Backup script for Linux servers running a Minecraft server.
Supports servers running in [GNU screen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Screen), [tmux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tmux), or with [rcon](https://wiki.vg/RCON) enabled.
Backups are essential to the integrity of your Minecraft world. You should automate regular backups and **check that your backups work**. While this script has been used in production for several years, it is up to you to make sure that your backups work and that you have a reliable backup policy.
Please refer to the LICENSE (MIT License) for the full legal disclaimer.
If the Minecraft server is currently running, you need to disable world autosaving, or you will likely get an error like this:
```
tar: /some/path/here/world/region/r.1.11.mca: file changed as we read it
```
This script will take care of disabling and then re-enabling autosaving for you, and also alert players in the chat of successful backups or errors. This script also manages deleting old backups.
This will show chat messages (`-c`) in the screen called "minecraft" and save a backup of `/home/nicolas/mcserver/world` into `/mnt/storage/backups` using the default thinning deletion policy for old backups.
Always test your backups! Backups are in the `tar` format and compressed depending on the option you choose. To restore, first decompress if necessary and then extract using tar. You may be able to do this in one command if `tar` supports your compression option, as is the case with `gzip`:
Example:
```bash
mkdir restored-world
cd restored-world
tar -xzvf /path/to/backups/2019-04-09_02-15-01.tar.gz
```
Then you can move your restored world (`restored-world` in this case) to your Minecraft server folder and rename it (usually called `world`) so the Minecraft server uses it.
