GameUserSettings.ini does not persist custom ServerSettings across container restart

[Knufle]

Summary

When using this image with mounted /ark/config, custom ServerSettings in GameUserSettings.ini are lost after container restart, while Game.ini settings persist.

This makes behavior inconsistent with expected file-based config management in /ark/config.

Environment

• Image: drpsychick/arkserver latest
• Config volume mounted at /ark
• Files present in /ark/config:
  • Game.ini
  • GameUserSettings.ini
  • arkmanager.cfg

Settings I am trying to use

Game.ini

• bUseSingleplayerSettings=True
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_Player[0]=1.5
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_Player[1]=2.0
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_Player[3]=2.0
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_Player[4]=1.5
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_Player[5]=1.5
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_Player[7]=2.5
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_Player[8]=1.4
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_Player[9]=1.4
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_Player[10]=2.25
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_Player[11]=5.0
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoTamed[0]=1.6
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoTamed[1]=1.5
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoTamed[7]=2.25
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoTamed[8]=1.5
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoWild[1]=1.6
• PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoWild[7]=1.5

GameUserSettings.ini

• DifficultyOffset=1.0
• OverrideOfficialDifficulty=5.0
• XPMultiplier=2.5
• TamingSpeedMultiplier=3.5
• DinoCharacterFoodDrainMultiplier=1.7
• HarvestAmountMultiplier=2.25
• SupplyCrateLootQualityMultiplier=1.3
• CropGrowthSpeedMultiplier=100.0
• DayCycleSpeedScale=0.7
• ResourcesRespawnPeriodMultiplier=0.5
• ResourceNoReplenishRadiusStructures=0.3
• MatingIntervalMultiplier=0.06
• EggHatchSpeedMultiplier=15.0
• BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier=12.5
• BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier=0.1
• BabyCuddleGracePeriodMultiplier=0.4

Plus existing long server/client sections already generated in the file.

Reproduction

1. Put the above values into /ark/config/Game.ini and /ark/config/GameUserSettings.ini.
2. Start server, verify values exist.
3. Restart container.
4. Check live files in ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer.

Actual result

• Game.ini values are present after restart.
• The GameUserSettings ServerSettings values above are missing after restart.

Evidence

• No arkmanager companion override files exist:

  • ls -la /ark/config/arkmanager.Game*.ini
  • result: no such file or directory

• Live Game.ini is symlinked to /ark/config/Game.ini:

  • /ark/server/ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/Game.ini -> /ark/config/Game.ini

• Live GameUserSettings.ini is a regular file, not symlinked:

  • /ark/server/ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/GameUserSettings.ini is a normal rw file

• After restart, grep in live GameUserSettings.ini returns nothing for:

  • DifficultyOffset
  • OverrideOfficialDifficulty
  • XPMultiplier
  • TamingSpeedMultiplier
  • DinoCharacterFoodDrainMultiplier
  • HarvestAmountMultiplier
  • SupplyCrateLootQualityMultiplier
  • CropGrowthSpeedMultiplier
  • DayCycleSpeedScale
  • ResourcesRespawnPeriodMultiplier
  • ResourceNoReplenishRadiusStructures
  • MatingIntervalMultiplier
  • EggHatchSpeedMultiplier
  • BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier
  • BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier
  • BabyCuddleGracePeriodMultiplier

• After restart, grep in live Game.ini still returns the expected values listed above.

Expected result

If config files are provided under /ark/config, both files should be applied consistently and persist across restart, or documentation should clearly describe why GameUserSettings.ini is rewritten and how to make custom ServerSettings persistent.

Additionally, since the entrypoint explicitly attempts to create a symlink for GameUserSettings.ini, the live file should remain linked/consistent with /ark/config/GameUserSettings.ini across restarts.

• Relevant line in this repository:

  • arkserver/scripts/run.sh

    Line 156 in eccc85e

    [ -f /ark/config/GameUserSettings.ini ] && ln -sf /ark/config/GameUserSettings.ini $ARKSERVER/ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/GameUserSettings.ini

[DrPsychick]

Thanks for the detailed issue. Since I'm no longer using this image myself and you have already found the root cause, feel free to submit a PR and I'll happily review and approve it.

[Knufle]

I'm not sure that I found the root cause, because I do see that run.sh symlinks both .ini files so I'm not sure why once the server starts GameUserSettings.ini is no longer symlinked, I'm assuming this worked in the past which idk if it's true because I only started using this image recently, but if it did work in the past (the symlink persisted) then I would imagine that something changed in the ark server bootstrap itself or something... Any tips? Also, when you say you're no longer using this image, does that mean you're using something else? Would you mind sharing if that's the case?

[DrPsychick]

No, I'm actually not hosting any ark server at the moment. If I would, I'd be using my image.

As you are using the image, can you check about the symlink while ark is running? Does it save the changes to the file or a different file? Or maybe ARK itself overwrites the symlink? Then we'd need to copy the contents to config when the server shuts down or so.