This is a script which simplifies installing a Minecraft server on Linux. Below will be information on requirements to run it and how to use it after you run the script.
This script is designed to work on Ubuntu, to run it on other Distros you will need to run a few things manually however most of the script should still work. If you use Debian you will need to manually install Java. You should also be logged in as a user with sudo access, however not the root user itself.
You may need some packages from your package manager to begin the installation process. Some easy commands for you to copy if they help
sudo apt update && sudo apt install git sudo -y
sudo apk update && sudo apk add git sudo bash
Having SSH access to your server will also help with adding files to it after the installation, however is not a hard requirement
You can read through the script in a text editor, but a high level view is that it downloads the needed packages, then creates a server directory for you, and creates some files automatically including a launch script and the eula file so you don't have to do that by hand. After this it asks if you are using Fabric or not, this is because the Fabric server jar is installed using an installer, if you say yes it will ask you for a link to the Fabric Installer jar, when you enter it you are prompted for the MC version you want and the script handles the rest! If you say no and are not using Fabric it will ask for the download link to your server jar and download it with a file name to work with our launch script. A proper install link will end with .jar.
You can install the script in 4 simple commands! Just copy and paste. If the first command says it cannot find the command you need to install git with your package manager (sudo apt install git or sudo yum install git)
git clone https://github.com/LazyKB/mc-installer/
cd mc-installer
chmod +x mc_server.sh
./mc_server.sh
At the start of the script we installed tmux which allows us to keep the server running in its own instance. This is important when using ssh to control your server since without the server running would be tied to your ssh session and thus close when the ssh session is ended.
Tmux works in a very simple way. If you are not using tmux for anything else you simply enter tmux to start a new window, doing so will also automatically attach you to it, you shold see a bar at the bottom of the terminal indicating you are in a tmux window. From here you will want to enter your server directory by using cd server. If you are ever lost in what directory you are in you can enter cd $HOME/server to get back to your server directory. Once you are there do ./start.sh and the server will launch and you will be put into the Minecraft console. To escape the tmux window you can do the key combination ctrl b+d if it doesn't work type the d after the b.
It is HIGHLY reccommended for most servers to change the sync-chunk-writes setting to false in server.properties. To do so enter cd server and then nano server.properties if you can't find the server directory, enter cd and try again, this returns you to your home directory where server is located.
This setting makes it so that the game does not batch huge amounts of disk writes together, which reduces lag spikes when loading chunks, however introduces a small chance for corruption in the event of a sudden shutdown during a write. Backups are always reccommended!
To add mods or plugins to the server you will want to add the .jar files to the mods or plugins directory depending on your server type. Some sites like Modrinth allow copying the link from their download buttons, and using wget to download it directly from the CLI, IE wget <pasted download link.jar>
This doesn't always work though, and can be slow if you want to add a lot of mods.
If you want a GUI for adding files from your own computer to the server you can make use of Filezilla which can connect to your server with the sftp protocol, using the same login method you used to access ssh, which will allow you to download mods to your own computer and then add them to the server.