Scheduling Tasks

Schedule automatic backups, restarts, mapping and more using MSCS and cron, a scheduler software built into UNIX that can run programs on a set interval of time.

Any MSCS command can be scheduled using cron. Commands that may be of interest include:

mscs map
mscs backup
mscs log-rotate
mscs restart
mscs broadcast

Below is an example of one way you could setup to backup a world every 2 hours:

Edit the crontab file for the minecraft user using sudo:

sudo crontab -e -u minecraft

Page down until you get to an empty line. Then paste the following:

# Define HOME and PATH
HOME=/opt/mscs
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

# Run mscs backups
0 */2 * * *  mscs backup myWorld
  • We define HOME and PATH because cron may not do it for us. The HOME and PATH we’ve defined above are the default values set with the default installation. If you did not follow the default installation, Make sure that PATH and HOME match the environment on your system.
  • 0 */2 * * * is the time interval to backup. This particular expression means backup every 2 hours. We list some more common examples below.
  • myWorld is the name of the world you wish to backup. Omitting this will backup all worlds.

Scheduling Examples

Run the backup hourly.

# Minecraft backup worlds every hour
0 * * * * /usr/local/bin/mscs backup

Run the backup every 2 hours.

# Minecraft backup worlds every 2 hours
0 */2 * * * /usr/local/bin/mscs backup

Run the backup every day at midnight.

# Minecraft backup worlds every day at midnight
0 0 * * * /usr/local/bin/mscs backup

Visit crontab.guru for more help on scheduling cron jobs.