Compiling tbaMUD under BSD based on UNIX readme for circlemud by Jeremy Elson For help, visit http://www.tbamud.com Compiling tbaMUD is easy using FreeBSD. If you plan on compiling on a FreeBSD machine, these instructions are for you. If not, check the main README file to get a list of other operating systems that can be used to compile and run tbaMUD. Current versions of tbaMUD use the GNU 'autoconf' package to automatically determine most of the important characteristics of your system, so chances are good that tbaMUD will compile correctly on any UNIX system -- even one that we have never seen before. However, if you do have problems, please visit http://www.tbamud.com so that we can try to make tbaMUD work with your system. 1) Download the latest version of tbaMUD. You can always find the latest version at the following site: http://www.tbamud.com 2) Unpack the archive. If you have the .tar.gz version, uncompress it using gzip (GNU unzip) and the tar archiver. (Both of these utilities can be downloaded from ftp.gnu.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu if you don't have them.) To unpack the archive on a UNIX system, type: gzip -dc tbaMUD-xxxx.tgz | tar xvf - 3) Configure tbaMUD for your system. tbaMUD must be configured using the 'configure' program which attempts to guess correct values for various system-dependent variables used during compilation. It uses those values to create a 'Makefile' and a header file called 'conf.h'. From tbaMUD's root directory, type ./configure If you're using 'csh' on an old version of System V, csh might try to execute 'configure' itself, giving you a message like "Permission denied" when you try to run "./configure". If so, type "sh ./configure" instead. 'configure' can take several minutes if you're using a slow computer. 'configure' will attempt to use the 'gcc' compiler if it exists; if not, it will try 'cc'. If you want to use a different compiler, set the 'CC' environment variable to the name of the compiler you wish to use. For example, if you want to use the 'xlc' compiler, and your shell is csh or tcsh: setenv CC xlc ./configure Or, if you want to use the 'xlc' compiler, and your shell is sh or bash: CC=xlc ./configure This will tell 'configure' to use the 'xlc' compiler instead of 'gcc'. 4) Build the tbaMUD server. This must be done from the 'src' directory. Type: cd src; gmake all This will build tbaMUD proper as well as its 10 or so ancillary utilities, which can take anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour depending on the speed of your computer. Note that in the future, when you need to recompile tbaMUD as you make changes to the code, it is NOT necessary to run 'configure' again (it should only be run once, after the first time you unpack tbaMUD from its .tar file). If you move the source code to a different computer, you should reconfigure it by deleting the file 'config.cache' and running 'configure' again. The first time you try to compile tbaMUD, you will be asked to read the tbaMUD license. Please read it! 5) Go back to tbaMUD's root directory (by typing "cd ..") and run the tbaMUD server. The easiest way to do this the first time is to use the 'autorun' script, which can be run in the background by typing: ./autorun & Make sure to do this in tbaMUD's root directory, not the src directory that you used for the previous step. A file called 'syslog' will start growing in the same directory that contains tbaMUD's log messages. If you're using 'csh' on an old version of System V, csh might try to execute 'autorun' itself, giving you a message like "Permission denied" when you try to run "./autorun". If so, type "sh ./autorun &" instead. 6) Wait until the line 'No connections. Going to sleep.' appears in the syslog. This indicates that the server is ready and waiting for connections. It shouldn't take more than about 30 seconds for the MUD to reach this state, though performance will vary depending on how fast your computer is. If a file appears called 'syslog.CRASH', the MUD has terminated (probably abnormally). Check the contents of syslog.CRASH to see what error was encountered. 7) Type 'telnet localhost 4000' to connect. The first person to log in will be made an implementor (level 34) with all powers. (write to help@tbamud.com for help)