astevens/factorio-mod-updater

This will automatically update all mods in a Factorio installation. It is intended to be used on a headless server on Linux and run by a cron job, but works on any distro of Factorio.

After using the very nice factorio-updater script I found that my local Factorio started to have a lot of mod updates that the server didn't. Copying them manually is a bit of a hassle. Remembering to check everyday would require me to be sober occasionally. Who's got time for that?

Use

You'll need ruby installed. Any reasonably recent version will do nicely.

Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt install ruby -y

Fedora/CentOS

sudo yum install ruby -y

Get a copy of this script on your server:

sudo mkdir /opt/factorio-mod-updater
sudo chown `whoami` /opt/factorio-mod-updater
git clone https://github.com/astevens/factorio-mod-updater /opt/factorio-mod-updater

This was deliberately written to use no dependencies or libraries so that it can just be copied to your server.

Config

If you setup your server to math the defaults in factorio-init (in /opt/factorio) then you're almost done!

You probably already have your username and token configured in your server-settings.json.

Make sure you have a mods directory:

mkdir -p /opt/factorio/mods

And copy a mod-list.json in there (macOS):

scp ~/Library/Application\ Support/factorio/mods/mod-list.json factorio@supersexyserver:/opt/factorio/mods/

On Windows it's location is:

%APPDATA%/Factorio/mods/mod-list.json

Run it

Just execute it to use the default paths and user config:

/opt/factorio-mod-updater/factorio-mod-updater

and you will see it check your mods:

Checking AddAssemblerBatteries, bobtechsave, Power Armor MK3, ZRecycling
Connecting to mods.factorio.com
AddAssemblerBatteries by DRY411S 0.14.2
    Current
bobtechsave by Bobingabout 0.14.1
    Current
Power Armor MK3 by jimmy_1283 0.0.4
    Current
ZRecycling by DRY411S 0.14.1

Mods do not need to be installed or any particular version. The latest version of anything in your mod-list.json will be installed and any old versions will be removed.

If you play Factorio you probably like automation. Let's assume you have factorio-init and factorio-update installed and configured...

crontab -e

0 10 * * * /opt/factorio-init/factorio stop; /opt/factorio-init/factorio update; /opt/factorio-mod-updater/factorio-mod-updater; /opt/factorio-init/factorio start

This will stop your server, update the factorio version, update all mods, and start your server at 10:00 am - my server is running in GMT, so this is early in the morning local time.

Now sit back and enjoy. Fresh mods make you 16% more attractive to the opposite sex.

Detailed config

Paths and user details can be overridden if needed.

Usage: factorio-mod-updater [options]
    -s, --server-settings PATH       location of server-settings.json for username and token
    -u, --username USERNAME          factorio.com username instead of server-settings.json
    -t, --token TOKEN                factorio.com token instead of server-settings.json
        --mod-host SERVER            server to query for mod data and downloads
    -p, --path PATH                  directory to Factorio
    -m, --mods-path PATH             location of mods dir containing mod-list.json
    -h, --help                       Prints this help

If you have a different factorio location or special name for your server-config you can feed it the path:

factorio-mod-updater -p /var/srv/factorio -s ~/factorio/happyfunconfig.json

server-settings.json is only used for username and token. You can skip it if you specify them on the command line:

factorio-mod-updater -u CoolAccountName -t 123GIBBERISH

Future ideas

install and remove mods
match mods and versions of remote server
some kind of integration with factorio-init scripts
save settings to a config file?
use a mod/auth config from a remote url?
figure out how to scp/echo mod-list from Windows easily

Pull requests and bug reports are always welcome!

Thanks to factorio-init and factorio-update!