These scripts are free to use and modify under the GPLv2 license.

This is a Linux service script for starting a Minecraft or Bukkit server as a service on Debian and Enterprise Linux based systems.

• Start Minecraft/Bukkit server on system startup
• Start and stop the service properly on runlevel change (Startup, Shutdown, Restart, etc.)
• Option to load worlds in ramdisk
• Backup command for worlds and ramdisk
• Remote access to Minecraft/Bukkit console with Screen and SSH

• Screen

We are not responsible for any damage or lost data this script may cause to your server. These scripts are still in development and should be considered beta quality.

It is highly recommended that you test this script out yourself in a controlled environment before using it with your production server.

This script is designed to be as easy to use, and as useful as possible. However, there is a bit of setup required.

This script requires a specific directory tree to be set up. We'll be telling the script the name of the directories in this tree in Step 2.

Note: Any variable ending in PATH should hold a full directory path (i.e. starts with a /, for example: /mnt/codecraft ). The exception to this is the ROOT_BUPATH variable which can also begin with the ROOT_PATH variable instead of a / Any variable ending in DIR should contain the name of the folder only.

1. Make the root directory for your server. Put this in the $ROOT_PATH variable.

2. Make a folder for your server configurations inside of the root directory. Put this in the SERVER_DIR variable.

3. Make a folder for craftbukkit.jar/minecraft_server.jar inside of the SERVER_DIR directory. Name this with the build or version number of the .jar you're using. Put this in the BUILD variable.

4. Make a folder for your worlds. Put this in the WORLD_DIR variable.

5. Make a folder for the ramdisk. Put this in the RD_DIR variable.

6. Make a folder for your backups. Put this in the ROOT_BUPATH variable. The script will make folders inside of this one later to keep your backups organized.

Example:

BUILD="b1597"

ROOT_PATH="/mnt/codecraft"
SERVER_DIR="servers"
WORLD_DIR="worlds"
RD_DIR="ramdisk"
ROOT_BUPATH="$ROOT_PATH/archives"

First things first. If you haven't already, go grab the latest version of the script from the Github repo. You can find it in the downloads section.

1. Download either the vanilla minecraft server software or bukkit and place it in $ROOT_PATH/$SERVER_DIR/$BUILD

2. Place your worlds into the $WORLD_DIR directory and place symbolic links in $ROOT_PATH/$SERVER_DIR/$BUILD which point to the worlds in $ROOT_PATH/$WORLD_DIR. To do this, open up a terminal and type the following (replacing the variables with your chosen directory paths):

   cd $ROOT_PATH/$SERVER_DIR/$BUILD
   ln -s $ROOT_PATH/$WORLD_DIR/[world_name_here] [world_name_here]
   

• Repeat the last command for every world on your server.
• Note: If you don't currently have any worlds, you'll need to run the service first (bukkit/minecraft will automatically create them), and then move the worlds into the $WORLD_DIR directory and issue the afformentioned commands.

3. Extract the script from the tarball and change the settings and file paths/directory names as you see fit. More information on configuraiton can be found in the Notes section.

4. Place the script in your /etc/init.d folder and make sure the script is executable with chmod +x minecraft.

5. Configure the script to start Minecraft/Bukkit on startup and stop it on shutdown:

• RHEL / CentOS: Run in terminal chkconfig --add minecraft
• Debian / Ubuntu: Run in terminal update-rc.d -n minecraft defaults

As root, run service minecraft start

This scrript starts up the Minecraft server (or bukkit, or whatever you use) on system boot as a service.

This script MUST be run as root or as a user with mount priveleges if the $RAMDISK variable is set to "true".

There are many variables in this script which you may modify to suite your operating environment.

USERNAME

• This is the username which the Minecraft server will run under

GROUPNAME

• This variable should be set to the group which will have access to all files related to your Minecraft server.

SCREEN_NAME

• The script starts the service in a screen session for easy remote accessibility.
  This variable sets the name of the session.

BUILD

• This should be set to the build number or version of the server you're running (like b1337 for bukkit, or v1.8.1 for vanilla).
  This is only used when looking for the directory your server runs under (for example, our server has directories named "b1240" and "b1337", and since we run off of b1337 as it's the most recent, we set this variable to b1337).

SERVICE

• This should be set to the name of the .jar file which starts your server (craftbukkit.jar for bukkit, minecraft.jar for vanilla).
  This must be set to the name of the .jar file used in the invocation since the service will show up in top or gnome-system-monitor with the name of the .jar file used in the invocation.

INVOCATION

• This should be set to the command-line statements used to start your server.
  For example: java -Xmn256M -Xms512M -Xmx1024M -jar craftbukkit.jar

RAMDISK

• This should be set to "true" if you want your worlds to be loaded into a ramdisk.
  It's highly recommended that you set up automatic backups while using this feature.
  For our server, we simply set up a cron job that runs /etc/init.d/minecraft worldbackup every hour.

RD_SIZE

• This is the size you want the ramdisk to be. "m" is megabytes, "g" is kilobytes. Make sure the ramdisk is big enough to hold your worlds while still leaving enough RAM for the server itself (including core system processes, which should be given at least 256Mb in most situations)

Example:

USERNAME="minecraft"
GROUPNAME="CodeProAdmins"
SCREEN_NAME="codecraft"
BUILD="b1597"
SERVICE="craftbukkit.jar"
INVOCATION="java -Xms512M -Xmx1024M -jar craftbukkit.jar"
RAMDISK="true"
RD_SIZE="128m"

Note: This script will implement automatic backups in the future as a toggleable feature (similar to the ramdisk feature).

• ROOT_PATH

• This should be set to the directory location where all files pertaining to your Minecraft server will be stored.

• Since this is a path variable and not a directory variable, this can point to wherever you like.

• For example: /mnt/codecraft

• WORLD_DIR

• This is the name of the folder where your worlds will be located.

• This script expects the $WORLD_DIR folder to be located at $ROOT_PATH/$WORLD_DIR

• For example, if WORLD_DIR="worlds" then it might be located here: /mnt/codecraft/worlds`

• SERVER_DIR

• This is the name of the folder where your server files will be located.

• This script expects the $SERVER_DIR folder to be located at $ROOT_PATH/$SERVER_DIR

• For example, if SERVER_DIR="servers" then it might be located here: /mnt/codecraft/servers`

• RD_DIR

• This is the name of the folder where your ramdisk will be located.

• This script expects the $RD_DIR folder to be located at $ROOT_PATH/$RD_DIR

• For example, if RD_DIR="ramdisk" then it might be located here: /mnt/codecraft/ramdisk`

• ROOT_BUPATH

• This is the directory location where all your backups will be stored.

• Since this is a path variable and not a directory variable, this can point to wherever you like.

• For example: /mnt/codecraft/archives or $ROOT_PATH/archives or even /opt/codecraft/archives

These variables represent messages which are sent to the bukkit/vanilla console with the "say" command. They should be fairly self explanitory. For example, when you use the "worldbackup" command, SAVE_OFF_MSG will be displayed to users in-game, followed by BACKUP_START_MSG and, if the backup is successful, followed by BACKUP_DONE_MSG. It should end with SAVE_ON_MSG.