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+#The Mana World Athena Readme
+
+![The Mana World logo](share/tmwa/TheManaWorldLogo.png)
+
+This is TMWA, an MMORPG server used by The Mana World that uses a protocol
+based on one of many projects that foolishly chose the name "Athena".
+Specifically, it was forked from eAthena, a Ragnarok Online clone, in 2004.
+
+TMWA is maintained in conjunction with The Mana World, but is not tied to
+it. However, please read the note about server-data below.
+
+
+Take a look at the [wiki](http://wiki.themanaworld.org/index.php/How_to_Develop) for user instructions.
+
+<b>Important note:</b> building from a github-generated tarball does not work!
+You must either build from a git checkout or from a 'make dist' tarball.
+
+
+The rest of this file contains information relevant only to:
+
+1. Distributors.
+2. Contributors.
+
+
+TMWA has been maintained by o11c (Ben Longbons) since early 2011 or so.
+Before that, it never really had a proper maintainer, since everyone
+thought that ManaServ was going to be the thing. But it won't ever be,
+at least not for TMW.
+
+TMWA has a [bugtracker](https://github.com/themanaworld/tmwa/issues).
+
+But it's probably worth getting on IRC first:
+* Use an IRC client: irc://chat.freenode.net/tmwa
+* Or just use the [webchat](https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#tmwa).
+
+Note that this channel is *only* for technical discussion of TMWA (and
+attoconf), not general chat or TMW content development.
+
+I'm active in the Pacific timezone, but I might not have internet access
+all the time. I'm usually never AFK longer than 48 hours; when there is an
+exception, I always tell the content devs who also idle there.
+
+##1. Distributors.
+###Important notes:
+
+- Go read [version.make](version.make)
+- TMWA requires git to build by default, use 'make dist' to get a tarball.
+
+###Platform dependencies:
+####Architecture:
+
+    tested: x86, amd64, x32
+    likely to work: all architectures (patches welcome if they don't)
+
+####Operating system:
+    known bad: Linux 2.6.26 and earlier
+    maintained: Linux 3.2 and later
+    likely to break: Cygwin, BSD
+####Filesystem:
+    must support symlinks
+
+###Build dependencies:
+####Python:
+    required: 2.7.x only, installed in $PATH as 'python'
+####C library:
+    recommended: glibc 2.17 or higher
+    supported: glibc 2.13
+    known bad: glibc 2.8 or below
+    unsupported: anything that's not glibc
+####C++ compiler:
+    required: g++ 4.7.2 or higher
+    recommended: g++ 4.8.1 or higher
+    not recommended: clang++ 3.3 or higher (all versions have unfixed bugs)
+####C++ library:
+    recommended: libstdc++ to match g++; may need patch for clang++
+    may work: libc++
+####attoconf:
+    special: see below
+###Runtime dependencies:
+####glibc:
+    depends on what it was built against
+####libstdc++:
+    depends on what it was built against
+###Instructions:
+####Configuration:
+    ./configure
+_Takes most of the options GNU Autoconf's configure does - I won't
+    repeat the output of `./configure --help` here._
+
+_`--prefix=/usr`, not `--prefix usr`, in order to prevent an ambiguity.
+    "In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess."_
+
+_Out-of-tree builds work._
+
+_Note that there is no option to disable dependency tracking, as it
+    is also used to generate link information. There is also no option
+    to ignore unknown options - I refuse to lie._
+####Build:
+    make -jN
+####Build test:
+    make test
+
+_Nowhere near complete useful yet. Requires source of Google Test._
+
+    make format; git diff --exit-code
+####Install:
+    make install DESTDIR=/whatever
+
+_See [what is installed](#what-is-installed) below_
+####Install test:
+_not implemented_
+####Distribution tarballs:
+    make dist
+    make bindist
+
+###Note about attoconf:
+TMWA's `./configure` script is implemented using a python package
+'attoconf', which I wrote over a weekend after reading GNU autoconf's
+documentation and realizing that it was 1. insane, and 2. still trying
+to solve the wrong sort of problem.
+
+Currently, attoconf's API is still in the "experimental" stage, so the
+real rule is "does ./configure work?".
+When it gets to 1.0, it will start guaranteeing compatibility.
+
+Attoconf is available at [Github](https://github.com/o11c/attoconf/) and is a
+well-behaving python package.
+
+Attoconf requires Python 2.7; a port to Python 2.6 is doable with a bit
+of work, but it is not known if this would benefit anybody.
+
+If you're Arch - you broke Python for us all, you clean up your own mess.
+Patches to call a nonexistent `/usr/bin/python2` will NOT be accepted.
+
+###What is installed:
+####Overview:
+Currently, `make install` installs 5 binaries, along with a handful
+of libraries, headers, data files, config files, and debug files, each
+of which has a `make install-something` target.
+
+The 4 main programs below are typically running on the same machine,
+though in theory they may be configured to run on different machines
+in a fast LAN. Also, the internal protocol between the programs is
+subject to change without notice, so they *must* be upgraded
+simultaneously.
+
+These programs currently read most of their files relative to the
+current working directory; this was the only thing that makes sense
+since the files are dependent on the server-data. However, a migration
+to installed files has begun.
+
+
+####tmwa-monitor:
+Formerly known as `eathena-monitor`.
+
+An unmaintained tool whose job was to keep restarting the servers
+every time they crashed. It still builds in case anyone was using it,
+but it proved inflexible and has't really been kept up-to-date with our
+(TMW's) server-data, and besides, the server doesn't crash much now.
+
+At some point I plan to rewrite it and ship a new conf file, unless
+everyone agrees to use systemd, in which case I maybe can use that.
+
+In the mean time, there is a `run-all` script in the server-data repo
+that starts the appropriate server for that config. On the main server,
+we instead start the servers (and bots) individually in a tmux.
+
+####tmwa-admin:
+Formerly known as `ladmin` ("local").
+
+This is an essential tool to maintain the server's flatfile "databases".
+It doesn't actually touch the files directly, just connects to
+tmwa-login.
+
+Even when everything is rewritten to use SQL, it will be kept, if just
+to keep a consistent interface. In fact, if we use SQLite we *can't*
+edit the databases independently. This wouldn't be a problem with
+Postgres, but people seem to think it's hard to install (that's not my
+experience on Debian though. Did they ever try themselves, or are they
+just repeating what they've heard?)
+
+####tmwa-login:
+Formerly known as `login-server`.
+
+User-facing server to deal with account checks.
+
+Also accepts internal connections from `tmwa-admin` and `tmwa-char`,
+subject to a plaintext password (and for `tmwa-admin`, also an IP check).
+
+####tmwa-char:
+Formerly known as `char-server`.
+
+User-facing server to deal with character persistence.
+
+Connects to `tmwa-login`; also takes internal connections from `tmwa-map`.
+
+Note that it is fully supported for more than one `tmwa-char` to connect
+to the same `tmwa-login`; the client will be presented with a list of
+"worlds" before leaving the login server.
+
+####tmwa-map:
+Formerly known as `map-server`.
+
+Connects to `tmwa-char`.
+
+It is technically possible for more than one `tmwa-map` to connect to
+a single tmwa-char, but this is poorly supported by our current config
+and moderation tools, and there are likely undiscovered bugs.
+
+####About server data:
+Just having the binaries is not enough: you also need a complete set of
+content: config files, game scripts, savefiles, and client updates.
+
+A web server to serve the updates is also strongly recommended, as even
+developers get annoyed when wushin makes us work straight from his
+client-data repo.
+
+Currently, there is only *one* set of server data that is known to be
+compatible with TMWA: https://github.com/themanaworld/tmwa-server-data
+
+The only recommended way of using this is by following the instructions
+in the [How to Develop](https://wiki.themanaworld.org/index.php/Dev:How_to_Develop) article. These instructions are only designed
+for people contributing to TMW itself, not to people trying to start
+a fork - we know all forks are doomed to be unsuccessful anyway, so
+please don't split the development effort, and you can't split the
+player community.
+
+In particular, the instructions do NOT provide information on how to
+secure a server by changing all the default passwords.
+
+There are 3 other known sets of complete server data: regional ones
+for Germany and Brasil, and Evol. Evol requires their own fork of
+the tmwa server (for some reason they don't like me to call it evola),
+and nobody seems to know of the foreign servers are keeping active.
+
+Note also that The Mana World has not investigated the copyright status
+of other sets of server data.
+
+##2. Contributors.
+The most important thing if you want to help improve TMWA is *talk* to me.
+No, wait, that's the second most important thing.
+
+The real most important thing if you want to help improve TMWA is that it's
+*work*. You can't just stop by and chat for a few hours and help at all.
+If you're going to work on TMWA, you have to be work months in the future.
+
+TMWA was terrible when I got it, and I've only fixed enough to make it
+sane, not pretty. Even a minimal change is likely to touch the whole tree,
+so merge conflicts are a constant problem.
+
+That said, there *are* several tasks that I could use help with. Several
+essential tasks have been left undone just because they don't conflict with
+the main body of my work.
+
+But I do not want someone who will just work for a few hours, go to bed,
+then never return. I have wasted far too many hours answering their
+questions. If you're going to help, you have to actually *help*.
+
+The following skills are good to know required for various tasks:
+
+  - ability to read
+  - ability to write
+  - ability to notice error messages
+  - ability to solve your own problems
+  - willingness to accept review of your changes. It's not personal if I
+    say your work is wrong, I'm just seeing more than you do, and tiny
+    details are often incredibly important.
+  - familiarity with gdb
+  - Python (A low entry barrier, but Python alone is not enough for the
+    tasks. Particularly, reread the bit about review.)
+  - C++11 (Not a low entry barrier. I'm not really expecting help with this,
+    and since this is conflict heavy, please do the other tasks first).