210 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
210 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
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CircleMUD README File
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---------------------
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Welcome to CircleMUD 3.1! I hope you enjoy your stay.
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More information about CircleMUD can be found at the CircleMUD Home Page:
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http://www.circlemud.org. That site has the latest source distributions,
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code contributions, areas, and documentation (online in HTML form, and
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downloadable in ASCII or Postscript). CircleMUD's official FTP site is
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ftp://ftp.circlemud.org.
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There is a mailing list for CircleMUD administrators and coders available.
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To subscribe, write mail to listserv@post.queensu.ca with a message body
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of "subscribe circle". Write to listserv@post.queensu.ca to send mail to
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the list. We also now have email addresses for getting help
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(help@circlemud.org), and reporting bugs (bugs@circlemud.org).
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Use of this software in any capacity implies that you have read, understood,
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and agreed to abide by the terms and conditions set down by the CircleMUD
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license contained in the file license.doc.
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Also, out of courtesy if nothing else, please keep the 'credits' file
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intact. You can add your own credits on top of the existing file, but I'd
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appreciate it if you would not simply remove it and all references to the
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word "Circle" everywhere in the MUD.
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Jeremy Elson
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jelson@circlemud.org
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Downloading CircleMUD
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---------------------
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You can find version 3.1 of CircleMUD at the following anonymous FTP sites:
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ftp.circlemud.org:/pub/CircleMUD/3.x
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ftp2.circlemud.org:/pub/CircleMUD/3.x
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ftp.stormhaven.org:/pub/CircleMUD/3.x
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You can also find information at the WWW site:
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http://www.circlemud.org/
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The archive is offered in several formats -- for example, one that ends in
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.tar.gz, one that ends in .bz2, and one that ends in .zip. All of these
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archives have the exact same contents, but have been compressed using
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different compression programs. UNIX users usually use the .tar.gz or .bz2
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versions; Windows and OS/2 users typically use the .zip version.
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The archive will be called something like "circleXXXX.tar.gz" (where
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"XXXX" is the version number).
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Once you download the archive, you must decompress it. If you have the
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.tar.gz version, uncompress it using gzip (GNU unzip) and the tar
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archiver. (Both of these utilities can be downloaded from
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ftp.gnu.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu if you don't have them.) To unpack the
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archive on a UNIX system, type:
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gzip -dc circle30xxxx.tar.gz | tar xvf -
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If you have the .zip version, make sure to use an UNZIP program capable
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of handling long filenames and which preserves the original directory
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structure of the archive (PKUNZIP 2.04 does NOT do either of these things
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by default). The best unzip program is the one made by the Info-Zip
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team; it is compatible with all UNIX variants, Windows, OS/2, the Amiga,
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and every other computer on the planet. For more information, see the
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URL http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/UnZip.html. If you have Windows
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95, another good choice is WinZip (http://www.winzip.com/).
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Compiling CircleMUD
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-------------------
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CircleMUD compiles under a large number of operating systems; instructions
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for compiling on each platform is in a different file.
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From here, read:
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doc/README.UNIX - If you have any type UNIX system, including Linux,
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MkLinux, Ultrix, HP/UX, Solaris, SunOS, IRIX, FreeBSD,
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OpenBSD, NetBSD, BSDi, Macintosh OS X, etc.
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doc/README.WIN - If you have Windows 95 or NT.
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doc/README.OS2 - If you are using OS/2 Warp Connect v3.0 or OS/2 v2.x.
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doc/README.AMIGA - If you are using an Amiga running AmigaDOS. (If you're
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running NetBSD or Linux on an Amiga, use README.UNIX
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instead.)
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doc/README.ARC - If you are using an Acorn running RiscOS.
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doc/README.VMS - If you happen to be on OpenVMS.
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If you are interested in porting CircleMUD to a new platform, see the
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file doc/porting.txt for some tips.
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Version 3.1 source currently does NOT compile under DOS, Windows 3.x, or
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Windows for Workgroups. Also, we currently do not distribute binaries,
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although the FTP site does have a very old Amiga binary of CircleMUD 2.20.
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For a small, private MUD, or a MUD used only for testing and development,
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about 10 megs of disk space and 16 megs of memory should be sufficient.
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For large, public MUDs with a large player base, 30 megs to 50 megs of
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disk space and at least 32 megs of memory are recommended. Free memory
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is much more important than CPU speed; CircleMUD uses virtually no CPU
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time.
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Other Documentation
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-------------------
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If this information isn't enough to get you running, there's a lot more
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information available. All documentation (other than this file) is in
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the "doc" directory and available on-line at http://www.circlemud.org/.
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The README file in the doc directory describes each documentation file
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in detail, but there are several main files which should be of interest:
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"The CircleMUD Administrator's Guide" (admin.pdf)
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A good place to start after reading this README file, admin.txt gives
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an overall description of how Circle works, how to get it to compile and
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run for the first time, information about customizing and configuration
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options and command-line arguments, and tips on maintenance and day-to-day
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MUD administration.
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"The CircleMUD Builder's Manual" (building.pdf)
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For the builders in your group, this documents the world-file format
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and describes how to create new rooms, objects, and monsters. Also, it
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describes how to add new areas to the MUD and gives some tips about game
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balance and world-file debugging.
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"The CircleMUD Coder's Manual" (coding.pdf)
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For the coders in your group, a technical reference describing some of
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the more basic coding tasks such as how to add new commands, spells,
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skills, socials, and classes. Note that it assumes the reader already has
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an excellent knowledge of C; the manual is not a C tutorial.
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"The CircleMUD SYSERR List" (syserr.txt, syserr.ps)
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A comprehensive list of all the possible SYSERR messages CircleMUD
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can generate, and a description of what can cause each problem and how to
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solve it. An excellent guide for troubleshooting and area debugging.
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[NOTE: This document is not complete at this time]
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Getting Help
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------------
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If you have strange problems -- and you can't figure out the answer by
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reading the documentation -- fear not, there are many other resources
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available. The best is probably our email alias specifically for newbie
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questions: help@circlemud.org. Write to that address for basic questions
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about getting Circle up and running.
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For more advanced discussion, you can use the CircleMUD Mailing List.
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You can subscribe by writing mail to "listserv@post.queensu.ca" with a
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message body of "subscribe circle". If you want to write mail to the
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list, address it to "circle@post.queensu.ca". Over 400 CircleMUD imps
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read that list regularly.
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If that doesn't work, you can always contact me directly by writing to
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jelson@circlemud.org. Or, take a look at the CircleMUD Home Page which is
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at http://www.circlemud.org which has extensive, up-to-date documentation
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and patches on-line.
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Finally, if you have USENET access and are very brave, you can try posting
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to the newsgroups rec.games.mud.diku or rec.games.mud.admin.
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No matter how you choose to get help, make sure to always include the
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following information in your mail:
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-- The exact version of CircleMUD you're using (e.g., "CircleMUD 2.20",
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"CircleMUD 3.0 beta patchlevel 12", etc.).
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-- The EXACT text of any error messages, compiler errors, link errors,
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or any other errors you're getting.
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-- The exact type of hardware, operating system name and version, and
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compiler you're using.
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-- A description of ANY changes you've made, no matter how small, that
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might have contributed to the error.
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-- If you are having trouble getting Circle running for the very first
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time, also be sure to include the output of 'configure' and the file
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'config.log'.
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Remember, I get dozens of pieces of email every day. If you don't bother to
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give me an excellent description of your problem, I will be somewhat annoyed
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and will not be able to help you. For example, this email that I received:
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hi I need some help with CircleMUD....i tried compiling it on my system
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but I got all sorts of errors, and when i type bin/circle like it says
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in the manual it doesn't work. Can you help???? you can log into my
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system if you want, the password is mud5.
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Letters like that are always ignored. I get a lot of them.
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Good luck, and have fun!
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Jeremy Elson
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aka Ras/Rasmussen
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jelson@circlemud.org
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USE OF THIS SOFTWARE IN ANY CAPACITY IMPLIES THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD,
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AND AGREED TO ABIDE BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET DOWN BY THE CIRCLEMUD
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LICENSE.
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