Bash script to automatically and smartly update PaperMC whenever a new version is available. You need to install `jq` and `wget`.

update.sh

#!/bin/bash

# set a target minecraft major version
target_mc_version=1.19

# retrieve the latest minecraft minor version
latest_mc_version=$(curl "https://api.papermc.io/v2/projects/paper" | jq -r '[.versions[] | select(. | test("^'$target_mc_version'"))] | last')

# retrieve the matching latest paper version
latest_paper_version=$(curl "https://api.papermc.io/v2/projects/paper/versions/${latest_mc_version}" | jq -r '[.builds[]] | last')

# check if the .mc_version file exists
if [ -a .mc_version ]; then
    # if the file exists, find the currently installed version of paper
    current_paper_version=$(cat .mc_version)

    # if the currently installed version matches the version, no need to update
    if [ "$current_paper_version" == "$latest_paper_version" ]; then
        # inform the user that we are not updating the jar
        echo "paper is already up-to-date"

        # return without error
        exit 0
    fi
fi

# delete the existing har
rm -rf paper.jar

# download the new jar
wget "https://api.papermc.io/v2/projects/paper/versions/${latest_mc_version}/builds/${latest_paper_version}/downloads/paper-${latest_mc_version}-${latest_paper_version}.jar"

# move the jar 
mv "paper-${latest_mc_version}-${latest_paper_version}.jar" paper.jar

# update the .mc_version
echo $latest_paper_version > .mc_version

# inform the user that we updated the jar
echo "downloaded the new paper version"

# return without error
exit 0

Haha I literally just Google'd paper update bash and found this!

Ah I suppose force is fine, it typically won't ask if it should be removed or not either way, unless it's had the write permissions removed (which I assume would usually be explicitly/intentionally done).