nerdCH

The Purpose of this README

CommandHelper generates a number of default configurations in plugins/CommandHelper/ when the plugin first starts up:

• aliases.msa
• main.ms
• auto_include.ms
• prefs/preferences.ini
• prefs/persistence.ini

Historically, we've been a bit liberal in how we modify the first three of these files, adding custom code to them at random, such that it is very difficult to identify common configuration between servers because of the sheer volume of code to compare. However, we have been gradually moving aliases and functions into shared folders under plugins/CommandHelper/LocalPackages/, such that we now have a fairly minimal configuration of these files, with common code mostly shared between Minecraft servers.

The purpose of this README is to codify a NerdNu standard for CommandHelper configuration so as to solidify the gains we have made in keeping the configuration minimal and comprehensible.

Installing CommandHelper the NerdNu Way

Repository on Disk

The nerdCH repository is cloned to ~/shared/NerdCH (it seems we can't resist fiddling with things even when it's pointless):

git clone https://github.com/NerdNu/nerdCH NerdCH

Local Packages

CommandHelper packages from the LocalPackages/ folder of the repository on disk are symlinked into the LocalPackages/ directory of the servers.

For example:

cd plugins/CommandHelper/LocalPackages/
ln -fs ~/shared/NerdCH/global .

Configuration Files

• prefs/preferences.ini:
  • Set show-splash-screen=false obviously.
  • Historically, we also used to set script-name=config.txt, but that is silly and confusing. We now keep the default setting, script-name=aliases.msa.
  • Set base-dir so that we can access scripts in a shared location:
    • Note that this needs to be tailored to the particular checked out branch of LuckPerms and the server directory.
    • Note also that on the dev server, we use symlinks to ensure that the specified path matches that on production, so that we don't need to modify the configuration when transferring dev to prod at the start of a rev.

base-dir=/home/minecraft/shared/NerdCH-luckperms;/servers/pve/plugins/CommandHelper

• auto_include.ms - This is shared between all servers:

cd plugins/CommandHelper
rm auto_include.ms
ln -fs ~/shared/NerdCH/auto_include.ms .    

• aliases.msa and main.ms - These are symlinked into the CommandHelper directory, e.g. for PvE:

cd /ssd/pve/plugins/CommandHelper
rm aliases.msa
rm main.ms
ln -fs ~/shared/NerdCH/pve/aliases.msa .
ln -fs ~/shared/NerdCH/pve/main.ms .

Guidance on the Contents of aliases.msa, main.ms, auto_include.ms

Ideally, these files should be as small as possible. We would like to have as much of our code under LocalPackages as possible, so that we only have a single version of each command or function, shared between multiple servers.

The only reasons to put things in these files are:

• The code defines a global configuratiojn variable, consulted in various CH aliases and functions, e.g. export('sharedata.source', 'pve') in pve/main.ms, or
• A CH alias or function accesses a configuration file in plugins/CommandHelper/. The CH read() function always reads files relative to the currently executing code. An example would be the _kit() function in auto_include.ms.