This is the specification for a File that is supposed to be distributed together or seperated from the modpack. It is supposed to be used by server launchers (like this one) to know what it is supposed to do.
You might ask, why not just throw the client files next to a forge installer and then call it a day? You are correct, you can do this if you set it up on your local server, but that is a lot of manual labor.
But it allows for more:
- Reduced size of the server files when download and uploading to a server.
- As it is not launching the server directly but a subprocess it allows for specifying java args easily, which, might not always be possible on some hosting providers.
- This file format is not bound to any program, modpack, or even programming language!
A parser could be written for any other utility program to take care of the special problems specified in the file. - With the use of wildcard options and regex selectors it could be made to even work across modpack versions.
See server-setup-config.yaml for a example file how this file should be layouted.