Install

What you need

• A CS2 dedicated server on Linux (linuxsteamrt64). Windows servers are not supported.
• glibc 2.31 or newer. OpenSSL and libcurl are built into Ready Up.
• For the installer: bash 4 or newer, Python 3, curl or wget, and unzip. Without unzip, the installer uses Python to extract.

You do not need Metamod:Source, CounterStrikeSharp or a database.

Packages

Ready Up ships as single components and two bundles. Every zip has the same layout as game/csgo.

Each release also has a SHA256SUMS file. Which plugins to pick is on Plugins.

Skins ship separately on purpose. Valve can ban servers that run a skin changer, so you must choose to install that plugin. The Essentials bundle contains no skins code.

Install with the installer

Run this from the server root, the folder that contains game/, as the user that owns the server files:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Auto-Tournament/ready-up/master/install.sh | bash

License choice

The first time, the installer asks how you use Ready Up:

• Noncommercial (personal use, free events): type yes to accept the PolyForm Noncommercial license.
• Commercial (you or your organization earn money from it): you need a paid license first. See Licensing.

The answer is saved in game/csgo/readyup/license-acceptance.json, so updates do not ask again. The server prints a one-line license notice at every start.

Pick the components

In a terminal, the installer then shows the components, what is installed and what the release has:

> [x] Core       new 0.2.0   required
  [x] Match      new 0.2.0   ready-up, knife, pauses, webhooks
  [x] Fleet      new 0.2.0   link to the Auto Tournament platform (idle until configured)
  [ ] Skins      new 0.2.0   may get servers banned
  [ ] Hello      new 0.2.0   example plugin
  [ ] Midas      new 0.2.0   fun: gold weapons (off until enabled)
  [ ] Whitelist  new 0.2.0   only listed players may join (off until turned on)
  [x] Practice   new 0.2.0   practice mode + tools (.prac, .savepos, .rethrow, .bot)
  [x] Essentials new 0.2.0   admins + map commands (needed for admins without a match config)

Move with the arrow keys (or j and k), toggle with space, and confirm with enter. q quits without changes. Core is always ticked. On a fresh install, the Essentials bundle is ticked. The installer then asks once more before it changes anything.

On a plain terminal (TERM=dumb, or with READYUP_PLAIN=1), it asks for numbers instead, for example 1,2.

The installer then:

• downloads the ticked components from the latest release and checks them against SHA256SUMS,
• puts them in game/csgo/readyup/,
• copies the mode configs to game/csgo/cfg/ReadyUp/, but only files that are missing,
• adds Game csgo/readyup to gameinfo.gi and gameinfo_branchspecific.gi. With Metamod, the line goes right after Metamod's line. A backup is saved as gameinfo.gi.readyup-backup-<time>.

It never overwrites readyup.cfg, your cfg/ReadyUp/*.cfg files or the plugins' JSON data. If a shipped default changed, the new one is written next to yours as <name>.default, so you can compare.

It never uses sudo, never stops or starts the server, and never touches a database.

Then restart the server and run ru selftest in its console. The last line must be selftest: PASS n/n.

Update or change components

Run the same command again. It shows the installed version next to the latest one. Untick an installed component to remove it.

The installer keeps track of what it installed in game/csgo/readyup/installed.json, and of each component's files in game/csgo/readyup/manifests/<component>.json. That is how an update removes files a newer version no longer ships.

Without questions

For scripts, panels and CI, pass a bundle or component name, or --yes. The first unattended run must also state the license choice with --accept-license, or it stops before it changes anything:

curl -fsSL .../install.sh | bash -s -- essentials --accept-license=noncommercial
curl -fsSL .../install.sh | bash -s -- full --accept-license=noncommercial
bash install.sh whitelist                              # add one component
bash install.sh --yes                                  # update whatever is installed
bash install.sh --remove skins                         # remove one component
bash install.sh --uninstall                            # remove Ready Up, keep your config
bash install.sh --uninstall --purge                    # also delete config and plugin data

To turn a plugin off without removing its files, use ru plugin disable <name>. See Turn a plugin on or off.

The release zips also carry a copy of the installer, game/csgo/readyup/tools/install.sh. It is the same script. Use --dir to point it at the server root.

Install from a zip file

Until the first release, download the zips from a CI run of the ready-up repo, then:

bash install.sh --zip ready-up-essentials-<version>-linuxsteamrt64.zip essentials --accept-license=noncommercial

This also works offline.

Install by hand

cd game/csgo
python3 readyup/tools/patch_gameinfo.py gameinfo.gi --game csgo/readyup

ru selftest

What goes where

Back up readyup/plugins/ to keep admins, the whitelist, loadouts and fleet credentials.

What gameinfo.gi must look like

The order in SearchPaths matters. Ready Up must be above Game csgo, or CS2 loads its own libserver.so and Ready Up never runs.

SearchPaths
{
    Game_LowViolence    csgo_lv
    Game    csgo/readyup
    Game    csgo
    ...
}

Metamod

We recommend running Ready Up on its own. If you need Metamod on the same server, it works. Keep Metamod's line first and put Ready Up's line directly below it. Both stay above Game csgo:

    Game    csgo/addons/metamod
    Game    csgo/readyup
    Game    csgo

Metamod then loads first and loads Ready Up as "the game". The installer and the patcher put the line in this place when they find Metamod, and move it there if it is above Metamod. Older Ready Up builds turned themselves off under Metamod. Use a build that has the fixes from docs/COMPATIBILITY.md in the repo.

With the wrong order, Ready Up above Metamod, nothing crashes, but Metamod never loads, and neither does anything it loads, such as CounterStrikeSharp. Ready Up logs a warning at start with the command that fixes it:

[ReadyUp] load-order: WARNING: Metamod (Game csgo/addons/metamod) is listed BELOW csgo/readyup in gameinfo.gi: ... Fix: python3 <csgo>/readyup/tools/patch_gameinfo.py <csgo>/gameinfo.gi

If two copies of Ready Up end up in one server process, for example from two readyup lines, the second copy logs Ready Up disabled: another copy is already active in this process and only passes calls through to Valve's library.

With Metamod first, CS2 writes its round backup files into csgo/addons/metamod/ instead of csgo/readyup/. Restoring still works.

What works and what breaks next to Metamod, CounterStrikeSharp and other match plugins is in the FAQ.

After a CS2 update

CS2 updates rewrite gameinfo.gi and remove Ready Up's line. The server then starts without Ready Up. After each CS2 update:

1. Run the installer again (it only adds the line back), or run the patcher on gameinfo.gi and gameinfo_branchspecific.gi.
2. Restart the server.
3. Run ru selftest.

If a CS2 update breaks part of the engine surface, only the affected features turn off. ru selftest lists them. A fixed engine-surface.json can be dropped next to libserver.so without a new build, because the file on disk wins over the copy built into the core.

Upgrading from Postgres

Older builds kept admins, settings and skins in Postgres (readyup_db.json). Ready Up no longer reads either. Copy the data into the JSON files once, before or right after you update:

# reads readyup_db.json next to the core
python3 game/csgo/readyup/tools/migrate-postgres-to-json.py --csgo game/csgo
# Postgres in a Docker container (psql runs inside it)
python3 game/csgo/readyup/tools/migrate-postgres-to-json.py --csgo game/csgo --docker readyup-postgres
# only show what it would do
python3 game/csgo/readyup/tools/migrate-postgres-to-json.py --csgo game/csgo --dry-run

The script only reads the database. It merges into existing JSON files, and existing entries win. --prefer-db flips that. Afterwards, restart the server. The script writes admins to the old place, plugins/match/admins.json. The essentials plugin copies that file to plugins/essentials/admins.json when it loads and finds no admins file of its own. If it already has one, add the admins again with ru admins add. Then you can delete readyup_db.json and the database.

Use a different Valve libserver.so

Ready Up loads Valve's module from game/csgo/bin/linuxsteamrt64/libserver.so. To load another file, set this environment variable before the server starts:

READYUP_REAL_SERVER_PATH=/full/path/to/libserver.so