NetCosm is currently under development. Things WILL break, and features might drift out of existence without prior warning!
- openssl (for password hashing)
- libev
make
This gives you the executable in build/unix.bin.
If you want to listen on a privileged port (below 1024), you will either have to run the executable as root (not recommended), or set the CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE capability on Linux:
sudo make setcap
If running as root, you will need an unprivileged user called 'nobody' on your system in order for things to work.
After granting permissions, if necessary, start the server and run the initial setup process.
$ ./build/unix.bin 23
*** NetCosm 0.5.2 (libev 4.20, OpenSSL 1.0.2g 1 Mar 2016) ***
Welcome to NetCosm!
Please set up the administrator account now.
Admin account name: blah
Admin password (_DO_NOT_ USE A VALUABLE PASSWORD): password here
Add user 'blah'
Listening on port 23.
Then connect to the server and start playing:
telnet localhost
Sample stunnel configuration files for both clients and servers are provided. The server configuration tunnels from TCP port 992 to local port 1234, and the client vice-versa.
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Game scripting
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NPCs
A child process is spawned for every client that connects. There are two pipes created for every child: a pipe for the child to write to, and a pipe for the master to write to.
Both of these pipes are created in "packet mode" (see pipe(2)) if available, and as UNIX domain socket pairs if not, which is slightly wasteful, as they are full-duplex but only used in a half-duplex manner.
Many operations, such as listing clients, require the help of the master process. To request an operation, the child writes its request data to its pipe to the parent. The size of the request MUST be less than PIPE_BUF, which is 4096 on Linux. The format of the request is as follows:
| Child PID | Request Code | Data (if any) |
The master polls child pipes for data, and processes any requests it finds. The master then writes it's data to the pipes of any children involved in the request.
Child processes that serve connected clients poll for input from the master process while waiting for client input. The format of these requests is as follows:
| Request Code | Data (if any) |
Child requests (that is, requests a child sends to the master) are very reliable. However, requests from the master process to its child processes are not so reliable. The child process may not be polling for data, and so would not receive the request.
Handle 100 simultaneous users sending 100 requests/second with 50ms latency.
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Telnet server implementation is not fully conforming
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Initial account login time is bogus
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Every subsequent connection allocates slightly more memory than the last
Versions are numbered using the MAJOR.MINOR.BUGFIX scheme.
The latest version is 0.5.2.
Major versions mark major milestones (see below), minor versions mark incremental milestones and compatibility of data files, and bugfix versions mark major bugfixes that don't warrant a new major or minor number.
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Object support
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User inventory support
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Verb support
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World hooks/scripting
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Work on dunnet clone
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API enhancements
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Many bugfixes
- Support for monotonic world simulation callbacks
- NPC users
- Dynamic world editing
- Procedural generation