Strange inconsistency with 'SteamApps' folder name between different host operating systems

[resuni]

I'm experiencing a strange problem where on my Debian hosts, apps get installed to ~/.steam/SteamApps, but on my Arch hosts, apps get installed to ~/.steam/steamapps (note the case difference).

I can reproduce the problem with the following Dockerfile:

FROM steamcmd/steamcmd:ubuntu-20
RUN steamcmd +login anonymous +app_update 232250 +quit
ENTRYPOINT ["tail", "-f", "/dev/null"]

The app I'm installing in this example is TF2, but I've seen the same thing when installing Source SDK Base 2013 Dedicated Server, so I don't think this problem is dependent on the app.

Build: docker build -t steamcmd-test .

Run: docker run --name test steamcmd-test

Shell into the container in another terminal: docker exec -it test bash

Inside the container: ls -l .steam

The output on my Debian hosts:

total 32
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Aug  9 21:16 appcache
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Aug  9 21:21 config
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug  9 21:15 depotcache
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Aug  9 21:15 logs
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  224 Aug  9 21:21 registry.vdf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   12 Aug  9 18:21 root -> /root/.steam
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   12 Aug  9 18:21 steam -> /root/.steam
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Aug  9 21:21 SteamApps
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Aug  9 21:15 steamcmd
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Aug  9 21:15 userdata

The output on my Arch hosts:

total 36
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Aug  9 21:58 appcache
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Aug  9 22:03 config
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug  9 21:58 depotcache
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Aug  9 21:58 logs
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  224 Aug  9 22:03 registry.vdf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   12 Aug  9 18:21 root -> /root/.steam
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   12 Aug  9 18:21 steam -> /root/.steam
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Aug  9 22:03 steamapps
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Aug  9 21:58 steamcmd
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Aug  9 21:58 userdata

For the sake of the test, I've made sure to re-download the steamcmd container. Both my test hosts are using the ubuntu-20 image with an Image ID of 1aa5e865e28c:

REPOSITORY          TAG         IMAGE ID       CREATED          SIZE
steamcmd/steamcmd   ubuntu-20   1aa5e865e28c   4 hours ago      406MB

What is the intended casing of this directory? What difference between the two host operating systems or host Docker configs could possibly be causing the discrepancy?

[jonakoudijs]

My guess is that this is because of a wrapper script that is added by default when installing from an Ubuntu/Debian package. For the other Linux containers I add this wrapper script at build time because they don't contain pre-build packages. See for example the Rocky container Dockerfile.

To make this is consistent I would recommend to (always) use the +force_install_dir parameter like this:

steamcmd +login anonymous +force_install_dir /data +app_update 232250 +quit

[resuni]

I don't understand your explanation regarding the wrapper script, but specifying +force_install_dir did make this a non-issue. Not only did it make the naming of the steamapps directory consistent, it also caused the app to not be installed there, so I no longer have to reference the directory at all.

While this is an acceptable solution for me, this is still a bizarre issue, so rather than close this issue myself, I'll let someone else decide if this is something that needs to be addressed further.

[jonakoudijs]

Good to hear the force_install_dir option fixed your issue. The wrapper script I referred to is a script that is placed when installing steamcmd from a Ubuntu repository package, like:

apt-get install steamcmd

Installing steamcmd through the Ubuntu repository package will create this wrapper script around existing steamcmd scripts:

$ cat /usr/games/steamcmd

#!/bin/sh
# Copyright (C) 2015 Alexandre Detiste <alexandre@detiste.be>
# License: MIT

# create a fake Steam installation to avoid
# that steamcmd uses "/home/$user/Steam" instead
if [ ! -e ~/.steam ]
then
    mkdir -p ~/.steam/appcache/
    mkdir -p ~/.steam/config/
    mkdir -p ~/.steam/logs/
    mkdir -p ~/.steam/SteamApps/common/
    ln -s ~/.steam ~/.steam/root
    ln -s ~/.steam ~/.steam/steam
fi

if [ ! -e ~/.steam/steamcmd ]
then
    mkdir -p ~/.steam/steamcmd/linux32
    # steamcmd will replace these files with newer ones itself on first run
    cp /usr/lib/games/steam/steamcmd.sh ~/.steam/steamcmd/
    cp /usr/lib/games/steam/steamcmd    ~/.steam/steamcmd/linux32/
fi
exec ~/.steam/steamcmd/steamcmd.sh $@

Other distributions like Rocky Linux or Alpine don't contain steamcmd packages so you would have to download the steamcmd files manually, like:

$ curl http://media.steampowered.com/installer/steamcmd_linux.tar.gz \
    --output steamcmd.tar.gz --silent
$ tar -xvzf steamcmd.tar.gz && rm steamcmd.tar.gz

This .tar.gz file contain the steamcmd binaries and scripts but not the wrapper script I mentioned earlier. Therefor I add them during build time in every non-Ubuntu Docker image. My guess is that this wrapper script causes a difference in install locations.

Seeing this should be the same for every different image (because of this wrapper script) I will close the issue for now. Let me know if you have any questions or like to know more about it :)