYour heart's been aching, but you're too shy to say it (To say it)\r\n",
		 "\r\nInside, we both know what's been going on (Going on)\r\nWe know the game, and we're gonna play it\r\n\r\nI just wanna tell you how I'm feeling\r\nGotta make you understand\r\n",
		 "\r\nNever gonna give you up\r\nNever gonna let you down\r\nNever gonna run around and desert you\r\nNever gonna make you cry\r\nNever gonna say goodbye\r\nNever gonna tell a lie and hurt you\r\n",
		 "\r\nNever gonna give you up\r\nNever gonna let you down\r\nNever gonna run around and desert you\r\nNever gonna make you cry\r\nNever gonna say goodbye\r\nNever gonna tell a lie and hurt you\r\n",
		 "\r\nNever gonna give you up\r\nNever gonna let you down\r\nNever gonna run around and desert you\r\nNever gonna make you cry\r\nNever gonna say goodbye\r\nNever gonna tell a lie and hurt you\r\n"
	]
}

In my bpq32.cfg file, I added the port number to the telnet port, where the fourth entry, 10001 is the port for my new application:

CMDPORT=8005 63001 4565 10001

and in the application list, I added a new entry, where 3 is the 0th-indexed 4th entry above.

APPLICATION 4,ROLL,C 1 HOST 3 S

Next we'll configure a systemd service to make sure this script is always running and ready to accept connections.

I created this file as a “user” service, as ~/.config/systemd/user/rick.service, but it should probably run as a system service:

# service for RRoAX25 server
# replace USER with the username under which you created the bpq-apps venv

[Unit]
Description="RRoAX25 service"
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/home/USER/.local/bpq-apps/
ExecStart=/home/USER/.local/bpq-apps/bin/python /home/USER/.local/bpq-apps/scripts/rick.py -p 10001 -f /home/USER/.local/bpq-apps/data/messages.json
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Activate it by running:

systemctl --user enable rick.service
systemctl --user start rick.service

Then check the status to confirm it is working:

systemctl --user status rick.service

If you need to edit the service file, reload it with:

systemctl --user daemon-reload