Question

I’m trying to make a simple file so I can call it in SSH and it will start my minecraft server.
I tried making a batch file called start.bat with this code:

java -Xmx512M -Xmx512M -jar craftbukkit-1.2.5-R1.0.jar nogui

However, when I run it in SSH:

$ cd /Minecraft/server_1/

$ start.bat

The SSH returns that it is an invalid or unknown command. Is there any other way I can make a quick command/file to start my server? What file extensions would I use to get this working? It works if I paste that java command in SSH and run it, but I’d rather have a file.

Answer 1

The current working directory is not included in your PATH by default because it is a security risk on multiuser systems. (And a potential annoyance even on machines that are single user.) You would use ./start.bat to start the program.

Since you’re using Windows naming conventions, I presume you also forgot to set the execution mode bit — and you probably also forgot the shebang line at the top of the file.

Try this:

#!/bin/sh
java -Xmx512M -Xmx512M -jar craftbukkit-1.2.5-R1.0.jar nogui

Run chmod 500 on this file. (Strictly speaking, 555 could also work, if you didn’t mind other people on the machine executing the file. But they don’t need to, so don’t let them.) See the chmod(1) manpage for more details on the modes — 1 bits mean executable, 2 bits means writable, and 4 bits means readable — thus, 5 is executable and readable.

Then, when you want to run the script, run it like this:

cd /Minecraft/server_1
./start.bat

Note the ./ — that means the shell should start the search for the executable program in the current working directory. (It could be ./bin/start.bat if your current working directory had a bin subdirectory with a start.bat executable file.)