[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Request

[Reinier Post <rp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Aug 29, 2001 at 03:22:25PM -0700, Paul Zastoupil wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 30, 2001 at 12:19:15AM +0200, Reinier Post wrote:
> > On Wed, Aug 29, 2001 at 04:43:57PM -0400, Frank Charles Barton wrote:
> > > Would it be possible to impliment the following:
> > > A command so that the server operator can send a message to the game/
> > > people connected as "Server"?
> > 
> > Yes, this has been on my todo list for a while.
> 
> Vasco and I were talking about a special admin port.

I maintain that a separate port is bad design: it adds a new interface
to the server when we don't need one.

> This would allow you to get information out of the server (number of
> players, number of AI, year, turns etc. etc.)  And also allow you to
> send a popup window to all players.  This would be immensly helpful
> on a public server.

Yes (the /spam command).  It's easy to implement, you just call
notify_player(0,%s).

> The problem comes in the implementation.  If there are 10 civservers
> running, what port is it on?  I suppose it could be another port chosen
> on the command line.  I also think it should be a socket that speaks
> straight ASCII.

I agree.  What's more, I think it should speak the server cmdline
language.
 
> Now that I have put all that in words, I guess it would make sense to
> include all these commands into the server, then allow the binding of
> stdin/stdout to the admin socket.  Its not that complicated when you
> look at it that way...

I like that idea, but I'm against doing it within the civserver code.
Existing, freely available software performs this function better than
we can implement it.  Why not use ssh or inetd?  We can bundle a recipe
or even a wrapper script with the code.

-- 
Reinier Post