mcrcon is a console-based Rcon client for Minecraft that lets server administrators send remote administration commands and run server maintenance scripts from a Linux or Windows terminal.

What it is

mcrcon is a small command-line program written in C that speaks the Source RCON protocol — the same protocol Minecraft servers expose for remote administration — and is aimed at anyone administering a Minecraft server from a shell. It can send one or more commands passed as arguments, or drop into an interactive terminal mode when started with no commands at all, and it works against any server address, port, and Rcon password you supply.

The concrete problem it solves is routine server maintenance without logging into the game or a graphical control panel: restarting, saving, broadcasting messages, and running a sequence of commands on a schedule or from a script. It replaces the need for a full control panel or wrapper by being a single, scriptable binary that fits directly into shell workflows, using the connection settings already configured in the server's server.properties file.

Key capabilities

• Sends commands from the command line and quotes correctly for Rcon commands containing spaces, for example mcrcon -H my.minecraft.server -p password -w 5 "say Server is restarting!" save-all stop.
• Runs in terminal mode (-t) when no commands are given, giving an interactive console against the server.
• Reads the connection from MCRCON_HOST, MCRCON_PORT, and MCRCON_PASS environment variables, with command-line options taking precedence over them.
• Waits a specified duration between each command using -w, accepting values from 1 to 600 seconds.
• Provides output controls including silent mode (-s), disabling colors (-c), and raw packet output (-r).
• Defaults to localhost on port 25575 when -H and -P are omitted, matching the rcon.port=25575 setting the README documents for server.properties.

Who uses it and how

• Server administrators who enable Rcon in server.properties with enable-rcon=true, rcon.port=25575, and rcon.password and then administer the server remotely over the network.
• Operators writing maintenance scripts, where multiple commands such as say, save-all, and stop are chained in one invocation with a -w delay between them.
• Linux users who prefer distro packages: the README points to packages on pkgs.org, a Gentoo package games-util/mcrcon, and an AUR package for Arch Linux.
• Windows users, for whom precompiled binaries are provided alongside Linux binaries in the project releases.

Getting started

Install from a distribution package where available, or build from source with git clone https://github.com/Tiiffi/mcrcon.git, then make and sudo make install; precompiled Linux and Windows binaries are published under releases.

How it stands in the registry

This project stands alone in this registry; no comparable tools are named in the available facts.

When to use it — and when not to

You must operate the Minecraft server side yourself: Rcon has to be explicitly enabled in server.properties with a port and password before mcrcon can connect, and anyone with the password can issue any command. It is not the right choice if you need a graphical panel, player management interface, or plugin ecosystem, since the facts describe only a terminal client. Note also that the README carries open issues (16 at time of writing), so this is a maintained but modest project rather than a packaged enterprise product.

git clone https://github.com/Tiiffi/mcrcon.git
cd mcrcon
make
sudo make install

Option:
  -H            Server address (default: localhost)
  -P            Port (default: 25575)
  -p            Rcon password
  -t            Terminal mode
  -s            Silent mode
  -c            Disable colors
  -r            Output raw packets
  -w            Wait for specified duration (seconds) between each command (1 - 600s)
  -h            Print usage
  -v            Version information

MCRCON_HOST
MCRCON_PORT
MCRCON_PASS

enable-rcon=true
rcon.port=25575
rcon.password=your_rcon_pasword