Minecraft Server Java Edition

A lightweight Docker image tagged for all Minecraft versions containing only the server and minimal dependencies to run it.

Usage

All images are tagged and packed with a specific Minecraft version. For example, to run the default Java version for 1.18.1:

Run the latest

docker run -p 25565:25565 ghcr.io/hostfactor/minecraft-server

Run 1.18.1

docker run -p 25565:25565 ghcr.io/hostfactor/minecraft-server:1.18.1

Run with different Java versions

If you want to use a specific Java version e.g. Java 11 for version 1.12, you can run

docker run -p 25565:25565 ghcr.io/hostfactor/minecraft-server:1.12-java-11

Java versions

Every default tag for a version (e.g. 1.18) will run the latest Java version that will work for that version. The supported Java versions are:

Java Version	Supported Version	Default Version
17	All	>= 1.18
16	< 1.18	< 1.18, >= 1.17
11	< 1.17	< 1.17, >= 1.12
8	< 1.12	< 1.12

Advanced examples

Existing world

In order to use an existing world, simply copy the folder containing your Minecraft world into the /server/world folder in the image.

docker run -p 25565:25565 -v /path/to/world:/server/world ghcr.io/hostfactor/minecraft-server

Note: Your world folder must contain the level.dat file in the root.

Custom server.properties

Minecraft servers are configured via a server.properties file. If you want to use custom options for this file, use the following command.

docker run -p 25565:25565 -v /path/to/server.properties:/server/server.properties ghcr.io/hostfactor/minecraft-server

Where /path/to/server.properties is the absolute path to the server.properties file on your computer.

Args

You can run your Minecraft server with args by utilizing the OPTS env var e.g.

$ docker run -p 25565:25565 -e OPTS="--help" ghcr.io/hostfactor/minecraft-server
Option                   Description                                         
------                   -----------                                         
--bonusChest                                                                 
--demo                                                                       
--eraseCache                                                                 
--forceUpgrade                                                               
--help                                                                       
--initSettings           Initializes 'server.properties' and 'eula.txt', then
                           quits                                             
--nogui                                                                      
--port <Integer>         (default: -1)                                       
--safeMode               Loads level with vanilla datapack only              
--serverId <String>                                                          
--singleplayer <String>                                                      
--universe <String>      (default: .)                                        
--world <String> 

Java options

You can configure Java options (most importantly JVM heap size) via the _JAVA_OPTIONS env var e.g.

docker run -p 25565:25565 -e _JAVA_OPTIONS="-Xmx4G -Xms4G" ghcr.io/hostfactor/minecraft-server 

The above will allocate 4GB of memory, no more, no less. See here for more info.