tbamud/doc/utils.txt

If you have any additions, corrections, ideas, or bug reports please stop by the
Builder Academy at telnet://tbamud.com:9091 or email rumble@tbamud.com -- Rumble

tbaMUD Utility Programs 
Originally by Alex Fletcher 

This document gives a brief summary of the various utility programs that come 
with the tbaMUD distribution. The summaries include the description of the 
utility, how it is called, and any caveats to watch out for when using them. 

Contents 

1 Conversion Utilities

1.1 shopconv
1.2 split
1.3 wld2html
1.4 webster

2 Maintenance Utilities
2.1 asciipasswd
2.2 sign

3 Informational Utilities
3.1 listrent

4 Internal Utilities
4.1 autowiz

1 Conversion Utilities 

These utilities are generally one-time use utilities. Some are for converting
older CircleMUD data files to the versions used in CircleMUD v3, while others
are used to convert currently existing files into different formats. 

Overall, these utilities have been created in an attempt to make the tbaMUD 
administrator<EFBFBD>s life a bit easier, and to give the administrator some ideas of
further and more grandiose utilities to create. Some are no longer applicable
but are retained as examples.

Please note that these utilities are not as rigorously tested as the rest of 
the tbaMUD server, and you should be certain to backup your data before using 
these utilities on it. Also note that the code layout and design for these 
utilities is not as tight and as thought out as the rest of the source code 
distributed with tbaMUD. 

1.1 shopconv 
The format of shops changed between CircleMUD 2.20 and CircleMUD v3. To make 
the transition easier, Jeff Fink submitted a shop conversion utility, shopconv.
Similar to the player file converter, this should only be run against any file 
once. It is best to run this immediately before the initial v2.20 to v3 
changeover. The command line syntax for shopconvis as follows: 

shopconv <file1> [<file2> .. <filen>] 

where <file1> 
is the first file to convert, <file2> 
the second, and so forth. 

1.2 split 
The split utility is designed to split large world files into smaller, zone 
sized files that are easier to manage and maintain. The utility reads its input
from the standard input and writes the output to files with names specified 
within the larger world file. This is done by inserting <20>=filename<6D> into the 
world file at the appropriate points, where filename is the name of the file 
for the following section. 

The command line syntax for split is as follows: 

split < [filename] 

where [filename] is the file to redirect into the utility. The syntax above 
indicates how to do this on platforms that support command line redirection. 

1.3 wld2html 
This utility began its life as a small toy written by Jeremy Elson to put a 
CircleMUD world file on the world wide web. It converts the world file into a 
series of HTML files, one per room, all named according to the virtual number 
of the room, and linked via their exits. 

The command line syntax for wld2html is as follows: 

wld2html <wldfile> 

where <wldfile> 
is the world file to be turned into web pages. 


2 Maintenance Utilities 

2.1 asciipasswd 
This utility generates hashed passwords for ASCII player files.

2.2 sign 
This utility allows you to display some static text on a port when anyone 
connects to it. This is useful when the mud server is moving, changing ports, 
or is down for maintenance. 

The command line syntax for sign is as follows: 

sign <port> <filename | -(for stdin)> 

where <port> 
is the tcp port to put the information on. This is usually the same as the mud
server port (when the server is not running), which defaults to 4000. The 
<filename> is an ASCII file to display on the port when a connection is made 
to it. If -is specified as a filename, the utility will wait for you to enter 
the text to be displayed and will take in all text until ended by an EOF marker
(ctrl-D on Unix based systems). 


3 Informational Utilities 

3.1 listrent 
This utility allows you to view player rent files offline. It displays the type
of rent; Rent, Crash, Cryo, or lost link (TimedOut). It also displays the 
object vnum and first keyword. 

The command line syntax for listrent is as follows: 

listrent <objfile1> [<objfile2> .. <objfilen>] 

where <objfile1> 
is the first object file to view, <objfile2> the second, and so forth. 

This utility must be recompiled if you make any changes to the rent file 
structure. 


4 Internal Utilities 

4.1 autowiz 
This utility is called from within the tbaMUD server and manages the self 
updating Wizlist and Immlist. At this point, it only works on Unix-based 
systems, but a solution for all other systems is being designed. If you wish 
to change the text in the headers of the Wizlist or the Immlist, this is 
the utility to edit. 

The command line syntax for autowiz is as follows: 

autowiz <wizlev> <wizlistfile> <immlev> <immlistfile> [pid to signal] 

where <wizlev> is equal to whatever LVL_GOD is set to in your tbaMUD server, 
<wizlistfile> is the filename for the file containing the game<6D>s Wizlist. 
<immlev> should be set to your game<6D>s LVL_IMMORT, while <immlistfile> 
is the name of the Immlist file. 

This utility must be recompiled if you make any changes to the player file structure.