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What is it?

A bash script to gracefully stop/restart and perform local backups of a Minecraft server running in Screen on Ubuntu. Back up full server files, just worlds or just plugins with in-game warnings to tell players the server is restarting. Easily automated with crontab.

Setup

1. Open the script in a text editor and change these variables at the top:

• serverDir = Your root server directory. (dont include closing "/")
• backupDir = The location to backup the compressed files to. The folder must exist already. (dont include closing "/")
• startScript = The command to restart the server.
• gracePeriod = Time to wait between warning in-game players and stopping server. M for minutes, s for seconds.
• serverWorlds = A list of the world folder names. Includes defaults, add any of your custom worlds here.

2. Manually start a screen session with screen -S <screen-id> and start your Minecraft server within the screen session. Ensure there is only 1 running screen session with screen -ls. (or see below for how to automate)

3. Deattach from the screen session with ctrl + a + d and run the mc-backup.sh script from a SSH/terminal session outside of screen when you're ready to initiate a backup. Re-attach to the screen session with screen -r <screen-id> if needed. (or see below for how to automate)

(Optional) Auto-start minecraft server and screen at system boot:

• crontab -e
• add @reboot sleep 60 && bash /path/to/server/start.sh to end of crontab file
• in your Minecraft server start.sh:

cd /path/to/server  
screen -dmS <screen-id>
screen -p 0 -X stuff 'java -Xms<RAM>G -Xmx<RAM>G -jar paper*\n'  

(Optional) Automate mc-backup.sh with Crontab (examples below):

• crontab -e
• Restart server every day at noon: 00 12 * * * bash /home/J-Bentley/mc-backup.sh -r
• Backup world files every day at midnight: 00 24 * * * bash /home/J-Bentley/mc-backup.sh -w
• Full server backup every monday at 1 AM: 00 1 * * 1 bash /home/J-Bentley/mc-backup.sh

Usage

bash mc-backup.sh [-h , -r , -w , -p, -pc]

• No args: Gracefully stops the server if its running, compresses entire server directory to backup location and restarts server.

• -h | --help: Shows modes available.

• -r | --restart: Saves & restarts server with no backup made.

• -w | --worlds: Gracefully stops the server, compresses world directories and restarts server.

• -p | --plugins: Gracefully stops the server, compresses entire plugin directory and restarts server.

• -pc | --pluginconfig: Gracefully stops the server, compresses plugin config directories and restarts server. Ignores plugin .jars.

Caveats

• Only 1 or no arg can be called at a time.
• Only 1 screen session can be running on the system.
• If the server is offline when mc-backup is run, won't restart it after a backup unless in restartonly mode (-r). (submit an issue if you think this should be changed)