Lightstone
==========

Introduction
------------

Lightstone is an open-source implementation of the
[Minecraft](http://minecraft.net) server software written in Java.

The official server software has some shortcomings such as the use of threaded,
synchronous I/O along with high CPU and RAM usage. Lightstone aims to be a
lightweight and high-performance alternative.

Building
--------

Lightstone can be built with the
[Java Development Kit](http://oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads) and
[Apache Ant](http://ant.apache.org). [Apache Ivy](http://ant.apache.org/ivy) is
also used for dependency management.

If you have not yet done so, you will need to download the project's
dependencies which can be done with the `ant resolve` command. This only needs
to be done once initially and when the dependencies are updated.

Typing the command `ant` in the terminal will build the project.

Running
-------

Although not recommended, the server can be started via Ant. This is useful
for certain IDEs e.g. NetBeans which require an Ant target to run the project.

Typing the command `ant run` in the terminal will do this. It will also build
the project if the binaries are out of date.

Documentation
-------------

Javadocs can be generated by using the `ant doc` command in the terminal.

Credits
-------

 * [The Minecraft Coalition](http://wiki.vg/wiki) - protocol and formats
   research.
 * [Trustin Lee](http://gleamynode.net) - author of the
   [Netty](http://jboss.org/netty) library.
 * All the people behind [JRuby](http://jruby.org),
   [Ant](http://ant.apache.org), [Ivy](http://ant.apache.org/ivy) and
   [Java](http://java.oracle.com).
 * [Notch](http://mojang.com/notch) and all the other people at
   [Mojang](http://mojang.com) - for making such an awesome game in the first
   place!

Copyright
---------

Lightstone is open-source software released under the MIT license, please see
the `LICENSE` file for details.