The Netrek Metaservers are a group of systems behind the
metaserver.netrek.org alias, which list current games available.
Netrek clients contact the metaservers during startup.
Games can occur without being listed on a metaserver, the metaserver
only helps players find games.
You may wish to list your server on the metaservers. This is
technically simple, but may have political implications, and if done
wrongly may cause unnnecessary reaction.
Communicate your intention with other server owners, through the
mailing lists, or the IRC channel, or the netrek infrastructure team.
--
Date: Wed, 15 April 1998 09:06:09 +0000 (edited by many since)
From: James Cameron <cameron@stl.dec.com>
Subject: Metaservers File Format
This is the documentation for how to have a new server solicit the
metaserver for players.
It works like this;
- you set up an etc/metaservers file with the addresses of the
metaservers that should be kept informed,
- when new players arrive on your server, a packet is sent to
the metaservers informing them of the current player count,
- periodically, the metaservers are told about current status.
The format of the file is a series of space delimited fields
interpreted using fscanf(). Very primitive. The code looks for the
file in the configuration directory SYSCONFDIR, which by default is
etc/. The file name is metaservers.
The order and format of the fields is described in ntserv/solicit.c
/* data items derived from metaservers file */
char host[32]; /* address of metaserver (DNS) */
int port; /* port of metaserver */
int minimum; /* minimum update time */
int maximum; /* maximum update time */
char ours[32]; /* DNS address of server */
char type[2]; /* server type code (B/P/C/H/?) */
int pport; /* server main player port (e.g. 2592) */
int oport; /* server observer player port */
char comment[32]; /* comment string */
The first address should be a numeric IP address in order to avoid DNS
lookup delay on every new player or solicitation update. Or place a
host name in your /etc/hosts file that corresponds to the metaservers.
Here is the sample_metaservers file ...
metaserver.netrek.org 3521 60 120 this.host.name B 2592 2593 open
Replace "this.host.name" with the DNS host name that you want the
metaservers to list the server under. If you have a name within the
netrek.org domain, use that. If the metaserver already lists your
server; use the name that the metaserver has for you.
This will cause the metaservers to be updated with game status
information every minute, subject to the limits in the code.
Beware: informing the metaserver more frequently than the limits define
will cause your server to be delisted from the metaserver automatically.
This is handled by program code at the metaserver.
To remove your server from metaserver listing, delete or rename the
metaservers file. After a while, the metaserver will remove the
entry. To force a delisting sooner, see the tools/delist program.
--
James Cameron (cameron@stl.dec.com)
Digital Equipment Corporation (Australia) Pty. Ltd. A.C.N. 000 446 800
--
INL Metaservers HOWTO
by James Cameron <quozl@us.netrek.org>
from work by "E. Hietbrink" <Shadow.Hunter@netrek.org> on 7th June 2004
a) list your server twice each time, with "home." and "away." in front
of the host name (these names need not be registered, as the server
will strip the name before sending the host name to the metaserver,
see ntserv/solicit.c for the check),
b) set the server type to I,
c) list the appropriate ports.
For example;
metaserver.us.netrek.org 3521 60 120 home.nl.netrek.org I 4566 4000 open
metaserver.us.netrek.org 3521 60 120 away.nl.netrek.org I 4577 5000 open
metaserver2.us.netrek.org 3521 60 120 home.nl.netrek.org I 4566 4000 open
metaserver2.us.netrek.org 3521 60 120 away.nl.netrek.org I 4577 5000 open