Notes on Minecraft hosting

Just notes to self that I keep having to find in various documents and random Minecraft forums of varying quality of which there are a lot...

Screen stuff

I have an unused laptop which I installed Ubuntu Server on, and this is what I use to run the Minecraft server so it's easy to manage and won't die when I disconnect.

# Run detached in screen using dir name as screen name
screen -dmS ${PWD##*/} java -Xmx3G -XX:MaxPermSize=256M -jar server.jar nogui

# List screens
screen -ls

# Reattach to specific
screen -r name

# Reattatch to whatever (handy if just one running)
screen -raAd

# Detach (important, since Ctrl+c would shut down the server)
Ctrl+a, Ctrl+d

Minecraft server stuff

A bit cheaty, especially the last one, but sometimes you just want to play without worrying about losing what you spent way too many hours working on. I prefer a gravestone mod over the last one though, cause then dying is still an annoyance, but at least you have a chance of getting back that crazy expensive armor and the fifteen stacks of diamonds you just spent forever digging up.

# Prevent creepers and such from destroying stuff
gamerule mobGriefing false

# Don't lose stuff when dying
gamerule keepInventory true