This is a text based yet easy to use Minecraft server launcher for *nix systems. It has been tested on Linux so far, and chances are that it will run with minor tweaks on macOS and *BSD.
The projects’s aim is to provide something like Prism Launcher but for servers. To that end MCServeMe allows keeping different versions of the Minecraft Java server around. That comes in handy if you have older worlds that rely on a specific world generation, or you prefer to use an older client.
You can tweak a fair number of settings, however if you don't care much about that then simply getting a Fabric enabled and moddable server up and running is a matter of firing up MCServeMe and hitting the Enter key a few times, or you can initiate kickstart mode via the -k switch.
- Comfortably manage and run multiple server versions
- Server and world backups
- Kickstart mode (via
-k/--kickstartcommand line switch): Downloads (if necessary) and runs the newest server without any user interaction - Lightweight dependencies:
dialog,curlandjq, plus a current Java runtime for the servers. For backups you need eithertar+gzip,zipor7zr
This is still alpha software. While I am zealous to write decent and portable code, this is a quite bulky script file and you may encounter bugs and glitches. In particular it has not yet been tested on macOS and other non-GNU systems where the same commands may potentially behave differently. Therefore, just to be in safe waters, I encourage you to make regular backups of your worlds when using this software.
Furthermore I recommend using MCServeMe only for operating small-scale private servers at this time.
MCServeMe comes as a single shell script with a README and a license file plus a couple of optional desktop assets. You can simply launch the mcserveme script file and you are good to go. For added convenience there is an entry in the global options menu for installing the script to ~/.local/bin where it is (likely) in the $PATH. You can also have a desktop icon and menu entry installed if the computer is running an XDG compliant graphical desktop environment such as KDE or GNOME.
Most of the user interface should be self-explaining even for non-technical folks. There is a main menu with some system information displayed at the top, a menu for the global settings, as well as different server lists. Selecting a server presents you with a number of related actions.
MCServeMe furthermore features a number of command line parameters as well–with more to come–, which you can list using mcserveme --help.
It seems that MCServeMe is sometimes “caching” something during startup, what is happening?
MCServeMe regularly downloads a list of available server jars and other components using the Fabric API into a cache directory. The default interval is every four hours. To disable this feature and only update manually from the main menu start MCServeMe with the -n/--no-auto-cache parameter.
A word is missing here and there in some of the dialogs. Are those spelling errors?
Language proficiency is not the issue here (although English is not my first language). What happens is that dialog sometimes swallows a word in dialog captions when color codes are enabled. I am looking into a workaround.
I think that the color scheme looks a bit plain.
Don’t despair, MCServeMe features support for a custom dialogrc. First you need to delete the auto-generated file ~/.config/MCServeMe/colors and tell dialog to create a default configuration with color definitions and some general settings:
dialog --create-rc ~/.config/MCServeMe/colors
Then edit the colors file to your liking.
Can I play the Minecraft betas with it? Or 1.0?
Alas, the Fabric mod loader has not existed for that long. Hence the earliest snapshot you can play in MCServeMe is 18w43b and the earliest stable release is 1.14. I may add support for vanilla servers in the future if there is demand.
MCServeMe is in an early stage of development and there is still a lot to come. Such as:
- Launching servers and selecting worlds directly from the command line
- Making backups from the command line, e.g. in a cronjob
- Editing the most important
server.propertiessettings via a UI - Downloading and managing of server optimization mods
- Editing the whitelist and ops list via a UI
- Directory selection dialogs
- Restore backups
- Renaming of worlds
- A flatpak for easy distribution
If you would like to contribute you can help the project in several ways:
- Test the script on different platforms (Linux distros other than the *buntus; macOS, *BSD etc.). I am quite positive that it can run fine on most common Unices with only minor tweaks. It might even run on WSL in Windows, although I am not sure why someone would try that.
- Leave some feedback, constructive criticism or praise in the official Reddit sub or the Discord channel.
- Make a (blog/video) review or showcase to maybe get some people interested
- If you found glitches or bugs in MCServeMe, or have a feature request, please open an issue.