The main script minecraft_backup.py implements three different steps aimed to safely stop, backup and reboot the minecraft world running on the server.
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Step 1: stops the server. This script will store the users and chunks for the overworld, nether and the end. This will safely store the current data of the world and will avoid file corruption since the server is stopped.
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Step 2: creates a backup of the world, nether and the end. To do this the script uses the modules
shutils,subprocessanddatetime.shutil: used to create a whole copy of a tree directory and move it to a specific location.subprocess: allows to execute arbitrary commands in Bashdatetime: gives us the current date and time.
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Step 3: reboots the server. As a maintenance task it is important to reset the background processes, RAM, cache and other aspects of a computer. Rebooting the server allows to start from a blank slate, sometimes fixing problems and giving a boost in speed
The job of this script is to run the Python script. Be careful of using absolute paths in both the Python and Bash scripts to avoid trouble referencing paths.
The modules shutil, subprocess and datetime are part of the standard Python library.
After completing the Python and Bash scripts, the final step is the definition of a new cron job. This is implemented via crontab -e and adding a new line according to the instructions from this Crontab's page.
The image below illustrates the basic operation of crontab:
There are a couple of functional scripts (stop and reboot) used in step 1 and 3 of the automation workflow. The second one needs to be run as sudo. One way to do this is to modify /etc/sudoers to allow superuser access for my user without password. To achieve this follow the next steps:
- Open the
/etc/sudoerswithsudo visudo - Add the following line to the file
user_name ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:/home/overcode/minecraft/boot - To allow passwordless superuser execution to multiple files, use a comma to separate the paths
- Save and you are all set
Free and open source.