screen-server-scripts / gamesrv / CTL.sh

screen-server-scripts (also known as CTL.sh from its main executable or gamesrv from the systemd unit names) is a script to start a Minecraft server in a screen and control it via systemd. It should be easy to adapt for different servers that behave similarly to Minecraft.

System Setup / Integration Assumptions

• You have a user for running all the game servers: gamesrv
• This user's home directory ist /opt/gamesrv/
• This repository is cloned to /opt/gamesrv/screen-server-scripts/
• The server instance folders are in /opt/gamesrv/instances/ (an instance vanilla would be located at /opt/gamesrv/instances/vanilla/).

The only thing that cares about system integration or absolute paths are the systemd unit files. The CTL.sh script is completely standalone and can be theoretically be located where ever you want, if you do NOT want to use the systemd integration.

Dependencies

• screen
• bc

sudo apt install screen bc

Actual setup guide

# Add user
adduser --system --home /opt/gamesrv --disabled-password gamesrv

# Switch to gamesrv user
sudo -u gamesrv -i

# Make sure we are in the home directory of gamesrv user
cd

# Clone repo
git clone https://github.com/Loetkolben/screen-server-scripts

# Create instances directory
mkdir instances

# exit from sudo
exit

# Install systemd integration
cp /opt/gamesrv/screen-server-scripts/systemd/* /etc/systemd/system

# Reload systemd
systemctl daemon-reload

# System setup / integration done!
# Continue with `Adding a new server instance`.

Adding a new server instance

• Run all these steps (except the system integration part) as gamesrv user.

• Create a directory with the instance name in /opt/gamesrv/instances/. Example: Instance name should be FOOBAR (= $INSTANCE_NAME), so the directory would be

  mkdir -p /opt/gamesrv/instances/$INSTANCE_NAME

• Dump the normal Minecraft server files into /opt/gamesrv/instances/$INSTANCE_NAME.

• Symlink CTL.sh form the repository to /opt/gamesrv/instances/$INSTANCE_NAME/CTL.sh:

  ln -s /opt/gamesrv/screen-server-scripts/CTL.sh /opt/gamesrv/instances/$INSTANCE_NAME/CTL.sh

• Optionally, create a ctlconf.sh file in /opt/gamesrv/instances/$INSTANCE_NAME to override any of the variables from the config section from CTL.sh.

• Start/stop the server or view status:

  systemctl start|stop|status gamesrv@FOOBAR.service

  After starting, the server should be running in a screen with the configured $SCREEN_NAME (by default $INSTANCE_NAME).

• Enable/disable auto-start on boot:

  systemctl enable|disable gamesrv@FOOBAR.service

• Start the timer for the backup:

  systemctl enable|disable gamesrv-backup@FOOBAR.timer

• View backup status or run backup manually:

  systemctl status|start gamesrv-backup@FOOBAR.service