tinymux/mux/docs/PATCHES.md

author	date	title
Brazil	March 2026	PATCHES

A Word About Patches for TinyMUX 2.14

Changes are distributed in the form of patches, and these occur most-frequently during the Alpha and Beta periods of the server's development. These "patch" files are applied to your server's source code using the patch utility.

Keep yourself informed about changes to the server and pay particular attention to any serious bugs that may have been corrected by a patch. The TinyMUX mailing list is the best way to do this.

It is in the best interests of your game to make sure all patches are applied. Patches distributed after a server has reached released status typically contain important fixes for crashing, corrupting, unexpected, or potentially dangerous behaviors. The likelihood of encountering these unwanted behaviors may be generally unlikely or perhaps only remotely possible for your specific game. However, if a patch has been released, a determination has been made that it warrants the hassle of all games applying it, and once a behavior has been described, the unscrupulous may choose to exploit it on your game. Also, patches must be applied in order, so even if a specific fix may not apply directly to your game, another fix in the same patch or in the next patch probably will.

Let us state that while patching a vanilla server with a patch released by the development team is generally considered to be pretty easy, unless you have done it before and/or taken time to familiarize yourself with how the patch utility works (type man patch inside your shell account or read the documentation for dopatch.exe provided with Win32 versions), then we strongly advise having someone either walk you through the process or do the work for you. Improper use of patch can cause all kinds of grief that you don't want to deal with.

Applying a Patch

Before doing anything else, you should assure yourself that you have a recent and usable backup of the database. Shut down the game and use the provided Backup script. See BACKUPS.md. In most cases, this is totally unneeded, but if something goes wrong and you didn't, you won't be real happy.

1. Download the patch file to your local shell account somewhere. The location is not critical.

   The patch file mux-2.14.0.1-2.14.0.2.unix.patch.gz will patch from version 2.14.0.1 to version 2.14.0.2. This patch file is compressed using gzip.

2. Optionally, you can decompress the patch files with gzip -d like so:

   gzip -d mux-2.14.0.1-2.14.0.2.unix.patch.gz
   

   This will change the filename to mux-2.14.0.1-2.14.0.2.unix.patch.

3. Change to your game's top-most directory. For example:

   cd mux2.14
   

4. Apply the patch as follows:

   zcat < ../mux-2.14.0.1-2.14.0.2.unix.patch.gz | patch -p0
   

   Or, if you optionally decompressed the patch as described in step 2, apply the patch as follows:

   patch -p0 < ../mux-2.14.0.1-2.14.0.2.unix.patch
   

From here, you will usually get to watch a lot of output fly by as the patch utility modifies the files to be updated. You might occasionally get a prompt, asking you for either information or confirmation that you really do want something applied. For the inexperienced, this is where having an experienced person at hand to help you is invaluable. If, at any point in the process, you feel that you are in over your head, stop and get help before continuing!

After you have successfully patched the source code, then you recompile the server as usual.

If You Have Problems

If the patch fails and you were applying it to a standard beta or release version of TinyMUX 2.14, then collect the error messages and report it to brazilofmux@gmail.com following the bug reporting procedures in README.md.