minetest(6)

💖 minetest(6) — the manual, but make it cute 💖

okay so bestie, you've stumbled into the minetest(6) manual page and honestly? you're gonna slay this. this is the whole thing, every flag, every path, every vibe. let's go 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

minetest, minetestserver — a multiplayer infinite-world block sandbox. yes, THE block sandbox. infinite worlds. multiplayer. blocks. iconic behavior only 👑

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

like, here's how you actually run it, fr fr:

minetest [--server SERVER OPTIONS | CLIENT OPTIONS] [COMMON OPTIONS]
[WORLD PATH]

minetestserver [SERVER OPTIONS] [COMMON OPTIONS] [WORLD PATH]

so minetest can go either server mode or client mode (pick one, not both, iykyk), plus the common options, plus optionally a world path. minetestserver is the server-only girlie — server options, common options, world path. that's the whole grid 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so lore time: Minetest is literally one of the first InfiniMiner/Minecraft(/whatever) inspired games, and it started in October 2010. so it's been doing this since before most of us could even type. the goal? taking that survival multiplayer gameplay and pushing it in a slightly different direction. not copying, just... doing its own thing ✨

and the main design philosophy, the whole personality of this project: keep it technically simple, stable and portable. lightweight enough to run on fairly old hardware. she's low-maintenance and she eats 🫶

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💜 COMMON OPTIONS 💜

these work no matter what mode you're in, so they're like the shared braincell of the two binaries:

• --help — prints all the allowed options and dips. the "wait what were the flags again" move 😭
• --version — prints version info and exits. quick vibe check on what you're running.
• --config <value> — loads config from the file you specify.
• --logfile <value> — sets the logfile path. pass '' (empty string!) for no logging at all. gone, no notes 🙈
• --info — prints more info to console.
• --verbose — prints EVEN more info to console. we're getting chatty.
• --trace — prints an enormous amount of info to console. absolutely unhinged amounts of output. she will not stop talking 💀
• --quiet — only errors to console. the "please just let me live" setting.
• --color <value> — colorizes the logs. valid values are 'always', 'never' or 'auto', and it defaults to 'auto'.
• --gameid <value> | list — sets the gameid, or if you pass list it lists the available ones for you. helpful queen.
• --worldname <value> — sets the world path by name.
• --world <value> — sets the world path (the normal way).
• --worldlist path | name | both — gets you a list of worlds. 'path' lists paths, 'name' lists names, 'both' lists both. you choose the format, main character energy.
• --map-dir <value> — same as --world. deprecated though, so like... use --world, bestie, it's 2026 in spirit 🫠
• --port <value> — sets the network port (UDP) to use.
• --run-unittests — runs the unit tests and exits. nerdy and valid.

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🦋 CLIENT OPTIONS 🦋

client-side only, these are for when you're actually playing:

• --address <value> — the address to connect to.
• --go — disables the main menu. straight in, no waiting room 🏃‍♀️
• --name <value> — sets your player name.
• --password <value> — sets your password.
• --password-file <value> — sets the password from the contents of a file. safer than typing it in the group chat ngl 💅
• --random-input — enables random user input, for testing. client only! don't be weird about it.
• --speedtests — runs speed tests. zoom zoom ⭐

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🌈 SERVER OPTIONS 🌈

server girlies, this is your section:

• --migrate <value> — migrates from the current map backend to another one. possible values are sqlite3, leveldb, redis, postgresql, and dummy.
• --migrate-auth <value> — migrates from the current auth backend to another. possible values are sqlite3, leveldb, and files.
• --migrate-players <value> — migrates from the current players backend to another. possible values are sqlite3, leveldb, postgresql, dummy, and files.
• --migrate-mod-storage <value> — migrates from the current mod storage backend to another. possible values are sqlite3, dummy, and files.
• --terminal — displays an interactive terminal over ncurses during execution. very hacker-coded of you 🧚

ok important note bestie: those migrate values are exactly those lists. don't freestyle a backend name, she will not know her.

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🍓 ENVIRONMENT 🍓

env vars, the sneaky little settings:

• MINETEST_SUBGAME_PATH — colon delimited list of directories to search for games.
• MINETEST_MOD_PATH — colon delimited list of directories to search for mods.

colon delimited, so it's dir1:dir2:dir3 vibes. slay 🌸

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💀 BUGS 💀

please report ALL bugs at https://github.com/minetest/minetest/issues. like actually, they want to know. don't suffer in silence 🙏

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Perttu Ahola <celeron55@gmail.com> and contributors 💖

also, this man page was originally written by Juhani Numminen <juhaninumminen0@gmail.com>. credit where credit is due, we love a documentation icon 🎀

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⭐ WWW ⭐

http://www.minetest.net/ — go touch grass, digitally 🌱

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and that's the whole page bestie!! this was minetest(6), dated 2 February 2019 — yeah she's got some age on her but she's still iconic. now go place some blocks, no cap 💜✨🔥