This will automatically update all mods in a Factorio installation. It is intended to be used on a headless server on Linux and run by a cron job, but works on any distro of Factorio.

After using the very nice factorio-updater script I found that my local Factorio started to have a lot of mod updates that the server didn't. Copying them manually is a bit of a hassle. Remembering to check everyday would require me to be sober occasionally. Who's got time for that?

Use

You'll need ruby installed. Any reasonably recent version will do nicely.

Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt install ruby -y

Fedora/CentOS

sudo yum install ruby -y

Get a copy of this script on your server:

sudo mkdir /opt/factorio-mod-updater
sudo chown `whoami` /opt/factorio-mod-updater
git clone https://github.com/astevens/factorio-mod-updater /opt/factorio-mod-updater

This was deliberately written to use no dependencies or libraries so that it can just be copied to your server.

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Config

If you setup your server to math the defaults in factorio-init (in /opt/factorio) then you're almost done!

You probably already have your username and token configured in your server-settings.json.

Make sure you have a mods directory:

mkdir -p /opt/factorio/mods

And copy a mod-list.json in there (macOS):

scp ~/Library/Application\ Support/factorio/mods/mod-list.json factorio@supersexyserver:/opt/factorio/mods/

On Windows it's location is:

%APPDATA%/Factorio/mods/mod-list.json

Run it

Just execute it to use the default paths and user config:

/opt/factorio-mod-updater/factorio-mod-updater

and you will see it check your mods:

Checking AddAssemblerBatteries, bobtechsave, Power Armor MK3, ZRecycling
Connecting to mods.factorio.com
AddAssemblerBatteries by DRY411S 0.14.2
    Current
bobtechsave by Bobingabout 0.14.1
    Current
Power Armor MK3 by jimmy_1283 0.0.4
    Current
ZRecycling by DRY411S 0.14.1

Mods do not need to be installed or any particular version. The latest version of anything in your mod-list.json will be installed and any old versions will be removed.

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If you play Factorio you probably like automation. Let's assume you have factorio-init and factorio-update installed and configured...

crontab -e

0 10 * * * /opt/factorio-init/factorio stop; /opt/factorio-init/factorio update; /opt/factorio-mod-updater/factorio-mod-updater; /opt/factorio-init/factorio start

This will stop your server, update the factorio version, update all mods, and start your server at 10:00 am - my server is running in GMT, so this is early in the morning local time.

Now sit back and enjoy. Fresh mods make you 16% more attractive to the opposite sex.

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Detailed config

Paths and user details can be overridden if needed.

Usage: factorio-mod-updater [options]
    -s, --server-settings PATH       location of server-settings.json for username and token
    -u, --username USERNAME          factorio.com username instead of server-settings.json
    -t, --token TOKEN                factorio.com token instead of server-settings.json
        --mod-host SERVER            server to query for mod data and downloads
    -p, --path PATH                  directory to Factorio
    -m, --mods-path PATH             location of mods dir containing mod-list.json
    -h, --help                       Prints this help

If you have a different factorio location or special name for your server-config you can feed it the path:

factorio-mod-updater -p /var/srv/factorio -s ~/factorio/happyfunconfig.json

server-settings.json is only used for username and token. You can skip it if you specify them on the command line:

factorio-mod-updater -u CoolAccountName -t 123GIBBERISH

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Future ideas

• install and remove mods
• match mods and versions of remote server
• some kind of integration with factorio-init scripts
• save settings to a config file?
• use a mod/auth config from a remote url?
• figure out how to scp/echo mod-list from Windows easily

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Pull requests and bug reports are always welcome!

Thanks to factorio-init and factorio-update!