Privileges

Every player has a set of privileges, which differ from server to server. Roughly spoken, one’s privileges determine what one is able to do and what not. Each privilege has a name (the meaning is described below). Privileges can be granted and revoked from other players by any player who has the privilege called “privs”. On a multiplayer server with a default configuration, new players start with the privileges called “interact” and “shout”. To view one’s own privileges, one can issue the server command “/privs”.

Built-in privileges

As of Minetest 0.4.9, Minetest comes with the following privileges:

• gameplay-related:
  • interact – build, mine or use blocks
  • give – can use the /give and /giveme commands
  • teleport – can use the /teleport command to teleport oneself to certain coordinates or to another player
  • bring – in combination with teleport, can use the /teleport command to teleport any player to certain coordinates or to yet another player
  • fast – allows the player to activate fast mode
  • fly – allows the player to activate fly mode
  • noclip – allows the player to activate noclip mode
• chat-related:
  • shout – can chat with other people
• world–manipulation-related:
  • settime – can set time of day using /time
• moderation-related:
  • privs – can set any privileges of players using /grant and /revoke (→Server commands#Privilege manipulation)
  • basic_privs – can set “interact” and “shout” privileges using /grant and /revoke
  • ban – can ban/unban IPs and names using /ban and /unban
  • rollback – can use the rollback functionality
• administration-related:
  • server – can do server maintenance stuff such as /shutdown, /clearobjects, /set, …

Irrevokable privileges

A player’s privileges may be irrevokable in certain situations. It is not possible to revoke these privileges with /revoke then.

In multiplayer servers, the player whose name equals the minetest.conf setting “name” automatically has all privileges and all of these are irrevokable. This is also the case for players who started a server (not a dedicated server). In singleplayer, you start with all of the above privileges but fast, fly and noclip by default. These privileges are irrevokable.

Privileges from mods

Mods may make additional privileges available on the server. Issue the server command /help privs to receive a full list (and short descriptions) of all possible privileges on the server. Or, if you know the mod name, refer to the mod’s documentation.

Server configuration

Using the server’s configuration files, a lot of privilege-related stuff can be manipulated.

There is an option in the configuration file for setting the default privileges for new players. default_privs = interact, shout

• The player having the name in the “name” field of the configuration has irrevokable privileges.

Privileges are stored in the new auth.txt file. The format of every line in that file is name:hashed_password:privs A real example: celeron55:CcCUjNUDVJxmXmTHj+7WKHvA9Ds:build,shout

The auth.txt file is written periodically and at shutdown, so you should edit it only when the server is not running.

Historic notes

As of 0.4, the “build” privilege was renamed to “interact”.

The “noclip” privilege was added in version 0.4.5. Before that, only the “fly” privilege was sufficient to fly through walls.

See also

• Server
• Server commands