SmartControl

SmartControl allows for easy automation of screen-instances and is meant to make setting up screen for (game-)servers easy. Simply add a configuration for each server you'd like to automate and you're good to go!

Note: This started as a personal project for a specific need which is why it is lacking some sanity-checks and doesn't come with code-documentation yet.

Features

• ServerConfiguration lets you specify both basic information about servers as well as commands to send to them on startup or shutdown
• Simple usage!
• Detailed logging: In case you run into any problems, check the logs!
• Detects whether a server is already running or not
• Can easily be used with and invoked by shell-scripts

Usage

mono SmartControl.exe METHOD NAME or mono SmartControl.exe METHOD all (not implemented yet), where METHOD is either Start, Stop or Restart. Also, there are some basic commands:

• -h or --help: Print usage
• -v or --version: Print current version
• -l or --list: Print current configurations

Adding configurations is done by adding new entries to the serverconfigurations-Array in the config-file, as shown here.

Requirements

• mono, runtime-version 4.0
• screen

Example

Setting up a minecraft-server is rather simple with this tool. Since minecraft-servers often come with a shell-script, we can simply invoke it:

• Copy SmartControl.exe, SmartControl.exe.config, log4net.dll, Newtonsoft.Json.dll to a folder of your choice
• Create SmartControlConfigs.json, fill in:

{
  "serverconfigurations": [
    {
      "name": "Minecraft",
      "restartDelay": 15,
      "allowMultipleInstances": false,
      "filepath": "/bin/sh",
      "workingdirectory": "/var/gameservers/minecraft/",
      "arguments": "ServerStart.sh",
      "sendOnStart": [],
      "sendOnStop": [
        "^M",
        "save-all^M",
        "stop^M"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

• Name: This name will be used for both automation and screen-names.
• RestartDelay: Seconds between stopping and starting the server back up again.
• AllowMultipleInstances: Whether or not to allow for spawning multiple instances.
  • We don't want to run the gameserver twice in this case.
• FilePath: The path of the program to execute.
  • We'll let sh interpret the given script-file.
• WorkingDirectory: The directory to execute the program in.
  • Make sure this is the gameserver's root-directory.
• Arguments: Arguments you want to pass to the program.
  • Since we want to have sh interpret the script, pass the script-file.
• SendOnStop: An array of messages that are sent to the screen-instance after starting it up.
  • We don't need to supply anything upon startup.
• SendOnStop: An array of messages that are sent to the screen-instance to shut it down.
  • In order to stop the server, make sure that the current input-buffer is cleared (^M/Enter), save the gamestate (save-all^M) and halt the server (stop^M).
• Run mono SmartControl.exe Start Minecraft to start up the gameserver, mono SmartControl.exe Stop Minecraft will stop it.
• You're good to go! ✨