Greetings,

First off, I can take absolutely no credit for this script (thanks go out to the smaug deriv released at 
one time or another by Wolfpaw.. Going through to find it, I couldn't, but still, I can't take credit for 
it.. it's a damn good script though.

How to install:

Easy as pie really.. Open up the startxanth file, search for the #here lines.. Change those (should be 
rather self explanatory).. Do the same with the xanth.pl.. 

To edit the crontab, all you have to do is take a look at the crontab file. That's my crontab, exactly as 
it is, and it works just perfectly. It checks to make sure the mud's up and running every 5 minutes, and 
if it's not it restarts it.

To change your crontab, use the following command :
 crontab -e

copy that line from the crontab file into the nw file that crontab -e pulls up (after changing the path 
and whatnot of course), then save the crontab.. You should be ready to go from there.

Benefits of using this script:

From what I've seen, the past two years of using it, this script is rather nice.. I've edited it quite 
a bit ove the years, and it's always worked for me like magic..

--The mud automatically restarts itself (instead of waiting 3-5 minutes to restart)
--The Crontab entry can be used to automatically restart the mud in the event of a server crash. It 
  checks every 5 minutes and if it's not running, it restarts it, running the perl script.
--Less hassle than having to worry about your startup script running all of the time.
--It's easier on the server itself than running a tcsh or bash script..

To execute this script, simply type the following:
nohup ./startxanth &
The nohup will make sure that the script keeps running while you're not around
The & puts the script in the background (which you should be doing anyways)