CHANGES.174

This is the changes file for PennMUSH 1.7.4. Please look it over; each
version contains new things which might significantly affect the
function of your server.  Changes are reported in reverse
chronological order (most recent first)

[TN] is Thorvald Natvig, a PennMUSH developer (aka Trivian)
[TAP] is T. Alexander Popiel, a PennMUSH developer (aka Talek)
[SW] is Shawn Wagner, a PennMUSH developer (aka Raevnos)
[LdW] is Luuk de Waard, a former PennMUSH developer (aka Halatir)
[RLM] is Ralph Melton, a former PennMUSH developer
[NJG] is Nick Gammon, the primary Win32 porter
[EEH] is Ervin Hearn III, a Win32 porter (aka Noltar)
[DW] is Dan Williams, the MacOS porter
[2.2] refers to code which originated with the TinyMUSH 2.2 developers
[3] refers to code by (or inspired by) TinyMUSH 3.0
[Rhost] refers to code by (or inspired by) RhostMUSH

==========================================================================

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 20		       September 19, 2002

Fixes:
  * Help semaphores4 typo fixed by Mike Griffiths.
  * Help cleanup. [TAP]
  * See_All players now see hidden connected mail senders. Suggested
    by Philip Mak.
  * spellnum could introduce spurious spaces. Reported by Intrevis@M*U*S*H.
  * table() sometimes produced spurious blank rows. Reported by
    Nymeria@M*U*S*H. This is the first attempt at a fix.
  * switch() help improved. [SW]
  * enter <exit> no longer returns Permission denied, but 
    "I can't see that here", as you can only enter things. 
    Suggested by Philip Mak.
  * A one-time, one-pointer memory leak in plyrlist.c fixed
    by Vadiv@M*U*S*H.
  * Unbalanced or empty double-quotes gave weird results in page 
    and whisper. Reported by Vadiv@M*U*S*H. [SW]
  * @chan/decomp no longer shows names of channels that the enactor
    can't see. Reported by Nat@SW:ANT.
  * The lock() and elock() functions now operate properly with
    user:whatever locks. Reported by Mike Griffiths.
  * pmatch() will locate hidden players if they're visible to you
    because they're nearby. Suggested by Julian@M*U*S*H.
  * regedit and other functions that used $-substitutions for subpatterns
    could produce weird results in some cases. Reported by Bellemore@M*U*S*H


Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 19		       June 14, 2002

Minor changes:
  * Wizards can now unset the WIZARD flag on any thing, whether they
    own it or not. Suggested by Cerekk@bDv.
  * Circular zoning is no longer allowed. Fixes part of a bug reported
    by Philip Mak. [SW]
Fixes:
  * Win32 portability fixes. [EEH]
  * grep for 'grep' rather than 'egrep' in restart because in grep 2.5.1,
    egrep is a shell script that exec's grep instead of a link.
    Fix by Vadiv@M*U*S*H.
  * The messages for a possessive get used the object's new location
    instead of its old one. Fixed by Apollo@Restoration.
  * Attempts by unlinked exits to @link an exit could crash. 
  * %1 in @areceive was being set to the recipient rather than the giver.
    Fixed. Report by jubjup@trekmush.org
  * @uptime fix for Linux 2.4 kernel. [SW]
  * The @@() function no longer complains about commas. Report by
    Trispis@M*U*S*H. [TAP]
  * @search flags=<flaglist> is now smarter about toggles with the same
    letter and different types. Report by Philip Mak.
  * English-style matching now ignores the type of object being matched.
    This fixes a bug with, e.g., @link my 1st object=me reported by
    Oriens@Alexandria.
  * bound() now listed in the math functions list. Report by Dandy@M*U*S*H.
  * Help fix for member() by Cerekk@bDV TrekMUSH
  * The server can now transparently read mush.cnf (and included) files
    that have Dos- or Mac-style line-endings. Suggested by Paleran.
  * Crash bug in @search fixed. Reported by Philip Mak.

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 18		       May 6, 2002

Minor Changes:
  * The Mersenne Twister RNG has been backported from 1.7.5 into
    this patchlevel, as it is not susceptible to some bugs that could
    cause the RNG to hang the server. Report by Bellemore@M*U*S*H.
  * Improved detection of info_slave errors. Based on patch by CU5.
  * Rooms and exits can now be @forced. Suggested by Philip Mak.
  * Deleting files from the hlp/nws/etc. directories is now sufficient
    to cause game/txt/Makefile to rebuild the txt files. Patch by
    Philip Mak.
  * A see_all player may now use @chan/decompile on any channel.
    Previously, the ROYALTY flag was required. Suggested by Oriens@Alexandria.
Fixes:
  * The QUEUE and semaphore attributes aren't listed in @decompile
    anymore. Suggested by Oriens@Alexandria. [SW]
  * Several compiler warnings fixed. [SW]
  * The LASTSITE and LASTIP attributes are now set locked and wizard by default,
    to go along with the other connection-tracking attributes. [SW]
  * Help on-vacation updated. Report by Nymeria@M*U*S*H.
  * Help for following() function added. Report by Ashen-Shugar@Rhost.
  * The last line of the access.cnf file sometimes wouldn't get read 
    properly. [SW]
  * lnum improperly cached its return values without consideration for
    changes in separator, so subsequent lnums with different separators
    broke. Reported by Rhysem and Ambrosia@M*U*S*H. [TAP]
  * Failing to speak on a channel you can't see no longer reveals the
    full channel name. Reported by Vadiv@M*U*S*H.
  * Passing a negative argument to the space() function now returns
    an error string instead of 8192 blanks. Patch by Myrddin.
  * Improved messages for following/unfollowing an ambiguous object.
    Reported by Philip Mak.


Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 17		       April 14, 2002

Minor Changes:
  * The on-vacation flag, if in use, is no longer automatically cleared
    on connect. Instead, the player is warned on connect (and at each
    dump) that their flag is set. Suggested by Nymeria@M*U*S*H.
Fixes:
  * Improved help for edit(). Suggested by Trispis@M*U*S*H [SW]
  * List functions with null elements and a null output seperator could
    trip end-of-buffer checks and stop in the middle of a list. [SW]
  * valid() was inconsistent in how it handled attribute names with lower-case
    letters compared to what everything else does. Reported by Philip Mak. [SW]
  * @open could cause crashes in some unusual contexts. Reported
    by Dandy@M*U*S*H.
  * Improved sort()'s autodetection of list types. [SW]
  * Fixed a problem with sorting dbrefs larger than the highest one in the 
    db. [SW]
  * Mac portability fixes. [DW]
  * Help for @open clarified. Suggested by fil@M*U*S*H.
  * Help for kill clarified. Suggested by Philip Mak.
  * Channel titles can no longer contain newlines or beeps. 
    Report by Nome@M*U*S*H.
  * soundex behaved badly with extended characters. [SW]
  * inc() and dec() now behave like the help says, regardless of whether
    tiny_math is set or not. Their behavior on null strings and strings
    that do not end in a digit depend on the null_eq_zero setting.
    Reported by Wayne@PDX.
  * The panic db file descriptor was never closed after reading a
    panic dump. [SW]
  * DOES removed from help attribute list. Suggested Philip Mak.
  * Under no circumstances should connection to a null-named player
    be allowed. Suggested by Wayne@PDX.
  * 'with' no longer allows use of $commands on remote objects you
    don't control. Report by Nammyung@M*U*S*H.

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 16		       March 11, 2002

Minor changes:
  * After using 'register' at the connect screen, the player is
    no longer disconnected. Suggested by Philip Mak.
  * 'help mail functions'. Suggested by Trispis@M*U*S*H.
  * Messages associated with drop, give, and get are now more
    verbose and provide more information about who did what to whom.
    Suggested by Philip Mak.
  * Attrib locks did case-sensitive comparison of values, which is not
    what you probably want. No longer. Reported by Philip Mak. [SW]
  * QUEUE and sempahore attributes are now removed (not just emptied)
    when drained or notified to 0. [TAP]
Fixes:
  * Improvements in handling ansi in string functions. [SW]
  * @clone/preserve didn't preserve when cloning exits. Reported by
    Bellemore@M*U*S*H. [SW]
  * A significant bug in the manual notification of timed semaphores has 
    been corrected. [SW]
  * Revian@M*U*S*H pointed out that user-defined commands starting with
    "@" that match the names of standard attributes don't behave as
    you might expect. This is now documented in help user-defined commands.
  * Security checks for attribute setting used the owner of the setting 
    object, not the setting object itself. Report by Howie@New Frontier.
  * help set() improved based on report by Tareldin@M*U*S*H.
  * folderstats() did not behave as promised in the help. Now it
    does. Report by Trispis@M*U*S*H.
  * Typo in src/log.c fixed by Nathan Schuette.
  * Improved help for DEBUG. [SW]
  * Aliased 'help ^' to 'help listening2'. Suggested by Philip Mak.
  * MacOS portability fixes. [DW]
  * The sigusr1 handler would reinstall itself as the sighup handler
    on systems that don't provide persistent signals. 
    Fixed by Bellemore@M*U*S*H.
  * &a=b me now properly clears the attribute A=B. Reported by 
    Trispis@M*U*S*H. In addition, now @tel #1234= produces an error,
    as it should. [SW]
  * mail functions can now be called by an object on anything it controls
    (typically, its owner). Suggested by Trispis@M*U*S*H.
  * The givee is now correctly passed in %1 to @give/@ogive/@agive,
    and documented. Reported by Philip Mak.
  * Added hints for Irix 6.x by Vexon@M*U*S*H.
  * i18n fix for function invocation limit message.
  * Clarification in help @alias by Philip Mak.
  * @set obj=!puppet repeatedly no longer repeats the "not listening"
    message. Reported by Philip Mak.


Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 15		       February 8, 2002

Minor Changes:
  * @dolist and iter(), where multiple tokens are replaced (## and #@),
    now do both replacements at once. This is more efficient in several
    ways and fixes a problem where if the second token gets into the
    string from a replacement of the first, it gets replaced. (iter(a#@,
    ##) should return a#@, not a1). [SW]
  * setunion no longer eats empty list elements. [SW]
  * The help text for items() is now more descriptive of how it works
    and differs from words(). Suggested by Zen@SW1.
  * When you attempt to @chzone an object to a ZMO without a zone-lock,
    a default zone-lock of "owner of the ZMO" is now set, and the
    attempt succeeds. Suggested by Linda Antonsson.
  * In the French message translation files, the word 'drapeau' and
    'flag' were used interchangeably. I've standardized on 'flag'.
    Report by Vexon@M*U*S*H.
Fixes:
  * Message typo fixed by Bellemore@M*U*S*H.
  * No more ansified names in logged shutdown messages. Report by
    Bellemore@M*U*S*H.
  * Messages when destroying players now take into account the 
    destroy_possessions and really_safe settings. Suggested by Wayne@PDX.
  * The parser no longer strips any first layer of braces in, e.g.
    @switch action clauses, but only when the first character in the
    clause is a brace. This prevents @sw 1=1, @wait me={@emit 1; @emit 2}
    from being misparsed and running @emit 2 immediately. Reported by
    Azratax@Azmush. [TAP]

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 14		       January 4, 2002

Minor Changes:
  * The global function invocation limit is now 5 times the per-evaluation
    function invocation limit, to provide some flexibility in cases
    where you run a small number of functions that cause a larger
    number of other functions to be evaluated (e.g., using tel()
    to move players into rooms with function-laden descriptions). [TAP]
Fixes:
  * Mortals are now restricted in which html tags they can generate
    when pueblo support is enabled. Suggested by BladedThoth.
  * @sitelock/name !<name> was improperly case-sensitive in its
    matching. Reported by Linda Antonsson.
  * Better invocation count checking and aborting on reaching limit.
    Reported by Ashen-Shugar. [TAP]
  * Beep characters are ignored when matching object listen patterns.
    Suggested by Wayne@PDX.
  * The end-of-dump marker is checked when reading the chat database.
    Suggested by Bellemore@M*U*S*H. [SW]
  * @lock obj=attrib:value locks were broken. Reported by Linda
    Antonsson.
  * Minor help fixes.

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 13		       November 30, 2001

Minor changes:
  * options.h.dist mentions Darwin as well as MacOS X. [DW]
  * PCRE updated to 3.7. [SW]
  * When CHAN_NAME_LEN is increased beyond 30, the @chan/list header
    line is misaligned, and other strange things can happen to
    @chan/list. Reported by Bladed Thoth
Fixes:
  * Crash bug in chat channels reported by BladedThoth.

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 12		       November 9, 2001

Minor changes:
  * @dol/delim is now @dol/delimit, for Mux compatibility. [SW]
  * /preserve switch for @chownall works like @chown's /preserve switch.
    This changes the default behavior of @chownall, which used to
    preserve everything, to work like @chown and strip privileged bits.
    Suggested by Taladan@M*U*S*H.
Fixes:
  * Warnings in index-files.pl are no longer shown. Report by Noltar@Korongil
  * Additional support for ansi in channel names. Ansi is now stripped
    when sorting channels and when matching names for @chan/decomp and
    @chan/what.  Reported by Oriens@Alexandria.
  * Help @decompile clarifies the /flags switch. Suggested by Oriens@Alexandria
  * Source is indented before diffs are produced.
  * Typo in help zmr correct by Oriens@Alexandria.
  * Players disconnecting without QUIT continued to use CPU until fully
    disconnected. Fixed. Report by Protagonist@M*U*S*H. [SW]


Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 11		       October 15, 2001

Minor Changes:
  * In places like switch() that can match <number, the numbers
    are now treated as floating point, so they need not be only integers.
    However, they must be pure numbers; "<3km" will not work.
  * Tests for channel name matches now disregard ansi. Suggested by Wayne@PDX.
Fixes:
  * MacOS linting. [DW]
  * next() could reveal unfindable players. Reported by Jeffrey@TheHotel. [TAP]
  * making diffs or a dist now insures that switches.h, etc. are rebuilt
    for the Mac/Win32 crowd. Reported by many people.
  * Some warnings discovered with compiling with gcc 3.0.1 fixed. [SW]
  * Potential crash-or-worse bugs that could be caused by malformed
    save messages fixed. [SW]
  * @mail to players with names starting with numbers works correctly now.
    Report from Mike Wesson. [SW]
  * Fewer logged warnings from failed convtime()s. [SW]
  * Help for page now mentions /blind. Reported by Oriens@Alexandria.
  * Attempting to set an invalid priv on a channel now produces a
    better message. Reported by Oriens@Alexandria.
  * Improved message when a Wizard overrides a chan join lock by Wayne@PDX.
  * Another way to end up inside yourself fixed. Report by Ashen-Shugar. [TAP]
  * Help default/edefault syntax clarified by Delina@ST:VAAE
  * Help math functions clarifies 'number'. Suggested by Delina@ST:VAAE
  * Information on the patches.h header added to the FAQ file. Suggested 
    by Kahmy. [SW]
  * Potential crash in @set fixed. Report by Michael Loftis [SW]
  * The Unfindable flag is checked on all levels of containers, not just
    the immediate location. Suggested by Oriens. [SW]
  * NT_TCP fix by Bellemore.
  * secure() now escapes ^, as the help says it does. Report by Gabriel Matlin.
  * link_anywhere now lets you actually @link anywhere, instead of just
    letting variable exits link anywhere. Report by Viila@M*U*S*H.
  * help home now returns help homes, not help home(). Suggested by 
    Gary Williams

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 10		       September 7, 2001

Fixes:
  * @clone changes in p9 introduced a crash bug. Fixed.
  * Typo in mushcnf.dst fixed by Noltar@Korongil.

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 9		       September 4, 2001

Minor changes:
  * @clone can optionally specify a new name for the clone.
    Patch by Bellemore@M*U*S*H, inspired by mux.
  * die() can take a third argument which, if true, will cause it to
    return the list of individual die rolls rather than the sum.
  * NT_TCP option moved to options.h.dist, and @config/list compile now
    reports whether it's on or not. Suggested by Glonk@GlonkMUSH
  * QUIET flag affects the "Teleported." message as well.
    Suggested by Glonk@GlonkMUSH.
  * pos() and strmatch() strip ansi and html markup before matching. [SW]
  * Slight optimizations for many of the functions that strip markup. [SW] 
  * chat_strip_quote setting now applies to @*wall and say. Suggested by
    Glonk@GlonkMUSH. [SW]
  * @malias/who is now the same as @malias/members. Suggested by
    Oriens@Alexandria.
  * Small code change in do_chat_by_name so that find_channel_partial_on
    can behave as documented. Suggested by Michael Loftis
Fixes:
  * p8 broke regeditall when the replacer was null. Fixed.
    Reported by Nymeria@M*U*S*H.
  * Some unused variables removed, and pcre.h included in parse.c.
    Reported by Sidney@M*U*S*H.
  * index-files.pl produced an uninitialized value warning if a help file
    had only a single entry (or admin entry). Warning removed.
    Reported by Nymeria@M*U*S*H.
  * Fixed to help lstats() to mention stats() as alias. Reported by
    Glonk@GlonkMUSH.
  * Help edit() fix by Sash@SW:Uprising.
  * Improved failure message for @password. Suggested by Mike Wesson. [SW]
  * alphamin()/alphamax() were stripping markup from what they returned. [SW]
  * PARANOID flag is now only visible to owners. Reported by 
    Bellemore@M*U*S*H.
  * Improved error message when trying to rejoin a channel. [SW]
  * In Win32 NT_TCP mode, ident lookups are now done and the LASTIP
    attribute doesn't get corrupted. Patch by Bellemore@M*U*S*H.
  * @chan/describe now works along with @chan/desc. Suggested by 
    Trispis@M*U*S*H
  * 'teach'ing a motion to a follower didn't work right. Reported by
    Cheetah and Viila@M*U*S*H.
  * Security bug in follow fixed. Reported by Walker@M*U*S*H.
  * The &ecirc; and &euml; entities were not correctly returned in
    Pueblo mode. Fixed by [NG].
  * Help for trig functions improved. [SW]
  * Pueblo references no longer give Chaco's (defunct) website.
    By Noltar@Korongil.

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 8		       July 22, 2001

Minor changes:
  * restart is a bit more precise in the "Mush already active" message.
    Suggested by Lucas Layman.
  * When a player's creation is refused because creation/registration
    is globally turned off, show them register.txt instead of down.txt.
    Patch by Bellemore.
  * The NOSPOOF flag is now visible only to the player themself. [SW]
  * regedit can now use backreferences in the replacer. [SW]
Fixes:
  * ident lookups were broken on win32. Reported by Bellemore. [SW] 
  * ident query timeouts could get doubled mistakenly. [SW]
  * Typo in mushcnf.dst fixed by Noltar@Korongil.
  * Fix to help puppets2 by TurtleKnee@M*U*S*H.
  * Help pcreate() added. Report by Rince@M*U*S*H.
  * @pcreate messages capitalized by Oriens@Alexandria.
  * create() used 10 as the default cost, instead of the configured
    default. Report by 8bitMUSH.
  * Inactivity timeouts longer than 1 day didn't work. Fixed and
    efficiency of the check improved. Reported by Bellemore@M*U*S*H.
  * Null @aliases are no longer allowed. [SW]
  * Cleanup to ident for situations when the remote host isn't running
    an ident server. [SW]

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 7		       July 02, 2001

Major changes:
  * %r can now evaluate to one character or two, based on a new config 
    option, newline_one_char, which defaults to being yes. This allows
    %r to be used as a list delimiter. However, this may
    break softcode which expects strlen(%r) to be 2, but it's probably
    smarter to fix the softcode than turn off this option. [sw]
  * If a command and a standard attribute have the same name, the
    command takes precedence. So if you have an @attribute named
    "PEMIT", @pemit me=foo will do the command, not set the attribute. [SW]
Minor changes:
  * When someone attempts to create too many attributes on an object,
    the log indicates who and which object. Suggested by Frob@Battlestar
    Galactica:TSC.
  * Buncha tprintfs replaced with notify_formats. [SW] 
  * New local_connect() and local_disconnect() hooks in local.dst.
    Suggested by Rince@M*U*S*H.
  * lookup_player now deals with player names prefixed with "*",
    so a bunch of commands like @newpassword will now treat those
    arguments. Suggested by Glonk@GlonkMUSH.
  * Make is more verbose about alerting you to changes in the 
    src/*.dst files.
  * The message for undestroying someone else's object more closely matches
    the destroy message. Suggested by Noltar@Korongil.
  * Server output that used to be tagged with "PRE" for Pueblo is now
    tagged with "SAMP", because the original Pueblo client did not correctly
    handle "<BR>\n" in PRE, and the newer clients that are supporting
    the pueblo protocol, like MUSHclient, do handle it correctly, causing
    an incompatibility problem. Our workaround is to avoid PRE. 
    Reported by [NJG].
  * The WHO list output is tagged <img xch_cmd=html> for Pueblo to get
    appropriate newline handling. [NJG]
  * help @mail mentions help @malias. Suggested by Trispis@M*U*S*H.
  * Matching code now treats players you can't see like disconnected players
    when matching *player. Reported by Walker@M*U*S*H.
  * @newpassword now confirms whose password was changed. Suggested by
    Xyrxwyrth@M*U*S*H.
  * @chan/who and cwho() now include objects on the channel. Suggested by
    Glonk@GlonkMUSH.
  * q-register lookup is slightly faster. [SW]
  * Floating-point numbers in exponential format (6.02e23) are always
    accepted, not just when tiny_math is set. [SW]
  * isint() and isnum() ignore the null_eq_zero option, since they already
    ignore tiny_math. [SW]
  * time() and convsecs() take an optional timezone argument that,
    if 'UTC', makes them act the same way as utctime() and convutcsecs(). 
    From MUX2. [SW]
Fixes:
  * Additional range checking to avoid some bugs reported by Alierak. [SW]
  * Fix to buglet in @name error with PLAYER_NAME_SPACES reported by
    Luke@M*U*S*H.
  * Typo in @name error message fixed by Luke@M*U*S*H.
  * One could @pcreate players past the hard db limit. Reported by Z@Korongil.
  * Typos in config_h.SH and options.h.dist fixed by Oriens@Alexandria.
  * Under some conditions, you could double-join a channel.
    Reported by Xyrxwyrth@M*U*S*H, investigated by Steven@Champions.
  * Error message for @chan/desc improved. Reported by Oriens@Alexandria.
  * Typo in alias.cnf fixed by rodregis@M*U*S*H.
  * @mvattr sometimes failed to remove the old attrib, when it was a 
    standard attrib that could be abbreviated (@mvattr a/desc=b).
    Fixed by Walker@M*U*S*H.
  * Some english-matching (like 'get 1st foo') would fail. Reported by
    Mystery8.
  * Typo in help @verb reported by Greck.
  * MacOS tweaks. [DW]
  * Better detection of numbers that are too big. [SW]
  * Wizards could crash the server by entering objects in their own
    inventory. Reported by Howie@New Frontiers.

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 6		       June 11, 2001

Minor changes:
  * English-style matching has been added to some more commands, 
    to help with the stricter ambiguity checking (@teleport my 3rd foo=box, 
    etc.). [SW]
  * @pemit/list no longer does its useless ## substitution. [SW] 
  * capstr() and art() skip leading ansi and html. [SW]
  * table(), alphamin(), alphamax(), comp(), lcstr(), ucstr(), strinsert(), 
    and delete() are all ansi and html aware. Mixing html and ansi in their 
    arguments is probably a bad idea, though. [SW]
  * reverse() and scramble() are ansi-aware, and still will break html, but 
    in a different way than before. [SW]
  * foreach() strips ansi and html from the string before doing its things. [SW]
  * Complete Norwegian translation by Kenneth Aalberg.
Fixes:
  * Bug in growing hash tables fixed. [SW] 
  * Typo in copyright fixed. Reported by Cheetah@M*U*S*H.
  * Unused variable removed from fun_ansi. Reported by Sidney@M*U*S*H.
  * Mac portability stuff. [DW]
  * Wizards could @chown garbage objects. [SW]
  * Wizards could give to garbage objects. [SW]
  * Wizards could read God's @mail. [SW]
  * Eliminated some compiler warnings. [SW]
  * mid() was quite broken with ansi. right() was less broken. 
    Both hopefully fixed for good. [SW]
  * Fixed a problem with the attribute used with foreach() evaluating from 
    the perspective of the wrong object. [SW]
  * before(), after(), and wrap() are now classified as string functions
    in the help. [TAP]
  * help wildcards now mentions ?. Suggested by cmintrnt@M*U*S*H.
  * help fixes by Jeff Ferrell.
  * Problems with wrap() when the text included %r%r (or started with %r)
    reported by Noltar@Korongil.
  * If you somehow managed to load a corrupt db with a parent loop,
    lparent could infinite-loop. Reported by Ashen-Shugar. [TAP]


Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 5		       May 25, 2001

Fixes:
  * Fix to uninitialized variable that could cause ansi to bleed
    on some systems. Patch by Luke@M*U*S*H
  * Prototypes for ansi_align and ansi_save added to externs.h. [DW]
  * FreeBSD hints file updated to get rid of a compiler warning. [SW]
  * Setting hate_dest to no will not disable @recycle [SW]
  * switchinc.c updated. [DW]


Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 4		       May 13, 2001

Minor changes:
  * Internally, the /folder switch is now /folders, which prefix-matches
    to /folder and also lets @mail/folders work as syntactic sugar.
  * fun_ansi has been rewritten to use less buffer space by consolidating
    ansi codes. New codes for turning off ansi attributes (like hilite)
    also added.  Patch by Luke@M*U*S*H.
  * /silent switch to give suppresses default messages when giving
    money to players. Suggested by 8BitMUSH.
  * Old port concentrator code removed. [SW]
  * On linux, @uptime reads /proc files instead of running 'uptime' [SW]
  * Code that uses strdup and then adds a MEM_CHECK record for "string"
    now use a wrapper function that does it automatically. [SW]
Fixes:
  * Paging a page-locked player didn't give the appropriate messages.
    Reported by Steven@Champions.
  * left, right, and mid are now ansi-aware. Patch by Luke@M*U*S*H.
  * Help fixes to lexits(), name() (Noltar@Korongil), 1.7.4p3 (Z@Korongil).
  * win32/cmds.h updated with prototypes for dismiss and desert by
    Noltar@Korongil. And hdrs/externs.h, too, by [SW].
  * Memory leak with using alphabetic q-registers in queued commands fixed.
    Report by Jayvin@Dynamix [SW]
  * Added hints/openbsd.sh to distribution.
  * Mac portability linting. [DW]
  * Several memory leaks in @malias code fixed. [SW]

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 3		       April 23, 2001

Commands:
  * unfollow with no args now stops you from following everyone.
    dismiss command stops people from following you.
    desert command stops people from following you or leading you.
    Idea by Oriens@Alexandria. Names suggested by Noltar@Korongil
Minor changes:
  * MONITOR announcements of disconnects distinguish hidden disconnects.
    Suggested by Oriens@Alexandria.
  * The Uptime field of INFO shows first start time, not last reboot time.
    Suggested by Trispis@M*U*S*H.
Fixes:
  * Exact matches are now preferred over partial matches, and no longer
    result in ambiguity. Report by Steven Viscido.
  * Message mentioning INHERIT changed to TRUST by Xyrxwyrth@M*U*S*H.
  * Distributed register.txt file is now more descriptive. 
    Suggested by Xyrxwyrth@M*U*S*H.
  * The ctime(), mtime(), restarttime(), and starttime() functions now 
    return 2-digit days (01 vs. 1). Reported by Z@Korongil.
  * @malias output uses the alias token more consistently. Suggested by
    Kyieren@M*U*S*H.
  * hints/solaris_2.sh modified a bit.
  * Mac portability fixes
  * Options.h clarification suggested by rodregis@M*U*S*H.
  * Cosmetic bug in @halt fixed. Report by Trispis@M*U*S*H.
  * Fixed a fencepost error in regedit*() that could generate garbage text.
    Reported by Vadiv@M*U*S*H


Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 2		       March 23, 2001

Major changes:
  * The object matching routines have been modified. Some things you may
    notice:
    * Ambiguous cases are more often reported as such (rather than you
      getting one of the ambiguous matches arbitrarily).
    * locate() now returns #-2 as promised. Reported by Jeff Ferrell.
    * A few functions that used accept player names now require
      the use of *playername to match the player (e.g. mail(), hidden()).
      (This is generally more consistent).
Minor changes:
  * @tr of a nonexistent attribute now reports that. Report by Z@Korongil.
  * TEL_OK is an alias for JUMP_OK. Suggested by Kyieren@M*U*S*H.
  * Added 'help i18n' (aka help translation). Suggested by Kyieren@M*U*S*H.
  * When you use 'teach' and, as a result, run the command you are teaching,
    it is treated as if the command were run by a player from the socket --
    that is, attribute sets are not evaluated. Suggested by Xyrxwyrth@M*U*S*H.
  * See_All players can see all channels and their members, too.
    Suggested by Oriens@Alexandria.
  * When trying to join yourself to a channel, we only check channels
    you're not on; when trying to leave a channel, we only check channels
    that you are on. This is handy for disambiguating similar prefixes.
    Suggested by Oriens@Alexandria.
  * When you're following a leader and the leader moves, you're told that
    that you're following them before you attempt to move. Suggested by
    Oriens@Alexandria.
  * @stats/table is no longer restricted.
Fixes:
  * @grep/iprint produced highlighted strings matching the case you
    gave, not the case actually found. Reported by Reagan@NF
  * @search/lsearch by powers could sometimes get you the equivalent
    flag-bit instead of power-bit. Reported by Reagan@NF
  * Configure fix.
  * hpux-gcc hint file now included.
  * Nested ansi() broke again in p1. Fixed now. Reported by Intrevis@M*U*S*H
  * Added Configure check for <netdb.h> to help Cygwin builds.
    Reported by Xyrxwyrth@M*U*S*H.
  * Help fix or two.
  * Grammatical correction by Rince@M*U*S*H in @boot/me error message.
  * Cosmetics of @mail with folders > 9 improved. Reported by Bellemore@M*U*S*H
  * One could be disconnected at the connect screen under some conditions
    for no good reason. Reported by Oriens@Alexandria. [SW]
  * Compile error when ROYALTY_FLAG not defined patched by Noltar@Korongil.
  * Fixed infinite loop reported by Xyrxwyrth@M*U*S*H. [SW]
  * It's no longer posible to connect to a GOING player.

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 1		       March 17, 2001

Minor changes:
  * Speedup for repeat() function. [TAP]
  * Hint for openbsd, which appears to have a broken IPv6 configuration. [SW]
  * Some OS-dependent defines have been removed.
  * ansi() now only adds a maximum of 7 codes to the string. [TAP]
Fixes:
  * The restrict_command for rob has been removed from restrict.cnf
    Reported by Kyieren@M*U*S*H.
  * Help fixes by Kyieren, rodregis, and Luke @ M*U*S*H, Datron@SW2, 
    and Noltar@Korongil.
  * stripansi() didn't correctly handle multiple ansi codes in
    sequence. Reported by CU5@WCX.
  * Linting for warnings in pcre. [SW]
  * Configure now sends mailing list subscription stuff to the new 
    list address.
  * Updated examples in access.README to use dbrefs.
  * Updated a reference to the rob command in 'give' errors. Noted by
    rodregis@M*U*S*H.
  * median was broken. Reported by Parax@SandsMUSH.
  * Fixes to update.pl's handling of CHAT_TOKEN_ALIAS and the like.
    Noted by rodregis@M*U*S*H

Version 1.7.4 patchlevel 0                     March 7, 2001

Major Changes:
  * This is now the stable minor version. PennMUSH 1.7.2 is no longer
    supported except to help people transition to this version.
Commands:
  * The practically useless 'rob' command has been removed.
Minor Changes:
  * A virtually complete French translation joins the Swedish and
    Hungarian ones! Congratulations to Jean-Michael Amblat and
    Guillaime Lupin.
  * The index-files.pl script handles long help topic titles better when
    creating the index of help entries. [SW]
  * Config options that can be set with @config/set are now documented in
    mush help. [SW]
  * A @config/set of a dbref option now checks dbref for validity. [SW]
  * An ansi_normal code is added at the end of each channel title.
  * You can clear attributes that have invalid names. [SW]
  * stripansi() removes HTML markup as well as ANSI. [SW]
  * @poll and @doing cannot have ANSI or HTML markup. [SW]
  * soundex() and soundslike() strip ANSI and HTML. [SW]
  * The maximum length of attribute names has been limited to 1024 
    characters. [SW]
  * Nesting ansi() functions now works better. Patch by Luke@M*U*S*H.
  * help credits explains [initials] used herein. Suggested by Kyieren@M*U*S*H
Fixes:
  * Help fixes by Nymeria, Balerion, Trispis, Vexon (all@M*U*S*H),
    Jeff Ferrell, and [SW,LdW]
  * The two-argument forms of regmatch() and regmatchi() were backwards
    when it came to case-sensitivity. [SW]
  * @search on zone class did parent instead. Fix by Luke@M*U*S*H.
  * Use of @mail after @mail/nuke could cause a crash.
    Reported by Brazil. [SW]
  * make update handles the include directive correctly. [SW]
  * The admin WHO output looks better when locations reach 5-digit
    dbrefs now.
  * regedit() and regeditall() were case-insenstive. Fixed. [SW]
  * The code for log() was changed some time back to allow an optional
    base argument, but the help and function table were never updated. [SW]
  * owner() could be used to determine if any attribute existed on any
    object. [SW]
  * atrlock() has been cleaned up, fixing many bugs. [SW]
  * Some list functions that evaluate attributes could be used to determine
    if the attribute existed even if the object doing the function couldn't
    normally see the attribute. Fixed, and their error messages are now
    consistant with the other list functions (In other words, no errors, just
    a null string) [SW]
  * Idle timeout is now checked every minute rather than at dbck intervals. 
    Based on a report by Noltar@Korongil.
  * Cleanup of signed/unsigned casts and signal handlers. [SW,DW]
  * forbidden_name now does a case-insensitive comparison.
    Reported by Kyieren@M*U*S*H.
  * Blank lines at the start of help files are now correctly ignored
    on Win32 and Mac systems as well as Unix. Report by Nymeria@M*U*S*H.
  * functions() didn't show @functions. [SW]
  * Nuked players weren't getting removed from @maliases. [SW]
  * Database corruption caused by reading a db with over-long attribute
    names or with attributes starting with quotes fixed. [SW]
  * Crash bug in @attribute/rename fixed. [SW]
  * Potential memory leak in help_command fixed. [SW]
  * Warnings removed. Reported by [NJG]
  * Windows NT native IO (NT_TCP) stuff should work again. Reported by
    Bellemore@M*U*S*H. [NJG]
  * @forwardlist now requires that you control the target, be pemit_all,
    or pass the target's @lock/forward. Report by Vadiv@M*U*S*H.
  * unparse_flags didn't handle exit toggles. Report by Draci@Chaotic.
  * Casting and cleanup to enable compiling with lcc [SW]
  * A potential problem with regexps with heavy backtracking fixed. [SW]
  * Memory leaks with @clock fixed. [SW]
  * Typo in spellnum() "fourty" fixed. Reported by Kyieren@M*U*S*H.
  * @malias/set didn't work. Reported by Kyieren@M*U*S*H.
  * Win32 portability fixes. [NJG]
  * MacOS portability fixes [DW]