PennMUSH Home Page

Welcome to the home page for the PennMUSH mud server, a freely available (but not GPL) package. This page is maintained by Alan Schwartz (a.k.a Paul/Javelin), the current developer of PennMUSH, who can be reached at dunemush@pennmush.org

PennMUSH Translation Project!

See http://www.pennmush.org/translation.html to learn how you can help translate PennMUSH to other languages!
Herein lies what passes for wisdom:
  1. What is a mud?
  2. What is a MUSH?
  3. What is PennMUSH?
  4. How can I get PennMUSH?
  5. What about a Win32, OS/2, or Mac port?
  6. Where can I get help with PennMUSH?
  7. What are the terms of the license under which I can use PennMUSH? (Is Penn GPL? No. Is it Free Software/Open Source? Yes)
  8. How can I learn about updates?
  9. Can you host my MUSH?
  10. Can I have a pennmush.org hostname?
  11. Where can I learn more?
  12. How did you create that cool logo?

What is a mud?

A mud ("multi-user dungeon") is a form of textual virtual reality program. A mud server is a computer program which maintains a world database containing players, objects, rooms, exits, and programs. People connect to the mud server by using the telnet command or a dedicated mud client, and take on characters in the virtual world, interacting with other players from around the (real) world. Common activities include game playing, role-playing, socializing, world-building, etc. These servers have also been used for education, research, and artistic endeavors.

An example is M*U*S*H, a mud for people to socialize and build pretty things.

What is a MUSH?

A MUSH ("multi-user shared hallucination") is a type of mud which is often used for social and role-playing activities. It is derived from "Tinymud", an early mud server. Its distinguishing features are that any player can typically extend the virtual world by building new rooms and objects, and its internal programming language, MUSHcode, which is considered to be fairly easy to learn.

What is PennMUSH?

There are a number of flavors of MUSH server freely available to those who want to run their own MUSHes: TinyMUSH 3.0, TinyMUSH 2.2, TinyMUX 1.6, and PennMUSH 1.7.x. TinyMUSH uses a disk-based database, while PennMUSH keeps its database in the computer's memory (TinyMUX can do either). This makes PennMUSH suitable for computers which have plenty of memory or little disk space. From a user standpoint they offer many similar features and a very similar command parser.

How can I get PennMUSH?

PennMUSH is being actively developed by Alan Schwartz (a.k.a. Paul@Dune or Javelin), and the latest version and any patches are always available at ftp.pennmush.org in the /pub/PennMUSH/Source directory (use a real FTP client, not a web browser) or, better, by http at http://download.pennmush.org).

How about a Win32, OS/2, or Mac port?

Win32

PennMUSH can be built on Win32 operating systems (Windows 9x/ME/NT/2k/XP). To build it, you need to be able to ungzip and untar the source code (WinZip, WinRar, 7Zip and most common archival applications are capable of doing this), and compile it. Instructions are included in the source tarball for compiling PennMUSH using the Microsoft Visual C++ (win32/README.txt) and MinGW + MSys (win32/README.mingw) compiling environments. The cygwin toolkit may also be used in much the same way as MinGW + MSys. Both Mingw/MSys and Cygwin provide a UNIX-like environment for building and running the mush, which may assist in transitioning to a Linux host for production games.

There are also precompiled binary packages available at http://download.pennmush.org/Win32Binaries/ and in /pub/PennMUSH/Win32Binaries on ftp.pennmush.org. They provide the most common compile time configurations for quick and easy usage. These are often simplest for users who wish to have a private mush to learn, experiment with, and test mushcode without the expense of paying for linux based hosting. They are named in the style of 180p4_BSD.zip or 180p4_NT_SSL.zip (PennMUSH 1.8.0p4). The BSD and NT represent the networking code used and the presence of SSL indicating that SSL secure connection support is enabled. It is recommended that the BSD networking code be used, as it allows @shutdown/reboot to work properly on Windows NT/2k/XP systems.

Support for PennMUSH on Win32 systems can be had by emailing issues or questions to pennmush-w32@pennmush.org to ensure they are reaching the current Win32 support team. Some documentation and information may be found on the PennMUSH FAQ-o-matic. Additionally, some slightly dated documentation and information is available on Nick Gammon's site from his time as the primary Win32 porter and maintainer.

MacOS

Mac OS X is a flavor of BSD Unix, and PennMUSH builds out of the box. Dan Williams <dan@bigw.org> maintains PennMUSH for Mac (OS 7-9), which includes some significant differences from the stock PennMUSH distribution. You can get a binary on the ftp site at /pub/PennMUSH/MacBinaries, but you probably want to visit his page for the full scoop (may not be working): http://mac.pennmush.org

Where can I get help with PennMUSH?

You should be aware that most support is only available to "vanilla" installations of PennMUSH - if you compile in a space system or other code, the developers are unlikely to provide support, because it would be too costly of our time (sorry). That said, here's a list of resources:

When reporting a problem, please always include the following information:

  1. PennMUSH version number
  2. The type of machine you are using (Sun SparcStation, IBM RS/6000, etc.)
  3. The operating system and version (SunOS 4.1.2, AIX 3.2.4, etc.),
  4. The compiler and compiler version (gcc 2.4.5, SGI cc 2.10, etc. -- the 'file' command usually tells you the compiler version, if there's no built-in option like '-v' or '-V' to give it),
  5. Whether or not you have made any changes to the code.
If the problem resulted in a crash and a core dump, a stack trace of the core dump (see the section above) should also be included.

What are the terms of the license under which I can use PennMUSH?

PennMUSH is a copyrighted piece of software. As of version 1.7.6 and later, it is released under the terms of the Artistic License, an OSI-compliant Free Software license. In brief, in return for permission to use the software, you agree to: This brief description is not a substitute for the full license. The PennMUSH license can be read in full here

How can I hear about updates?

If you join the pennmush mailing list (see above), or the pennmush-announce mailing list, you will receive announcements whenever a new patchlevel is released. To join pennmush-announce, visit http://www.pennmush.org/mailman/listinfo/pennmush-announce

Don't subscribe to both lists - everything that's sent to pennmush-announce will always also be sent to the main pennmush list. Subscribe to pennmush-announce if you want a low traffic announcements-only list with no discussion.

If you want to see what's coming before it's released, the beta test site for new development versions of PennMUSH is M*U*S*H (mush.pennmush.org 4201). Note that this is a production game (a social MUSH) so unconstructive intrusion is unwelcome, but it would enjoy having you involved as a player. :)

Can you host my MUSH?

There are several fine commercial services that host MUSH servers. I do not provide MUSH hosting services. However, I do run the M*U*S*H Architect-in-Residence program, a competitive program that can provide a year of free development hosting to qualifying new MUSH creators. See that link for details.

Can I have a pennmush.org hostname?

Yes! Although we don't provide sites or accounts on which to run a MUSH, if you already have your MUSH up somewhere, Thorvald Natvig, a PennMUSH developer, can provide you with a friendly hostname in the pennmush.org domain (e.g. yourmush.pennmush.org) that points to your current server address. (If what you need is a hosting provider, check out the rec.games.mud.admin or rec.games.mud.announce newsgroups where providers regularly post advertisements).

For information, see Thorvald Natvig's PennMUSH FAQ at http://services.pennmush.org/faq.html .

Funding for the initial pennmush.org DNS registration was provided by:

Without them, we wouldn't be here. Funding for registration renewal since has come from Javelin.

Where can I learn more?

There's lots of good information about muds and mushes on the internet. You can read the newsgroups mentioned above, or visit some muds yourself. Here are some very handy links for further exploration:

How did you create that cool logo?

With Net-Fu, a terrific tool by folks at UC Berkeley, my alma mater, now accessible at cooltext.com.
This The Mud Connector WebRing site owned by Alan Schwartz.
PennMUSH releases are signed with his PGP public key, which has fingerprint CB 9D 0C 2D B0 A0 74 88 10 A4 09 D8 AF FB D4 87 and can be downloaded here.
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