+===============
+ install 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 quick setup instructions for a basic mudpy
+installation, sufficient as a starting point for further
+configuration and customization.
+
+installation
+------------
+
+There's a :ref:`demo` in the :doc:`coder` guide which will get you
+up and running right away if you're familiar with the ``tox``
+utility, but you can get by with just a supported Python_
+interpreter. It's still easiest to do it from a `git clone`_ or
+unpacked tarball_ of the source code so you have sample
+configuration to work from. As long as your distro doesn't strip the
+``venv`` module out of Python's standard library, from the top-level
+source directory you could basically install it as a normal shell
+user with::
+
+ python3 -m venv mudpy_venv
+ mudpy_venv/bin/pip install .
+
+And then you can start the service with::
+
+ mudpy_venv/bin/mudpy
+
+If the ``python3`` command above emits an error like *No module
+named venv*, then you're probably on a distribution like Debian
+which needs the `python3-venv package`_ installed with your package
+manager first.
+
+.. _Python: https://python.org/
+.. _git clone: https://mudpy.org/code/mudpy/
+.. _tarball: https://mudpy.org/dist/mudpy/
+.. _python3-venv package: https://packages.debian.org/python3-venv
+
+initialization
+--------------
+
+The mudpy service is self-initializing the first time you start it,
+though you need some minimum configuration in its config search
+path. The installation_ example above uses the sample
+:file:`etc/mudpy.conf` configuration provided in the source tree,
+but you can edit this or make a modified copy and pass its name as
+the only command-line argument to the executable entrypoint::
+
+ mudpy_venv/bin/mudpy my_config.yaml
+
+By default it'll only listen on the loopback address, but that's
+configurable in the `network settings <.mudpy.network>`_ of course.
+The basic element definitions are included in the :file:`share`
+directory as well as basic archetype, command and menu element
+definitions. The default configuration is set so that if anyone
+creates a user named "admin" then that account will start with
+administrative privileges, configurable in the `admins limit
+<.mudpy.limit.admins>`_.
+
+Using ``pip`` to install in a venv or with its ``--user`` option
+takes care of making sure the Python package dependencies listed in
+the :file:`requirements.txt` file are available, but it should be
+possible to run :file:`mudpy/daemon.py` as a normal python3 script
+as long as you've installed your distro's packages of the
+dependencies (on Debian/Ubuntu that's python3-passlib_ and
+python3-yaml_, they're probably named something similar on other
+distros).
+
+.. _python3-passlib: https://packages.debian.org/python3-passlib
+.. _python3-yaml: https://packages.debian.org/python3-yaml
+
+platforms
+---------
+
+There's a good chance that some of the file handling and socket
+routines are not cross-platform compatible and will only work on
+Unix derivatives like Linux, \*BSD or GNU Hurd (possibly also Mac OS
+X/Darwin since it's essentially a BSD descendant). All changes to
+the codebase are tested on Debian GNU/Linux, but it should at least
+work reliably on any Linux distribution with a new enough Python
+interpreter. It probably also works on Microsoft Windows under the
+WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) compatibility layer.
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