Ghast Tear

A server.properties file opened with Notepad++

Server.properties is the file which stores all the settings for a multiplayer (Classic, Alpha or Beta) server.

If you are going to edit server.properties it is important that you use the same structure as the original uses. The text before the equal sign is the key, which you shouldn't change. The text after the equal sign is the key's value, which you can edit. Lines that begin with # are comments - altering or removing these has no effect on the game.

You need to restart your server if you change the settings file for the new changes to take effect.

Server.properties

As of 14th September 2011 [Beta 1.8], these are the default settings for a newly installed Beta Minecraft server:

#Minecraft server properties
#Wed Sep 14 14:33:18 CEST 2011
level-name=world
allow-nether=true
view-distance=10
spawn-monsters=false
online-mode=true

difficulty=1
gamemode=0
spawn-animals=true
max-players=20
server-ip=5.115.164.73:25565

pvp=true
level-seed=
server-port=25565
allow-=false
white-list=false
motd=A Minecraft Server

Beta Keys

Option Name	Type	Default	Description
level-name	text	world	The "level-name" value will be used as world name and as folder name. You may also copy your saved game folder here, and change the name to the same as that folder's to load it instead. Characters such as ' (apostrophe) may need to be escaped by adding a backslash before them.
allow-nether	boolean	true	This option is introduced in Beta 1.6. Allows players to travel to the Nether. false - Nether portals will not work. true - The server will allow Portals to send players to the Nether. [default]
view-distance	number (3-15)	10	The amount of chunks the server sends to the player. Introduced in Beta 1.6
spawn-monsters	boolean	true	Set true if you want monsters to be spawned at night, false if you don't. Tip: if you have major lag, turn this off/set to false. true - Enabled. Monsters will appear at night and in the dark [default] false - Disabled. No monsters.
online-mode	boolean	true	Server checks connecting players against minecraft's account database. Only set this to false if your server is not connected to the Internet. Hackers with fake accounts can connect if this is set to false! If minecraft.net is down or inaccessible, no players will be able to connect if this is set to true. true - Enabled. The server will assume it has an Internet connection and check every connecting player. [default] false - Disabled. The server will not attempt to check connecting players.
spawn-animals	boolean	true	Animals will be able to spawn. true - Animals spawn as normal. [default] false - Animals will immediately vanish.
max-players	number (0-999)	20	The max numbers of players that can play on the server at the same time. Note that if more players are on the server it will use more resources. Note also, op player connections are not supposed to count against the max players, but ops currently cannot join a full server.
server-ip	text	blank	Set this if you want the server to bind to a particular IP. It is strongly recommended that you leave server-ip blank! Set to blank, or the IP you want your server to run on.
Option Name	Type	Default	Description
pvp	boolean	true	Enable PvP on the server. Note: Hitting a player while having PvP set to false and having tamed wolves will still cause the wolves to attack the player who was hit. true - Players will be able to kill each other. [default] false - Players cannot kill other players (Also called PvE).
level-seed	alphanumeric	blank	Add a seed for your world. Like in singleplayer. Some examples are: 'minecraft', '404', '1a2b3c'
server-port	numeric (1-65535)	25565	Changes the port the server is hosting on. This port must be forwarded if the server is going through a router. This forum post explains very well how to forward a port easily.
white-list	boolean	false	Enable a white list on the server. With a white list enabled, users not on the white list will be unable to connect. false - No white list is used. [default] true - The file white-list.txt is used to generate the white list.
allow-flight	boolean	false	Will allow users to use flight/no-clip on your server while in Survival mode, if they have a mod that provides flight/no-clip installed. With allow-flight enabled griefers will possibly be more common, because it will make their work easier. In Creative mode this has no effect. This function was implemented by jeb_. false - Flight/no-clip is not allowed. [default] true - Flight/no clip is allowed, and used if the player have a no-clip mod installed.
gamemode	number (0 or 1)	0	Defines the mode of gameplay. 0 - Survival [default] 1 - Creative
difficulty	number (0-3)	1	Defines the difficulty (example: damage dealt by mobs) of the server. 0 - Peaceful (there is also spawn-monsters=false to have peaceful difficulty) 1 - Easy [default] 2 - Normal 3 - Hard
motd	text	blank	Introduced in Beta 1.8. This is the message that is displayed in the server list of the client, below the name. Anything, some special characters are accepted. Note, motd does NOT support color codes. If the MOTD is too long, the server list will report a communication error.

Classic Keys

Option Name	Type	Default	Description
verify-names	boolean		If enabled the server will make sure that the client is logged in with the same IP on Minecraft.net. This has caused problems for people trying to play on the same computer they are hosting the server on as the server will see the local IP (127.0.0.1) while Minecraft.net will see the external IP. It is recommended that this is enabled unless you want to play on your server from the same computer you are hosting it on true - Enabled. The server will check all names with Minecraft.net false - Disabled. The server will make sure the IP matches
admin-slot	boolean	false	Allow ops to join even if the server is full.
public	boolean		Whether the server should be displayed in the server list, or not. true - The server will be displayed in the server list - anyone can see it. false - Only people with the URL which can be found in externalurl.txt and people who know the IP and port can join the server
server-name	text		The name of the server. This is displayed in the server list and when someone is joining the server A single line of text. Characters such as ' (apostrophe) may need to be escaped by adding a backslash before them.
max-players	number (0-256)		The max numbers of players that can play on the server at the same time. Note that if more players are on the server it will use more resources. Note also, admin connections are not counted against the max players.
max-connections	1-3		The max number of connections the server will accept from the same IP. If you try to set it higher than 3 it will be changed back to 3.
motd	text		MOTD is short for Message of the day, though you do not need to change it every day. The MOTD is displayed when people join the server.
grow-trees	boolean		Whether or not the server will allow planted saplings to grow into trees. true - the server will allow saplings to grow into trees. false - the server will not allow saplings to grow into trees.