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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hello all,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>- Configuration file</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Like its server counterpart,
this program also utilizes a configuration file. Here is a
copy:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>#<BR># MOHAA Linux Server Admin Tool - Client
Configuration File<BR>#<BR># - All characters after a "#" on a line are
comments and will be ignored.<BR># - All blank lines will be
ignored.<BR># - The only option that must be specified in this file is
PROGRAM. Without<BR># it, the loader cannot
operate. All other settings have defaults already<BR>#
specified within the loader itself.<BR>#</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>#<BR># Specify the starting value for terminal
filtering state. The state must<BR># either be set to ENABLED or
DISABLED. Disabling content filtering will allow<BR># all server log
output to be printed to the terminal screen regardless of the<BR># filter mode
selected.<BR>#<BR>FILTER_STATE = ENABLED</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>#<BR># Specify the starting value for terminal
content filtering mode. The filter<BR># mode must be set to one of the
following:<BR>#<BR># ALL - All server output to the terminal
will be suppressed.<BR># NORMAL - Normal filtering will be used. This
setting suppresses
most<BR># messages from
the server that aren't very important unless
you<BR># are trying to
debug. You will still see chat and
broadcasts,<BR>#
kill/death, connection/disconnection, status displays, most
server<BR># initialization
lines, as well as messages that don't show up
too<BR>#
often.<BR># CHAT - This mode suppresses everything except chat and
broadcast messages.<BR>#<BR>FILTER_MODE = NORMAL</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><BR>#############################<BR>#<BR># E O F<BR></DIV>
<DIV> 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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- Command line overrides</DIV>
<DIV> 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:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Usage: mohaa_client [--host host] [--port port] [--cfg filename] [--log
filename]<BR> mohaa_client
--defaults<BR> mohaa_client
--version<BR> mohaa_client --help</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> --host IP address or
host name: name must resolve to an IP
address<BR>
(e.g. localhost or 192.168.1.1 or <A
href="http://www.myserver.com">www.myserver.com</A>)<BR>
--port port number<BR>
--cfg path to configuration file, including filename
itself<BR>
(e.g.
/usr/local/games/MOHAA/your_client_config.cfg)<BR>
--log path to game server log file, including filename
itself<BR>
(e.g. /usr/local/games/MOHAA/server.log)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
--defaults<BR>
prints current program defaults and
exits<BR>
--version<BR>
prints current program version and
exits<BR>
--help<BR>
prints this usage information and exits</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- Dynamic filtering commands</DIV>
<DIV> 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:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR>*** Client Utility Commands<BR>
===========================<BR> /? or /help
- display this help text<BR> /?f or
/f? - display current terminal filter
settings<BR>
/f on - ENABLE terminal
filtering<BR> /f
off - DISABLE terminal
filtering<BR> /f
all - set terminal filter mode to
ALL<BR> /f chat
- set terminal filter mode to
CHAT<BR> /f norm
- set terminal filter mode to NORMAL</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>13926 2002-09-08 23:27:08 ./bin/mohaa_admin<BR>11890 2002-09-09 00:11:43
./bin/mohaa_client<BR>4433 2002-09-08 23:32:09 ./mohaa_admin.cfg<BR>1388
2002-09-08 23:32:27 ./mohaa_client.cfg</DIV>
<DIV>202 2002-09-08 23:29:34 ./ban.cfg<BR>799 2002-09-08 23:38:54
./README.txt<BR></DIV>
<DIV>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:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="mailto:shockwave@clanshortfuse.com">shockwave@clanshortfuse.com</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Shockwave</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>