fac

Fac is a command-line mod manager for Factorio >=0.13 written in Python 3.

Contents

Installation
Configuration
Usage
Listing installed mods
Enabling & disabling mods
Searching for mods
Showing detailled info about a mod
Installing mods
Updating mods
Holding mods
Removing mods
Packing/unpacking mods
Using wildcards
Mod name autocorrection
Game version incompatibilities
ZSH completion script
Changelog

Installation

You'll need Python 3, which can be obtained through your distribution's package manager or downloaded from https://www.python.org/ (for Windows users).

Installation can be easilly done using pip:

$ pip3 install fac-cli

Or directly from git:

$ pip3 install -e "git+https://github.com/mickael9/fac.git#egg=fac-cli"

Or from an existing clone:

$ pip3 install -e .

NOTE (linux users): By default, these commands will require you to be root unless you run pip from a virtualenv or you use the --user flag.

If you run pip with the --user flag, make sure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH or the fac command will not work.

Configuration

fac needs to be able to know the location of:

The Factorio data directory, eg /usr/share/factorio/
The Factorio configuration directory, eg ~/.factorio

Normally, it should be able to detect these automatically assuming you have a standard setup (eg. Steam). It will also look in the current working directory and its parent.

If for some reason these paths can't be found automatically, you'll have to specify them in fac's config file, which is located at:

~/.config/fac/config.ini on Linux
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\fac\config.ini on Windows
~/Library/Application Support/fac/config.ini on Mac OS X

[paths]
data-path = /home/me/my_factorio/data
write-path = /home/me/my_factorio

You can display the currently detected locations using fac -v:

$ fac -v
DEBUG:fac.main:Factorio write path: /home/mickael/.factorio
DEBUG:fac.main:Factorio game path: /usr/share/factorio
DEBUG:fac.main:Factorio version: 0.13.9
usage: fac COMMAND [options...]
[...]

Usage

fac can be run using the fac command. It is further divided into several subcommands:

usage: fac COMMAND [options...]

Mod manager for Factorio

  COMMAND
    list                List installed mods and their status.
    enable              Enable mods.
    disable             Disable mods.
    search              Search the mods database.
    show                Show details about specific mods.
    install             Install (or update) mods.
    update              Update installed mods.
    remove              Remove mods.
    hold                Hold mods (show held mods with no argument).
    unhold              Unhold mods.
    pack                Pack mods.
    unpack              Unpack mods.
    fetch               Fetch a mod from the mod portal.
    make-compatible     Change the supported factorio version of mods.

general options:
  -g GAME_VERSION, --game-version GAME_VERSION
                        force a specific game version
  -m MODS_DIRECTORY, --mods-directory MODS_DIRECTORY
                        use the specified mods directory
  -i, --ignore-game-ver
                        ignore game version when selecting packages
  -v, --verbose         show more detailled output
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

Below are simple examples of what you can do for each command.

Listing installed mods

$ fac list
Installed mods:
    Warehousing 0.0.10
    YARM 0.7.105
    advanced-logistics-system 0.3.0 (unpacked, incompatible)
    creative-mode 0.1.4 (disabled, unpacked)

Enabling & disabling mods

$ fac disable YARM
YARM is now disabled

$ fac list
    YARM 0.7.105 (disabled)

$ fac enable YARM
YARM is now enabled

$ fac list
    YARM 0.7.105

Searching for mods

$ fac search 5dim

5dim's Mod - Core
    Name: 5dim_core
    Tags: big-mods

    Core of all 5dim's mod

5dim's Mod - Automatization
    Name: 5dim_automatization
    Tags: big-mods

    Automatization for 5dim's mod

5dim's Mod - Energy
    Name: 5dim_energy
    Tags: big-mods

    Energy for 5dim's mod

[...]

Showing detailled info about a mod

$ fac show 5dim_logistic
Name: 5dim_logistic
Author: McGuten
Title: 5dim's Mod - Logistic
Summary: logistic of all 5dim's mod
Description:
    logistic of all 5dim's mod
Tags: big-mods
Homepage: http://www.5dim.es
License: MIT
Game versions: 0.13
Releases:
    Version: 0.13.1    Game version: 0.13
    Version: 0.13.0    Game version: 0.13

Installing mods

$ fac install Foreman 5dim_logistic
Adding dependency: 5dim_core 0.13.1
Installing: Foreman 0.2.5...
Downloading: https://mods.factorio.com/api/downloads/data/mods/308/Foreman_0.2.5.zip...
Installing: 5dim_core 0.13.1...
Downloading: https://mods.factorio.com/api/downloads/data/mods/191/5dim_core_0.13.1.zip...
Installing: 5dim_logistic 0.13.1...
Downloading: https://mods.factorio.com/api/downloads/data/mods/196/5dim_logistic_0.13.1.zip...

$ fac install Foreman==0.2.2
Foreman==0.2.5 is already installed. Use -R to reinstall it.

Foreman is already installed in a more recent version. Use -D to downgrade it.

$ fac install Foreman==0.2.2 -D
Installing: Foreman 0.2.2...
Downloading: https://mods.factorio.com/api/downloads/data/mods/308/Foreman_0.2.2.zip...
Removing: /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/Foreman_0.2.5.zip

The fetch command can be used to download a mod into a specified directory.

Updating mods

$ fac update
Checking: Foreman
Checking: 5dim_logistic
Checking: 5dim_core
Checking: YARM
Found 1 update:
    Foreman 0.2.2 -> 0.2.3
Continue? [Y/n]
Downloading: https://mods.factorio.com/api/downloads/data/mods/308/Foreman_0.2.3.zip...
Removing: /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/Foreman_0.2.2.zip

Holding mods

Use this to keep mods from being automatically updated when using the update command.

$ fac install Foreman==0.2.2
Installing: Foreman 0.2.2...
Downloading: https://mods.factorio.com/api/downloads/data/mods/308/Foreman_0.2.2.zip...

$ fac hold Foreman
Foreman will not be updated automatically anymore

$ fac update
Checking: Foreman
Found update: Foreman 0.2.5
Foreman is held. Use -H to update it anyway.
No updates were found

$ fac unhold Foreman
Foreman will now be updated automatically.

$ fac update
Checking: YARM
Found 1 update:
    Foreman 0.2.2 -> 0.2.5
Continue? [Y/n]
Downloading: https://mods.factorio.com/api/downloads/data/mods/308/Foreman_0.2.5.zip...
Removing: /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/Foreman_0.2.2.zip

Removing mods

$ fac remove Foreman
The following files will be removed:
    /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/Foreman_0.2.3.zip
Continue? [Y/n]
Removing: /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/Foreman_0.2.3.zip

Packing/unpacking mods

Mods can be either packed (name_0.1.zip) or unpacked (name_0.1/) and the game will accept both of them.

Keep in mind that the game will refuse to start if there is both a packed and unpacked version of a mod, or if there are multiple installed versions for any given mod.

$ fac unpack yarm
Unpacking: /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/YARM_0.7.105.zip
Removing file: /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/YARM_0.7.105.zip
YARM is now unpacked

$ fac pack yarm
Packing: /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/YARM_0.7.105/
Removing directory: /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/YARM_0.7.105/
YARM is now packed

Using wildcards

Commands that work on locally installed mods can accept wildcards, eg:

$ fac remove '5dim_*'
The following files will be removed:
    /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/5dim_logistic_0.13.1.zip
    /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/5dim_core_0.13.1.zip
Continue? [Y/n]
Removing: /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/5dim_logistic_0.13.1.zip
Removing: /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/5dim_core_0.13.1.zip

$ fac enable '*'
advanced-logistics-system was already enabled
Warehousing was already enabled
YARM was already enabled
Foreman is now enabled

Note the presence of quotes around filters to prevent the shell from interpreting them.

Mod name autocorrection

Most commands will try to guess the correct name when given inexact mod names.

If the name is a filter (eg 5dim_*), no attempt to autocorrect will be made.

The following attempts are made to find a match for a given mod name:

Exact match
Case-insensitive match
Partial case-insensitive match if there is no ambiguity.
For remote commands (install, update...), the search result if there is only one.

For remote commands, a local match will first be attempted at each step.

For instance:

yarm will be converted to YARM via the Case-insensitive match strategy
ya will either be converted to YARM if you have YARM installed or fail because there is more than one result to the fac search ya command.

Game version incompatibilities

Mods are tied to a specific factorio version (eg 0.13, 0.14) and can only work with that version. A 0.14 game will refuse to load a mod made for 0.13.

By default, fac will autodetect your installed factorio version and use that to filter the available commands to compatible mods.

In some cases, you might want to disable this filtering using the -i option. You can also override the detected game version using -g 0.13 for instance.

A make-compatible command is provided. It will automatically unpack a mod and change its factorio_version field to the currently set game version (autodetected or provided by the -g option).

Usage scenario

You're currently running Factorio 0.14 and want to install your favorite mod, YARM:

$ fac search YARM
Note: 1 mods were hidden because they have no compatible game versions. Use -i to show them.

$ fac search YARM -i
Yet Another Resource Monitor Fork
    Name: YARM
    Tags: incompatible, info

This mod helps you to keep track of your mining sites.

Feeling courageous, you want to try it anyway:

$ fac install -i YARM
[...]

$ fac make-compatible YARM
Unpacking: /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/YARM_0.7.105.zip
Removing file: /home/mickael/.factorio/mods/YARM_0.7.105.zip
Game version changed to 0.14 for YARM 0.7.105.

You can now use the mod as if it was made for Factorio 0.14.

ZSH completion script

If you're using ZSH (and you should be!) you can install the provided completion script for a better experience.

You'll need to add the zsh directory to your fpath using something like this in your .zshrc :

fpath+=(/path/to/fac/zsh)

If you installed fac using pip as root, the script should automatically be installed in the right place (/usr/share/zsh/site-functions).

With pip --user, you'll need to add this in your .zshrc :

fpath+=(~/.local/share/zsh/site-functions)

Note: compinit must be called after fpath is changed so you must either put your changes before compinit or add another compinit call after changing fpath.

Changelog

0.9

Known issues:
- search command will list all existing mods regardless of the search critera. This shall be addressed in a future release.
Compatibility with the new mod portal
Fix mod install failure across filesystems
Search for Factorio installation in lowercase steamapps directory as well
Don't follow symbolic links when packing/unpacking mods

0.8

Added automatic retries of network requests to the API
Added pagination options to search command:
- -p, --page: starting page number for the API calls
- -s, --page-size: maximum number of returned results per page
- -c, --page-count: maximum number of pages to fetch
Fixed Factorio 0.15 compatibility (use booleans in mod-list.json)
Fixed -m, --mods-directory being ignored when loading mod-list.json

0.7

Added more friendly error messages when the user doesn't own the game
Fixed "AttributeError: 'ZippedMod' object has no attribute 'factorio_version'" (#8)

0.6

Added -F, --format to list and show commands.
Added -I, --include and -E, --exclude to list commands.
Added -m, --mods-directory option to use a specific mods directory.
Added fac version to output when using -v, --verbose.
Improved ZSH completion script.
Fixed write-path and data-path being ignored from config.ini
Fixed search command format string argument.
Fixed options parsing to allow general options anywhere in the command line.

0.5

Added workaround for 0.14 mods being considered as 0.13 mods.
Added a ZSH completion script.
Added -F, --format option to search command to customize the output format using format strings.
Various bug fixes.

0.4

New pack and unpack commands to work on unpacked mods.
New fetch command to fetch a mod without installing it.
New make-compatible command to bump the factorio_version of an installed mod.
New -l, --limit option to the search command.
New -g, --game-version option to override the detected game version.
New -i, --ignore-game-ver flag to ignore the current game version.
Removed --force flag in favor of the more specfic -R, --reinstall, -D, --downgrade, -H, --held.
Accept patterns in enable, pack, hold commands.
Resolve partial mod names.
Various bug fixes.

0.3

Support for mods with spaces in their names.

0.2

Add -y flag to update and remove commands.
Recursively create config directory.
PyPI packaging.

0.1

Initial version.