Starbound Mod Tester is a simple, portable and effective way for Starbound mod developers to make quick changes to mods and easily test them out, and also a utility with non-development uses.
Starbound Mod Tester (or SMT, as I will be calling it from now on) can be run with absolutely no arguments, as follows:
./sbmodtester.sh
This causes SMT to use the folder named testing in the directory SMT is in, builds a mod based on that, and runs Starbound.
Obviously, you may not want to be using the testing folder every time you want to test mods. In that case, define the names of the folders in your current directory and run SMT.
./sbmodtester.sh foo
This can also be run with multiple folders. SMT interprets and builds each folder from left to right.
./sbmodtester.sh foo1 foo2 foo3
Note that if a folder doesn't exist, SMT will stop the entire build operation and clean up the mod folder in the specified Starbound root directory
SMT takes optional arguments before build targets. All arguments are as follows:
Forces a cleanup all of *.tmp.pak files created by SMT in the selected Starbound's mod folder.
Forces the Starbound directory to whatever comes after it. If you use linux_default, it will use the default Linux Steam Starbound installation directory. You may also use old_linux_default, which will set SMT to use the old Steam folder structure (/home/USER/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Starbound).
Forces the Steam directory to whatever comes after it. The linux_default and old_linux_default options may also be used here.
Shows a simple help dialogue.
Skips the build phase and goes straight to starting Starbound.
Turns off auto mod cleanup after Starbound is closed.
As of update 0.5.1, SMT will automatically check for updates after every time it is run (provided the user is connected to the internet). This argument stops this from happening.
Starts Starbound in a dedicated server. "--no-cleanup" is automatically applied when this is on.
Checks the version and/or updates SMT from Github.
Returns the version of SMT.
Copys over Steam Workshop mods to your Starbound mod folder. Note that this is only applicable if you have Starbound on Steam. However, if you are using a non-Steam Starbound and wish to use Workshop mods, this will also work.
This version is being built for the intent of being run on Linux with the bash shell. Anyone who wishes to make a Windows (macOS support is on indefinite hold) branch may do so, as I have no knowledge or intention of doing so.
If want to use a different Steam folder and/or Starbound folder by default, you can change the STEAM_DIR and STARBOUND_DIR variables at the beginning of the script to the root folder of each respective location. The location doesn't require slash escapes, and might actually break if you use them (e.g. STEAM_DIR="/games/path to games/steam games", not STEAM_DIR="/games/path\ to\ games/steam\ games"). Oh yeah, and keep the quotes. They're needed so everything doesn't break (thanks bug #2).
The mod does NOT load Starbound through Steam, so all Workshop mods will only be loaded if you use -w or --enable-workshop-mods. However, this does allow for usage on platforms other than Steam, such as GOG.