mcwrapper vs Minecraft Backup

mcwrapper is a free Minecraft server wrapper for Linux, macOS, and other POSIX-compatible systems, intended for server administrators. It can start, stop, restart, and check a server’s status, and send arbitrary commands through a named pipe called command_input. Its backup action temporarily prevents world-data writing while it copies and compresses data, then enables writing again. Backups are timestamped, a latest symlink is created, and the default retention is five backups. The restore action stops the server if needed, saves current data, copies a selected backup into the world directory, and restarts the server if it had been running. Restoring disconnects connected clients because it requires an interruption. The log action follows the server log in real time. The install action downloads the current minecraft_server.jar from Mojang and places it in the configured location. Settings can come from environment variables or mcwrapper.conf files in four documented locations. Installation is available from RubyGems.org with the command gem install mcwrapper. The project provides a README and wiki pages on setup, actions, configuration, and automated backups. It is distributed under the MIT License, which provides the software as-is without warranty.

Minecraft Backup is a Linux script for backing up Minecraft server world folders. It can create tar archives or use the restic backend, and connects to servers managed with screen or tmux, as well as servers with RCON or Docker RCON enabled. The script works with vanilla servers and does not require plugins. Backups can be scheduled with cron; the README includes an hourly example. For older backups, users can choose no deletion, sequential deletion of the oldest backup, or thin retention. Thin retention keeps the last 24 hourly and 30 daily backups, then uses available space for weekly backups. Backups are stored locally, and restoration uses tar extraction for tar files or restic restore for restic backups. The script can post backup status messages in Minecraft chat. It requires tar and a compression program such as the default gzip; RCON also requires xxd. Player data can become out of sync with world data during backups, potentially duplicating or losing items. RCON is recommended because it waits for the server to confirm saving is complete. The README also warns that Minecraft bug MC-217729 can cause a backup to fail.