dispenser/README.md
2025-08-06 21:29:39 +02:00

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# Dispenser
Automatically spawn and destroy a tf2 server on a schedule
## Usage
- Copy `config.sample.toml` to `config.toml` and edit accordingly
- Start `dispenser config.toml` as a system service
When the configured start schedule is reached it will create a new cloud server,
update the dyndns (optional) and install a tf2 server. This server is then
destroyed when the stop schedule is reached.
As a failsafe against unexpected costs or destroying the wrong server, this
program will not spawn any server if it already detects a running one, and it
will only destroy a server that was created by the program.
This does mean that if the program is (re-)started while a server is already
active, the program will not start and destroy any server because it can't be
sure it should control the running server. You'll need to manually destroy the
existing server in that case.
You can overwrite this behavior by setting `manage_existing = true` in your
`config.toml`,
## Manual usage
Instead of managing the servers on a schedule with a background server you can
also manually manage the server.
### List running servers
```shell
dispenser config.toml list
```
### Start a new server
```shell
dispenser config.toml start
```
Note that this will not start an additional server is a server is already
running
### Stop a running server
```shell
dispenser config.toml stop
```
## Dealing with secrets
If you want to store your config file in version control but don't want to store
your secrets there, you can choose to load the secrets from other files by
specifying the secret as an absolute path.
This can be done for the following config options: `server.demostf_key`,
`server.logstf_key`, `vultr.api_key`, `digitalocean.api_key` and
`dyndns.password`.
## TODO
- [x] don't blindly kill server if there are players connected
- [ ] kill the server earlier if everyone disconnected
- [x] digital ocean backend
- [ ] more backends?