README
1 2 CircleMUD README File 3 --------------------- 4 5 Welcome to CircleMUD 3.1! I hope you enjoy your stay. 6 7 More information about CircleMUD can be found at the CircleMUD Home Page: 8 http://www.circlemud.org. That site has the latest source distributions, 9 code contributions, areas, and documentation (online in HTML form, and 10 downloadable in ASCII or Postscript). CircleMUD's official FTP site is 11 ftp://ftp.circlemud.org. 12 13 There is a mailing list for CircleMUD administrators and coders available. 14 To subscribe, write mail to listserv@post.queensu.ca with a message body 15 of "subscribe circle". Write to listserv@post.queensu.ca to send mail to 16 the list. We also now have email addresses for getting help 17 (help@circlemud.org), and reporting bugs (bugs@circlemud.org). 18 19 Use of this software in any capacity implies that you have read, understood, 20 and agreed to abide by the terms and conditions set down by the CircleMUD 21 license contained in the file license.doc. 22 23 Also, out of courtesy if nothing else, please keep the 'credits' file 24 intact. You can add your own credits on top of the existing file, but I'd 25 appreciate it if you would not simply remove it and all references to the 26 word "Circle" everywhere in the MUD. 27 28 Jeremy Elson 29 jelson@circlemud.org 30 31 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 32 33 Downloading CircleMUD 34 --------------------- 35 36 You can find version 3.1 of CircleMUD at the following anonymous FTP sites: 37 38 ftp.circlemud.org:/pub/CircleMUD/3.x 39 ftp2.circlemud.org:/pub/CircleMUD/3.x 40 ftp.stormhaven.org:/pub/CircleMUD/3.x 41 42 You can also find information at the WWW site: 43 44 http://www.circlemud.org/ 45 46 The archive is offered in several formats -- for example, one that ends in 47 .tar.gz, one that ends in .bz2, and one that ends in .zip. All of these 48 archives have the exact same contents, but have been compressed using 49 different compression programs. UNIX users usually use the .tar.gz or .bz2 50 versions; Windows and OS/2 users typically use the .zip version. 51 52 The archive will be called something like "circleXXXX.tar.gz" (where 53 "XXXX" is the version number). 54 55 Once you download the archive, you must decompress it. If you have the 56 .tar.gz version, uncompress it using gzip (GNU unzip) and the tar 57 archiver. (Both of these utilities can be downloaded from 58 ftp.gnu.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu if you don't have them.) To unpack the 59 archive on a UNIX system, type: 60 61 gzip -dc circle30xxxx.tar.gz | tar xvf - 62 63 If you have the .zip version, make sure to use an UNZIP program capable 64 of handling long filenames and which preserves the original directory 65 structure of the archive (PKUNZIP 2.04 does NOT do either of these things 66 by default). The best unzip program is the one made by the Info-Zip 67 team; it is compatible with all UNIX variants, Windows, OS/2, the Amiga, 68 and every other computer on the planet. For more information, see the 69 URL http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/UnZip.html. If you have Windows 70 95, another good choice is WinZip (http://www.winzip.com/). 71 72 73 Compiling CircleMUD 74 ------------------- 75 76 CircleMUD compiles under a large number of operating systems; instructions 77 for compiling on each platform is in a different file. 78 79 From here, read: 80 81 doc/README.UNIX - If you have any type UNIX system, including Linux, 82 MkLinux, Ultrix, HP/UX, Solaris, SunOS, IRIX, FreeBSD, 83 OpenBSD, NetBSD, BSDi, Macintosh OS X, etc. 84 85 doc/README.WIN - If you have Windows 95 or NT. 86 87 doc/README.OS2 - If you are using OS/2 Warp Connect v3.0 or OS/2 v2.x. 88 89 doc/README.AMIGA - If you are using an Amiga running AmigaDOS. (If you're 90 running NetBSD or Linux on an Amiga, use README.UNIX 91 instead.) 92 93 doc/README.ARC - If you are using an Acorn running RiscOS. 94 95 doc/README.VMS - If you happen to be on OpenVMS. 96 97 98 If you are interested in porting CircleMUD to a new platform, see the 99 file doc/porting.txt for some tips. 100 101 Version 3.1 source currently does NOT compile under DOS, Windows 3.x, or 102 Windows for Workgroups. Also, we currently do not distribute binaries, 103 although the FTP site does have a very old Amiga binary of CircleMUD 2.20. 104 105 For a small, private MUD, or a MUD used only for testing and development, 106 about 10 megs of disk space and 16 megs of memory should be sufficient. 107 For large, public MUDs with a large player base, 30 megs to 50 megs of 108 disk space and at least 32 megs of memory are recommended. Free memory 109 is much more important than CPU speed; CircleMUD uses virtually no CPU 110 time. 111 112 113 Other Documentation 114 ------------------- 115 116 If this information isn't enough to get you running, there's a lot more 117 information available. All documentation (other than this file) is in 118 the "doc" directory and available on-line at http://www.circlemud.org/. 119 120 The README file in the doc directory describes each documentation file 121 in detail, but there are several main files which should be of interest: 122 123 "The CircleMUD Administrator's Guide" (admin.pdf) 124 A good place to start after reading this README file, admin.txt gives 125 an overall description of how Circle works, how to get it to compile and 126 run for the first time, information about customizing and configuration 127 options and command-line arguments, and tips on maintenance and day-to-day 128 MUD administration. 129 130 "The CircleMUD Builder's Manual" (building.pdf) 131 For the builders in your group, this documents the world-file format 132 and describes how to create new rooms, objects, and monsters. Also, it 133 describes how to add new areas to the MUD and gives some tips about game 134 balance and world-file debugging. 135 136 "The CircleMUD Coder's Manual" (coding.pdf) 137 For the coders in your group, a technical reference describing some of 138 the more basic coding tasks such as how to add new commands, spells, 139 skills, socials, and classes. Note that it assumes the reader already has 140 an excellent knowledge of C; the manual is not a C tutorial. 141 142 "The CircleMUD SYSERR List" (syserr.txt, syserr.ps) 143 A comprehensive list of all the possible SYSERR messages CircleMUD 144 can generate, and a description of what can cause each problem and how to 145 solve it. An excellent guide for troubleshooting and area debugging. 146 [NOTE: This document is not complete at this time] 147 148 149 Getting Help 150 ------------ 151 152 If you have strange problems -- and you can't figure out the answer by 153 reading the documentation -- fear not, there are many other resources 154 available. The best is probably our email alias specifically for newbie 155 questions: help@circlemud.org. Write to that address for basic questions 156 about getting Circle up and running. 157 158 For more advanced discussion, you can use the CircleMUD Mailing List. 159 You can subscribe by writing mail to "listserv@post.queensu.ca" with a 160 message body of "subscribe circle". If you want to write mail to the 161 list, address it to "circle@post.queensu.ca". Over 400 CircleMUD imps 162 read that list regularly. 163 164 If that doesn't work, you can always contact me directly by writing to 165 jelson@circlemud.org. Or, take a look at the CircleMUD Home Page which is 166 at http://www.circlemud.org which has extensive, up-to-date documentation 167 and patches on-line. 168 169 Finally, if you have USENET access and are very brave, you can try posting 170 to the newsgroups rec.games.mud.diku or rec.games.mud.admin. 171 172 No matter how you choose to get help, make sure to always include the 173 following information in your mail: 174 175 -- The exact version of CircleMUD you're using (e.g., "CircleMUD 2.20", 176 "CircleMUD 3.0 beta patchlevel 12", etc.). 177 -- The EXACT text of any error messages, compiler errors, link errors, 178 or any other errors you're getting. 179 -- The exact type of hardware, operating system name and version, and 180 compiler you're using. 181 -- A description of ANY changes you've made, no matter how small, that 182 might have contributed to the error. 183 -- If you are having trouble getting Circle running for the very first 184 time, also be sure to include the output of 'configure' and the file 185 'config.log'. 186 187 Remember, I get dozens of pieces of email every day. If you don't bother to 188 give me an excellent description of your problem, I will be somewhat annoyed 189 and will not be able to help you. For example, this email that I received: 190 191 hi I need some help with CircleMUD....i tried compiling it on my system 192 but I got all sorts of errors, and when i type bin/circle like it says 193 in the manual it doesn't work. Can you help???? you can log into my 194 system if you want, the password is mud5. 195 196 Letters like that are always ignored. I get a lot of them. 197 198 199 Good luck, and have fun! 200 201 Jeremy Elson 202 aka Ras/Rasmussen 203 jelson@circlemud.org 204 205 206 USE OF THIS SOFTWARE IN ANY CAPACITY IMPLIES THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, 207 AND AGREED TO ABIDE BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET DOWN BY THE CIRCLEMUD 208 LICENSE. 209