🐧 Linux Minecraft Server Manager

Are you sick of searching for hours for a Linux Minecraft server manager, only to find complex Docker setups or fragile Python scripts? Me too.

I wanted something simple: an intuitive GUI to manage my world, auto-install mods, handle updates, and keep backups so I never lose progress. No more difficult configs. No more waiting 30 seconds for a modded world to load.

You've found it.

⚡ Why Rust?

This tool is built in Rust for maximum performance and memory safety.

• Speed: Load worlds with 300+ mods in 5 seconds, not 30.
• Simplicity: No bloated dependencies. One command and the window opens.
• Reliability: You set one memory number; the kernel enforces it. No more random out-of-memory crashes taking the world down with them.

🚀 How to Run

It's as simple as it gets. Clone the repo and run:

git clone https://github.com/Aineasg/minecraft-server-manager
cd minecraft-server-manager
./install.sh

That's it. It grabs the build and runtime dependencies with your package manager (asks for sudo once, just for that), compiles a release binary, and drops it plus a menu entry into ~/.local. Then launch Minecraft Server Manager from your app menu.

No hidden config files, no daemon to set up. ./install.sh --uninstall removes everything — your worlds and settings are never touched.

What you'll need: the script pulls in GTK 4 + libadwaita for you. You also want a JRE (Java 21+ for modern Minecraft), tar with --zstd plus the zstd binary, and systemd --user for the hard memory cap (without it the server still runs, the ceiling just becomes a suggestion).

On Arch you can also build a proper package: cd packaging && makepkg -si. Just want to try it without installing anything? cargo run --release -p mcsm-gui.

🎮 What it does

• Dashboard — start/stop/restart, a live console you can type commands into, a real-time memory meter for the whole process tree, and auto-restart (which stays out of the way after an out-of-memory kill).
• Mods — search Modrinth for server-side Fabric mods that match your version, install them with their dependencies pulled in automatically, enable/disable without deleting, and check the whole folder for updates at once. Jars you dropped in by hand are recognised too.
• Properties — a proper form for server.properties that keeps your comments and ordering, a raw section for anything exotic, and a World (level.dat) group that flips hardcore, difficulty, and difficulty-lock on a world that's already generated.
• Player access — ops, whitelist, and bans. Applied live as console commands while the server runs, written to JSON when it's stopped.
• Backups — tar --zstd snapshots of the world, on a schedule with a retention count, plus one-click restore and delete. A running server gets a save-all flush first. They land in your Documents folder by default, so deleting the app never costs you a world.
• Files — a plain-text editor for anything under the data folder.
• Settings — install a Minecraft + Fabric version (no separate Fabric-installer step), set the memory budget and GC flags, point at your Java, accept the EULA, choose the backup folder.

📸 A look around

Mods — search Modrinth, toggle without deleting, bulk update check	Properties — a typed server.properties form plus level.dat toggles
Player access — ops, whitelist and bans, applied live	Backups — scheduled snapshots with retention, one-click restore
Settings — version install, the memory ceiling, GC flags	Settings — Java path, EULA, backup folder, licence

📁 Where your stuff lives

Everything sits in one folder:

• run from a cloned repo → it's ./data/ inside the checkout
• installed → it's ~/.local/share/MinecraftServerManager/
• or set MCSM_ROOT=/some/path to put it wherever you like

<root>/
├── state.toml            your settings (plain text, editable by hand)
├── server/               jars, world, mods/, config/, ops.json, whitelist.json, …
│   └── logs/             the server's own logs, written by Java
├── cache/                downloaded jars, reused across reinstalls
└── logs/                 reserved for an app log; nothing writes here yet

Backups are the exception — they go to ~/Documents/Minecraft Server Manager Backups/ so a deleted app folder never takes a world with it. Change that in Settings → Backups.

First run

1. Settings → pick a Minecraft version and Fabric loader → Install.
2. Settings → accept the Minecraft EULA.
3. Set the memory ceiling if 9 GiB isn't right for your machine.
4. Dashboard → Start.

Run MCSM_LOG=debug mcsm if you want verbose logs.

🧵 Current support & roadmap

• ✅ Fabric (fully supported)

Want Purpur, Spigot, or Paper? I play daily, so this gets regular updates based on real use. If you need another loader, open an issue and ask — I'll add it.

🛠️ Hacking on it

cargo fmt --all
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo test --workspace          # unit tests, no network

crates/mcsm-core is all the logic with no GTK anywhere in it; crates/mcsm-gui is a thin Relm4 layer, one module per page. DESIGN.md explains why things are the way they are; CONTRIBUTING.md has the rest.

📜 Licence

GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later. Free software, no warranty. If you hand out a modified version — or run one as a network service for other people — your changes have to be AGPL too.

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Built by Aineasg for Linux users who value their time.