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Command Reference

This page lists every command-line option for Immortal Barons in one place. It covers the game program (immortal-barons) and the optional FTN transport helper (barons-ftn).

Run immortal-barons -help to see the same options in your terminal. This page and the -help output use the same groups.

The game program: immortal-barons

Run it like this:

immortal-barons [options]

With no options, it runs as a BBS door: it looks for the drop file your BBS writes (the format you chose with -set-dropfile) in the current folder and plays over the BBS connection. The options below change that.

Play

These options are for playing the game.

  • -local — Play in your own terminal instead of as a BBS door. Good for testing or for a single player on the same machine.
  • -name NAME — Set your player name. Only used with -local. Without it, the game uses your system login name.
  • -dropfile PATH — Path to the BBS drop file. Your BBS software writes this file and tells the door where it is. The format is the one you set with -set-dropfile (see the door setup guide for the supported formats).
  • -data DIR — The folder that holds the game data. The default is ./data, which is relative to the directory you run the command from, not to where the program file is. Run the game from a different folder and it looks for data there. To avoid surprises, give a full path (for example -data /home/bbs/immortal-barons/data). All modes use this option to find the shared world.

Terminal (output)

These options choose how the game draws its screens. See Character Set for the full explanation of the first three.

  • -utf8 — Force UTF-8 output. Needed for non-English languages. With -local, the game already detects UTF-8 from your locale, so you rarely need this.
  • -cp437 — Force CP437 output (the classic BBS character set). This is the door default. Use it to override the -local locale detection.
  • -ascii — Force plain 7-bit ASCII output, for a terminal that reads neither CP437 nor UTF-8. Box rules become -, | and +, shaded blocks become #, and an accented letter loses its accent. Nothing can be mis-decoded, at the cost of the artwork. Only English and German are offered in this mode; a language that would come out as question marks is not.
  • -no-ansi — Send plain text with no color and no cursor control, as a terminal that cannot render escape sequences receives. Lists that normally use a moving highlight are numbered instead. The door does this on its own when the caller's BBS reports no ANSI support, so this option is for testing that path on a terminal that could render it.

Use only one of -utf8, -cp437 and -ascii. -no-ansi is separate and combines with any of them: the character set and whether escapes render are two different questions about a terminal.

All four also apply to -reset. Because the full-screen Configuration Editor is drawn with escape sequences and cannot be drawn without them, -no-ansi opens the plain line-by-line editor instead — the same one a terminal that cannot render ANSI gets.

Sysop and game admin

These options are for the person who runs the game. Most of them do one job and then exit.

  • -set-dropfile — Choose which drop file format your BBS writes, save it, then exit. Run this once when you set the door up. The choice is stored in door.json, apart from the game settings, so a reset never changes it. Until it is set, the door refuses to start. See the door setup guide for the supported formats.
  • -reset — Start a new game. First it opens the settings editor so you can change the rules, then it clears all empires and rebuilds the world. The old world is saved first. This also rewrites config.json. It sets up a stand-alone board, so the editor leaves out the league settings; use -ibbs-reset for a board that joins a league.
  • -reset-from-config — Start a new game using the current config.json, without opening the editor. It clears all empires and rebuilds the world. The old world is saved first.
  • -add-ai N — Add N computer barons to the running game, then exit.
  • -players — List the players and edit one of them, then exit. This is the original's VIEW command. Pick a realm by its Id letter, then choose Delete realm, Player name, Realm name, or Quit. Deleting asks you to confirm and cannot be undone. Change the player name when someone has renamed their account on the board: the game finds a realm by that name, so otherwise the game does not know them at their next login. Each edit takes the same lock a caller's turn takes, so it is safe to run while the board is up.
  • -maint — Run the daily maintenance step, then exit. Run this once a day (for example, from a nightly scheduled task).

Testing and balance

These are development tools. A board never needs them, and they advance, expose or override game state.

  • -dump — Print the game world as JSON, then exit. The output is the world after the game loads it (old saves are migrated and missing fields filled in), so it can differ from the raw world.json file. Useful for scripts and for checking game balance.

  • -spectate N — Play the game forward N days with no human players, then exit, printing a summary of each day and a final table of every realm. It does not reset the game first, so pair it with -reset-from-config for a clean run:

    immortal-barons -data ./sandbox -reset-from-config
immortal-barons -data ./sandbox -spectate 30

    This is a balance-checking tool, not something a board needs to run. It exists so the computer barons can be watched playing against each other, to see whether they expand sensibly, whether wars happen, and whether the game collapses to one realm too quickly.

    It plays real turns and saves the result. Two things guard against running it by mistake: it asks before starting, and the default answer is no; and it refuses outright on a game that has any human realm, since advancing someone else's realm is not something a warning can undo.

  • -dupe-check on / -dupe-check off — Force Dupe Checking on or off for this run only. Dupe Checking is the league rule that locks a baron out here when they are found playing on another board in the league.

    It changes no setting. config.json is not written, and neither is anything else, so the run cannot leave the league rule altered behind it — the next command sees the saved setting again. This is what makes it a testing switch rather than a way to configure the game; to change the rule for real, use the Configuration Editor.

    It is a modifier, not a mode: it rides whatever else you asked for, so immortal-barons -local -dupe-check off plays a local turn with the rule lifted. off lets a baron the league had shut out reach the game; on applies the rule even on a board whose saved setting has it off. Either way the record of who was locked survives untouched.

Inter-BBS

These options are for games that link several BBSes together (a "league"). See Inter-BBS Leagues for how league play works.

  • -ibbs-reset — Start a new game as a board in a league. The same as -reset, except the settings editor also asks the league settings (board name, packet directories, and the interplanetary rules), and it creates the packet directories.
  • -board-id NAME, -inbound DIR, -outbound DIR — Settings for -ibbs-reset. Giving -board-id skips the settings editor, so a member board is set up in one command. Use this when the League Coordinator sets the rules: they arrive in the Coordinator's next broadcast and replace whatever this board starts with. -inbound and -outbound default to inbound and outbound inside the data directory. The game does not write bbs.cfg: the reset ends by printing that file, filled in from these flags, for you to save yourself. It is plain text and yours alone — nothing in the game ever rewrites it.
  • -import-bbs-cfg PATH — Take this board's name, incoming-files directory and league number from an original Barren Realms Elite BBS.CFG, for -ibbs-reset. Use it when converting a league you already run, so you do not retype what that file already says. It prints what it read. -board-id and -inbound override it, and naming the board in the file skips the settings editor just as -board-id does. It prints the bbs.cfg to save, the same as the flags do.
  • -planetary — Run the inter-BBS step, then exit: read incoming packets, run the group attacks, and write outgoing packets.
  • -full — Run the full cycle, then exit: read inbound packets, play a turn, and write outbound packets. This is the same as running -planetary, then the door (or -local), then -planetary again, but in one step. It requires either -local (with -name to identify the player) or a BBS drop file in the working directory. Use -detailed alongside it to see each packet as it is read and written.
  • -scores — Write this board's score packet to the outbound directory, then exit. The file is named after the board (for example outboard/MyBBS.brp). Use -export FILE to write to a specific path instead.
  • -detailed — Show each packet as it is read and written. This is a modifier, not a mode: it takes effect when used with -full or -planetary. Without one of those, it is ignored.
  • -league-config — Send this board's league settings to the whole league, then exit. Only the league coordinator (node #1) uses this.
  • -league-check — Check this board's league setup — the roster, the board name, the packet directories and the keys — and report everything that is wrong at once, then exit. Run it after joining a league, and whenever a transport run complains. It exits non-zero when anything failed, so an event can run it.
  • -league-routes — Print which board each planet's packets are handed to, and the directory they are written in, then exit. Use it to check a roster the coordinator has just sent.
  • -gen-coord-key — Create this league's coordinator key, then exit. Only the coordinator runs this, once. It prints a line to give every other board. The private half is written to coord.key in the data folder; keep it secret, and copy it if you ever hand coordinatorship to another sysop.
  • -coord-key KEY — Record the coordinator's public key on this board, then exit. Every board in the league needs this. Without it, a board cannot check that league orders really came from the coordinator, and will refuse them.
  • -gen-board-key — Create this board's packet-signing key, then exit. Every board in the league runs this once. It prints a line to send to the league coordinator, who puts it in the roster; once it is there, other boards can tell a packet from this board apart from one that only claims to be. The private half is written to board.key in the data folder — anyone holding it can send packets as this board.
  • -league-reset DATE — Start a new season across the whole league on DATE, then exit. Only the coordinator uses this. It resets this board and sends a signed order for the other boards to reset on their next -planetary run.
  • -lastpacket — Write LASTPACKET.LST, then exit: when a packet from each other board was last processed here. Use it to find a board that has gone quiet.
  • -bbsinfo — Write BBSINFO.LST, then exit: every board, when it was last heard from, and the game version it runs. A board below a version the coordinator requires is marked.
  • -playerlist — Write PLAYERLIST.LST, then exit: every realm on every board. Only the league coordinator (node #1) may write this one.
  • -export FILE — Write this board's score packet to FILE, then exit.
  • -import FILE — Read a score packet from FILE, then exit.

The three .LST reports are written into the data directory, and are built from what packets have already told this board — none of them changes the game.

Info

  • -version — Print the version, then exit.
  • -help — Print the grouped list of options, then exit.

The FTN helper: barons-ftn

barons-ftn hands packets already written by the game to an FTN mailer. Run it after immortal-barons -planetary, after the door exits, or both:

barons-ftn -data /path/to/data

It reads bbs.cfg, ibnodes.dat, ibroute.cfg, and the FTN-only ftn.cfg. It scans the default Outbound directory and every Link directory, moves each .brp packet into that directory's fido subdirectory, and creates a Type-2 file-attach .msg in the configured netmail directory. An unaddressed broadcast gets a separate attachment and message for every other board. If two copies run together, only the one that successfully moves a packet creates its messages.

  • -data DIR — Folder holding the game data and ftn.cfg; default ./data.
  • -version — Print the helper and game version, then exit.
  • -help — Print the options, then exit.

See the FTN handoff section of Inter-BBS Leagues for ftn.cfg, routing, and mailer details.