Add the beginnings of an admin guide

Some initial prose to seed the admin guide, taken from various
E-mails to users in recent months.

diff --git a/doc/source/admin.rst b/doc/source/admin.rst
new file mode 100644 (file)
index 0000000..b25d6ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/admin.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+=============
+ admin guide
+=============
+
+.. Copyright (c) 2020 mudpy authors. Permission to use, copy,
+   modify, and distribute this software is granted under terms
+   provided in the LICENSE file distributed with this software.
+
+This guide provides basic management, configuration and
+troubleshooting tips for mudpy administrators.
+
+.. _admin-accounts:
+
+admin accounts
+--------------
+
+Either create an account named *admin* or modify the main
+configuration file (for example, :file:`etc/mudpy.yaml`) and change
+the ``.mudpy.limit.admins`` list to include the name of your initial
+admin user. Once you have at least one administrative user, that
+user can so something like :command:`set account.someuser
+administrator True` to elevate another account's access. It's
+probably best to empty or remove the ``.mudpy.limit.admins list``
+from the configuration before making the service publicly
+accessible.
+
+While the service isn't running you can also edit the accounts.yaml
+file (probably :file:`data/accounts.yaml` unless you've changed the
+default data path) and add a line like
+``account.someuser.administrator: true`` for any already existing
+account in that file. In future, a separate system command-line
+utility may be provided to make pre-seeding administrator accounts
+possible at time of installation so that the service doesn't need to
+be started with an initially insecure configuration.
+
+content creation
+----------------
+
+Once you've created and awakened an avatar for an an
+:ref:`administrator <admin-accounts>`, you can use the interactive
+command-line interface to create or destroy elements and set or
+delete facets on them. A set of sample elements are available in the
+source tree and included by default from the sample configuration
+file (specified in its ``_load`` list). You can also just edit those
+files with a text editor or create a new directory with your own
+YAML file in it to load instead.
+
+See the built-in :command:`help` as an administrator for the
+:command:`create`, :command:`destroy`, :command:`set` and
+:command:`delete` commands. For example, you can set an arbitrary
+value on a facet of any element like::
+
+    set account.someuser myperm True
+
+This would add or update a *myperm* facet to the account element for
+the *someuser* user to have the value *True*.
+
+troubleshooting
+---------------
+
+The administrative :command:`show` command provides a number of
+useful inspection tools. Here's an example testing with the
+:command:`show result` subcommand from an active session with a
+couple of avatars awake, comparing with the output from related
+:command:`show group` and :command:`show element` invocations::
+
+    > show group actor
+
+    These are the elements in the "actor" group:
+
+       actor.avatar_admin_0
+       actor.avatar_luser0_0
+
+    > show result actor.universe.groups['actor'].keys()
+
+    dict_keys(['avatar_admin_0', 'avatar_luser0_0'])
+
+    > show element actor.avatar_luser0_0
+
+    These are the properties of the "actor.avatar_luser0_0" element (in
+    "/home/fungi/src/mudpy.org/mudpy/data/actor.yaml"):
+
+       gender: female
+       inherit: ['archetype.avatar', 'archetype.actor']
+       location: area.0,0,0
+       name: Keyo
+
+    > show result actor.universe.contents['actor.avatar_luser0_0'].get('name')
+
+    'Keyo'
+
+Note that for safety the :command:`show result` executes within the context of
+a command handler with only Python's :code:`__builtins__`, the :code:`mudpy`
+library package, and the active :code:`universe` available.

diff --git a/doc/source/index.rst b/doc/source/index.rst
index 8faeb97..bad73b9 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/source/index.rst
+++ b/doc/source/index.rst
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
    :hidden:
    :maxdepth: 2
 
+   admin
    api
    changelog
    clients