talker/
talker/bin/
talker/files/whois/
talker/update/
talker/update/bin/
Message Server v1.3
===================

  This is a nice little program to put a message up on a given tcp port.
You'll most likely want to use it if you run a mud or talker and either
have some downtime, or have had to move sites and want to leave a
message on your old address.
  It has the rather nice feature of not closing the connection as soon
as it has sent the message, instead it does a 10 second (default)
countdown before closing the connection. This is primarily to help people
who use telnet clients that clear the screen as soon as the connection is
dropped. Without the delay these people would have a very hard time ever
reading your message!


Portability
===========

  So far the code has only been tested on:
  
			Linux 1.2.13, gcc 2.6.3
			Solaris 2.4, gcc 2.6.3
			Solaris 2.4, standard 'cc'
			SunOS 4.1.3, gcc 2.5.8

NB: Version 1.3 has thus far only been tested on linux 1.3.77

Compiling
=========

  To compile edit the Makefile to suit your system then simply type 'make'. If
you get any errors you probly need to tweak some of the code to suit your
system. 


Running
=======

   From version 1.3 onwards ms accepts a variety of commandline
arguments. Thes are:

        -p <port>               - Set port to listen on
	-m <file>               - Set message file to use
	-l <delay (seconds)>    - Loop until port is bound
	-t <timeout (seconds)>  - Time before connection close
	-v                      - Verbose messages
	-r                      - Run with 'angel'
	-b                      - Run in background (implied by -r)
	-h                      - Help message

The defaults for port, file, delay and timeout are in config.h, and a
recompile is necessary to change them. Once you've compiled it once it
is probly easiest just to use the commandline switches.
   Without the -v flag you will get NO status reports at all, not even
that the program has successfully bound to the port, only error messages
should any operation fail.
   The -r option causes the program to fork a child to act as the actual
message server. If this child dies then the parent 'angel' process waits
10 seconds then re-runs the child. If you want to kill the program, just
kill the parent process and the child should die as well.
   You will almost always want to start with the -b flag, so the program
is divorced from your terminal and will stay running after you logout.
   You may change the message file and get the program (either parent or
child if running with angel) to get it to re-read the message file by
sending it a SIGUSR1:

      kill -USR1 <process id of parent or child>
      
The serving process will then start giving out the new message.

Copyright
=========

   Please note that this program IS copyrighted. Specifically it is

     Copyright 1995,1996 Neil Peter Soveran-Charley, known on 'the net'
     as 'Athanasius'. All rights reserved.

   However, this is freeware, feel free to distribute it. If you DO modify it
in any way please make an attempt to send the changes (preferably diffs against
the original) to me. Currently I can be reached at
Athanasius@orodrion.demon.co.uk, although this account may not always be
in existence. I should maintain my account at ncharley@nyx.cs.du.edu
indefinitely, so if you have problems contacting me, try that.
   Do NOT distribute any modified version yourself, I'd like to keep that
'centralised'. 

Note for Mirror Sites
=====================

   At time of writing this software's principle site is ftp.mersinet.co.uk,
in the directory /pub/Unix/Talkers/Src.


-Ath