TinyMUX 2.4: PATCHES Last Update: September 2004 A Word About Patches for TinyMUX 2.4: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As part of the server development process, and especially during periods where beta versions of the server have been release, the development team will release patches. These supplemental use the 'patch' utility to make modifications to the source code of the server in preparation for recompiling the game. When patches are released, especially during beta releases, that you keep yourself informed about the changes to the server and any serious bugs that may have been corrected by a given patch. It is in the best interests of your game to make sure that patches are applied, as many patches contain fixes for crashing/corrupting bugs, as well as correcting weird and dangerous behaviors in the MUX program itself. Let us state that while patching a vanilla server with a patch release by the development team is generally considered to be pretty easy, that unless you have done it before and/or taken time to familiarize yourself with how the patch utility works(type 'man patch' inside your shell account or read the documentation for dopatch.exe provided with Win32 versions), then we strongly advise having someone either walk you through the process or do the work for you. Improper use of patch can cause all kinds of grief that you don't want to deal with. Applying a patch: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The absolute first thing that you should do before making server modifications, is to assure that you have a recent and usable backup of the database, all of your config, text, mail, and comsystem. *We cannot stress this enough*. Shutdown the game and use the provided Backup script, or db_load by hand. In most cases, this is totally unneeded, but if something goes wrong and you didn't, you won't be real happy. Unzip and move the patch file to the directory where you see the mux2.4/ directory listed. At the prompt, type 'patch -p1 <patchfile'. The actual file name of the patch should be used or you'll get an error. From here, you will usually get to watch a lot of spam fly by as the patch utility modifies the files to be updated. You might occasionally get a prompt, asking you for either information, or confirmation that you want really do want something applied. For the inexperienced, this is where having an experienced person at hand to help you is invaluable. If, at any point in the process, you feel that you are in over your head, stop and get help before continuing! After you have successfully patched the source code, then you recompile the server as usual. If you have problems: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If the patch fails and you were applying it to a standard beta or release version of TinyMUX 2.4, then collect the error messages and report it to brazilofmux@gmail.com following the bug reporting procedures in README.