Re: bpl11 bug in boards?

From: Jeremy Elson (jelson@blaze.cs.jhu.edu)
Date: 04/20/96


There is nothing wrong with the MUD -- the fault is probably mine for
making confusing error messages.  First, the "Error reading board:
No such file or directory" is not new; it has been there since CircleMUD
2.20 and just means that your boards are empty; it is not really an error.

Second, the syslog.CRASH file being created doesn't mean that your MUD
crashed badly, it just means that the MUD shut down.  Every time the MUD
stops running (either because you typed "shutdown", or because it crashed,
or for any other reason), the autorun script puts the last 20 lines of the
syslog into a syslog.CRASH file.  I did this because I found that if the
MUD was having some problem with booting (i.e., if you tried to boot the
MUD on port 100), the autorun would just keep trying over and over again
to run it, each time stuffing the syslog (along with its precious error
message) into the log/ directory, making the problem impossible to diagnose.

So the solution: I think I've now finally gotten enough mail asking "Why
is there a bug when I boot the mud?" that I will simply remove the "Error
reading boards" message.  And, as for syslog.CRASH, I will probably rename
that too (maybe to syslog.END or something) -- any suggestions on how to
handle this?  Maybe change all the exit() codes to standardize the return
values (0=normal exit, 1=crash) and only create a syslog.CRASH if the
return value is 1.  On the other hand, I'm not sure what return value is
returned (or if its even defined) if a program crashes.  (Does anyone know
off hand?)

> the installation of bpl10 went without a hitch and everything ran fine. 
> however, while the installation of bpl11 went ok, i get a syslog.CRASH
> file when i do a SHUTDOWN DIE.  bpl11 was >not< overlayed onto bpl10, but
> placed into it's own directory tree (ie. a totally fresh copy).  running
> on linux 1.2.13 (redhat 3.0.3 picasso version).  here's the end of
> syslog.CRASH: 
> 
> .............................[ start ]...............................
> 
> Fri Apr 19 17:49:03 :: Aptos [localhost] has connected.
> Fri Apr 19 17:49:05 :: Aptos retrieving crash-saved items and entering game.
> Error reading board: No such file or directory
> Error reading board: No such file or directory
> Error reading board: No such file or directory
> Error reading board: No such file or directory
> Fri Apr 19 17:49:33 :: (GC) Shutdown by Aptos.
> Fri Apr 19 17:49:33 :: Closing all sockets.
> Fri Apr 19 17:49:33 :: Closing link to: Aptos.
> Fri Apr 19 17:49:33 :: Normal termination of game.
> 
> ..............................[ end ] ...............................
> 
> i've dug through the source.  i can see where the files are
> opened/closed/etc., but not where they might be created (was this supposed
> to be a part of the installation instead?).
> 
> any thoughts/help appreciated.... Lauren
> 
> 



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