How does time passage work when hosting servers?

[Mikel Monleón]

I'm just curious about the mechanics of time passage. Does time keep moving forward when hosting even if no one is online? So if I leave a server running for weeks with no one logging on, will all of our food spoil?

[Hal13]

i think the default setting is the server shuts down after some time when no one is online and goes back online when someone connects, time would pause if no seraph is there to perceive it.

But i think someone mentioned a possibility to not do that, i'm not sure if that was under some mod topic.

[DrEngine]

As Hal13 has said: if nobody plays server stop (i.e. time stop).

[Ender Riens]

It probably depends on how you host it. Your safest bet (3rd party or your own host) is to simply shut down the server when no one is using it. I'm not entirely convinced 3rd party hosting would automatically shut down if no one is online, which makes me iffy about recommending leaving your server up. But then again, I'm not a dev and I don't fully know the answer. I can tell you for certain, however, that a shut-down server passes no time, and will start off right where you left it once you turn it back on.

[Mikel Monleón]

I was planning on paying for a hosting service, but I am a bit worried about food spoiling, if we had it on indefinitely. 
I just noticed that the server says something like: "no one online, server calendar paused."

I assume that means that it requires at least one person to be online for time to pass. Though, I feel like that still poses a problem for players who want to take a month break if the server is populated. Does time pass if chunks aren't loaded?
 

[l33tmaan]

We have our server set so that food spoils at half the rate.
It's spoiling me, to be frank.

[Hal13]

8 hours ago, Mikel Monleón said:

Does time pass if chunks aren't loaded?

Time still passes but blocks are not ticked. You could prepare stuff for longer play pauses, honey doesn't spoil, grains in a deep cellar in a clay storage vessel take ingame years to spoil, a berry field in a greenhouse should still have some berries after rejoining, afaik animals don't starve, therefore having a bit surplus of them will help.

I think stuff in your inventory doesn't spoil while you are not logged in.

Sure most of that only helps if you know you'll not be online for some time, not when you suddenly get problems with your ISP, who cuts your connection, or something like that.