Help: open_network_connection()

Showing help on 'open_network_connection()'

Syntax: open_network_connection (<value>, ...) => obj

Establishes a network connection to the place specified by the arguments and more-or-less pretends that a new, normal player connection has been established from there. The new connection, as usual, will not be logged in initially and will have a negative object number associated with it for use with `read()', `notify()', and `boot_player()'. This object number is the value returned by this function.

If the programmer is not a wizard or if the `OUTBOUND_NETWORK' compilation option was not used in building the server, then `E_PERM' is raised. If the network connection cannot be made for some reason, then other errors will be returned, depending upon the particular network implementation in use.

For the TCP/IP network implementations (the only ones as of this writing that support outbound connections), there must be two arguments, a string naming a host (possibly using the numeric Internet syntax) and an integer specifying a TCP port. If a connection cannot be made because the host does not exist, the port does not exist, the host is not reachable or refused the connection, `E_INVARG' is raised. If the connection cannot be made for other reasons, including resource limitations, then `E_QUOTA' is raised.

The outbound connection process involves certain steps that can take quite a long time, during which the server is not doing anything else, including responding to user commands and executing MOO tasks. See the chapter on server assumptions about the database for details about how the server limits the amount of time it will wait for these steps to successfully complete.

It is worth mentioning one tricky point concerning the use of this function. Since the server treats the new connection pretty much like any normal player connection, it will naturally try to parse any input from that connection as commands in the usual way. To prevent this treatment, you should use `set_connection_option()' to set the `"hold-input"' option true on the connection.