TinyMUX 2.0:  PATCHES
Last Update:  April 2000

A Word About Patches for TinyMUX 2.0:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As part of the server development process, and especially during periods 
where beta versions of the server have been release, the development 
team will release patches.  These supplemental use the 'patch' utility 
to make modifications to the source code of the server in preparation for 
recompiling the game.

When patches are released, especially during beta releases, that you keep 
yourself informed about the changes to the server and any serious bugs that 
may have been corrected by a given patch.  It is in the best interests of 
your game to make sure that patches are applied, as many patches contain 
fixes for crashing/corrupting bugs, as well as correcting weird and 
dangerous behaviors in the MUX program itself.

Let us state that while patching a vanilla server with a patch release by 
the development team is generally considered to be pretty easy, that 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:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The absolute first thing that you should do before making server 
modifications, is to assure that you have a recent and usable backup of the 
database, all of your config, text, mail, and comsystem.  *We cannot stress 
this enough*.  Shutdown the game and use the provided Backup script, or 
db_load by hand.  In most cases, this is totally unneeded, but if something 
goes wrong and you didn't, you won't be real happy.

Unzip and move the patch file to the directory where you see the mux2.0/ 
directory listed.

At the prompt, type 'patch -p1 <patchfile'.  The actual file name of the
patch  should be used or you'll get an error.

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 2.0, then collect the error messages and report it to
sdennis@svdltd.com following the bug reporting procedures in README.
