10. Running a Server

This section describes how to run your own online Knights server.

Installation

For Windows, the Knights server program is available as a separate download from the Knights web site. The file should be unzipped to a directory of your choice, and then you can run the server from the command line by cd-ing into that directory and typing "knights_server".

For Linux, the server is built and installed automatically as part of the normal build process. To run the server type "knights_server" on the command line.

The configuration file

The server needs to read a configuration file before it can run. The default is to look for a file named "knights_config.txt" in the current directory. If you want to use a different config file you can specify it using the -c option, for example:

knights_server -c path/to/my_config.txt

The file itself is a plain text file consisting of "Setting = Value" pairs, for example, "MaxPlayers = 50". There is one setting per line. Comment lines may also be included by starting them with a # symbol. An example knights_config.txt file is included in the distribution.

Please note that changes to the config file will not take effect until the server is restarted.

The full list of settings is as follows:

• Description: A short description of the server.
• KnightsDataDir: Specifies the location of the "knights_data" directory. If you have followed the standard install procedure then the game will find the directory automatically and this can be left unset; if you have installed the knights_data directory in a non-standard location then you can use this setting to tell the server where to find it.
• LogFile: Gives the name of a log file. The server will append log messages to the end of the file. Events logged include player connections/disconnections, games played, and all chat messages. If this parameter is unset then log messages will be printed on stdout.
• MaxGames: Sets a maximum number of games that can exist at any given time. If this number of games is reached then the server will not create any new games until the number drops down below the maximum again.
• MaxPlayers: Maximum number of players that can connect to the server at any one time. Default is 100.
• MOTDFile: Set to the name of a text file containing a Message Of The Day which will be displayed when players first connect to the server. The server re-reads the file each time a player connects, so you can edit the contents of the file without having to restart the server.
• OldMOTDFile: As MOTDFile, except that the OldMOTDFile will only be displayed if the client is running an older version of Knights. Can be used to display a message that a new version of Knights is available. Default: same as MOTDFile. (Note that it is not guaranteed that old client versions will be compatible with new server versions; in general, it is recommended to keep the client and server versions the same, if at all possible.)
• Port: Which UDP port to use. The server listens for incoming connections on this port. Default 16399.
• UseBroadcast: Setting this to "yes" allows the server to respond to LAN broadcast packets from game clients. In theory, this means that players on the local network will be able to see the server listed on their "Connect to Server" screen. (This is implemented by having the client send out broadcasts on UDP port 16398, which the server will then respond to. Note that many firewalls nowadays block these packets, so depending on firewall settings, the broadcast feature may not work.)

Keeping the server running

The distribution contains a Unix shell script, start_knights_server.sh, which checks whether the server is running, and if not, starts a new copy of the server. This allows the server to be automatically re-started in the event that it crashes. For instructions read the comments within the file.

Allowing players to find your server

If the server is running on a LAN then (if you are lucky) the game client should be able to detect the server automatically using the broadcast feature. However, broadcast packets are often blocked by firewalls, so this may not work; in that case, players will have to type in the IP address or hostname of the server manually.

For Internet servers, there is currently no way for the game client to automatically find the server, so you will have to publish the hostname or IP address of your server somewhere, and players will have to manually type the address into the game client.