Docs › Running the server

lonelyice.ini

lonelyice.ini next to the executable holds the launcher's own settings: where the game client and the server folder are, where the databases live, how the game is started, backups and plugin catalogs. The server's settings are not here; they are in the server folder's configs/worldserver.conf and configs/modules/*.conf (Install layout). The launcher creates the file, reads it at start and writes it whenever one of its settings changes and when it exits. Other modes read it too: every mode takes [launcher] language for its messages, and --pkg takes [packages] index (Command line).

Format

[client]
path=C:\Games\Client-3.3.5a
locale=ruRU

[server]
root=C:\Games\Client-3.3.5a\LonelyIce
location=local
dataCache=0

[section] and key=value lines; lines starting with ; or # are comments. Section and key names ignore case. Values are taken as written (after trimming spaces); quotes are not removed.
UTF-8 (a file in UTF-16 with a byte order mark is read as well). Paths are UTF-8.
Flags accept 1/0, true/false, yes/no and on/off in any case; any other value (or none) keeps the flag's default. The launcher writes 1 and 0.
Saving replaces the lines of the keys the launcher knows and keeps everything else (comments, unknown keys). Every known key is written, with its current value, on every save: edit the file while the launcher is closed, or a running launcher overwrites the change the next time it saves.

[client]

Key	Default	Meaning	Set by
`path`	empty	The 3.3.5a game client folder (`Wow.exe` and `Data/common.MPQ`). Empty or not a client: the launcher looks next to the executable, in its parent folder, in the parent's subfolders (two levels), then where an installer put the game (Windows registry `InstallPath`; `~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)` and `Program Files` elsewhere), and writes the first client found here.	Overview → Browse; the wizard ("Client" step) on install
`locale`	empty	The client language the game starts in (`enUS`, `ruRU`, ...): written to `WTF/Config.wtf` (`SET locale`) before the game starts, and the locale the server reads its data in (`LONELYICE_LOCALE`). Empty: `Config.wtf` is left alone and its `SET locale` is used.	Overview → locale chips; Settings → Launcher → Client language
`runner`	`wine`	Linux and macOS: the program that runs `Wow.exe`, with arguments separated by spaces (e.g. `wine64`, a Proton or CrossOver wrapper). Unused on Windows.	file only
`writeRealmlist`	`1`	Before the game starts, set `realmlist.wtf` of the start locale (of every locale when none is known) to `127.0.0.1` when it points elsewhere (the first overwrite keeps `realmlist.wtf.bak`), and a `realmList` line in `Config.wtf` if there is one. With a `RealmServerPort` other than 3724 the value is `127.0.0.1:<port>` (the 3.3.5a client takes `host:port`); `127.0.0.1` or `localhost`, with the right port, count as this computer.	Settings → Launcher → Check realmlist before launch
`clearWdb`	`1`	Delete the client cache `Cache/WDB` before the game starts.	Settings → Launcher → Clear the client cache

[server]

Key	Default	Meaning	Set by
`root`	empty	The server folder (configs, databases, game data, logs, backups). Empty: the executable's folder.	the wizard ("Location" step)
`config`	empty	The worldserver.conf to run. Empty: `<root>/configs/worldserver.conf`; without `root`, `configs-sqlite/worldserver.conf` or `configs/worldserver.conf` next to the executable, whichever exists.	file only; the wizard clears it on install
`location`	`local`	Where the databases are: `local` (SQLite files in `<root>/db`) or the `storage` id of an installed plugin (a database server, e.g. `mysql`), reached with `[remote]` (Server game data).	Settings → Storage; the wizard ("Data" step)
`dataCache`	`0`	`1`: the game data is unpacked (DBC files in the world database, maps and cameras in `DataDir`); `0`: the server reads it from the client. Always `1` when `location` is not `local`.	Settings → Storage; the wizard ("Data" step)
`realmName`	empty	The realm name last reported by the server (shown in Settings while the server is down, and the wizard's realm name on an existing install).	the launcher: when the server is ready, and after the wizard set the name
`pendingRealmName`	empty	A new realm name, sent to the server (`@@realmname`) when it is next ready, then cleared.	Settings → Realm → Realm name; the wizard, when the name is changed and the databases are not touched
`sqlStamp`	empty	Size and time of the `setup/sql.pak` the databases were last deployed from. When the release's `sql.pak` differs (and the stamp is set and the config is `<root>/configs/worldserver.conf`), the next server start first runs the wizard's database step on the databases in use, without the account and the realm name, then starts the server; a storage switch brings existing databases up to date as well.	the launcher, after a database step
`configVersion`	`0`	LonelyIce's one-time changes already made to the server config: when it is lower than the launcher's, the next start (or install) makes the missing ones and saves the new number, so later edits stay. 1: `EnablePlayerSettings = 1`.	the launcher

Older versions wrote [server] storage = client | unpacked | mysql and a [mysql] section (host, port, user, password, prefix). They are still read (mysql becomes location = mysql, client becomes dataCache = 0, anything else dataCache = 1) and replaced by the keys above on the next save.

[remote]

The connection of a plugin's database server, used when [server] location is not local. The launcher passes every database as <location>:<host>;<port>;<user>;<password>;<prefix><name> for auth, characters, world and playerbots (Environment variables).

Key	Default	Meaning	Set by
`host`	`127.0.0.1`	Server address.	Settings → Storage; the wizard ("Data" step)
`port`	empty	Port; empty: the storage's default `port` from the plugin's manifest.	same
`user`	`acore`	User name.	same
`password`	empty	Password, stored as plain text.	same
`prefix`	`acore_`	Database name prefix: `acore_auth`, `acore_characters`, `acore_world`, `acore_playerbots`.	same

[launcher]

Key	Default	Meaning	Set by
`language`	empty	Interface language: `en`, `de`, `es`, `fr`, `ru`. Empty or unknown: English. The environment variable `LONELYICE_LANG` takes precedence.	the language switch in the window's header
`uiScale`	`0`	Interface size in percent, on top of the system's display scale; 50 to 300. `0`: the largest of 150, 125 and 100 % whose window fits the screen; the value chosen is written back.	Settings → Launcher → Interface scale (100 to 200 %); Ctrl + mouse wheel (steps of 25, 100 to 200)
`autoStart`	`0`	Start the server when the launcher starts (not while the wizard is needed).	Settings → Launcher → Start the server with the launcher
`stopWithGame`	`0`	Stop the server when the game the launcher started exits.	Settings → Launcher → Quitting the game stops the server
`trayOnClose`	`1`	Closing the window hides it in the notification area and the server keeps running; `0`: closing stops the server and quits. Also required for `--tray`.	Settings → Launcher → Closing the window minimizes to tray

[backup]

Backups of the SQLite databases (auth, characters, world, playerbots) into <root>/backups/store, keeping only what changed (Backups). Scheduled ones run only while the launcher runs and only with [server] location = local; the launcher looks every 30 seconds. A scheduled backup that finds nothing changed makes none.

Key	Default	Meaning	Set by
`schedule`	`daily`	`off`, `daily` (at `time`), or the hours between backups: `1`, `3`, `6`, `12`. Without the key, an empty `time` (older versions) means `off`.	Settings → Launcher → Backups
`time`	`04:00`	Daily time `HH:MM` (exactly five characters): the first check at or after it on a day starts that day's backup.	Settings → Launcher → Daily backup, time
`days`	`14`	For that many days the newest backup of each day stays; older ones thin out to one per week. Everything of the last 24 hours stays.	Settings → Launcher → Daily backups, days
`budget`	`2048`	Disk space for the backups in MB; over it the oldest backups go (the newest always stays). `0`: no limit.	Settings → Launcher → Disk space for backups, MB
`lastDay`	empty	`YYYY-MM-DD` of the last scheduled daily backup.	the launcher
`lastAt`	`0`	Unix time of the last scheduled backup with an hourly schedule.	the launcher

keep (the number of full copies of older versions) is removed when the launcher saves the file.

[packages]

Key	Default	Meaning	Set by
`index`	`https://lonelyice.org/packages/index.json`	Plugin catalogs in use, separated by `;`: http(s) URLs of an index, index files or folders holding `index.json` (Plugin format, section 8). Empty: no catalogs.	Plugins → Package catalogs (add, switch on and off, remove, bring back the LonelyIce catalog)
`disabled`	empty	Catalogs kept in the list but not read, same format.	same
`locale`	empty	Catalog filter: only packages whose `locales` name this language (or `*`). Empty: all.	Plugins → Catalog → Language