VGA-Planets Hosting Scripts v3.3

These consist of bash-scripts to save a turn, run the host and send one or all results. It is assumed you: So, if your not discouraged by the above... Now the advantages:

Copyright

This package falls under the GNU Public License. However, if you want to help your fellow hosts with the same scripts, pass any error or other improvement on to the author, so newer versions with fewer bugs and more functionality can be provided from a central point.

Contents

This package contains: Added later will be:

Installing the scripts

Make a directory like $HOME/vga/host/scripts where you put all the scripts.

Makefile

Edit Makefile with your favorite editor, where you fill at the open spots in the first non-comment block: Make sure the names for the basic and scripts directories do not end in a slash! Then run make. In all scripts the proper shell, BASEDIR and SCRIPTDIR will be filled in. (A temporary file is made on /tmp and deleted immediately.)

You can also invoke the make program like this:

   make MYSHELL=/bin/bash BASEDIR='~/vga/host' SCRIPTDIR='~/vga/host/scripts'
so no editor is needed. Again, the directories do not end in slashes.

SetEnv

In SetEnv you should change all environment variables to something you like by hand (TEMPDIR may be the same as BASEDIR). This script is used by all other scripts (except CheckEnv).

CheckEnv

This script is complete as is. It is called by all other scripts, except SetEnv and CreateGame.

Using the scripts

First, master and configurate a game in a subdirectory of TEMPDIR, which has the name gamename. That name has to be in lowercase entirely (I have had experience with players who can not type ``Gamename'', but try jokes like ``GAMENAME'', ``GameName'' and ``gamename''. To ease submitting for those ... players, the entire subject is converted to lowercase).

CreateGame

Then, run CreateGame with the gamename as parameter. Note that none of the scripts ever accepts a slash as last character of the gamename. It complains there is no file named commands. This file should contain the commands which have to be run for the hosting session. See the example in this package. It should be placed in the BACKUPDIR, together with the authorized file (also example included). When both are set, rerun CreateGame and voila, the game is ready to be played. Of course you could have skipped the first run of CreateGame.

An extra set of files is created: gameinfo with some numbers in it, among which the amount of players (check it, Mr. Host!) and the minimum amount of turns available before hosting actually takes place (change this to a number you agreed upon with your players directly after the first hostrun!). Also, all data is packed together in gamedata.zip and this file is backed up as b_up_000.zip.

The claim by CreateGame that the game is backed up is only partially true: to be able rehost after a HD-crash, you can back up in another place (e.g. in another directory which is on another disk in the same UNIX filesystem, as supported by the scripts, see SetEnv). (Note that further backups are not made, since rehosting is not implemented yet.)

RunHost

When this has been done, run RunHost once, which will automatically send the players their results. After that, send your players the config files they need (like pconfig.src) and make sure they can look at the file players.html somehow. Also, change the MinimumTurnsRequired: option in the file gameinfo and set up the crontab entries. Check whether there is a file trn000.zip with exactly one file in it: seed which contains the seed used by PHost.

SendRst

RunHost used this script in its simplest modus: Send all results without further checking. There are two other modi: The first modus is for RunHost only. The second modus is for manually sending results by the host. The last modus is supposed to be called when an incoming mail contains a command-subject for it. The script assumes the first word in the subject is the trigger for that, recognized by a mail program like procmail. All words in the subject except the first one are used. Also, you can pipe such a message to SendRst by hand as host.

The second one is for the host, when something went wrong with sending all results after hosting (in the logfile there is a line saying:

   RunHost: gamename ``somegame'' hosted
, but not a line saying:
   RunHost: gamename ``somegame'' all results sent
not in any other case. After the problem has been solved, just give
   SendRst gamename 0
and the results of all players will be sent to them. By typing 
   SendRst gamename 5
all relevant data (player5.rst, util5.dat, etc) for player 5 are mailed to him/her.

SaveTrn

not tested! In the same way as the third modus of SendRst incoming mail is checked. Now a single turn is extracted and saved if it is a correct turn. Any error reported by PHost results in rejection of the turn, except for a yellow alert, which is filtered out (Phost can repair the problem, so there is no problem). Note that PHost checks only this turn, not other player's turns as well. If you use another checking program, you must change SaveTrn appropriately.

It is strongly advised (i.e. mentioned in player.html that you did) to let the turn- and result-request by your players enter your mail-database as well, that is, configure procmail as such. These scripts clean up the mess they made, including the copy they made of the mail. Only delete these mails after the appropriate hostrun.

In this way it is also possible to extract a turn from a players mail and zip it into trnXXX.zip by hand, but you should do this only when you are very sure these scripts are mistaken.

Possible Errors from the scripts

All errors are accompanied by some text (sent to you in the form of an e-mail), explaining what happened. Errors with a number of 4 and higher are ``internal'' (the lock has been set before the error was encountered; it was released by the error handler) and might just mean the file system is full. If you do not understand the message given, you are either not qualified as host, or you can mail me because I was not as clear as I should.

Safety

To check for unauthorized access to results or unauthorized submission of turns, the first line of a UNIX mail (starting with From without `:') should be used. Ask players to give all their addresses they wnat to request results/submit turns from. This is not 100% safe, so a password for players might be incorporated later.

To prevent simultaneous access from the scripts on files like trnXXX.zip, there is a lock set once a script enters a critical part. These locks are kept per game, so if game3 crashes somehow, game1 can continue. Note that the lock is set by removing a lockfile and thus released by replacing it. The name of the lockfile is .lock.

To be able to see what happens, all scripts administrate their actions in a logfile, at BASEDIR/logfile. Most scripts make two entries: one at the start and one when they are finished. RunHost also makes one after hosting, but before sending the results and SendRst does not make any entries when called by RunHost.

All encountered errors are sent to the host by e-mail. If the error is about a submitted turn or a result request, the player receives the same e-mail.

Bugs

I know none, but there are of course many (3.3 is not tested with false turns, result-requests and more sneaky tricks).

History

versionDescription
1:What I used for my first hosting games (tribes, M38C)
2:What Jurjen uses at the Arena. He made little adaptations of his own, improving where needed, thus giving valuable hints for version 3.
3:New, much better maintainable (and configurable by others) version of the scripts. Includes docs, setup-script and much more.
3.3:First operable version 3.

Future

Thanks

To Jurjen Niezink.
To all players of my two games and in the Arena (especially TopDog).
Author: Kero van Gelder
Last revision: 7 VI 1998