By far the easiest way to work with mod and plugins, especially large numbers of them, is to utilize modpacks with [one of the supported mod platforms](../types-and-platforms/index.md).
The terms "mods" and "plugins" can be quite confusing. Generally, the rule of thumb is that "mods" are used by the types that run client side to modify rendering, add new blocks, and add behaviors server, such as [Forge](../types-and-platforms/server-types/forge.md) and [Fabric](../types-and-platforms/server-types/fabric.md). "Plugins" are used by the types that **only run on servers** to add behaviors, commands, etc such as [Paper](../types-and-platforms/server-types/paper.md) (which derives from [Bukkit/Spigot](../types-and-platforms/server-types/bukkit-spigot.md)). There are also some types that are [hybrids](../types-and-platforms/server-types/hybrids.md), such as Magma, that use both "mods" and "plugins"
: content in this directory is synchronized into `/data/plugins` for server types that use plugins, [as described above](#mods-vs-plugins). For special cases, the source can be changed by setting `COPY_PLUGINS_SRC` and destination by setting `COPY_PLUGINS_DEST`.
: content in this directory is synchronized into `/data/mods` for server types that use mods, [as described above](#mods-vs-plugins). For special cases, the source can be changed by setting `COPY_MODS_SRC` and destination by setting `COPY_MODS_DEST`.
: contents are synchronized into `/data/config` by default, but can be changed with `COPY_CONFIG_DEST`. For example, `-v ./config:/config -e COPY_CONFIG_DEST=/data` will allow you to copy over files like `bukkit.yml` and so on directly into the server directory. The source can be changed by setting `COPY_CONFIG_SRC`. Set `SYNC_SKIP_NEWER_IN_DESTINATION=false` if you want files from `/config` to take precedence over newer files in `/data/config`.
By default, the [environment variable processing](../configuration/interpolating.md) is performed on synchronized files that match the expected suffixes in `REPLACE_ENV_SUFFIXES` (by default "yml,yaml,txt,cfg,conf,properties,hjson,json,tml,toml") and are not excluded by `REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLES_EXCLUDES` and `REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLES_EXCLUDE_PATHS`. This processing can be disabled by setting `REPLACE_ENV_DURING_SYNC` to `false`.
If you want old mods/plugins to be removed before the content is brought over from those attach points, then add `-e REMOVE_OLD_MODS=TRUE`. You can fine tune the removal process by specifying the `REMOVE_OLD_MODS_INCLUDE` and `REMOVE_OLD_MODS_EXCLUDE` variables, which are comma separated lists of file glob patterns. If a directory is excluded, then it and all of its contents are excluded. By default, only jars are removed.
You can also specify the `REMOVE_OLD_MODS_DEPTH` (default is 16) variable to only delete files up to a certain level.
For example: `-e REMOVE_OLD_MODS=TRUE -e REMOVE_OLD_MODS_INCLUDE="*.jar" -e REMOVE_OLD_MODS_DEPTH=1` will remove all old jar files that are directly inside the `plugins/` or `mods/` directory.
These paths work well if you want to have a common set of modules in a separate location, but still have multiple worlds with different server requirements in either persistent volumes or a downloadable archive.
For more flexibility with mods/plugins preparation, you can declare other directories, files, and URLs to use in [the `MODS` / `PLUGINS` variables](#modsplugins-list).
To install all the server content (jars, mods, plugins, configs, etc.) from a zip or tgz file, then set `GENERIC_PACK` to the container path or URL of the archive file. This can also be used to apply a CurseForge modpack that is missing a server start script and/or Forge installer.
If multiple generic packs need to be applied together, set `GENERIC_PACKS` instead, with a comma separated list of archive file paths and/or URLs to files.
To avoid repetition, each entry will be prefixed by the value of `GENERIC_PACKS_PREFIX` and suffixed by the value of `GENERIC_PACKS_SUFFIX`, both of which are optional. For example, the following variables
```
GENERIC_PACKS=configs-v9.0.1,mods-v4.3.6
GENERIC_PACKS_PREFIX=https://cdn.example.org/
GENERIC_PACKS_SUFFIX=.zip
```
would expand to `https://cdn.example.org/configs-v9.0.1.zip,https://cdn.example.org/mods-v4.3.6.zip`.
If applying large generic packs, the update can be time-consuming. To skip the update set `SKIP_GENERIC_PACK_UPDATE_CHECK` to "true". Conversely, the generic pack(s) can be forced to be applied by setting `FORCE_GENERIC_PACK_UPDATE` to "true".
The most time-consuming portion of the generic pack update is generating and comparing the SHA1 checksum. To skip the checksum generation, set `SKIP_GENERIC_PACK_CHECKSUM` to "true.
You may also download or copy over individual mods/plugins using the `MODS` or `PLUGINS` environment variables. Both are a comma or newline delimited list of
- URL of a jar file
- container path to a jar file
- container path to a directory containing jar files
```shell
docker run -d -e MODS=https://www.example.com/mods/mod1.jar,/plugins/common,/plugins/special/mod2.jar ...
```
The newline delimiting allows for compose file usage like:
As an alternative to `MODS`/`PLUGINS`, the variable `MODS_FILE` or `PLUGINS_FILE` can be set with the container path or URL of a text file listing a mod/plugin URLs on each line. For example, the following
Blank lines and lines that start with a `#` will be ignored
[This compose file](https://github.com/itzg/docker-minecraft-server/blob/master/examples/docker-compose-mods-file.yml) shows another example of using this feature.
When the `MODPACK` option above is specified you can also instruct script to delete old mods/plugins prior to installing new ones. This behaviour is desirable in case you want to upgrade mods/plugins from downloaded zip file.
