build-mpq

A lightweight wrapper around mpqcli for building and validating World of Warcraft 3.3.5a client patch MPQ files. This tool's main goal is to create canonical staging areas and package them with mpqcli while resolving symbolic links so the resulting MPQ contains the real file data and valid WoW directory paths. Tested on Linux-first — other platforms may work but are less tested.

⚠️🤖 Warning: This project and parts of this README were created with AI assistance.

Main features:

1. Create a skeleton structure to allow easily setting up a valid MPQ directory for development.
2. Wrap mpqcli packaging to allow symbolic links in the staging tree: symlinks are resolved during packaging so mpqcli creates a valid MPQ containing the real file data.

Features

• ✅ Create staging areas with the canonical WoW 3.3.5a directory structure
• ✅ Package MPQ files from staging areas using mpqcli
• ✅ Validate MPQ structure to ensure client compatibility
• ✅ Type-safe with full type hints
• ✅ Well-tested with comprehensive test coverage
• ✅ Cross-platform using pathlib

Requirements

• Python 3.11+
• mpqcli - Must be available in PATH

Installation

# Clone or navigate to the project directory
cd build_mpq

# Install in development mode
pip install -e .

# Or install with dev dependencies for testing
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Usage

1. Create a Staging Area

Create the canonical WoW 3.3.5a directory structure:

build-mpq create patch-Z.MPQ

This creates all 48 required directories for a complete patch.

Create only specific categories to avoid overwhelming directory structures:

# Create only Interface directories (27 dirs)
build-mpq create ./ui-patch --interface

# Create multiple categories (37 dirs)
build-mpq create ./custom-patch --dbc --interface --sound

# Create only DBC directory (1 dir)
build-mpq create ./dbc-patch --dbc

Available categories:

• --dbc - DBC files (DBFilesClient/)
• --interface - UI, icons, addons (Interface/*)
• --fonts - Font files (Fonts/)
• --sound - Audio files (Sound/*)
• --textures - Environment textures (Textures/*)
• --models - Character, creature, item models
• --world - Map data (World/*)
• --cameras - Camera files

Note: Empty directories are automatically excluded during MPQ packaging, so there's no bloat concern.

Force recreation if it already exists:

build-mpq create patch-Z.MPQ --force

2. Add Your Files

Place your custom files in the appropriate directories within the staging area.

Option A: Copy files (simple, but duplicates data):

# Copy files into staging area
cp my_spell_icon.blp patch-Z.MPQ/Interface/Icons/
cp MyCustom.dbc patch-Z.MPQ/DBFilesClient/
cp my_music.mp3 patch-Z.MPQ/Sound/Music/

Option B: Use symbolic links (recommended for development):

Windows Users: Creating symlinks on Windows requires either Administrator privileges or Developer Mode enabled (Windows 10+). Use mklink instead of ln -s. Alternatively, use Option A (copy files). The tool itself works fine on Windows - symlink creation is a Windows platform limitation.

# Link to your asset library (no duplication!)
ln -s ~/wow-assets/custom/icons/*.blp patch-Z.MPQ/Interface/Icons/
ln -s ~/wow-assets/custom/Spell.dbc patch-Z.MPQ/DBFilesClient/
ln -s ~/wow-assets/music/*.mp3 patch-Z.MPQ/Sound/Music/

# Symlinks are automatically resolved during packaging
# The MPQ will contain the actual file data, not broken links

Benefits of symlinks:

• ✅ No file duplication - saves disk space
• ✅ Edit assets in place - changes reflected immediately
• ✅ Multiple staging areas can reference same assets
• ✅ Symlinks are resolved during packaging - MPQ contains real data
• ✅ Broken symlinks are detected and skipped with warnings

Note: By default packaging will dereference symlinks — we copy symlink targets into a temporary staging tree and invoke mpqcli from that copy so the MPQ contains the expected relative file paths. If you prefer to keep symlinks intact, use --no-dereference to disable this behavior. Broken symlinks are reported (warning) and skipped.

3. Package the MPQ

Create an MPQ file from your staging area:

build-mpq package patch-Z.MPQ patch-Z.mpq

With different compression:

# zlib compression (default, recommended)
build-mpq package patch-Z.MPQ patch-Z.mpq -c z

# bzip2 compression (better compression, slower)
build-mpq package patch-Z.MPQ patch-Z.mpq -c b

# No compression (faster, larger files)
build-mpq package patch-Z.MPQ patch-Z.mpq -c n

4. Validate the MPQ

Check that all files in the MPQ are in valid WoW 3.3.5a directories:

build-mpq validate patch-Z.mpq

Verbose output (shows each file):

build-mpq validate patch-Z.mpq --verbose

Complete Workflow Examples

Example 1: Custom Spell Icons (UI Only)

# 1. Create staging area with only Interface directories
build-mpq create ./spell-icons-patch --interface

# 2. Add your custom icon
cp spell_custom_fireball.blp ./spell-icons-patch/Interface/Icons/

# 3. Package into MPQ (empty directories automatically excluded)
build-mpq package ./spell-icons-patch ./patch-icons-1.MPQ

# 4. Validate the structure
build-mpq validate ./patch-icons-1.MPQ

# 5. Deploy to your WoW client
cp ./patch-icons-1.MPQ /path/to/wow/Data/

Example 2: Full Custom Patch (All Categories)

# 1. Create full staging area
build-mpq create ./custom-patch

# 2. Add your custom files
cp spell_custom_fireball.blp ./custom-patch/Interface/Icons/
cp Spell.dbc ./custom-patch/DBFilesClient/
cp custom_music.mp3 ./custom-patch/Sound/Music/

# 3. Package into MPQ
build-mpq package ./custom-patch ./patch-custom-1.MPQ

# 4. Validate the structure
build-mpq validate ./patch-custom-1.MPQ

# 5. Deploy to your WoW client
cp ./patch-custom-1.MPQ /path/to/wow/Data/

Directory Structure

The tool creates the following canonical WoW 3.3.5a directory structure:

staging/
├── DBFilesClient/              # Database files (.dbc)
├── Interface/
│   ├── AddOns/                # Custom AddOns
│   ├── Buttons/               # Button textures
│   ├── Icons/                 # Spell/item icons
│   ├── Glues/                 # Login screen UI
│   └── ...                    # Many more UI directories
├── Fonts/                      # Font files
├── Sound/
│   ├── Music/                 # Background music
│   ├── Spells/                # Spell sound effects
│   ├── Creature/              # Creature sounds
│   └── ...                    # More sound categories
├── Textures/
│   └── Minimap/               # Minimap textures
├── Character/                  # Character models (.m2)
├── Creature/                  # NPC models
├── Item/                       # Item models
├── Spells/                     # Spell effect models
├── World/
│   ├── Maps/                  # ADT, WDT, WMO files
│   └── wmo/                   # World model objects
└── Cameras/                    # Camera files

Why This Structure Matters

The WoW 3.3.5a client has hard-coded directory scanning. Files placed in incorrect locations will be silently ignored by the client. This tool ensures:

1. ✅ All directories follow the exact structure the client expects
2. ✅ Validation catches misplaced files before deployment
3. ✅ No guesswork - the structure is canonical and complete

Development

Running Tests

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run all tests
pytest

# Run with coverage
pytest --cov=build_mpq --cov-report=html

# Run specific test file
pytest tests/test_structure.py

Project Structure

build_mpq/
├── build_mpq/
│   ├── __init__.py           # Package initialization
│   ├── cli.py                # CLI entry point
│   ├── operations.py         # Core MPQ operations
│   └── structure.py          # WoW directory definitions
├── tests/
│   ├── test_cli.py           # CLI tests
│   ├── test_operations.py    # Operations tests
│   └── test_structure.py     # Structure validation tests
├── pyproject.toml            # Project configuration
└── README.md                 # This file

Troubleshooting

"mpqcli not found in PATH"

Install mpqcli following the instructions in the Requirements section above.

"Validation failed: X file(s) in invalid locations"

Your MPQ contains files in directories that the WoW client won't read. Common issues:

• ❌ CustomFolder/myfile.dbc → ✅ DBFilesClient/myfile.dbc
• ❌ Icons/spell.blp → ✅ Interface/Icons/spell.blp
• ❌ Music/song.mp3 → ✅ Sound/Music/song.mp3

Use build-mpq validate --verbose to see which files are problematic.

"Staging area already exists"

Use --force to recreate: build-mpq create ./staging --force

Broken Symbolic Links Warning

If you see warnings about broken symbolic links during packaging:

⚠ Warning: 2 broken symbolic link(s) detected:
  - Interface/Icons/missing.blp -> ~/assets/missing.blp (target not found)

Cause: Symlink points to a file that doesn't exist or has been moved.

Solution:

1. Check that the target file exists: ls -l staging/Interface/Icons/missing.blp
2. Fix the symlink: ln -sf ~/assets/correct.blp staging/Interface/Icons/missing.blp
3. Or remove broken links: find staging -xtype l -delete

Broken symlinks are automatically skipped during packaging.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please ensure:

1. All tests pass: pytest
2. Type hints are used throughout
3. Code follows the existing style
4. New features include tests

References

• AzerothCore
• mpqcli
• WoW 3.3.5a Client Documentation

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Made with ❤️ for the AzerothCore community