tinymux 2.6.5.28-1 / usr / share / doc / tinymux / PATCHES

TinyMUX 2.6:  PATCHES
Last Update:  November 2006

A Word About Patches for TinyMUX 2.6:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Changes are distributed in the form of patches, and these occur
most-frequently during the Alpha and Beta periods of the server's development.
These 'patch' files are applied to your server's source code using the 'patch'
utility.

Keep yourself informed about changes to the server and pay particular
attention to any serious bugs that may have been corrected by a patch.  The
TinyMUX mailing list is the best way to do this.

It is in the best interests of your game to make sure all patches are applied.
Patches distributed after a server has reached released status typically
contain important fixes for crashing, corrupting, unexpected, or potentially
dangerous behaviors.  The likelihood of encountering these unwanted behaviors
may be generally unlikely or perhaps only remotely possible for your specific
game.  However, if a patch has been released, a determination has been made
that it warrants the hassle of all games applying it, and once a behavior has
been described, the unscrupulous may choose to exploit it on your game.  Also,
patches must be applied in order, so even if a specific fix may not apply
directly to your game, another fix in the same patch or in the next patch
probably will.

Let us state that while patching a vanilla server with a patch released by the
development team is generally considered to be pretty easy, unless you have
done it before and/or taken time to familiarize yourself with how the patch
utility works (type 'man patch' inside your shell account or read the
documentation for dopatch.exe provided with Win32 versions), then we strongly
advise having someone either walk you through the process or do the work for
you.  Improper use of patch can cause all kinds of grief that you don't want
to deal with.

Applying a patch:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before doing anything else, you should assure yourself that have a recent and
usable backup of the database, all of your config, text, mail, and comsystem.
Shutdown the game and use the provided Backup script, or db_load by hand.  See
BACKUP.  In most cases, this is totally unneeded, but if something goes wrong
and you didn't, you won't be real happy.

 1. Download the patch file to your local shell account somewhere. The
    location is not critical.

    The patch file mux-2.6.1.25-2.6.1.26.unix.patch.gz will patch from
    version 2.6.1.25 to version 2.6.1.26. This patch file is compressed
    using gzip.

 2. Optionally, you can decompress the patch files with 'gzip -d' like
    so:

    gzip -d mux-2.6.1.25-2.6.1.26.unix.patch.gz

    This will change the filename to mux-2.6.1.25-2.6.1.26.unix.patch.

 3. Change to your game's top-most directory.  For example,

    cd mux2.6

 4. Apply the patch as follows:

    zcat < ../mux-2.6.1.25-2.6.1.26.unix.patch.gz | patch -p0

    Or, if you optionally decompressed the patch as described in step
    2, apply the patch as follows:

    patch -p0 < ../mux-2.6.1.25-2.6.1.26.unix.patch

From here, you will usually get to watch a lot of spam fly by as the patch
utility modifies the files to be updated.  You might occasionally get a
prompt, asking you for either information, or confirmation that you want
really do want something applied.  For the inexperienced, this is where having
an experienced person at hand to help you is invaluable.  If, at any point in
the process, you feel that you are in over your head, stop and get help before
continuing!

After you have successfully patched the source code, then you recompile the
server as usual.

If you have problems:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If the patch fails and you were applying it to a standard beta or release
version of TinyMUX 2.6, then collect the error messages and report it to
brazilofmux@gmail.com following the bug reporting procedures in README.