Admin tool ready for testing

[[-SF-]Shockwave]

Hello all,

I am happy to announce that the programs I have been working on lately are now ready for testing.  I have just finished testing the modification I have made to the client utility and everything seems to be working well.  Here is a list of the client utility features programmed so far:

- Configuration file
    Like its server counterpart, this program also utilizes a configuration file.  Here is a copy:

#
#  MOHAA Linux Server Admin Tool - Client Configuration File
#
#  - All characters after a "#" on a line are comments and will be ignored.
#  - All blank lines will be ignored.
#  - The only option that must be specified in this file is PROGRAM.  Without
#    it, the loader cannot operate.  All other settings have defaults already
#    specified within the loader itself.
#

#
# Specify the starting value for terminal filtering state.  The state must
# either be set to ENABLED or DISABLED.  Disabling content filtering will allow
# all server log output to be printed to the terminal screen regardless of the
# filter mode selected.
#
FILTER_STATE = ENABLED

#
# Specify the starting value for terminal content filtering mode.  The filter
# mode must be set to one of the following:
#
#    ALL - All server output to the terminal will be suppressed.
# NORMAL - Normal filtering will be used.  This setting suppresses most
#          messages from the server that aren't very important unless you
#          are trying to debug.  You will still see chat and broadcasts,
#          kill/death, connection/disconnection, status displays, most server
#          initialization lines, as well as messages that don't show up too
#          often.
#   CHAT - This mode suppresses everything except chat and broadcast messages.
#
FILTER_MODE = NORMAL


#############################
#
#  E O F

    It's a little sparse right now, but I hope to add some additional features to it soon.  I had the beginnings of a system that allowed custom user filtering but I decided to pull it for now so I could release something and get some test results.  I settled for enhancing the NORMAL filter mode so that only a reasonable amount of feedback makes it to the terminal.

- Command line overrides
    Options can be placed on the command line to override program defaults not handled by the configuration file.  Here is the output generated by invoking the client's --help option:

Usage: mohaa_client [--host host] [--port port] [--cfg filename] [--log filename]
       mohaa_client --defaults
       mohaa_client --version
       mohaa_client --help

        --host   IP address or host name: name must resolve to an IP address
                   (e.g. localhost  or  192.168.1.1  or  www.myserver.com)
        --port   port number
        --cfg    path to configuration file, including filename itself
                   (e.g.  /usr/local/games/MOHAA/your_client_config.cfg)
        --log    path to game server log file, including filename itself
                   (e.g.  /usr/local/games/MOHAA/server.log)

        --defaults
            prints current program defaults and exits
        --version
            prints current program version and exits
        --help
            prints this usage information and exits

- Dynamic filtering commands
    You have the ability to issue commands to the client utility to instantly change filtering settings.  I had some issues trying to share variables between processes and unfortunately the most direct solution was to use some downloaded CPAN modules and risk operating system support issues.  I decided to keep the code to stock modules in order to mitigate the possibility of compatibility problems and ended up incorporating a named FIFO pipe unique to each client process for handling I/O between processes.  It worked rather well.  Here is the list of commands I have added so far:


*** Client Utility Commands
    ===========================
    /?  or  /help  -  display this help text
     /?f  or  /f?  -  display current terminal filter settings
            /f on  -  ENABLE terminal filtering
           /f off  -  DISABLE terminal filtering
           /f all  -  set terminal filter mode to ALL
          /f chat  -  set terminal filter mode to CHAT
          /f norm  -  set terminal filter mode to NORMAL

I've created a tar archive of the necessary files and gzipped it.  The whole thing weighs in at about 8.5K and contains the following files:

13926 2002-09-08 23:27:08 ./bin/mohaa_admin
11890 2002-09-09 00:11:43 ./bin/mohaa_client
4433 2002-09-08 23:32:09 ./mohaa_admin.cfg
1388 2002-09-08 23:32:27 ./mohaa_client.cfg
202 2002-09-08 23:29:34 ./ban.cfg
799 2002-09-08 23:38:54 ./README.txt

I haven't spent a lot of time writing up information, but I hopefully did enough to make it usable.  I'll be happy to work with anyone interested in testing and will provide as much additional support and explanation as I can.  Anyone who is still interested should email me directly at the following address to arrange delivery:

shockwave at clanshortfuse.com

My first priority will be to fix any bugs or issues with the current feature set.  Assuming the testing progresses smoothly, I plan on adding TK auto-kick capability to the next versions as well as a few other things that have been mentioned.  As always your comments and ideas are welcome.  Thanks again to everyone who has taken the time to offer feedback and help.


Shockwave
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