Installation

This guide covers how to build and run Steel.

Requirements

• Rust nightly toolchain - Steel uses Rust 2024 edition features
• 64-bit operating system - Linux, macOS, or Windows
• Git - To clone the repository

Installing Rust

If you don’t have Rust installed, use rustup:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Steel requires the nightly toolchain. The repository includes a rust-toolchain.toml that automatically selects the correct version.

Building from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Steel-Foundation/SteelMC.git
cd SteelMC

# Build in release mode (recommended for running)
cargo build --release

# The binary will be at target/release/steel

Build Commands

Command	Purpose
cargo build	Debug build (faster compile, slower runtime)
cargo build --release	Release build (slower compile, optimized)
cargo check	Fast syntax and type checking
cargo test	Run the test suite
cargo clippy	Run the linter

Build Features

Steel supports optional build features that can be enabled with --features:

# Enable deadlock detection (debug only)
cargo build --features deadlock_detection

# Enable heap profiling with dhat
cargo build --features dhat-heap

# Disable the default mimalloc allocator
cargo build --no-default-features

Available features:

Feature	Description
mimalloc	Use mimalloc allocator (enabled by default)
deadlock_detection	Enable parking_lot deadlock detection for debugging lock issues
dhat-heap	Enable heap profiling with dhat

Deadlock Detection is particularly useful during development if you’re experiencing hangs or suspect lock-related issues. When enabled, parking_lot will detect potential deadlocks and panic with diagnostic information.

Running the Server

# Run directly with cargo (debug mode)
cargo run

# Run with release optimizations
cargo run --release

# Or run the built binary directly
./target/release/steel

The server will:

1. Create a config/steel_config.json5 file if it doesn’t exist
2. Bind to 0.0.0.0:25565 by default
3. Start accepting Minecraft 1.21.11 clients

Pre-built Binaries

Pre-built binaries are available on the GitHub Releases page for:

• Linux (x86_64)
• Windows (x86_64)
• macOS (x86_64 and ARM)

Next Steps

Now that you have Steel running, proceed to Configuration to customize your server.