Minecraft Server Control Script

A powerful command-line control script for Linux-powered Minecraft servers.

Download

You can download the script from the following locations:

Zip file

wget https://github.com/sandain/MinecraftServerControlScript/archive/master.zip

Git

git clone https://github.com/sandain/MinecraftServerControlScript.git

Installation

To get your server to run the script on startup, and cleanly down the server on shutdown, the minecraft_server script must be copied to /etc/init.d, have its execute permissions set, and the system must be instructed to use the script on startup and shutdown. For Bash programmable completion support, the mscs_completion script must be copied to /etc/bash_completion.d. For security reasons, the script uses a user account named minecraft rather than root and the account must be created before the script is used.

This can all be done automatically with the included Makefile in Debian and Ubuntu like environments by running:

sudo make install

It can also be accomplished manually with the following commands:

sudo cp minecraft_server /etc/init.d/minecraft_server
sudo cp mscs_completion /etc/bash_completion.d/mscs_completion
sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/minecraft_server
sudo update-rc.d minecraft_server defaults
sudo adduser minecraft

The Minecraft server software will be automatically downloaded to the following location on the first run:

/home/minecraft/minecraft_server/

Requirements

I've made an attempt to utilize only features that are normally installed in most Linux and UNIX environments in this script, but there are a few requirements that this script has that may not already be in place:

• Java JRE - The Minecraft server software requires this.
• Perl - Most, if not all, Unix and Linux like systems have this preinstalled.
• Python - Required by the Minecraft Overviewer mapping software.
• GNU Wget - Allows the script to download software updates via the internet.
• rdiff-backup - Allows the script to efficiently run backups.
• Socat - Allows the script to communicate with the Minecraft server.
• Iptables - Although not explicitly required, a good firewall should be installed.

If you are running Debian or Ubuntu, you can make sure that these are installed by running:

sudo apt-get install default-jre perl python wget rdiff-backup socat iptables

Mapping Software

The script uses the Minecraft Overviewer mapping software to generate maps of your worlds. Minecraft Overviewer is a command-line tool for rendering high-resolution maps of Minecraft worlds. It generates a set of static html and image files and uses the Google Maps API to display a nice interactive map.

You can download premade binaries for supported systems, or build your own binary from source if needed.

Repositories for automatic installation are also available:

• Debian/Ubuntu
• RHEL/CentOS/Fedora

Firewall / NAT

If you have a firewall installed on your computer, or a router using NAT installed in your network, you will need to route some ports to your server. Instructions on how to accomplish this are beyond the scope of this post, but here are some things you will need to know:

• The default port for the Minecraft server is: 25565.
• If you wish to run multiple world servers using this script, you will want to open a range of ports (for example 25565 - 25575).

See the iptables.rules file for a very basic set of rules that you can use with the Iptables filewall.

Usage

All commands below assume that you are running them as either the minecraft user or as root (through sudo).

Note: If the script is run as the root user, all important server processes will be started using the minecraft user for security purposes.

su minecraft
/etc/init.d/minecraft_server <option>

or

sudo /etc/init.d/minecraft_server <option>

Options

• start [world]

  Start the Minecraft world server. Start all worlds by default.

• stop [world]

  Stop the Minecraft world server. Stop all worlds by default.

• force-stop [world]

  Forcibly stop the Minecraft world server. Forcibly stop all worlds by default.

• restart [world]

  Restart the Minecraft world server. Restart all worlds by default.

• force-restart [world]

  Forcibly restart the Minecraft world server. Forcibly restart all worlds by default.

• create [world] [port] [ip]

  Create a Minecraft world server. The world name and port must be provided, the IP address is usually blank.

• delete [world]

  Delete a Minecraft world server.

• disable [world]

  Temporarily disable a world server.

• enable [world]

  Enable a disabled world server.

• list [option]

  Display a list of worlds. Options:

  • enabled

    Display a list of enabled worlds, default.

  • disabled

    Display a list of disabled worlds.

  • running

    Display a list of running worlds.

  • stopped

    Display a list of stopped worlds.

• status [world]

  Display the status of the Minecraft world server. Display the status of all worlds by default.

• send [world] [command]

  Send a command to a Minecraft world server.

• logrotate [world]

  Rotate the server.log file. Rotate the server.log file for all worlds by default.

• backup [world]

  Backup the Minecraft world. Backup all worlds by default.

• watch [world]

  Watch the log file for the Minecraft world server.

• map [world]

  Run the Minecraft Overviewer mapping software on the Minecraft world. Map all worlds by default.

• update

  Update the client and server software packages.

To start all of the world servers, issue the command:

/etc/init.d/minecraft_server start

To create a world named alpha, issue the command:

/etc/init.d/minecraft_server create alpha 25565

To start just the world named alpha, issue the command:

/etc/init.d/minecraft_server start alpha

To send a command to a world server, issue the command:

/etc/init.d/minecraft_server send <world> <command>

ie.

/etc/init.d/minecraft_server send alpha say Hello world!

Message of the Day (MOTD)

To whisper the message of the day to users as they log into the world, add a file called motd.txt to the /home/minecraft directory.

editor /home/minecraft/motd.txt

Colors

To add colors to your Help or MOTD files, insert the following color codes into your text:

• §0 - black
• §1 - blue
• §2 - deep green
• §3 - aqua
• §4 - deep red
• §5 - purple
• §6 - gold
• §7 - gray
• §8 - dark gray
• §9 - light blue
• §a - green
• §b - teal
• §c - red
• §d - magenta
• §e - yellow
• §f - white

Example motd.txt:

§fWelcome to Minecraft!
§fToday's theme is §4red§f.
§fLook out for those §2creepers§f!

Server Customization

The server settings for each world can be customized by adding certain key/value pairs to the world's server.properties file.

The following keys are available:

• mscs-client-version - Assign the version of the client software.
• mscs-client-jar - Assign the .jar file for the client software.
• mscs-client-url - Assign the download URL for the client software.
• mscs-client-location - Assign the location of the client .jar file.
• mscs-server-version - Assign the version of the server software.
• mscs-server-jar - Assign the .jar file for the server software.
• mscs-server-url - Assign the download URL for the server software.
• mscs-server-args - Assign the arguments to the server.
• mscs-initial-memory - Assign the initial amount of memory for the server.
• mscs-maximum-memory - Assign the maximum amount of memory for the server.
• mscs-server-location - Assign the location of the server .jar file.
• mscs-server-command - Assign the command to run for the server.

The following variables may be used in some of the values of the above keys:

• $JAVA - The Java virtual machine.
• $CURRENT_VERSION - The current Mojang Minecraft release version.
• $CLIENT_VERSION - The version of the client software.
• $SERVER_VERSION - The version of the server software.
• $SERVER_JAR - The .jar file to run for the server.
• $SERVER_ARGS - The arguments to the server.
• $INITIAL_MEMORY - The initial amount of memory for the server.
• $MAXIMUM_MEMORY - The maximum amount of memory for the server.
• $SERVER_LOCATION - The location of the server .jar file.

The following example key/value pairs are equivalent to the default values:

mscs-client-version=$CURRENT_VERSION
mscs-client-jar=$CLIENT_VERSION.jar
mscs-client-url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/versions/$CLIENT_VERSION/$CLIENT_VERSION.jar
mscs-client-location=/home/minecraft/.minecraft/versions/$CLIENT_VERSION
mscs-server-version=$CURRENT_VERSION
mscs-server-jar=minecraft_server.$SERVER_VERSION.jar
mscs-server-url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/versions/$SERVER_VERSION/minecraft_server.$SERVER_VERSION.jar
mscs-server-args=nogui
mscs-initial-memory=128M
mscs-maximum-memory=2048M
mscs-server-location=/home/minecraft/minecraft_server
mscs-server-command=$JAVA -Xms$INITIAL_MEMORY -Xmx$MAXIMUM_MEMORY -jar $SERVER_LOCATION/$SERVER_JAR $SERVER_ARGS

The following example key/value pairs will run a Minecraft version 1.6.4 server:

mscs-client-version=1.6.4
mscs-server-version=1.6.4

The following example key/value pairs will use the latest CraftBukkit recommended build:

mscs-server-jar=craftbukkit.jar
mscs-server-url=http://dl.bukkit.org/latest-rb/craftbukkit.jar
mscs-server-args=
mscs-initial-memory=128M
mscs-maximum-memory=2048M

Lib Notify

On systems that support lib notify, you can modify the script to print a message on your desktop of important server events.

First, you need to know the name of the display you want to route the messages to. This is usually ":0.0", but it may be something different on your system.

glxinfo | grep "name of display"

If your username is different than the user used for the Minecraft server, replace $USER_NAME in LIBNOTIFY_USER_NAME=$USER_NAME with the correct username.

Modify the following lines of code in the script:

# To use lib-notify to print a message on your desktop of important server
events, change the following to a 1.
USE_LIBNOTIFY=0

# The username and display that notifications will be routed to.
LIBNOTIFY_USER_NAME=$USER_NAME
LIBNOTIFY_DISPLAY=":0.0"

License

See LICENSE

Issues

I have only tested this code in a Debian/Ubuntu environment, but there is no reason that it shouldn't work in any appropriately configured UNIX-like environment, including Apple Mac OSX and the other BSD variants, with only minor modifications. If you experience errors running this script, please post a copy of the error message and a note detailing the operating environment where the error occurs to the support thread, and I'll try to work out a solution with you.

Support thread: http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=129833

Github Issues: https://github.com/sandain/MinecraftServerControlScript/issues