Running commands remotely¶

You can connect to the console remotely, to run commands from outside the game. This is useful for running commands if the game is running on a device that doesn't have a physical keyboard (e.g. a gaming handheld).

To set this up, run this in the console:

:cons remote start 127.0.0.1 12345

The Remote Console server is now active. You can use ncat to connect to it: install it and then run this in a terminal:

ncat 127.0.0.1 12345 # (1)!

1. Or nc 127.0.0.1 12345 on Linux.

By default the server binds to 127.0.0.1, which means other devices can't connect to it.

To expose the server to other devices, run:

:cons remote start 0.0.0.0

If the port argument is missing, it will bind to a random available port.

You can stop the server with :cons remote stop. Make sure to stop the server when you don't need it anymore, for security reasons (see Security section).

Connecting from WSL¶

If you game is running on Windows, and you want to connect to it from WSL, you need to take extra care. You can't just connect to localhost, it won't work. Instead, do this:

1. In WSL, run this to see the IP address of the Windows host. Write it down somewhere.

   ip route show | grep -i default | awk '{ print $3}'
   

2. Start the console and bind the remote console to 0.0.0.0 by running this in CrabbyConsole:

   :cons remote start 0.0.0.0 12345
   

3. Now connect to it from WSL by running this command, and replacing <WINDOWS_IP> by the IP you found in step 1:

   nc <WINDOWS_IP> 12345
   

Now it should connect. If not, ensure you allow your game to connect through the Windows Firewall.