Sending commands

RCON is enabled by default, so you can exec into the container to access the Minecraft server console:

docker exec -i mc rcon-cli

Note: The -i is required for interactive use of rcon-cli.

To run a simple, one-shot command, such as stopping a Minecraft server, pass the command as arguments to rcon-cli, such as:

docker exec mc rcon-cli stop

The -i is not needed in this case.

When RCON is disabled

If rcon is disabled you can send commands by passing them as arguments to the packaged mc-send-to-console script after setting the env var CREATE_CONSOLE_IN_PIPE to "true". For example, a player can be op'ed in the container mc with:

docker exec mc mc-send-to-console op player
            |                     |
            +- container name     +- Minecraft commands start here

Enabling interactive console

In order to attach and interact with the Minecraft server make sure to enable TTY and keep stdin open.

Example

With docker run use the -it arguments:

docker run -d -it -p 25565:25565 --name mc itzg/minecraft-server

or with a compose file:

services:
  minecraft:
    stdin_open: true
    tty: true

With that you can attach and interact at any time using

docker attach mc

and then Control-p Control-q to detach.

RCON is required for fully interactive, color console

RCON must be enabled, which is the default, in order to use a fully interactive console with auto-completion and colorized log output.