In the interest of conserving entropy, I've opted not to upload this to rubygems. You should build locally.
git clone https://github.com/jmhertlein/RubyCraft.git
cd RubyCraft
gem build rubycraft
# install globally
sudo gem install --no-user-install ./rubycraft-*.gem
# clean up
rm ./rubycraft-*.gem
Quite similar to installation.
# if you still have the directory around,
cd RubyCraft
git pull
# otherwise
git clone https://github.com/jmhertlein/RubyCraft.git
cd RubyCraft
# then just repeat the install directions.
gem build rubycraft
# install globally
sudo gem install --no-user-install ./rubycraft-*.gem
# clean up
rm ./rubycraft-*.gem
rc -i # launch interactively
rc -b -s notchland # backup the server named 'notchland'
rc --prune=10 -s notchland # prune backups of the server named 'notchland' older than 10 days
rc -p=/path/to/profile ... # specify a profile location other than ~/.rcraft_profile
rc -w 30 -r -s notchland # restart notchland with a 30 second warning printed to players
rc --help # print help, and more options
r - Register a server - Lets you specify a name, a directory in which the server resides, and a
directory in which to store backups of the server's worlds.
u - Unregister a server - Makes rc forget the server - does not delete it from disk
s - Start a server - starts the server running in a new GNU screen session in multiuser mode
e - Restart a server - halts a server, then starts it again.
h - Halt a server - cleanly stops the server and terminates the GNU screen
l - List servers - Lists all servers registered with rc, as well as their status
(up = server is running, down = server is not running)
b - Backup a server - Backs up a server's worlds to its backup directory
p - Prune backups - Remove backups of a server that are older than a certain number of days
v - View a server - exits rc and attaches you to the GNU screen in which the specified
server is running
x - Exit - Exits rc. (Does not halt servers- if they're running, they keep running).
There's a help menu in the interactive prompt, so don't worry about memorizing these.
In order to perform a backup (rc -b) the server needs to be registered. To do this, launch the program interactively (rc -i) and enter 'r'.
Batch mode is great for use with cron.
I like to use crontab -e as my "minecraft" user to edit its crontab.
0 5 * * * rc -b -s notchland # backup every night at 5am
10 5 * * * rc --prune=3 -s notchland # prune backups every night at 5:10AM
0 6 * * * rc -w 30 -r -s notchland # reboot every night (w/ 30s warning) at 6AM
Make sure rc is in the PATH that's set for cron.