How Copyover MUD Servers Worked

Re:How Copyover MUD Servers Worked by jonmarkgo on Monday February 10, 2025 @09:29PM (#43008294)

I actually run a MUD that stills uses this copyover method (primarily C code) for major code changes and migrations. We have about 100 players online at any given time! We've actually built in some more modern automatic copyover triggers and hooks related to recovering from crashes, capturing backtraces, performing database migrations, and sending/receiving systemd signals (among a lot of other modernization upgrades).

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Re:How Copyover MUD Servers Worked by _jackdk_ on Monday February 10, 2025 @09:39PM (#43008328)

Very cool - I thought it would be a forgotten technique by now. Which MUD, and have you written up the details anywhere? I'm very interested to know what a modern version of this looks like, particularly with the systemd integration.

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Re:How Copyover MUD Servers Worked by jonmarkgo on Monday February 10, 2025 @10:18PM (#43008547)

https://www.legendsofthejedi.com/

It originated (more than 20 years ago) as a fork of SWReality, which is itself a fork of SMAUG, which comes from DIKU, and so on and so on.

We (myself and a lot of other awesome volunteer coders over the years) have made some pretty major modifications to the codebase. It all runs on PostgreSQL now (instead of flat text files with a custom parser), it has a built-in Lua scripting interpreter for extensions and in-game interactions, it has deep integrations to our Discord community, it has sidecar web services, and much much more...

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Re:How Copyover MUD Servers Worked by _jackdk_ on Tuesday February 11, 2025 @03:55AM (#43010531)

That's so cool. Have you written about the MUD's history and technical evolution anywhere? If not, would you be interested in collaborating on an article like that?

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Re:How Copyover MUD Servers Worked by jonmarkgo on Tuesday February 11, 2025 @08:36AM (#43012554)

HuffPo wrote a piece about us like a decade ago, and I've been meaning to write more about the technical evolution of the game..just haven't gotten around to it. Certainly interested in collaborating on something

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Re:How Copyover MUD Servers Worked by _jackdk_ on Tuesday February 11, 2025 @05:20PM (#43019107)

Cool. What's the best way to reach you? I could join the LOTJ Discord and ping you there, perhaps?

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Re:How Copyover MUD Servers Worked by jonmarkgo on Tuesday February 11, 2025 @05:48PM (#43019370)

That works! Just post in #general and I'll find you :)

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Re:How Copyover MUD Servers Worked by FajriFadli on Tuesday February 11, 2025 @05:03AM (#43010931)

This is awesome, thanks for sharing! I used to play lots of MUDs and also the browser-based MMORPG life sim Star Wars Combine, so I don't know how I missed this back then.

By the way, you have broken link on the `Learn More About the Economy` link in the home page. Should just have it redirect to `/crafting-the-galaxy`

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Re:How Copyover MUD Servers Worked by jonmarkgo on Tuesday February 11, 2025 @08:37AM (#43012561)

Thanks! We'll fix that broken link. Fwiw I also used to play SW Combine too. I think their irc server was where I first learned about MUDs.

Kind of funny how many people from LotJMUD or SWC I've met in the real world who work in tech now

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Re:How Copyover MUD Servers Worked by johnbellone on Tuesday February 11, 2025 @09:10AM (#43012874)

Ha, blast from the past - I have bunch of code that is in mainline SMAUG.

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Re:How Copyover MUD Servers Worked by maxwelljoslyn on Monday February 10, 2025 @10:01PM (#43008449)

Where can we find your MUD?

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Re:How Copyover MUD Servers Worked by jonmarkgo on Monday February 10, 2025 @10:21PM (#43008563)

Posted earlier in the thread!

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Re:How Copyover MUD Servers Worked by draculero on Monday February 10, 2025 @09:56PM (#43008427)

is still online? I would like to play to remember my good old days!

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