Setting up your server.cfg and adminmod.cfg files

NOTE: The adminmod.cfg and (listen)server.cfg files are the configuration link between Half-Life and Admin Mod.  Without a proper setup, Admin Mod will cause more problems than it will solve.  Each portion of the setup is critical, so read through this section carefully.   Many configuration variables (or CVARs for short - we uses the term CVARs in this document extensively, so now you know what we mean) have been removed or changed with Admin Mod 2.50.50, and file structure has also been altered so everyone should read this section, confirmed user or not.

 

// This is a comment

 

In the (listen)server.cfg and adminmod.cfg files, any line beginning with " // " (comment characters) is ignored by the server when it loads this file. In addition, if the " // " characters appear anywhere on a line, anything after those characters is ignored by the server. Any line not beginning with the comment characters is assumed to contain server instructions, and is parsed by the server for execution.

 

Please note that a 'dedicated' server will, unless told otherwise, read it's initial settings from 'server.cfg'.  A 'listen' server, on the other hand, reads them from 'listenserver.cfg'.

 

As of Admin Mod v2.50.50, there is much less to edit in these files. Depending on which type of server you are using, add the following lines to either your server.cfg or listenserver.cfg.


// Execute Admin Mod adminmod.cfg file:
exec "addons/adminmod/config/adminmod.cfg"


All of the Admin Mod configuration variables (CVARs) haven been moved to a new file to conform with the new ADS. They are now located in the <mod>/addons/adminmod/config/adminmod.cfg file.

 

If you do not know what type of server you are running, you can add these lines to both files. We recommend however that you do know so that you can edit other options that are not Admin Mod related. Here is the simple explanation of the difference between the server.cfg and listenserver.cfg files for all the visual people out there:

 

Type of Server

File to Configure

 

Dedicated Server

(runs in a text window on the computer - you don't play the game on this machine, you just connect to it)

 

 

server.cfg

 

Listen Server

(you start the server in your Half-Life game, and you can play on the same machine while it is acting as a server for other players)

 

 

listenserver.cfg

 

 

 A listen server is one that you start from within the Half-Life VGUI itself: it starts when you join, it ends when you quit, and you have 0 ping.  A dedicated server is started from the HLDS program, and appears on the server machine as just a lot of text information.  If you have no idea what type of server you are running, even after this explanation, simply configure your server.cfg file to your liking with all the necessary CVARs and copy the contents of the server.cfg file to the listenserver.cfg file. This way, no matter what you do, you are covered.

 

Creating/Configuring your adminmod.cfg file:

The default adminmod.cfg file for Admin Mod 2.50.60 can be found in the Adminmod/config folder. The file itself is contains comments which explain the uses of each of the cvars listed within the file and each cvar and it's settings are explained in the reference section of the manual on the Admin Mod Configuration Variables (CVARs) page.

 

All Admin Mod and Half-life .cfg files are plain text files which can be opened and edited in any text editor, such as Notepad, UltraEdit, vi, pico, Emacs, or any other text editor that can be guaranteed to save the file in plaintext format. Please note that word processing tools such as Microsoft Word® or any other equivalent will often add formatting information making the file invalid for Half-life's purposes.