How-to Install /Upgrade VME 2.0©
Installing the VME 2.0
Ken Perry whistler@valhalla.com
v2.0, 1 April 2001
When installing for the first time or upgrading from a previous ver-
sion of the VME you should still install first and then upgrade sec-
ond. Following the install section should get you up in running with
in minutes. If you have problems with the installation write
whistler@valhalla.com.
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Table of Contents
1. Installing the VME 2.0
2. Upgrading from a previous VME
2.1 Back up old VME first
2.2 Moving Player base
2.3 Converting Zones
2.4 Combining your skils.def with the new commands.def
2.5 Converting Socials
2.6 Converting Help files
3. Debugging if theServer won't run
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1. Installing the VME 2.0
Installing the VME 2.0 is quick and painless. Follow the steps bellow
and you will be up and running in minutes..
NOTE
All the following steps assume that you are running the Bash or Ksh
shells if you use another shell and want to add a list of how to
please send me your steps and I will add it.
1. Download the VME2.0.tgz file and place it in the home directory
that you will be running the mud as. We suggest you use a user
like 'mud'.
2. As the user that you will be running the mud as untar the VME file.
Do not untar the file as 'root'. The following is the command you
use to untar the file.
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tar zxvf vme-2.0-1.tgz
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3. Edit the server.cfg in the 'vme2.0/etc/' directory and fill it out.
The server.cfg has comments that explain what each option does.
4. Add the profile.txt to your .profile or .bash_profile file
depending on which one you use when you log on. You must do this
even if upgrading from the older VME because the server.cfg
variable has changed in the profile.
5. Run the profile again by either logging back on or typing:
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. .profile
. .bash_profile
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6. Change directories into the 'vme2.0/zone' directory and then
compile all the zones by.
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vmc *.zon
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7. Change directory into the 'vme2.0/bin/' directory and type
startvme.
8. Now telnet into your mud using your domain name and port address
that you set up in the server.cfg and log on the first immortal
that you set in the server.cfg.
Congratulations that is all there is to it.
Make sure you read the IMPORTANT file in the doc directory.
2. Upgrading from a previous VME
When upgrading your VME to the new 2.0 version we have tried to make
the upgrade as painless as possible. It is of corse easier to start
over again but we all know if you already have a mud running that is
not always possible. The following is an explanation of what needs to
be done to get everything up and running.
IN order to make this as easy as possible we have created a few
convert scripts that will convert your zones socials and your help
file to the new format. We have replaced many of the SFUN_* functions
with Dil so it is necessary to convert the zones to be able to get
them to compile The zone convert script has proven to be around 90 to
95% accurate so if you run into a few errors when compiling don't be
sup prised but they should be easy enough to fix.
2.1. Back up old VME first
We suggest you back up your old VME before you begin moving stuff
around just incase some how you wipe something out. First cd into the
home directory where you VME is located and type the following
command.
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tar zcvf backupvme.tgz vme1.1
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2.2. Moving Player base
To move the player base from your old vme to the new server you can
use either the cp command or the mv command we suggest however that
you use cp so that you don't accidentally move your players into never
never land. This following command will move the player base only if
both muds are installed as the same user.
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//first change directories into lib
cd vme2.0/lib
/Next remove the current player directories so they can be replaced
rm -rf ply
//Copy the files
cp - R /home/mud/vme1.1/lib/ply .
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2.3. Converting Zones
The zone convert script is written in Gawk and can be edited with a
regular editor if your nervous and want to know what it is doing. The
script only works on one zone file at a time. To convert one zone do
the following.
1. Copy the script from the 'vme2.0/scripts' directory into the
directory you will be converting the zones in.
2. Convert each zone by typing
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convert.zone filename.zon newfilename.zon
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NOTE
If it says no such executable check the permissions and make sure the
script is executable.
If you want to convert more than one zone at a time the following is
what I type at the command line to convert the entire zone directory.
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for u in $(ls *.zon)
do
convert.zone $u $u.new
done
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NOTE
You must have Gawk installed and the examples are for Bsh and Ksh
shells only if you are using another shell you may have to change how
you do this.
After converting them I then check to make sure the convert went fine
and then copy the zones back to their original filename with the fol-
lowing command.
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for u in $(ls *.zon)
do
mv $u.new $u
done
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2.4. Combining your skils.def with the new commands.def
In the new VME there is no skills.def. The commands.def now allows
you to alter any commands in the VME and how they are parsed. The
commands.def is order sensitive so you must put the commands in the
order in which you need them to activate for example if you want 'n'
to parse as north then 'north' needs to be the first command in
commands.def starting with 'n'.
The commands.def that comes with the vme is totally usable but if you
have added any skills or commands to the skills.def you will need to
move them to the new commands.def.
Unfortunately there is no quick script to complete this task. If you
write one please submit it so it will be easier for other users of the
VME.
2.5. Converting Socials
The new socials are nothing but Dil commands so you can make your
socials do anything you want them to. We have included have the two
files you will have to manually add your 'socials.def' into the
'commands.def'. Remember you can not have duplicates it may cause the
VME to crash if you do we are working with removing this problem but I
am not sure if this has been fixed by the release. Just make sure you
don't have duplicates and this will not happen. To convert your
socials to the new socials just do the following.
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//make a work directory
mkdir work
//change into your work directory
cd work
//copy file from your old vme
cp /home/mud/vme1.1/etc/actions .
//copy script from new mud
cp /home/mud/vme2.0/scripts/convert.socials
//convert the socials
convert.socials actions
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NOTE
You must have Gawk installed and the examples are for Bsh and Ksh
shells only if you are using another shell you may have to change how
you do this. If it says no such executable check the permissions and
make sure the script is executable.
2.6. Converting Help files
The new VME's help system is coded entirely in Dil. This allows you
to make the help system do what ever you want. This also means you
must convert the old files to the new format. You could leave the
help files that come with the new VME but that would mean you would be
missing any of the help files you ahve added. With this in mind we
have created two convert scripts one for wizard help and one for
general help and local help.
We have attempted to make this as easy as possible but it does require
some work removing and moving files to get it all to convert. Don't
stress follow the next steps carefully and you will find the
conversion process is not as bad as it seems.
1. Change directories into the new help file.
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cd /home/mud/vme2.0/etc/help/strings
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2. Remove all the help files and index files that come with the
release
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rm *
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WARNING
When doing 'rm *' make sure your in the right directory everything in
that directory will be lost and there is no getting it back.
3. Copy the help files from the old VME to the new one.
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cp /home/mud/vme1.1/etc/help* /home/mud/vme2.0/etc/help/strings
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4. Copy the convert scripts to the new directory
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cp /home/mud/vme2.0/scripts/convert.help /home/mud/vme2.0/etc/help/strings
cp /home/mud/vme2.0/scripts/convert.wizhelp /home/mud/vme2.0/etc/help/strings
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5. Make both the 'help' and 'help.local' into one file.
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cat help help.local >help.new
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6. Convert the 'help.new' and 'help.wiz' using the scripts.
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convert.help help.new
convert.wizhelp help.wiz
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7. Now just log on and the helps are fixed. No reboot is necessary.
NOTE
You must have Gawk installed and the examples are for Bsh and Ksh
shells only if you are using another shell you may have to change how
you do this.
3. Debugging if theServer won't run
If the server doesn't run right up you can look in the log directory
and edit the following file.
vme2.0/log/vme.log
If you don't understand the log don't worry just block the last 50
lines of your log and send it to:
whistler@vlahalla.com