---
name: "pioneers-metaserver"
section: "6"
platform: "linux"
package: "pioneers-metaserver"
version: "15.6-1+b5"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pioneers-metaserver"
---

# pioneers-metaserver(6)

metaserver for Pioneers

## NAME

pioneers-metaserver - metaserver for Pioneers

## SYNOPSIS

**pioneers-metaserver** \[*options*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**Pioneers** is an implementation of the popular, award-winning "Settlers of Catan" board game.  It uses a client/server model for networked play. This program provides a piece of network infrastructure that helps match pioneers clients to pioneers servers. Casual players of pioneers probably do not need to run this program.

## OPTIONS

- **-?, --help**

  Print a short help text and exit.

- **-d, --daemon**

  Run in daemon mode.

- **-P, --pidfile** *pidfile*

  Write the pid to *pidfile* (implies -d)

- **-r, --redirect** *location*

  Redirect to another metaserver running at *location*.

- **-s, --servername** *hostname*

  Use *hostname* as hostname when creating servers.

- **-p, --port-range** *from***-***to*

  Use ports in the range *from*-*to* (inclusive) to start servers. When this range is not specified, the metaserver will not be able to create new games.

- **--debug**

  Enable debug messages.

- **--syslog-debug**

  Duplicate the messages of the syslog to the console.

- **--version**

  Show version information.

## ENVIRONMENT

The default settings of the metaserver can be influenced with the following three environment variables:

- **PIONEERS\_METASERVER**

  The hostname the metaserver will use when creating new games. This should be a hostname that can be resolved by all clients that will connect.

- **PIONEERS\_SERVER\_CONSOLE**

  The path (including the filename) to **pioneers-server-console**. If it contains only a filename and no path or if it is not set, the PATH variable in the environment is used to locate the program.

- **PIONEERS\_DIR**

  The path to the game definition files. If it is not set, the default installation path will be used.

## FILES

**/usr/share/games/pioneers/\*.game**

Game definitions

## SIGNALS

**SIGINT**

Shutdown the metaserver gracefully (can also be used to check for memory leaks)

## AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Jeff Breidenbach \<jab@debian.org\>, and updated by Roland Clobus \<rclobus@rclobus.nl\> and Bas Wijnen \<shevek@fmf.nl\>. Pioneers was written by Dave Cole \<dave@dccs.com.au\>, Andy Heroff \<aheroff@mediaone.net\>, and Roman Hodek \<roman@hodek.net\>, with contributions from many other developers on the Internet; see the AUTHORS file in the pioneers distribution or the help-\>about dialog in one of the graphical programs for a complete list of contributing authors.

## SEE ALSO

**[pioneers(6)](/pioneers/6.md)**, **[pioneers-server-gtk(6)](/pioneers-server-gtk/6.md)**, **[pioneers-server-console(6)](/pioneers-server-console/6.md)**