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| Protocol Specification: 1 April 1999 |
Initial protocol design by:
This document details a proposal for a future generation of Intermud protocols. It is designed to use the high level communication facilities provided by the MudOS LP driver. Other drivers may be capable of handling the communication protocol, but this proposal does not focus on them. See Other Drivers for a possible scheme to include them into the Intermud as defined by this proposal. This document has the following sections:
ContributorsMany people have contributed to this specification. This is an attempt to list those people who have helped in some way or another.Contributors:
Logical Network LayoutThe logical network of muds is organized into a set of fully connected routers each acting as a hub for an arbitrary set of muds.A mud has a "preferred" router, but will be told and will record information about all routers in existence (for failover in case the preferred is down). A mud's preferred router may be changed programatically to handle load balancing among routers. The routers open and maintain TCP sessions (using MudOS's "MUD" mode) to each of the other routers (fully connected network). Each router will hold a list of all muds within the intermud and which router the mud is connected to. An active TCP session (in MUD mode) is maintained between a mud and its router. The mud is responsibile for opening (see the startup-req-2 packet), maintaining, reconnecting, and shutting down this session. A graceful exit will cause the router to propogate information about the "down" state of the mud to the other routers and muds on the intermud. A dropped connection will wait 5 minutes before delivering "down" state notification (this 5 minutes is provided for the mud to reconnect). A mud is removed after 7 days of being in the down state. The network of TCP sessions between the routers and muds will be used for "in band" transmissions. The data carried over these connections will be limited to "fast response" messages. Some services will be carried off of this network and are called "out of band" (OOB) transmissions. Each mud will listen at a TCP port for incoming connections for processing OOB transmissions. At the moment, the services that use the OOB transmissions are mail, news, and file transfers. Connections will be opened as needed and closed when the transmission completes. Lastly, each mud may maintain a UDP port for some specific OOB transmissions. At the moment, though, there are no UDP-based OOB services, so this port is typically not opened. MUD NamingFor proper identification within the Intermud network, muds must use a canonical naming system. The canonical name is defined to be the mud's actual name (properly capitalized, with spaces, etc). Examples: Quendor, Idea Exchange. These names will be used in the mudlist and in all packet routing. The case is significant, although the routers may (?) disallow two muds with the same name, but with different casing.Routers will have names assigned to them; there are a few cases where a router must be referenced. routers will be distinguished from muds with a leading asterisk (such as *nightmare). Muds may not define a name with a leading asterisk if they wish to be a part of the Intermud.
Packet FormatTransmissions are LPC arrays with a predefined set of six initial elements:({ type, ttl, originator mudname,
originator username, target mudname,
target username, ... }).type describes the type of the packet. See Packet Types for a summary of the packet types used in this protocol. ttl is the packet's Time To Live (TTL). This is similar to an IP packet's TTL - it specifies the number of hops left to a packet. This may not be absolutely necessary, but provides a mechanism to handle the case where the routers mis-route a packet into an endless loop. Eventually, it will time out and be removed from the network. originator mudname is used to indicate the mud where the packet originated. If the packet cannot be delivered for some reason, this mud will be notified, if possible. originator username is used to indicate the user that triggered the delivery of the packet. If the mud itself sent the packet (e.g. mail delivery or shutdown notification), then the username will be 0. The username should be in lower-case. target mudname is used to route the packet to the appropriate destination mud. Zero is used to indicate broadcast packets. target username is used to route the packet to a particular user on a remote mud. The username may be 0 if the packet is targeted for the mud itself rather than a specific user. This should always be in lower-case. The target mud will attempt to find the user with whatever appropriate means. Many packets will specify a visname. This is a user's "visible" name - the name which should be displayed to other users. Typically, this is equivalent to the username with altered capitalization, but may actually be quite arbitrary with respect to the username.
ServicesThere are eleven services covered by this proposal:
Service: tellThe originator will deliver the following packet to the target mud over the in-band network (to its router):
({
(string) "tell",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) target_username,
(string) orig_visname,
(string) message
})
At the target mud, the message will be delivered to target_username.
The orig_visname is told to the target_username to indicate who sent
the message; it is usually combined with the originator_mudname as:
sprintf("%s@%s", orig_visname, originator_mudname).
The target_username should be lower-cased by the originating mud. If the router fails to deliver the packet for some reason, it will return an error packet. Service: emotetoThe originator will deliver the following packet to the target mud over the in-band network (to its router):
({
(string) "emoteto",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) target_username,
(string) orig_visname,
(string) message
})
At the target mud, the message will be delivered to target_username
with the appropriate formatting. The message will contain $N tokens
for substituting the originator's name. This name is typically
formatted using:
sprintf("%s@%s", orig_visname, originator_mudname).
The target_username should be lower-cased by the originating mud. A simple example would be a message such as, "$N smiles at you." which would be transformed into something like, "Joe@PutzMud smiles at you." If the router or target mud fails to deliver the packet for some reason, it will return an error packet. Service: whoThe originator will deliver the following packet over the in-band network (to its router):
({
(string) "who-req",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) 0
})
The router will route
the packet to another router or to the target mud. The target
mud returns:
({
(string) "who-reply",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) target_username,
(mixed *) who_data
})
where who_data is an array containing an array
of the following format for each user on the mud:
({
(string) user_visname,
(int) idle_time,
(string) xtra_info
})
Each user_visname should specify the user's visual name.
idle_time should be measured in seconds and
xtra_info should be a string.
If the router fails to deliver the packet for some reason, it will return an error packet. Service: fingerFinger operates similarly to who but returns information about a specific user rather than all users logged into the mud. This service uses the in-band network; the packet has the following format:
({
(string) "finger-req",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) username
})
Note: technically, we could use the target_username field to hold
the name of the person to finger, but we do not wish to imply that
the packet is destined for that user. The packet is only
querying information about the user.
The target mud will return:
({
(string) "finger-reply",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) target_username,
(string) visname,
(string) title,
(string) real_name,
(string) e_mail,
(string) loginout_time,
(int) idle_time,
(string) ip_name,
(string) level,
(string) extra // eg, a .plan file, or any other relevant info
})
A mud may return 0 for any item if they wish to keep the information
private. In particular, it is suggested that information about
players (as opposed to wizards) be kept confidential.
The returned visname should contain the user's visual name. loginout_time specifies the (local) time the user logged in (if they are currently on) or the time the user logged out. The value should be expressed as a string. It should be 0 to indicate no information. The idle_time is expressed as an integer number of seconds of idle time. If this value is -1, then the user is not logged onto the mud at the moment. If extra is given, then it should be terminated with a carriage return.
Service: locateThis service locates a particular user on the Intermud system. The following packet is delivered over the in-band network (to the mud's router), which then delivers it to all muds (target_mudname == 0):
({
(string) "locate-req",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) 0,
(string) 0,
(string) username
})
If the requested user is logged into the
receiving mud, then the following reply is returned:
({
(string) "locate-reply",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) target_username,
(string) located_mudname,
(string) located_visname,
(int) idle_time,
(string) status,
})
located_visname should contain the correct visual name
of the user. idle_time will have the idle time (in seconds)
of the located user.
status specifies any special status of the user. This will typically be zero to indicate that the user has no special status. The values for this string are arbitrary, but certain statuses have predefined values that can be used:
Other examples for the status string might be "afk for dinner" or "taking a test".
Service: channelThere are two types of channels in the Intermud system: selective admission and selective banning. All channels are owned by a particular mud and are adminstrated by that mud only. The owner of a channel may also choose to filter the channel, although this may subject that mud to an increased load for processing the channel contents and the channel will become unavailable when the host mud is down.The routers maintain three channel lists - one list for each type of channel (selective admission vs banning) where the channel is unfiltered, and one list for selective admission, filtered channels. Selectively banned, filtered channels are not allowed. For each channel, the router will store which type it is (what list it is on), the owning mud of the channel, and a list of muds that are admitted/banned. When a mud sends a startup-req-2 packet, it includes its chanlist-id in the packet. The router will potentially respond with a chanlist-reply message to update the mud's channel list. The router will respond to channel list changes with the chanlist-reply packet.
({
(string) "chanlist-reply",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname, // the router
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) 0,
(int) chanlist_id,
(mapping) channel_list
})
channel_list is mapping with channel names as keys,
and an array of two elements as the values. If the value is
0, then the channel has been deleted.
The array contains the
host mud, and the type of the channel:
0 selectively banned
1 selectively admitted
2 filtered (selectively admitted)
All channel messages are delivered to the router. It will then
pass the message to the appropriate set of muds. If the channel
is filtered, then the packet will be delivered to the host mud for
filtering; it will then return to the router network for
distribution. It is assumed that a channel packet for a filtered
channel that comes from the channel host has been filtered.
Channel messages come in three flavors: standard messages, emotes, and targetted emotes. These use packets channel-m, channel-e, and channel-t, respectively. They are:
({
(string) "channel-m",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) 0,
(string) 0,
(string) channel_name,
(string) visname,
(string) message
})
({
(string) "channel-e",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) 0,
(string) 0,
(string) channel_name,
(string) visname,
(string) message
})
({
(string) "channel-t",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) 0,
(string) 0,
(string) channel_name,
(string) targetted_mudname,
(string) targetted_username,
(string) message_others,
(string) message_target,
(string) originator_visname,
(string) target_visname
})
When a mud receives a channel-m packet, it should deliver it locally
to all listeners. The actual message delivered to users should be
a composition of the originator_mudname, visname,
channel_name, and message. The message should not be preformatted
with this information before delivery so that individual muds can
define the display semantics. A suggested format is:
[gwiz] John@Doe Mud: help me! help me! I am a cluebie newless!This was composed with:
channel-e packets are similar to channel-m packets, but the message has a token in it to represent where the originator's name should be. This token is $N. An example is "$N smiles." ### need more info here ### When a mud receives a channel-t packet, it should deliver the message locally to all listeners. The actual message delivered should be a composition of the channel_name and one of message_others or message_target. The messages will include $N and $O for the name of the originator and the object/target of their emote. The appropriate message is selected based on the listener - if the listener matches the targetted mud/user, then the message_target should be used. A suggested format is: [gwiz] With a flying leap, John@Doe Mud falls into the pit. [gwiz] Jane@BlandMud waves to Goober@PutzMud. [gwiz] Jane@BlandMud waves to you.These were composed with:
### need a bit more on channel-t ### All messages should not be terminated with a newline - that will be applied on the receiving mud if necessary. The target_username should be in lower-case if provided. A channel may be added with the following packet:
({
(string) "channel-add",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) target_mudname, // the router
(string) 0,
(string) channel_name,
(int) channel_type
})
The for channel_type field accepts the
same values that the
name server returns for channels. Sending this packet again with a new
value for channel_type will change the information.
A channel may be removed by the mud that created it by sending the following packet:
({
(string) "channel-remove",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) target_mudname, // the router
(string) 0,
(string) channel_name
})
To administer a channel, the channels host/owner mud may use the following packet:
({
(string) "channel-admin",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) target_mudname, // the router
(string) 0,
(string) channel_name,
(string *) add_to_list,
(string *) remove_from_list
})
The muds specified in add_to_list are added to the
allowed/banned list stored within the router network. The
muds specified in remove_from_list are removed from
that list.
To filter a channel, the following packets will be used :
({
(string) "chan-filter-req",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname, // the router
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname, // the owner/host mud
(string) 0,
(string) channel_name,
(mixed *) packet_to_filter,
})
Where packet_to_filter is a channel-m, channel-e or
channel-t packet.
The filtered packet is returned to the router in the following packet :
({
(string) "chan-filter-reply",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname, // The channel host/owner mudname
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname, // the router
(string) 0,
(string) channel_name,
(mixed *) filtered_packet,
})
A list of who is listening to a channel on a remote mud may be requested with the following packet:
({
(string) "chan-who-req",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) channel_name
})
The reply for the who request takes the following format:
({
(string) "chan-who-reply",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) target_username,
(string) channel_name,
(string *) user_list
})
The user_list should be an array of strings, representing the
users' "visual" names.
A mud may decide whether or not it is listening to any given channel by sending a channel-listen packet. This packet is also used to tune out a channel, which should be done whenever no one on the mud is listening to the channel. The format of this packet is:
({
(string) "channel-listen",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname, // the router
(string) 0,
(string) channel_name,
(int) on_or_off
})
The on_or_off will contain one of the following values:
0 The mud does not wish to receive this channel.
1 The mud wishes to receive this channel.
Lastly, for targetted emotes, it is necessary to get information on the target. There are two pieces of information required: the visname and the gender of the target. This operation is performed with the following packets:
({
(string) "chan-user-req",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) username
})
Note that the username is separate since the packet is not targetted to the user. The reply for the user info request takes the following format:
({
(string) "chan-user-reply",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) username,
(string) visname,
(int) gender
})
The gender takes one of the following values:
0 male
1 female
2 neuter
Note that a mud may have more variants on gender, but most human
languages only have three forms at most. These are used to select
the appropriate pronouns, possessives, and reflexive words.
Service: news### work to do here... this is an OOB service, also employing the auth service ###This packet is used to transmit a request for a post to a remote mud's news server (via the OOB network). This connection should not disconnect from the server until it is done dealing with it for the forseeable future. Instead, it should exchange messages in lockstep with the server.
({
(string) "news-read-req",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) 0,
(string) 0,
(string) newsgroup_name,
(int) id,
})
The server response for this request takes the following form:
({
(int) posting_time,
(string) thread_id,
(string) subject,
(string) poster,
(string) contents
})
To post a message, send the following packet:
({
(string) "news-post-req",
(string) originator_mudname,
(int) mud_login_port,
(string) mewsgroup,
(string) thread_id,
(string) subject,
(string) poster,
(string) contents
})
Notice that this packed does not follow the standard packet form, because it is not transmitted over the in band network. The server response should be an integer representing the id of the post, or an error packet. To request a list of newsgroups, send the following packet:
({
(string) "news-grplist-req"
})
The response from the server should be an array containing an array for each available group. This array should contain the following data:
({
(string) group_name,
(int) first_post_id,
(int) last_post_id
})
Service: mailThis packet is used to deliver a mail message to a remote mud. It will be delivered over the OOB network (i.e., over a direct TCP connection to the target mud's out-of-band TCP port). It has the following form:
({
(string) "mail",
(int) id,
(string) orig_user,
(mapping) to_list,
(mapping) cc_list,
(string *) bcc_list,
(int) send_time,
(string) subject,
(string) contents,
})
Where to_list and cc_list are mappings
of the following format :
([
MUD-A : ({ user-1, user-2, }),
MUD-B : ({ user-1, user-2, }),
])
and bcc_list is an array of the users at the target mud only.
Mail is acknoleged by the use of a "mail-ack" packet.
({
(string) "mail-ack",
(mapping) ack_list,
})
Where ack_list is a mapping whose keys are the id's that have been acknowleged,
and the values are arrays of the failures.
NB: mail is an OOB service, and employs the auth service.
Errors must be sent via the OOB network
Service: file### work to do here... this is an OOB service, also employing the auth service ###### this service still in development ### This service is used to transfer files between muds. Before files may be transferred, a session token must be returned from the remote mud using the login protocols.
It will use the out-of-band TCP port and has the following form:
({
(string) "file-list-req",
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) dir,
})
Where dir is the directory to be listed.
dir is considered to be relative to a world read/write directory.
Any leading '/' is ignored.
The response from the remote mud should be:
({
(string) "file-list-reply",
(string) target_username,
(mixed *) dir_list,
})
Where dir_list is an array containing an array
of the following format for each file in the reply list:
({
(string) fname,
(int) fsize,
(int) ftime,
})
To send a file to a remote mud, send the following packet:
({
(string) "file-put",
(int) id,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) remote_fname,
(string) contents,
})
Puts are acknoleged by the following packet :
({
(string) "file-put-ack",
(int) id,
(int) success,
})
To retrive a file from a remote mud, send the following packet:
({
(string) "file-get-req",
(int) id,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) originator_username,
(string) remote_fname,
})
The remote mud should respond with
({
(string) "file-get-reply",
(int) id,
(int) success,
(string) contents,
})
Where success corresponds to the following.
The file should only be transfered from a world writeable directory
on one mud to a world writable directory on another. The size of the file capable of being sent in this manner is limited by the size of the maximum string length on both the sending and receiving muds. An error response should be returned over the OOB network.
Service: authThe auth service is used for performing authentication of a mud. This authentication is used for OOB communications since in-band communication is always authenticated at a mud-level.The authentication is used to verify that an incoming OOB connection request is actually from the mud that the request says it is from. Before the OOB connection is made, the originator sends the following packet (over the in-band network) to the target mud:
({
(string) "auth-mud-req",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) 0
})
The target mud generates a unique integer key, associates that with
the originating mud with the key, and then returns the key (over the
in-band network) to the
originator with:
({
(string) "auth-mud-reply",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) 0,
(int) session_key
})
At this point, the originator may contact the target mud through the
OOB port, using the session_key to authenticate that it actually is
the purported originator. It is possible, and should be accounted for, that a particular originator might issue multiple auth-mud-req packets before establishing an OOB session to the target mud. Only the last request and session_key need to be remembered. The keys from prior requests may be discarded and connection attempts using them may be rejected. Session keys must remain valid for 10 minutes from receipt of the auth-mud-req packet. After that point, the target mud may discard the key and reject connection attempts with that key. After a successful OOB connection is made, the target mud may discard the key (the key should be interpreted as a one-time key).
Service: ucacheThe ucache service is used for maintaining user information caches within the Intermud network. A mud may cache information that it receives from chan-user-req packet. To keep this up to date, muds should issue ucache-update packets, which are then used by muds that implement the ucache service.Whenever the contents of a chan-user-reply packet would change (visname or gender), then the mud should broadcast the following packet:
({
(string) "ucache-update",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) 0,
(string) 0,
(string) username,
(string) visname,
(int) gender
})
The contents of this packet are similar to the
chan-user-reply packet. Note that the router will filter this packet's delivery to only those muds that support the ucache service.
Support PacketserrorThis packet is returned when error conditions arise. It has the following form:
({
(string) "error",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) target_username,
(string) error_code,
(string) error_message,
(mixed *) error_packet
})
The error_code values are standardized and are summarized in
the Error Summary section. The error_message
does not follow any particular standards (yet?), but should be a message
that can be displayed to a user. The error_packet may contain
the packet that caused the particular error to be generated. If the
packet is unavailable (i.e. due to code structure), then the value 0
may be used.
startup-req-3This packet is delivered to a mud's router when the mud first establishes the connection. If the mud has never received a password from a server, it should send 0. The server is responsible for creating a random password for new muds, and validating the password of a mud before allowing a mud to connect from a site other than the one from which it normally connects.A startup-req-3 packet has the following form:
({
(string) "startup-req-3",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname, // the router
(string) 0,
(int) password,
(int) old_mudlist_id,
(int) old_chanlist_id,
// these correspond to the values in a mudlist info_mapping
(int) player_port,
(int) imud_tcp_port,
(int) imud_udp_port,
(string) mudlib,
(string) base_mudlib,
(string) driver,
(string) mud_type,
(string) open_status,
(string) admin_email,
(mapping) services
(mapping) other_data
})
The -3 on the packet type indicates that the mud will use Protocol
Version 3 for communication (this specification). Future changes
in the protocol can update this number as required. The router
network must support all protocol versions and must translate packets
between muds with different protocol versions. Error packets will be
returned to a mud if that mud attempts to use a service that cannot
be translated (e.g. services that are only available in later
protocol versions).
Note: version 2 of the protocol had a smaller locate-reply packet. No other changes were made to the specification. Note: version 1 of the protocol was almost exactly the same as this version except that it was missing a couple fields from the startup packet and the corresponding info_mapping in the mudlist packet. All pieces of information are required to be sent to a router except for the port numbers and other_data. The player_port may be 0 if the mud is private/closed. The OOB ports may be 0 if the services that require them will not be provided by the mud. other_data may be 0 if a mud has no "other data" (see below). open_status is a string describing the current status of the mud. Suggested (strongly encouraged values) are:
services is a mapping with service names as keys. The allowable services include those specified within this specification (in the Services section); these simply have a value of 1 in the mapping. In addition, extended (non-standard) services may be specified with service-specific information for their value. Here is the current list of services (keys and values) that a mud may make available along with some example extended services:
The other_data field (when provided) contains a mapping with string keys. The values are arbitrary and determined by the key. These key/value pairs are used to specify information that is not related directly to the I3 network operation. At this time, there are no defined keys in this specification or via precedent. Individual muds are free to define their own key/value pairs. It is highly recommended that attempts be made to avoid namespace collisions. For example, if the Lima Mudlib decides to place an entry into the other_data field, it might use a key of "lima-somekey". startup-replyThis packet will be delivered to a mud for three conditions: in response to a startup-req packet, when the router wishes the mud to connect to a different router, or when the set of routers change for some reason.
({
(string) "startup-reply",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname, // the router
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string *) router_list,
(int) password
})
The router_list is an array representing an
ordered list of routers to use. The first element should
be the router that the mud should use. Typically, this
will be the router that the mud initially connected to.
If not, however, then the mud should close the connection and
reopen to the designated router. The list should be saved
and used in case of failure to connect to a router.
Each element in the list is an array of two elements; the first
element is the router name, the second element is the router's
address in the following format: "ip.ad.re.ss portnum". Note that
this address can be passed to MudOS's socket_connect() function.
For example: ({ "*nightmare", "199.199.122.10 9000" }).
The first router specified in the list will be the mud's preferred router. Future initial connections and startup-req packets will go to that router until told otherwise. shutdownThis packet is delivered to a mud's router when the mud is gracefully shutting down. It has the following form:
({
(string) "shutdown",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname, // the router
(string) 0,
(int) restart_delay
})
restart_delay can be used to specify when the mud
thinks it will be restarted. This value is measured in seconds.
0 may be used to mean unknown/indefinite. If a mud will be
back "immediately," then it can simply use 1 second for this.
If the restart_delay is greater than 5 minutes, then the router will mark the mud as "down" immediately rather waiting the 5 minutes. Likewise, if the restart_delay specifies a duration longer than 7 days, the mud will be deleted from the Intermud. Any time less than 5 minutes will cause the router to operate as normal: it will wait for a while. mudlistThe router will send this to a mud whenever the mud's list needs to be updated. Typically, this will happen once right after login (based on the old_mudlist_id that a mud provided in the startup-req-3 packet), and then as changes occur within the intermud network. A mud should remember the mudlist and its associated mudlist_id across reconnects to the router.
({
(string) "mudlist",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname, // the router
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) 0,
(int) mudlist_id
(mapping) info_mapping
})
The info_mapping contains mud
names as keys and information
about each mud as the value. This information is specified as an
array with the following format:
({
(int) state,
(string) ip_addr,
(int) player_port,
(int) imud_tcp_port,
(int) imud_udp_port,
(string) mudlib,
(string) base_mudlib,
(string) driver,
(string) mud_type,
(string) open_status,
(string) admin_email,
(mapping) services
(mapping) other_data
})
Each record of information should replace any prior record for
a particular mud. If the mapping's value is zero, then the mud has
been deleted (it went down and has not come back for a week)
from the Intermud.
state is an integer with the following values:
-1 mud is up
0 mud is down
n mud will be down for n seconds
oob-req### not sure on this packet... discussion required ###This packet is delivered to a target mud when an originating mud wishes to connect to its OOB port. This packet should only be delivered if the target mud does not support the auth service or if the service using the OOB connection will not require use of the auth service. The packet has the following form:
({
(string) "oob-req",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname,
(string) 0,
(string) target_mudname,
(string) 0,
})
The originating mud must then connect within 10 minutes. The target mud
may use this opportunity to actual open the OOB port and listen for
the incoming connection request.
oob-beginThis packet is used over an OOB link (see OOB Protocols). It is used to specify the authorization information for this connection.Since this packet operates over an OOB link, it does not need to conform to standard packet formats. Its format is:
({
(string) "oob-begin",
(string) originator_mudname,
(int) auth_type,
(int) auth_token
})
The auth_type will contain one of the following values:
0 no authentication used
1 auth-mud-req used
oob-endThis packet is used over an OOB link (see OOB Protocols). It is used to signify that a mud is done delivering packets to the other mud.Since this packet operates over an OOB link, it does not need to conform to standard packet formats. Its format is:
({
(string) "oob-end",
(string) mudname
})
mudname states who has completing delivering packets. This
is used to simplify the process of determining which mud (of a possible
many outstanding OOB connections) just completed their work. This could
be done simply by matching the socket which received the data to a
record of what mud it connected to, but specifying the mud should make
this process simpler for some clients.
OOB Protocols### more to come ###
Router DesignThe routers will create, open, and maintain MUD mode TCP sessions with each of the other routers. Each router will also maintain a list of the status of all links in the router network. This link information will be used for routing around a failed link until the link is reestablished.Each router will maintain a complete list of all muds on the Intermud, the information associated with each one, the up/down/rebooting state, and which router the mud is connected to. Each router will also maintain a list of information about each Intermud channel, including the channel host/owner, the type of channel, and the list of admitted/banned muds for the channel.
List SynchronizationThe two sets of lists are synchronized with the same scheme from a mud's point of view: they receive a unique token that precisely denotes the state of their list. The router network can remember how to provide deltas from one token to another or can just deliever complete lists when a request arrives from a mud that needs an update.To guarantee uniqueness of the token, the routers can use the current time. This becomes complex because all routers must use the same token for the list (in case a mud is switched to a new router, it should not have to fetch the whole list). Using the time across multiple machines with different time drifts and within different time zones and accounting for poor system administration can make the problem quite difficult. A scheme is required to meet each of these problems.
Assume a steady state where each router has the same token and
a consistent list with respect to the other routers. Now, let
us say a router generates a delta to the list. It
will create a new token as
Now, what happens when two routers generate deltas at about
the same time? Call the tokens Now, if a router receives t1 before t2, then everything will be fine - it will have notified its muds with the t1-delta then with the t2-delta. The muds and the router will become stable with a current token of t2. However, if the router receives t2 first, then there will be problems. It will notify the muds with the t2-delta, then with the t1-delta. The router will deliver a token of t2 with the t1-delta change to the muds and will stabilize with that token. This would seem to be okay unless a mud disconnected between the t2-delta and t1-delta notifications. When it reconnects, it will ask for changes since t2 and receive none. Simply put: the t1-delta is subverted to using the t2 token and therefore does not uniquely identify the change. This problem is solved with the use of a "alter-token" packet. The t1-delta gets a new token applied to it and is recirculated through the router network. Since many routers may see the conflict and initiate an alter-token operation, there should be a way to eliminate duplicates; otherwise, two altered-t1-deltas could again create a synchronization problem. To overcome this, the altered token will be set to t2+1. The routers will ignore the receipt of an altered-token-delta if its current token came from a similar altered-token. ### todo: two packets with same time; multiple packets? - solve case of two - inductance handles rest ###
({
(string) "XXXlist-delta",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname, // the router
(string) 0,
(string) "*", // router broadcast
(string) 0,
(int) token,
(mapping) list_delta_info
})
({
(string) "XXXlist-altered",
(int) 5,
(string) originator_mudname, // the router
(string) 0,
(string) "*", // router broadcast
(string) 0,
(int) altered_token,
(mapping) list_delta_info
})
Packet RoutingTo efficiently implement the routing, the routers will route based entirely on the originator/target fields of the packet. Knowledge of the packet types will not be required. This provides flexibility for extensions and, most likely, increased routing speed.Rules for routing are based entirely on the target_mudname. If it is provided, then the packet will be sent to the mud if it is connected to the receiving router. Otherwise, the router for the mud is looked up and the packet is forwarded there. If the mudname refers to the router itself, then the packet will be passed "up" to higher-level router processes. ### info on routing around downed links ###
Other Drivers/MudlibsThere will exist two reference implementations of the mudlib side of the protocol. These can be ported/used to create implementations for alternate mudlibs and for MudOS pre-v21 drivers.For drivers that have TCP but not MUD-mode, they will need to parse the incoming transmissions (MUD-mode is effectively a combination of save_variable() and a standard TCP socket). For drivers without TCP sockets, then a gateway will need to be written to hook into the router network and gateway the protocol between the MUD-mode TCP sockets and, say, UDP. Gateways can also be used for non-LP based muds (e.g MOO, MUCK, Diku, etc). Note that it is possible for the router network protocol to evolve independently of the protocol used by the muds. This could involve moving away from the MUD-mode style of communication.
Error SummaryThere are a "standard" set of error_codes that are returned by routers and remote muds in error packets. The error_message is not as well defined at this point, but should be something that can be displayed to the user.Following is a list of the standard error codes returned by the routers:
Packet Types Summary
Compressed Mode### to be filled in with specifics ###Generally, many of the fields will be replaced with numbers rather than full strings. Some of the fields can be paired up using various combined keys. For example, originator_mudname can almost always be ommitted since it can be inferred from the TCP session at the router end. Also, all the request/reply pairs can use a request key rather than recording actual user names (the user is associated with the request key on the originating mud).
Change Log
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