Utility: Linux Admining

[Arker]

Gandalf Parker said:
Any commands you can type in to run can be put into a text file. If you make it executable (chmod +x file) then it becomes a script.

It also helps to put the magic numbers in.

#!/bin/sh

should be the very first thing in the file.

And to make sure the permissions are right

chmod 755 file

[Gandalf Parker]

The script I did isnt shell specific. Some later ones I do have a shell line since they use special shell variables for things like randoms.

And yeah I guess for public info its probably best to chmod 755 but +x for executable seems easier for people to remember even if it is sloppy.

Of course for public info I probably shouldnt have mentioned telnet since trying to argue down ssh is something only security people would do.

So did everyone follow that script? No questions?

[tibbs]

I didn't get a chance to try it yet. I was busy with painting a few rooms in the house. Hopefully early this week.

[Bluebird]

Just as a hint: I am normally hosting games on unix using the 'screen' command. It is a like a 'window manager' for text consoles and has many features (too many to list them here). The nicest one is that you can 'detach' a terminal session which continues running even if you logout, and later 'reattach' to that terminal session on next login.

[Gandalf Parker]

PRE hosting script
------------------

GAME="Armageddon"
DIR="/home/dom3/dominions3/savedgames/"$GAME
WEB="/home/dom3/public_html/games/"$GAME

# make backups
#maybe later I will make it rotating backups
zip -9 $GAME.zip $DIR/*

# blank the log file since it grows by about 5 meg each turn
# this way Im only logging one turn at a time
cp /dev/null $DIR/$GAME.log

# update the viewable copies of the shell files
cp /home/dom3/dominions3/$GAME.sh $WEB/$GAME_sh.txt
cp $DIR/pre_$GAME.sh $WEB/pre_$GAME_sh.txt
cp post_$GAME.sh $WEB/post_$GAME_sh.txt

# mark the time and load at the beginning of hosting
echo pre >>$DIR/system_load.txt
uptime >>$DIR/system_load.txt

[Gandalf Parker]

POST hosting script
-------------------
$GAME="Armageddon"
DIR="/home/dom3/dominions3/savedgames/"$GAME
WEB="/home/dom3/public_html/games/"$GAME

# mark time and system load after host processing
#and make it available for viewing in the games web dir
echo post >>$DIR/system_load.txt
uptime >>$DIR/system_load.txt
echo " " >>$DIR/system_load.txt
cp $DIR/system_load.txt $WEB/system_load.txt

# rotate the score html files
mv $WEB/scores-4.html $WEB/scores-5.html
mv $WEB/scores-3.html $WEB/scores-4.html
mv $WEB/scores-2.html $WEB/scores-3.html
mv $WEB/scores-1.html $WEB/scores-2.html
mv $WEB/scores.html $WEB/scores-1.html
cp $DIR/scores.html $WEB/scores.html
cp $DIR/stats.txt $WEB/stats.txt

# zip up the debug log and then zero the log
zip -9 $DIR/$GAME.zip $DIR/$GAME.log
mv $DIR/$GAME.zip $WEB/$GAME.zip
cp $DIR/$GAME.log "$DIR/OLD"$GAME".log"
cp /dev/null $DIR/$GAME.log

# email notify players that have asked to be told of turns
cat $DIR/notify.txt |/usr/sbin/sendmail gandalf@example.com
cat $DIR/notify.txt |/usr/sbin/sendmail bogus@example.net

[Gandalf Parker]

the notify.txt that is sent to players
--------------------------------------

Subject: the Armageddon game processed

Your turn is ready at
dom3minions.com

(courtesy of Gandalf Parker at Any1can.net)

----------------------------------------

the notification could also be changed to include the turn number. It could also easily be changed to include emailing the turn file.

Which makes you automatically think PbEM. If a game had its own email address such as armageddon@dom3minons.com then something like procmail could manage incoming emails to place the .2h files (which means "to host") into the game directory. It could also kick off a script to check for all turns being in and then run/quit the host. This would raise the number of games that a server can run by many levels.