DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages
XPILOTS(6) DragonFly Games Manual XPILOTS(6)
NAME
xpilots - XPilot multiplayer gravity war game server
SYNOPSIS
xpilots
[-map map-file] [-robots number] [-rawmode] [-noquit] [-help]
[-version] [-password password] [-serverHost hostname] [-reportMeta]
[-clientPortStart port-number] [-clientPortEnd port-number]
DESCRIPTION
This manual explains the following topics:
- Setting up a server.
- Owner-only commands.
- Creating new maps.
Complete coverage of the game basics and how to connect to a server are
given in the manual pages for xpilot(6).
Command options
This section describes the options which may be specified only as
switches to the xpilots command.
For a list of all options, try xpilots -help. See also sections
Defaults file options and Map file options.
-help Prints a short help, including the supported commandline
options.
[command] Without a parameter, this displays a brief
message, listing the supported commandline options.
Specifying a command displays help for the command.
-version Prints the current version.
-dump Prints all options with their default values in defaults
file format.
-defaultsFileName or defaults string
The filename of the defaults file to read on startup.
Defaults file options
This section describes the options which may be specified either as
command switches or in the defaults file.
For a list of all options, try xpilots -help. See also sections
Command options and Map file options.
-passwordFileName string
The filename of the password file to read on startup.
This file should be protected against unwanted eyes with
chmod(1) (e.g. chmod 600 password).
-robotFile string
The file containing parameters for robot details.
-/+idleRun or rawMode
Do robots keep on playing even if all human players
quit?
If this option is specified, xpilots doesn't go to sleep
when there are no human players logged into the game.
The noquit option must be specified for this to have any
effect after the first player joins the game.
-/+noQuit Does the server wait for new human players to show up
after all players have left.
If this option is specified, xpilots won't quit when the
last human player exits.
-/+logRobots Log the comings and goings of robots.
-mapFileName or map string
The filename of the map to use. Or "wild" if you want a
map by The Wild Map Generator.
This option allows you to select the map you will use
for this server. If it is omitted, you will have to
manage with a computer generated random map. For
instructions on how to create a map, see below. For
example if -map fuzz2 or the equivalent -map fuzz2.xp is
passed as command line arguments, the server will try to
locate a file called fuzz2.xp in the current directory,
or in a predefined directory (default is
/usr/local/share/xpilot/maps/).
-contactPort or port integer
The server contact port number.
-serverHost string
The server's fully qualified domain name (for multihomed
hosts).
Specifies to the meta server the FQDN (fully qualified
domain name) of the server. This is helpful if the
system has multiple identities and one is preferred over
the other. Also, this option may be used to bind
xpilots to a specific IP number on multihomed hosts
(hosts with more than one IP number) such as virtual
hosting sites. Otherwise, the default behaviour of
xpilots is to listen to any IP number on the host and to
try by various methods, starting with the value returned
by gethostname(2) to determine the host's FQDN (fully
qualified domain name) and report that to the meta
servers.
-/+reportToMetaServer or reportMeta
Keep the meta server informed about our game?
The default for xpilots is -reportMeta. Specify
+reportMeta to suppress reporting the xpilots server to
the xpilot meta server so that other players on the
Internet may find it. This should be done whenever a
server is unreachable either due to a firewall that is
not configured to allow access to it, or when the
connection to the server is so poor that players on the
Internet would not enjoy playing on it, as is arguably
the case with any dialup ISP connection.
-/+searchDomainForXPilot
Search the local domain for the existence of
xpilot.domain?
-denyHosts string
List of network addresses of computers which are denied
service. Each address may optionally be followed by a
slash and a network mask.
-/+ignore20MaxFPS
Ignore client maxFPS request if it is 20 (the default
setting).
-motdFileName or motd string
The filename of the MOTD file to show to clients when
they join.
-scoreTableFileName or scoretable string
The filename for the score table to be dumped to.
-/+pLockServer Whether the server is prevented from being swapped out
of memory.
-timerResolution integer
If set to nonzero xpilots will requests signals from the
OS at 1/timerResolution second intervals. The server
will then compute a new frame FPS times out of every
timerResolution signals.
-password string
The password needed to obtain operator privileges.
Allows operator privileges to be gained during a game by
those who know the password via commands typed in the
client's message window. See the Message-window
commands section below.
Note that specifying this on the command line is not
secure unless you are the sole user of the host xpilots
is started on, as ps(1) may be used to retrieve the
options passed on the command-line when the server was
started. A more secure way of starting a passworded
server is to set the password in the password file and
protect the mapfile with chmod(1) (e.g. chmod 600
password) to keep it private.
-clientPortStart integer
Use UDP ports clientPortStart - clientPortEnd (for
firewalls)
When the xpilots server is behind an IP masquerading or
NAT firewall, the UDP ports used for client connections
(as distinct from the contact port, which by default is
15345/udp) must be defined by the server, and the
firewall must be configured to forward the defined port
range to the xpilots server host. Use this switch with
-clientPortEnd to define the range. For example, start
the server with xpilots -clientPortStart 40000
-clientPortEnd 40009 and on the firewall redirect ports
40000/udp through 40009/udp to the host that xpilots is
running on. One port must be reserved for each client,
so reserve the same number of ports as there are bases
on the map.
-clientPortEnd integer
Use UDP ports clientPortStart - clientPortEnd (for
firewalls)
Used with -clientPortStart to reserve a range of UDP
ports for client connections.
Map file options
This section describes the options which may be specified either in the
map file, in the defaults file, or as command line switches.
For a list of all options, try xpilots -help. See also sections
Command options and Defaults file options.
-robots number Tells the server that you want number robots instead of
the default - number-of-bases/2. A value of -1 will
fill the entire server with robots. Note however that
there will always be room for one new player, the robots
will be kicked out of the game to accomodate for new
players, they will also enter the game when there is
space for them.
Prompt options (owner only)
If you are the owner of a server you have successfully connected to
(with xpilot(6)), you have several special commands available, all of
which applies to the current server only:
m Send a message to the players.
k Kick a player out of the game. Currently, this command
does not stop the player from re-joining the game.
Hopefully, however, he or she would have learned their
lesson.
l Lock/unlock the game. This prevents other users from
joining the game.
d Shutdown/cancel shutdown. This command will ask for a
reason and a shutdown delay (in seconds) and transmit
these to the server. A timer will appear showing how
much time is left before the game goes down. If you
don't specify a delay, you will be canceling an already
initiated shutdown.
Message-window commands
The server now supports commands typed via the client's message window
while in the game. This provides a more convenient way to communicate
with the server than the old command-prompt interface, as it does not
require the user to leave the game window to operate the controls.
All such message-window commands start with the slash (/) character.
These are divided into two groups, those which can be typed by ordinary
players and those which are only accessible to operators who have first
supplied the correct password with the /password message-window
command. If a password is not set on the server by the owner, the
operator commands are not usable.
Where a name is specified in the following commands, only leading
characters in the name need to be typed. If two names start with the
same characters, type as many characters as are needed to uniquely
identify the player.
Player message-window commands
/help [command]
Without a parameter, this displays a brief message,
listing the supported commandline options.
Specifying /help command displays brief help for
the command.
/team number Swaps you to the specified team number.
/queue Show the names of the players waiting on the queue
to enter the game. See also /advance.
/version Displays the server version number.
Operator message-window commands
/password password
When the correct password is given, the player is
granted operator privilege for the server.
Subsequently, any of the other operator commands
listed here may be executed by the player.
/advance name Moves the named player to the front of the queue.
See also /queue.
/kick name Kicks the named player from the game.
/lock [value] Without a parameter, this displays the lock status
of the game. Specify /lock 0 to unlock the game or
/lock 1 to lock the game so that no more players
may enter.
/pause name Pauses the named player.
/reset [all] Resets the current round number to 1. If /reset
all is specified, all scores are set to 0 as well.
/set option value
Sets the named option to the specified value. Note
that some server options cannot be changed at
runtime. The server will notify you if you cannot
change a value, or if you specify an invalid value.
WARNINGS AND BUGS
See xpilot(6).
AUTHORS
XPilot was developed by Bjorn Stabell <bjoern@xpilot.org> and Ken Ronny
Schouten <ken@xpilot.org> from the University of Tromso, Bert Gijsbers
<bert@xpilot.org> from the University of Amsterdam, and Dick Balaska
<dick@xpilot.org> from BuckoSoft.COM.
CREDITS
See the provided CREDITS file.
COPYRIGHT & DISCLAIMER
XPilot is Copyright (C) 1991-2002 by Bjorn Stabell, Ken Ronny Schouten,
Bert Gijsbers & Dick Balaska. XPilot comes with ABSOLUTELY NO
WARRANTY; for details see the provided LICENSE file.
FILES
/usr/local/share/xpilot/maps/ Miscellaneous maps.
/usr/local/share/xpilot/log Log file.
/usr/local/share/xpilot/defaults Defaults file.
/usr/local/share/xpilot/password Password file.
SEE ALSO
xpilot(6), xset(1), emacs(1)
Requires UDP and X11 XPILOTS(6)