Automatic restarts for a Left 4 Dead 2 server
A Left 4 Dead 2 session is a campaign, and restarting ends whatever campaign is running. That makes scheduling one harder to justify here than almost anywhere else.
When should it restart?
Put {{minutes}} wherever the number of minutes left should appear.
What happens, in order
- Job startsWarn
say Server restarting in 15 min - 10 min beforeWarn
say Server restarting in 10 min - 5 min beforeWarn
say Server restarting in 5 min - 1 min beforeWarn
say Server restarting in 1 min - Restart timeStop
quit
Nothing to save. A restart drops any campaign in progress, so favour a long interval over a short one.
The crontab line
Moved 15 minutes ahead of the time you picked, so the restart happens at that time instead of 15 minutes later.
45 3 * * * /opt/restart-l4d2.sh
The script it runs
Save it as /opt/restart-l4d2.sh and mark it executable. It expects rcon-cli on the path and takes the password from an environment variable instead of storing it in the file.
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
# Scheduled restart for Left 4 Dead 2.
# Generated by spawnbench.com/restart-scheduler
# The password stays out of this file. Put it in the environment, or in a
# file only root can read, and export it before this script runs.
RCON_HOST="${RCON_HOST:-127.0.0.1}"
RCON_PORT="${RCON_PORT:-27015}"
: "${RCON_PASSWORD:?set RCON_PASSWORD before running}"
send() {
rcon-cli --host "$RCON_HOST" --port "$RCON_PORT" --password "$RCON_PASSWORD" "$1"
}
# 15 minute warning
send 'say Server restarting in 15 min'
sleep 300
# 10 minute warning
send 'say Server restarting in 10 min'
sleep 300
# 5 minute warning
send 'say Server restarting in 5 min'
sleep 240
# 1 minute warning
send 'say Server restarting in 1 min'
sleep 70
# Shut down cleanly
send 'quit'
# Give the process time to finish writing before anything restarts it.
sleep 30
systemctl start l4d2 2>/dev/null || trueHeads up: cron follows the server clock, not your local time. Check with timedatectl first. A container set to UTC and an admin living in Europe differ by two hours in summer and by one in winter, so 04:00 may not be the 04:00 you had in mind.
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What is different about Left 4 Dead 2
Go for a long gap — weekly, not daily — at an hour when no group is halfway through a campaign. With nothing to save, the only price of a restart is the session it cuts short, and that price depends entirely on when it happens.
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