WARNING: If you are upgrading an existing LambdaMOO database from an earlier
version of the server, you should read the relevant notes in ChangeLog.txt
regarding DB changes you may need to make *before* doing the upgrade.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Getting Started With LambdaMOO
------------------------------
LambdaMOO has been successfully compiled and run on several machines and
operating systems; a table appears at the end of this file.
People compiling on any of these machines should only need to do the following:
-- run the command `sh configure'; it will take a couple of minutes, trying
out various features of your operating system, figuring out which of a
long list of known quirks must be patched around for your system. It will
produce a fair amount of output as it runs, every line of it beginning
with the word `checking'. When it's finished poking at your system, it
will print out a little note concerning which networking options will work
on your particular machine. Make a note of these, since they'll constrain
your choice of edits in the next step.
-- edit the file `options.h', choosing the options appropriate to your needs
and your local configuration. In particular, this is where you specify
the kind of networking the server should support, choosing from the
options printed by `configure' in the first step.
-- type `make'; the code should compile without any errors or warnings. The
only exceptions are warnings about code in files from your own system; an
amazing number of systems contain header files and other files that don't
compile without warnings. Obviously, I can't do anything about these
files, so just ignore such warnings.
That should do it, you'll now have a working LambdaMOO server.
[EXCEPTION: If you've defined NETWORK_PROTOCOL to be NP_LOCAL in
`options.h', then you will also need a specialized client program
for connecting to the server. Type either `make client_bsd' or
`make client_sysv', depending on how you defined NETWORK_STYLE, to
create the appropriate client program.]
If you're not on one of these configurations, you may still get lucky. You
will need the following things:
-- You need a C compiler that is at least mostly compliant with the ANSI C
standard. Old-style, purely Kernighan & Ritchie compilers will fail
miserably. The more closely it adheres to the standard, the less trouble
you'll have.
-- You need support for signals, forking, and pausing, preferably according
to the POSIX standard; if you haven't got POSIX, then I might be ready for
your particular non-standard system anyway.
-- You need an implementation of the crypt() password-encryption function
that comes with all BSD UNIX operating systems.
If you've got all of this, then try the above procedure (i.e., type
`sh configure', edit `options.h', and type `make') and there's a good chance
that it will just work. If so, please let me know so that I can add your
machine and operating system to the table at the end of this file. If not,
feel free to send me mail and I'll help you try to make it work.
To start the server, use a command like this:
./moo INITIAL-DB-FILE CHECKPOINT-DB-FILE
where INITIAL-DB-FILE is the name of an existing LambdaMOO database file and
CHECKPOINT-DB-FILE is the filename the server should use for its periodic
checkpoints of the current DB, which is otherwise kept only in its memory. IT
IS STRONGLY ADVISED that you not use the same file name for both
INITIAL-DB-FILE and CHECKPOINT-DB-FILE; this could, in the event of a crash,
leave you with no useful DB file at all.
Included with the release is a little shell script called `restart' that
handles the server start-up in a more convenient way. You type a command like
./restart FOOBAR
and the script does the following:
-- If FOOBAR.db.new exists, then
+ Rename FOOBAR.db to FOOBAR.db.old, and start a background process to
compress that file.
+ Rename FOOBAR.db.new to FOOBAR.db
-- Start the server in the background, reading the initial DB from FOOBAR.db
and writing the checkpoints to FOOBAR.db.new. The server's log of network
connections, checkpoints, and errors will be put into FOOBAR.log. If
there was already a file named FOOBAR.log, its old contents are appended
to FOOBAR.log.old and FOOBAR.log is removed first.
The `restart' script is really the only good way to start up the server; it's
all I ever use for LambdaMOO itself.
For most of the networking options supported by the server, both the `moo' and
`restart' commands take an optional argument for changing some network
connection information; type just `./moo' to see what the argument is for the
option you've chosen. The only one for which you're at all likely to want to
override the default concerns the NP_TCP networking options; for them, the
optional argument is the TCP port number on which the server should listen for
new connections (the default is 7777).
The only database included with the release now is Minimal.db. Getting from
there to something usable is possible, but tedious; see README.Minimal for
details. Feel free to log into LambdaMOO (lambda.parc.xerox.com [13.2.116.36],
port 8888) and ask Haakon and/or Lambda for hints.
Also available for FTP from parcftp.xerox.com is a version of LambdaCore.db, a
snapshot of the core pieces of the LambdaMOO database. New snapshots are made
at irregular intervals as sufficient changes happen to the LambdaMOO database.
The LambdaMOO Programmer's Manual is also available for FTP from the same
place. It comes in plain-text, Texinfo, and Postscript formats.
Finally, if you're putting up a LambdaMOO server, you should probably be a
member of the MOO-Cows mailing list. Send email to MOO-Cows-Request@Xerox.Com
to get yourself added to the list.
Pavel Curtis
aka Lambda
aka Haakon
Archwizard of LambdaMOO
Pavel@Xerox.Com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to Add New Built-In Functions to the MOO Language
-----------------------------------------------------
Implement your functions by following the many examples in the distributed
server code (e.g., in the file `numbers.c'). Then follow the directions in the
comment at the top of functions.c.
NOTE that, in this release, I'm not making any guarantees about what interfaces
within the server will remain stable. Thus, any code you add to the server may
well be horribly broken by a future release. Your best bet for avoiding this
cruel fate is to send that code to me and convince me to add it to the
distribution; that way, I'll fix up your code for each new release.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some Machines On Which Version 1.7.0 of LambdaMOO Has Run
---------------------------------------------------------
Hardware Operating System Networking Options Compiler
-------- ---------------- ------------------ --------
DECstation: Ultrix 4.1 SU, BT, BL, VL GCC and Vendor's
CMU Mach 2.6 SU, BT, BL GCC
Motorola 88K SysV/88 Rel. R32V2 SU, BT, BL, VL GCC
NeXT NeXT Mach SU, BT, BL Vendor's (= GCC)
SGI Iris IRIX 4.0.{1,5} SU, BT, BL, VL Vendor's
Sun 4/SPARC: SunOS 4.1.{1,2,3} SU, BT, BL, VT, VL GCC
SunOS 5.0 SU, BT, BL, VT, VL Vendor's
Key to `Networking Options' codes:
Code NETWORK_PROTOCOL NETWORK_STYLE
---- ---------------- -------------
SU NP_SINGLE -----
BT NP_TCP NS_BSD
BL NP_LOCAL NS_BSD
VT NP_TCP NS_SYSV
VL NP_LOCAL NS_SYSV