• You’ll need to add cmake to PATH after installing. Default install location is C:\Program Files\CMake\bin.

• You also need to add BOOST_ROOT to your environment variables. Boost is located in C:/local/boost_SOMEVERSION.

• Git - Ensure the "Windows Explorer Integration - Git Bash Here" option is enabled on the "Select Components" page of the install wizard in order to follow along with these instructions. The default options should be fine otherwise. Alternatively, you can install (Git Extensions instead, which comes with Git, MySYSGit, and KDiff).

• CMake is now used to generate visual studio project file as it’s are not provided anymore. Using version 3.22.1 or newer is encouraged.

• Boost is a set of libraries for the C++ programming language that provides support for tasks and structures such as linear algebra, pseudorandom number generation, multithreading, image processing, regular expressions, and unit testing. It contains 164 individual libraries. Using version 1.75.0 or newer is encouraged. If you see the error "Could NOT find Boost" in CMake, your version of Boost may be incompatible. Check the compatibility table.

• Visual C++ 2022 or newer: Visual Studio Downloads (Visual Studio Community 2022 is recommended, but Express 2022 for Desktop will also do the job and is free, it is however not as good a choice for open source development as CE (Community Edition).

• Any MySQL server such as MySQL server community edition or XAMPP.

• Any MySQL client (optional, for easy database access) such as MySQL Workbench, SQLyog, or DBeaver

• An advanced text editor (optional) such as Notepad++ or VSCode. Not required, but it will make it easier to edit the configuration files in later steps.

You can find a video here of how to install Git, Visual Studio and CMAKE.

Default GCC 11 versions present in Ubuntu 22.04 (11.2 and 11.3) contain internal compiler bug, which prevents building CMaNGOS. While GCC 11.3 is known to work for some users, it is recommended to upgrade your default compiler version to GCC 12 to avoid potential problems, although some reports indicate that the bug is present for GCC 12 as well:

Note: precompiled headers require a cmake that is version 3.16 or newer. You can compile from source or get binary releases on this page: https://cmake.org/download/

Note: Some distributions ship with very old but guaranteed stable packages. CMaNGOS may require more recent versions of these packages.

Note: CMaNGOS links against static Boost libraries. Make sure you have static Boost libraries installed.

xcode-select --install
brew install cmake boost [email protected]

For this guide we will assume that you will use C:\Mangos as base directory under which you put everything.

All shell commands are expected to be typed from a Git bash started from the C:\Mangos directory. To do so, right-click onto C:\Mangos in the windows explorer, and select Git bash here from the context menu.

Create a new directory to clone your copy of CMaNGOS into:

The rest of the guide assumes that you have this folder in your home directory.

To make the guide more consistent across the versions we’re cloning into another subdirectory named "mangos". If you leave the "mangos" part out of the argument, it’ll be cloned into a directory named like the git repository (mangos-wotlk for example)

After having opened Git bash in the right folder, simply type:

• Classic:

  git clone https://github.com/cmangos/mangos-classic.git mangos

• The Burning Crusade:

  git clone https://github.com/cmangos/mangos-tbc.git mangos

• Wrath of the Lich King:

  git clone https://github.com/cmangos/mangos-wotlk.git mangos

Submit this git command with enter/return. This will take a little time to complete, but afterwards you will have created a sub-directory named mangos into which the CMaNGOS sources are cloned.

A simple video of the process

Now you should have the following subfolders:

• mangos (containing the sources of CMaNGOS)

• classic-db OR tbc-db OR wotlk-db OR Database containing the content of your database-provider

For windows we suggest creating an additional run folder, on *nix and MacOS this can be useful if you don’t want to install to /opt

• run

For *nix, MacOS, or cmake compile we suggest creating an additional build folder, this is not required for Visual Studio

• build

The CMaNGOS cmake scripts should automatically detect the location of your boost installation, and configure the build accordingly. If it is not detected, please ensure that your BOOST_ROOT environment variable is set properly.

On most *nix you just have to install boost development libraries from your distribution package repositories.

On Debian and Ubuntu you can simply install the libboost-all-dev meta-package. On Fedora there should be a package named boost-devel (untested). If you followed the Software requirements (*nix) step above you should have the respective package installed already.

On MacOS, add the boost path as an environment variable

For instructions on how to compile boost from source code or general information, see the boost Getting Started guide.

Video Guide

• Download prebuild boost binaries

• Set BOOST_ROOT environment variable

Step-by-step Guide

• Go to https://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost-binaries

• Or compile yourself

  • boost version older than 1.66 will throw "unknown compiler" errors when using VS 2017, ignore it.

• Download the correct version as indicated in the table below or the boost_x_xx_x-bin-msvc-all-32-64.7z (the x_xx_x part is the boost version). If you need the Win32 or x64 version depends on what architecture you would like your compiled server executable to use. For most people x64 is fine.

  • Note: This has nothing to do with your Windows version, apart from the fact that 64bit executables will not run on a 32bit Windows. It is very unlikely you have a 32bit OS but if you want to make sure that you have a 64bit one press <Win>+<Pause>.

  • Note: You can install both the Win32 and the x64 binaries into the same directory, in case you want to switch build architectures. Visual Studio will automatically select the correct version.

• Install the downloaded binaries.

• Go to the PC Properties (press <Win>+<Pause>)

• Click on Advanced System Settings

• Click on Environment Variables

• At the bottom under System variables click New

  • Name: BOOST_ROOT

  • Value: C:\local\boost_x_xx_x Replace the x with the version number you downloaded, e.g. boost_1_75_0.

    • If you changed the path while installing the binaries, you will have to do that here as well.

  • Confirm

• To make sure all programs are aware of the added environment variable reboot your system.

If you are not using cmake, the built-in project files assume that BOOST_ROOT environment variable is set.

If you have already boost in another folder schema you can also define BOOST_LIBRARYDIR to point to the right folder. Then only win32 or x64 will work according to the file you have on that folder. Point BOOST_LIBRARYDIR to the folder where the dll and lib files are, usually a subfolder of your boost root folder, e. g. the subfolder lib32-msvc-14.1.

If you are using cmake to generate a solution and project files, the CMaNGOS cmake scripts should automatically detect the location of your boost installation, and configure the build accordingly. If it is not detected, please ensure that your BOOST_ROOT environment variable is set properly.

For instructions on how to compile boost from source code or general information, see the boost Getting Started guide.

Note: In a typical boost installation environment with Visual Studio, the user will configure their Visual Studio property sheets to point to the boost installation. This will allow boost to be found by all projects on that system. For information on configuring property sheets, look here.

If you’re experiencing issues with CMake (The following Boost libraries could not be found), you will have to rename folder in boost directory.

A video of the build process is now available.

• Launch cmake

• Set the source bin to C:\Mangos\mangos

• Set the destination folder to C:\Mangos\mangos\bin\buildir (create that folder if it doesn’t exist)

• Tick BUILD_EXTRACTORS in CMake (Buildings / Cameras / dbc / maps / mmaps / vmaps)

• Click Configure button and set your compiler version and platform (note: platform is set to Win32 by default. Set it to x64 if you’re using 64bit Windows.)

• Select your options then click another time on Configure button

• Click Generate button

• If you get any errors messages run File → Delete Cache and try to configure CMake again.

• Now you can click on Open button or go to C:\Mangos\mangos\bin\buildir and click on the .sln file

• Wait for Visual Studio to finish loading.

• Open the menu "Build" → "Configuration Manager"

  • Choose "Release" in the drop down box for "Active Solution Configuration"

  • The drop down box "Active Solution Platform" should be set to "Win32" by default. Change it to "x64" if you want to compile 64bit executables. (This setting has to correspond with the boost version you installed.)

  • Close the window

• Click the menu "Build" → "Build Solution"

  • This will take some time.

  • You might get some warning messages. Don’t worry about it, that’s normal.

  • You must not get any error messages, although if you do so, you could click the menu "Build" → "Clean Solution" to restart the compile.

  • If you get error messages saying some boost files cannot be found, you may need to restart your Visual Studio and/or your computer for the environment variables to be set.

If you cannot solve an error, please join the discord to ask for help

We assume you have followed the instructions above and cloned the core repository into ~/cmangos/mangos. Adjust the paths if your setup is different.

• Create the build folder:

  mkdir ~/cmangos/build

• Enter the build folder:

  cd ~/cmangos/build

• Invoke cmake ../mangos, suggested options are:

  • -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/cmangos/run to install into /home/username/cmangos/run folder, otherwise it will install to /opt/mangos by default.

  • -DPCH=1 to compile with PCH mode (much faster after updates).

  • -DDEBUG=0 to remove debug mode from compiling (recommended)

  • -DBUILD_PLAYERBOT=ON to build with playerbots enabled

  • Switch compiler (for problems such as the internal compiler error in gcc 11/12):

    • -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=/path/to/compiler

    • -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=/path/to/compiler

  • Examples:

    • Just want to compile CMaNGOS (e.g. for updates)

      cmake ../mangos -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/cmangos/run -DPCH=1 -DDEBUG=0

    • Want compile CMaNGOS & the map extraction tools (recommended for first time setup)

      cmake ../mangos -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/cmangos/run -DBUILD_EXTRACTORS=ON -DPCH=1 -DDEBUG=0

    • Want compile CMaNGOS & the map extraction tools & playerbots (playerbots let players summon other characters from their account as bots)

      cmake ../mangos -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/cmangos/run -DBUILD_EXTRACTORS=ON -DPCH=1 -DDEBUG=0 -DBUILD_PLAYERBOT=ON

    • Want to switch to clang

      cmake ../mangos -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++

• Invoke make to compile CMaNGOS and ScriptDev2

  make

  • You may define the number of threads for faster compilation (e.g. make -j8 for 8 threads)

  • There is currently a bug in GCC 11 and possibly GCC 12 which causes GCC to fail compiling CMaNGOS. You can downgrade or upgrade GCC to circumvent this, or you can compile CMaNGOS with a different compiler like clang

• Copy the compiled files to the installation directory (~/cmangos/run) by running the following command:

  make install

• Go the configuration directory and copy the config files to their correct names:

  cd ~/cmangos/run/etc
  cp mangosd.conf.dist mangosd.conf
  cp realmd.conf.dist realmd.conf
  cp anticheat.conf.dist anticheat.conf

• Copy the content of C:\Mangos\mangos\bin\Win32_Release\Extractors\ into your C:\World of Warcraft folder

• Run ExtractResources.sh from your C:\World of Warcraft.

For this you can open a "Git Bash" on your C:\World of Warcraft folder and type ExtractResources.sh

Depending on your installation settings, a simple double click onto the ExtractResources.sh file from your explorer might also work.

• When finished, move the folders maps, dbc, and vmaps - optionally mmaps, CreatureModels and Cameras - that have been created in your C:\World of Warcraft to your C:\Mangos\run (the buildings folder is not required and can be deleted).

If you followed this guide you should find all the extractor files in ~/cmangos/run/bin/tools.

• Copy all of them over to your WoW client directory

• Set the executable flag on the shell scripts:

  chmod +x ExtractResources.sh MoveMapGen.sh

• Make sure the Data directory starts with an uppercase D because extraction is case-sensitive on Linux

• Run the data extraction:

  bash ./ExtractResources.sh

• When finished, move the folders maps, dbc, and vmaps - optionally mmaps, CreatureModels and Cameras - that have been created to ~/cmangos/run/bin (the buildings folder is not required and can be deleted).

• MoveMapGen.exe - How to Improve Pathfinding

Either use a GUI tool for mysql and open the SQL-files, or do it by command-line as this guide shows.

From the C:\Mangos folder invoke (in Git bash):

• mysql -uroot -p < mangos/sql/create/db_create_mysql.sql

  And enter your password in the following dialogue (similar in all other next steps)

  This will create a user (name mangos, password mangos) with rights to the databases "mangos" (world-db), characters and realmd

From the C:\Mangos folder invoke (in Git bash):

• mysql -uroot -p classicmangos < mangos/sql/base/mangos.sql

If you’re working with mangos-tbc:

• mysql -uroot -p tbcmangos < mangos/sql/base/mangos.sql

If you’re working with mangos-woltk:

• mysql -uroot -p wotlkmangos < mangos/sql/base/mangos.sql

  This will create an empty world database.

From the C:\Mangos folder invoke (in Git bash):

• mysql -uroot -p classiccharacters < mangos/sql/base/characters.sql

If you’re working with mangos-tbc:

• mysql -uroot -p tbccharacters < mangos/sql/base/characters.sql

If you’re working with mangos-woltk:

• mysql -uroot -p wotlkcharacters < mangos/sql/base/characters.sql

  This will create an empty characters database.

From the C:\Mangos folder invoke (in Git bash):

• mysql -uroot -p classiclogs < mangos/sql/base/logs.sql

If you’re working with mangos-tbc:

• mysql -uroot -p tbclogs < mangos/sql/base/logs.sql

If you’re working with mangos-woltk:

• mysql -uroot -p wotlklogs < mangos/sql/base/logs.sql

  This will create an empty logs database.

From the C:\Mangos folder invoke (in Git bash):

• mysql -uroot -p classicrealmd < mangos/sql/base/realmd.sql

If you’re working with mangos-tbc:

• mysql -uroot -p tbcrealmd < mangos/sql/base/realmd.sql

If you’re working with mangos-wotlk:

• mysql -uroot -p wotlkrealmd < mangos/sql/base/realmd.sql

  This will create an empty realmd database.

For real-time metrics we suggest looking into InfluxDB and Grafana. The core supports posting HTTP data to a websocket in InfluxDB format.

In the configuration file all that is required is to fill out the following based on your connection in mangosd.conf:

Metric.Enable = 0

Metric.Address = "127.0.0.1"

Metric.Port = 8086

Metric.Database = "perfd"

Metric.Username = ""

Metric.Password = ""

The rest of the information can be found in the appropriate InfluxDB and Grafana documentations, which are well maintained.

Support for cmangos databases.

From the C:\Mangos folder invoke (in Git bash or depending on installation with double-click!)

• cd classic-db, cd tbc-db OR cd wotlk-db (choose the one appliciaple to your situation)

• ./InstallFullDB.sh

  This will create a config file named "InstallFullDB.config", looking like:

  ####################################################################################################
  # This is the config file for the './InstallFullDB.sh' script
  #
  # You need to insert
  #   MANGOS_DBHOST:	Your MANGOS database host
  #   MANGOS_DBNAME:	Your MANGOS database schema
  #   MANGOS_DBUSER:	Your MANGOS username
  #   MANGOS_DBPASS:	Your MANGOS password
  #   CORE_PATH:    	Your path to core's directory
  #   MYSQL:        	Your mysql command (usually mysql)
  #
  ####################################################################################################
  
  ## Define the host on which the mangos database resides (typically localhost)
  MANGOS_DBHOST="localhost"
  
  ## Define the database in which you want to add clean DB
  MANGOS_DBNAME="classicmangos" **("tbcmangos" if you're working with mangos-tbc)**
  
  ## Define your username
  MANGOS_DBUSER="mangos"
  
  ## Define your password (It is suggested to restrict read access to this file!)
  MANGOS_DBPASS="mangos"
  
  ## Define the path to your core's folder
  ##   If set the core updates located under sql/updates/mangos from this mangos-directory will be added automatically
  CORE_PATH=""
  
  ## Define your mysql programm if this differs
  MYSQL="mysql"
  
  # Enjoy using the tool

• Change configuration in any text-editor

  With the default configuration, you only need to change CORE_PATH to:

  CORE_PATH="/c/Mangos/mangos"
  (for *nix /home/<USER_NAME>/cmangos/mangos)

  * You may actually have to set CORE_PATH="../mangos" (assuming default paths from this guide), if the tilde is not properly resolved into your home folder path, causing InstallFullDB.sh to complain about not finding "/home/username/cmangos". Tested on openSUSE 12.3.

• Now the helper tool is configured, and you only need to run the helper script, whenever you want to set your world database to a clear state!

• bash ./InstallFullDB.sh

  And check the output if the database could be set up correctly. If the helper script complains about not finding the config file, just open InstallFullDB.sh in a text editor and set

  SCRIPT_FILE="./InstallFullDB.sh"
  CONFIG_FILE="./InstallFullDB.config"

• You can now run the script again, and it should start filling your world database.

• cd ../..

If you get an error saying ./InstallFullDB.sh: line 126: mysql: command not found then you need to add mysql.exe to the PATH variable. (Windows + Pause → Advanced System Settings → Environment Variables → System Variables → Edit Path and add the location of your mysql.exe)

Basic concept of manual database filling

If you are using OpenSSL3 on Linux you may need to activate the legacy provider in your openssl.cnf (often found in /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf, but may vary between distros).

There you’ll look for "List of providers to load"

and beneath this:

[provider_sect]
default = default_sect

legacy = legacy_sect

next you look for "[default_sect]" immediately underneath it it should say #activate = 1 if it does, please change it to activate = 1, removing the "#" in front. This step is very important! Not doing it can lock you out of your computer!

Next leave an empty line and then add the following:

[legacy_sect]
activate = 1

The final config should look like the following in the section we edited:

# List of providers to load
[provider_sect]
default = default_sect
legacy = legacy_sect
# The fips section name should match the section name inside the
# included fipsmodule.cnf.
# fips = fips_sect

# If no providers are activated explicitly, the default one is activated implicitly.
# See man 7 OSSL_PROVIDER-default for more details.
#
# If you add a section explicitly activating any other provider(s), you most
# probably need to explicitly activate the default provider, otherwise it
# becomes unavailable in openssl.  As a consequence applications depending on
# OpenSSL may not work correctly which could lead to significant system
# problems including inability to remotely access the system.
[default_sect]
activate = 1

[legacy_sect]
activate = 1

You will need to manually update the configuration files within your "run" directory (ie C:\Mangos\run ).

The files are:

• mangosd.conf: Holds configuration for the mangosd executable

• realmd.conf: Holds configuration for the realmd executable

• (Very optional) ahbot.conf: Holds configuration for AHBot (by default disabled)

• (optional, only if you enabled PlayerBots during compilation) playerbot.conf: Holds configuration for PlayerBots (by default disabled)

Most important to configure are the database settings. You will need this if you decided to use a different password/user then the "default" combination of mangos/mangos.

These settings are relatively self-explanatory. You should pay attention mainly to the values of "LoginDatabaseInfo", "WorldDatabaseInfo", and "CharacterDatabaseInfo" found in your mangosd and realmd configuration files.

You need to change this only if you changed the mangosd.conf settings "WorldServerPort" or "RealmID"

This information is required so that the realmd "knows" to which mangosd he should forward a player after authentication, so if you want to use your server outside itself (e.g. on your LAN) please change 127.0.0.1 by your server ip !

Apply code to realmd database, adapt to your wishes

Where of course the data must match the configs:

• port (above 8085) must match the value in the mangosd.conf (Config option: "WorldServerPort")

• id (above 1) must match the value in the mangosd.conf (Config option: "RealmID")

~/cmangos/run/bin/mangosd -c ~/cmangos/run/etc/mangosd.conf -a ~/cmangos/run/etc/ahbot.conf

~/cmangos/run/bin/realmd -c ~/cmangos/run/etc/realmd.conf

Don’t run mangosd or realmd as root !

You can create a separate user "mangos" to limit access to the cmangos binaries:

enter new password for the mangos user

copy the run directory to your new mangos user:

Then log in as the mangos user:

you can run mangosd and realmd in separate screens

(make note of where you have your run directory. this example is for when you have created a separate mangos user.)

if you want to start mangosd and realmd at your server boot, you can use a cron task. create a /home/mangos/cmangos-launcher.sh file with this content :

and then, as mangos user, run crontab -e and add this line :

It’ll run this script at your server boot.

Alternatively you can create a systemd service for CMaNGOS.

Example:

• 0) Basic version

• 1) The Burning Crusade

• 2) Wrath of the Lich King

Example:

• 0) Player

• 1) Moderator

• 2) Game Master

• 3) Administrator

Example:

The delay is the number of seconds