Minecraft VirtualHost Proxy

Concept

Minecraft 1.2 introduced a new feature which allows Minecraft servers to benefit from the concept of virtual hosting. This program serves as a sample implementation of this concept.

Limitations

• Player's IP addresses are unknown to the actual server, making IP based bans unfeasible.
• The server list query sent by the client (packet 0xfe) doesn't include the hostname, limiting all servers running behind this proxy to display the same server list entry.

Usage

The proxy runs with Python 2.6+ or PyPy 1.8+

$ python mvhp.py

Configuration

The configuration is stored in a file called config.json which should be in the working directory when starting the proxy.

Sample configuration:

{
  "motd": "Minecraft VirtualHost Proxy",   # MOTD displayed in the server list
  "capacity": 10,                          # Maximal player capacity displayed in the server list
  "hosts": {                               # Host definitions
    "localhost": {                         # Rule for clients connecting to "localhost"
      "host": "192.168.0.6"                # They are redirected to 192.168.0.6
                                           # The port defaults to 25565 when omited
    },
    "127.0.0.1": {                         # Rule for clients connecting to 127.0.0.1
                                           # The host defaults to "localhost" when omited
      "port": 25566,
      "alias": [                           # This rule also applies to clients connecting 
                                           # to any of the listed aliases
        "127.0.0.2",
        "xyz.dyndns.org"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Reloading the configuration

The configuration can be reloaded without restarting the proxy or disconnecting any clients simply by sending a SIGHUP signal to the process.

License

This program is free software. It comes without any warranty, to the extent permitted by applicable law. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License, Version 2, as published by Sam Hocevar. See http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/COPYING for more details.