Q -What is flushing the prop file ?

Flushing is the process of cleaning out old props from the server prop file. It's done by using the 'purgeprops and 'flushprops commands on the server. When you flush the server prop file, the server decides what props to throw out and which props to keep based on one thing - when the prop was last " seen ".

Q -How do I flush the prop file ?

Flushing the prop file is done by using two commands from within palace. Typically the use of these commands is restricted to god/owners and wiz/operators.

In order to understand the use of these two commands, you need to understand that when your palace is running, your prop file exists in two places - in the memory of the palace server and on the disk in a file named pserver.prp. When you start your palace server, the file pserver.prp is read into memory. Changes to the file (new props, etc) are made to the memory copy - so it's nice and fast. The memory version of your prop file is copied to the disk version periodically while the palace is running and whenever you do a clean shutdown.

With that in mind, there are two commands associated with flushing your props.

Flush Props - this command flushes out old props from the memory copy of your prop file only.

The syntax is - 'flushprops time

The time is an optional flag you can specify when you do a fulsh. It tells the server how old props should be before they are deleted in the flush. You can specify a number of days by giving a positive number or a number of hours by giving a negative number.

Examples
'flushprops 2 flush any props that have not been seen in the last 2 days.
'flushprops -2 flush any props that have not been seen in the last 2 hours.

Purge Props - The purge props command is basically the same as the flush props command except that it flushes both the memory copy of your props and the disk copy. The other major difference is the effect on your users. Because the purge props command is modifying the disk file, it must lock all activity on your palace to avoid corrupting the file. This means that while purge pros is running, everyone on your server will be totally lagged - unable to do anything.

The syntax is - 'purgeprops time

The time option for this command functions exactly like the time option for flush props.

Q -How do I keep the server from flushing the props for my prop rooms ?

As it says above, during a prop flush or purge, the server decides which props to throw out based on the time the prop was last seen. This means the last time anyone on your server put the prop on. In the case of the props for your prop rooms, this is the last time someone went into your prop room and looked at the prop.

Before you do a flush or purge of your prop file - log onto your server and go through your prop rooms and look at each prop. This updates the " last seen " time for each of these props and makes sure they will not be deleted in the flush or purge. This method of running through your props just before a flush is called flush and flash

REMEMBER - Use a Virgin prop file for this - or you may not be updating the times on the server copy of the prop.