ql-lg-server/docs/ADMIN.md

Running the server

Everything below is run from the repo folder on the server machine.

Console (RCON)

./rcon <command> runs one server command; ./rcon alone opens a ql> prompt (Ctrl+D quits). It runs inside the container and reads secrets/rcon-password.txt itself, so you never type the password. RCON listens on 127.0.0.1 only, so nobody can reach it from outside the machine.

Command
status	players with their slot number (num), ping, address (bot = bot)
say <text>	message to everyone
addbot hunter 5	add a bot (names: hunter, anarki, hossman, …; skill 1–5)
kick allbots	remove all bots (prints a harmless "Player allbots is not on the server")
clientkick <num>	kick a player
mute <num> / unmute <num>	chat mute
tempban <num>	kick + ban until the map changes
ban <num> / unban <num>	permanent ban (stored in access.txt)
addadmin <num> / addmod <num>	give a connected player admin / mod rights
reload_access	re-read access.txt
map thunderstruck lgvamp	reload the map (or switch factory: lgvamp_nolag, lgvamp100)

Careful: cvarlist prints the RCON password into the server log. ./rcon hides it from you, but avoid running it anyway.

Admins and bans: home/baseq3/access.txt

One line per player: their 64-bit Steam ID, a |, and admin, mod or ban:

76561198000000000|admin
76561198000000001|ban

Quake Live writes this file back from memory on every map load and on shutdown, so a hand edit can be overwritten. Either use the console commands above (addadmin, ban, unban), or edit the file and run ./rcon reload_access right away. To unban someone who isn't connected, delete their line and run reload_access.

Settings changes

• .env (name, password, listed, factory, welcome text, ports): edit it, then run docker compose up -d.
• Gameplay: edit home/baseq3/scripts/lgvamp.factories (must stay valid JSON: python3 -m json.tool home/baseq3/scripts/lgvamp.factories), then run docker compose restart.
• A cvar changed over RCON (e.g. ./rcon timelimit 1) lasts until the next restart, map changes included.

Self-healing (./scripts/install-cron.sh)

What	When	Log
crash restart	Docker (restart: unless-stopped)	docker inspect -f '{{.RestartCount}}' ql-lg
hang watchdog: 3 failed checks in a row → restart	every 5 min	logs/watchdog.log
backup of .env, secrets, access.txt, cfgs, plugins (14 days)	04:40	backups/
daily restart, skipped while a human is on	05:00	logs/watchdog.log

./scripts/install-cron.sh --remove removes those cron lines. A docker compose stop is respected: the watchdog leaves a stopped server alone.

Updates

• Game: ./setup.sh --update, then docker compose restart. If a game update ever removes server/run_server_x64_minqlx.sh, plain ./setup.sh copies it back.
• This repo: git pull, then ./setup.sh (re-running it is safe: it keeps your .env, password and game files).

More than one server

Clone the repo into a second folder. Before running ./setup.sh, create .env there from .env.example with a different QL_PORT, QL_RCON_PORT and QL_NAME (e.g. 27961, 28961, ql-lg-2). Each folder downloads its own game files (~1.1 GB). Each server costs about 3% of a CPU core while idle.

Logs

docker logs --tail 50 ql-lg (your QL_NAME). minqlx log: home/minqlx.log. Lines with the RCON password are filtered out before they reach docker logs, but treat logs as private anyway.

Without minqlx

If minqlx ever breaks after a game update, change run_server_x64_minqlx.sh to run_server_x64.sh in docker-compose.yml and run docker compose up -d. Everything still works except that the warmup text ("The match will begin when more players join") comes back and there's no welcome message.