[Suggestion] Detach BattlEye Filters from the main package

[Dwarfer]

Hi Guys,

 

I have been wondering for awhile now if it would be better to detach the BattlEye Filters from the main epochserver package for the following reasons.

 

1) Every time 1 line needs changing we have a new epochserver package to download and install, I know that generally you just need to copy the one file from the package and update just that file however the majority of the community think they have to re apply the whole server update again and this is causing confusion.  I for one have been asked online and offline about 10 times in the last 3-4 days about what needs to be done to update.

 

2) Server owners to save themselves some hassle pick though the BE filters to find out what has changed, Yes we can use the varius diff but would it not be nice just to be able to see the diff's in one place ?  I for one would vote for this

 

3) Quicker reactions to problems/bugs or hacks.  Without having to compile X or Y.

 

4) Automation.  I for one could easily see a way to automate BE filter updates directly from the DEV's and apply my own additions automatically every restart thus moving hassle away from Admins and also giving the players a better experience. 

 

I am sure there are more but these were some of my top list.

 

Q. How could this be done

A. Easily. Version Control AKA GITHUB

To show what I mean I have setup  the following on github as I believe example are always better :-)

 

https://github.com/Dwarfer/a3epochbattleye

 

If you look at the following page you can start to see how this would work (click on one of the codes like fc16bb9 and 64dc4da)

 

https://github.com/Dwarfer/a3epochbattleye/commits/master/battleye

 

example

https://github.com/Dwarfer/a3epochbattleye/commit/64dc4da2c6e42ad9d60e8f83099e1a2adf137ac0#diff-eebd98b941739af49105df774982d418

 

This also shows A nice easy place to see changes

https://github.com/Dwarfer/a3epochbattleye/tree/master/battleye

 

Nice Release View and easy to download most up to date (easy scripting place)

https://github.com/Dwarfer/a3epochbattleye/releases

 

This shows you what the differences are between the release thus making it easier to apply the updates.

 

For those who are wondering how you would use this as a base to mod your own lines in. Well you can use various tools to append, find, replace and change any number of lines or even a simple merge.

 

I personally am happy to keep this up to date as best I can if people think it would help but ideally it would be great for the DEV's to run as I think it will be more helpful for everyone.

 

I would be happy to write some documents and howto's and even videos on how server admins would/could use this.

 

** I should say that the DEV's will already be doing this anyway within the private github however what would be the harm of just making the BE filters public ?

 

As I side note I also think GSP's would find this very useful for keeping there servers up to date.

 

What do people think ? Does this sound like something that would help the community and or DEV's ? or is this just the ramblings of a Humble Dwarf who has been trying to help other server admins out

 

Dwarfer

 

P.s.

If the dev's want to to take do the Hub let me know.

[Friendly]

Very good idea! Hope this does come around soon.

[Darth_Rogue]

Great idea! I see no reason why all the server files couldn't be put on a public Git. Then we can see which files have changed and only update the necessary stuff. Or if there's a major release you can download the whole server pack as a zip.

[Tobias Solem]

I agree! Even with winmerge, juggling different new releases and trying to merge them into the same becomes a chore. 

[Dwarfer]

Darth_Rogue

 

I think the server files are less relevant and understand why those are not. Just think the BE filters be.

[Friendly]

Sneaky Beaky Like :P

 

[Dwarfer]

vbawol

 

Thanks for listing (if this was due to that)

 

Really will help things along I believe.

[lowrey]

enough said really! Nice work guys.

 

M

[Boncz92]

Is there no way to have BE point to more than one file for the exceptions list? Like Scripts1.txt and scripts2.txt essentially making scripts1.txt the Default epoch exceptions and scripts two would be all the exceptions added by us , so when the 1 file gets updated there is no need to do any thing cause its still pointing to both the files.

[Dwarfer]

Told you I would write some scripts to automate this