This is a neat wrapper around project zomboid which ensures it exits gracefully upon receiving a sigterm signal, meaning it becomes easier to run as a service on servers with e.g. systemd. It is recommended to run this as a docker or podman container.

This exists since Zomboid doesnt handle termination signals gracefully as of pre 42 (https://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php?/topic/63563-4178-multiplayer-zomboid-dedicated-server-does-not-handle-sigterm/). Prompting the wiki to recommend unreliable hacks where one begs the server to save, waits for 15 seconds and PRAYS it had time to save. This wrapper will exit ONLY when said server has exited cleanly.

You can pass parameters directly to the zomboid server in two ways. Firstly using the CUSTOM_SERVER_PARAMETERS environment variable, or directly as an argument to the executable. Both scenarios require the parameters to be passed as one singular string, with each parameter separated by commas (,). I suggest reading the Dockerfile for details.

The container will install the latest version of project zomboid using steamcmd, with the game files stored inside the container at /install_dir, saves at /saves d logs at /logs by default.

Thus you can build and run the container with persistent server install, saves and logs like the following:

podman run --rm -it -v $PWD/game_files:/install_dir -v $PWD/saves:/saves -v $PWD/logs:/logs -p 16261:16261/udp -p 16262:16262/udp -p 27015:27015/tcp ghcr.io/pommaq/project-zomboid-container:master

Or for a more permanent install, run it as a systemd service:

[Unit]
Description=Project Zomboid Server
After=containerd.service
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
TimeoutSec=900
Restart=always
ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/docker  stop -i zomboid

ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker  run --rm --pull=always --name zomboid -v /root/game_files:/install_dir -v /root/save_files:/saves -v /root/logs:/logs -p 16261:16261/udp -p 16262:16262/udp -p 27015:27015/tcp -e CUSTOM_SERVER_PARAMETERS="-adminpassword,password123,-Xms1024m,-Xmx8192m" ghcr.io/pommaq/project-zomboid-container:master

ExecStop=/bin/docker stop zomboid

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

For parameter details, run the binary with --help.

cd tools/runner
cargo run -- --help
# (OR if the runner is installed and added to $PATH)
runner --help

First you will need to manually install zomboid and the wrapper located at tools/runner. Then, assuming zomboid was installed at /install_dir:

# Set admin password using parameters to ensure the server won't prompt us
runner /install_dir/start-server.sh "'-adminpassword,MYCOOLPASSWORD'"

Or as a systemd service, assuming runner was installed as /usr/bin/runner

[Unit]
Description=Project Zomboid Server
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
TimeoutSec=900
Restart=always
ExecStart=/usr/bin/runner /install_dir/start-server.sh "'-adminpassword,password123,-Xms1024m,-Xmx8192m'"


[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Once the server is installed open the savefile location (e.g. /home/timmy/Zomboid) or Documents/Zomboid where the configuration files will be located as per usual for zomboid.