Download a server's map?

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HackerinPink
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Download a server's map?

by HackerinPink » Post

So recently, the server that I play on will transition to another server due to lag/crashing/other technical problems.

Now here is the problem: the server admin isn't very smart about servers and stuff, so he plans to simply move the server. Nothing else.

So obviously, everyone started getting all sad and stuff, since everything from inventories to privileges will be erased.
But I reassured everyone that the map and all the buildings and stuff is not lost, and there MUST be a way to copy the server map.

So that's why I'm here.
I need to copy the server map, without needing to run back and forth with special minetest.conf settings, copying every chunk.
I need to somehow copy the whole map, in one go.
How??

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techniX
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Re: Download a server's map?

by techniX » Post

Copying the game (.minetest/games/_your_game_name_) and world (.minetest/worlds/_your_world_name_) folders should be sufficient, and you will not lose anything during transition.
Unless you use PostgreSQL as a world backend - in that case you can follow any instructions for backing up and restoring Postgres databases.

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Re: Download a server's map?

by HackerinPink » Post

@techniX

Thanks for the quick response, but I am not sure how to find out if I use PostgreSQL as a world backend, however, this is not MY server, but someone else's, and I am trying to copy that map.

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Copying the game (.minetest/games/_your_game_name_) and world (.minetest/worlds/_your_world_name_) folders should be sufficient, and you will not lose anything during transition.
Once again, this is not my server, so I cannot use this method you mentioned.
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techniX
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Re: Download a server's map?

by techniX » Post

Do I understand you correctly - you want to copy the world map from server without having shell access to the host where server is running? I'm afraid it's impossible to do.

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Re: Download a server's map?

by rubenwardy » Post

You can use the local map saving feature to download the areas you visit. The feature is designed to help players save their builds, not to rip off a server

Search map or saving in the advanced settings, and enable it. A world will be created with the server address, you'll need to make a new game with all the mods of the server and edit the world's world.mt
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Re: Download a server's map?

by techniX » Post

rubenwardy wrote:You can use the local map saving feature to download the areas you visit.
You've made by day :) I wasn't aware about this feature. That's very useful!

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Re: Download a server's map?

by HackerinPink » Post

@rubenwardy

What a terrible misunderstanding!! Did you even read the purposes that I will use the copied map for??? I'm helping the server admin import the old map!!
I was hoping that maybe there will be a software that allows me to copy the map!

Like I said in the main post, I'm not very keen on using the local map saving feature as I need to run around the entire 64,000x64,000 blocks and download them all!
Isn't there SOME way to do this easily??
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Re: Download a server's map?

by rubenwardy » Post

HackerinPink wrote:What a terrible misunderstanding!! Did you even read the purposes that I will use the copied map for??? I'm helping the server admin import the old map!!
I was hoping that maybe there will be a software that allows me to copy the map!
I didn't intend to imply that you were planning to do that, I just wanted to make it clear what the intention of that feature was before people started questioning it
HackerinPink wrote:Like I said in the main post, I'm not very keen on using the local map saving feature as I need to run around the entire 64,000x64,000 blocks and download them all!
Isn't there SOME way to do this easily??
You can use automation by editing the Minetest client, there are modified clients for this. However, we don't officially have support for this as this kind of behaviour is usually abused
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Re: Download a server's map?

by HackerinPink » Post

@rubenwardy
You can use automation by editing the Minetest client, there are modified clients for this. However, we don't officially have support for this as this kind of behaviour is usually abused
nuts! Automation could be a nice solution, but any trace of nodded clients just doesn't exist!! (Believe me, I used Tor to change my location several times.)
But thanks for the idea anyways.
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Re: Download a server's map?

by Sokomine » Post

HackerinPink wrote: I was hoping that maybe there will be a software that allows me to copy the map!
Why should there be a specific software for it? If you want the entire map, you need access to the server's file system. Talk to the server owner and help him there: Find out which OS he uses, where the server's world folder is stored (there was some help regarding possible locations in this thread), let the server owner create a *.zip file containing that world folder, and instruct the server owner to make said zip file available to you.
HackerinPink wrote: Like I said in the main post, I'm not very keen on using the local map saving feature as I need to run around the entire 64,000x64,000 blocks and download them all!
Not really. If the server owner knows so little, it's likely not a very large server. And even on very large and popular servers, people cover far less than the entire theoreticly available map.
HackerinPink wrote: Isn't there SOME way to do this easily??
Wash me but don't make me wet? Minetest is not a file server.
HackerinPink wrote: nuts! Automation could be a nice solution, but any trace of nodded clients just doesn't exist!! (Believe me, I used Tor to change my location several times.)
Such a modified client was used by at least one player to download the map of Redcrabs server. That server had been running at that time for years, used by many players, lots of towns having been built. Still only a tiny part of the potential map was explored and used by players.
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Re: Download a server's map?

by twoelk » Post

@HackerinPink
If you have read all the replys carefully you may have noticed the only way to copy everything you need to move a server is to actually copy the folder that contains the world, the mods folder and if customized the game folder.

The only problem is of course you can absolutely not do this from inside minetest. You will need access to the file system from outside, just as it was needed to install the game in the first place and is still needed to monitor backups and install certain mods and games not yet in the built-in repository. There are security reasons why minetest has only limited access to the filesystem.
You may study some of the structure in this somewhat outdated wiki page

A current minetest 5.0.1 world should include files such as these:

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(my_world_name) /
auth.sqlite         24.576 
env_meta.txt           493 
force_loaded.txt         9
ipban.txt                0
map.sqlite       3.026.944 
map_meta.txt         3.342 
players.sqlite      36.864 
world.mt             8.662 
within the world.mt you will find lines such as:

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auth_backend = sqlite3
enable_damage = false
creative_mode = false
gameid = minetest
player_backend = sqlite3
backend = sqlite3
and a long list of what mods are enabled. As you may have guessed the *backend=* lines give information on what kind of database files or systems are used. The gameid= gives a hint to the game basis the map can be played with.

The difficult thing might be to locate the exact position within the remote filesystem of the minetest/world folder. Depending on what version of minetest was installed, what type of operating system the host runs and what personal tweaks to the file-system defaults may have been done this can be in quite a number of places.

If a run_in_place version was used the world folder will be in the minetest root folder near where the executables where installed. If a shared folder is used the worlds would probably be near where the games and mods are installed. This would be somewhere in user-space or could be in some shared-by-applications folder. To make things even more difficult the system might hide some of these places from the casual user as in using folders with a leading dot in the name. The "Folder structure according to CMakeLists.txt" section in the Getting Started wiki page might give an idea of where to look. The worlds, mods and games, folders should be in the SHAREDIR path.

So actually copying a complete world with everything needed to move a server is as easy or difficult as copying some folders from a remote computer.
If you are using an untweacked game and standard mods these could be reinstalled from within minetest. For the actual individual world with player info and the activated-mods list as such you or the admin will need access to the remote file system. The good thing is all these files work independant of the operating system. You can easily move a world from a windows system to some linux system or the other way round.

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Re: Download a server's map?

by HackerinPink » Post

@twoelk
Woah! Thanks for the very detailed reply. I will probably try to pass the language barrier and talk to the server owner through discord with the new knowledge you gave me, thanks again!
My only concern is that the server isn't a standard 5.x server, but a 4.x one instead. I'm not sure if the structure of the world folder will change much, but thanks for the wiki link!
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Re: Download a server's map?

by fratermus » Post

Sorry for the necropost, but this was really useful
rubenwardy wrote:
Wed Dec 18, 2019 15:49
You can use the local map saving feature to download the areas you visit. The feature is designed to help players save their builds, not to rip off a server

Search map or saving in the advanced settings, and enable it.
In 5.3.0 it's under
client -> network -> saving map received from server

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