Helix Core Server Administrator Guide: Multi-Site Deployment (2019.2)

Helix Core server (p4d) Reference

Start the Perforce service or perform checkpoint/journaling (system administration) tasks.

Syntax

p4d [ options ]
p4d.exe [ options ]
p4s.exe [ options ]
p4d -j? [ -z | -Z ] [ args ... ]

Description

The first three forms of the command invoke the background process that manages the Helix server versioning service.

The fourth form is for system administration tasks involving checkpointing and journaling.

Note

Rotating the journal means saving the existing journal and creating a new, empty journal for future transactions.

"Truncating" a journal refers to the new journal file starting out as an empty file.

On UNIX and Mac OS X, the executable is p4d.

On Windows, the executable is p4d.exe (running as a server) or p4s.exe (running as a service).

Exit Status

After successful startup, p4d does not normally exit. It merely outputs the following startup message:

Perforce server starting...

and runs in the background.

On failed startup, p4d returns a nonzero error code.

Also, if invoked with any of the -j checkpointing or journaling options, p4d exits with a nonzero error code if any error occurs.

Options

This section includes the following types of options: Server options, General options, Checkpointing options, Journal restore options, Replication and multi-server options, Journal dump and restore filtering, Certificate handling, and Configuration options.

Server options

Server options	Meaning
`-d`	Run as a daemon (in the background).
`-f`	Run as a single-threaded (non-forking) process.
`-i`	Run from `inetd` on UNIX.
`-q`	Run quietly (no startup messages).
`--pid-file[=file]`	Write the PID of the server to a file named `server.pid` in the directory specified by `P4ROOT`, or write the PID to the file specified by `file`. This makes it easier to identify a server instance among many. The `file` parameter can be a complete path specification. The file does not have to reside in `P4ROOT`.
`--daemonsafe`	Is like `-d` and forks the `p4d` into the background, but also closes the stdio (standard input output) files.
`-xi`	Irreversibly reconfigure the Helix Core server (and its metadata) to operate in Unicode mode. Do not use this option unless you know you require Unicode mode. For details, see the Release Notes and the Internationalization Notes.
`-xu`	Run database upgrades and exit. Upgrades must be run manually unless the server is a DVCS personal server, which runs upgrade steps automatically.
`-xv`	Run low-level database validation and quit.
`-xvU`	Run fast verification. Do not lock database tables, and verify only that the unlock count for each table is zero.
`-xD [serverID]`	Display (or set) the server’s `serverID` (stored in the `server.id` file) and exit.

General options

General options	Meaning
`-h`, `-?`	Print help message.
`-V`	Print version number.
`-A auditlog`	Specify an audit log file. Overrides `P4AUDIT` setting. Default is null.
`-Id description`	A server description for use with `p4 server`. Overrides `P4DESCRIPTION` setting.
`-In name`	A server name for use with `p4 configure`. Overrides `P4NAME` setting.
`-J journal`	Specify a journal file. Overrides `P4JOURNAL` setting. Default is `journal`. (Use `-J off` to disable journaling.)
`-L log`	Specify a log file. Overrides `P4LOG` setting. Default is `STDERR`.
`-p port`	Specify a port to listen to. Overrides `P4PORT`. Default `1666`.
`-r root`	Specify the server root directory. Overrides `P4ROOT`. Default is current working directory.
`-v subsystem=level`	Set trace options. Overrides value `P4DEBUG` setting. Default is null.
`-C1`	Force the service to operate in case-insensitive mode on a normally case-sensitive platform.
`--pid-file[=name]`	Write the server’s PID to the specified file. Default name for the file is `server.pid`.

Checkpointing options

Checkpointing options	Meaning
`-c command`	Lock database tables, run `command`, unlock the tables, and exit.
`-jc [ prefix ]`	Journal-create; create checkpoint and `.md5` file, and rotates the journal. Rotating the journal means saving the existing journal and creating a new, empty journal for future transactions. In this case, your checkpoint and journal files are named `prefix.ckp.n` and `prefix.jnl.n` respectively, where `prefix` is as specified on the command line and `n` is a sequence number. If no `prefix` is specified, the default filenames `checkpoint.n` and `journal.n` are used. You can store checkpoints and journals in the directory of your choice by specifying the directory as part of the prefix.
`-jd file`	Journal-checkpoint; create checkpoint and `.md5` file. No journal rotation occurs.
`-z -jd file`	same as -jd except the checkpoint is compressed
`-jj [ prefix ]`	Rotates journal, and no checkpointing occurs.
`-jr file`	Journal-restore; restore metadata from a checkpoint and/or journal file. If you specify the `-r $P4ROOT` option on the command line, the `-r` option must precede the `-jr` option.
`-z -jr file`	Journal-restore; restore metadata from a compressed checkpoint and/or journal file. If you specify the `-r $P4ROOT` option on the command line, the `-r` option must precede the `-jr` option.
`-jv file`	Verify the integrity of the checkpoint or journal specified by `file` as follows: Can the checkpoint or journal be read from start to finish? If it is zipped, can it be successfully unzipped? If it has an MD5 file with its MD5, does it match? Does it have the expected header and trailer? This command does not replay the journal. Use the `-z` option with the `-jv` option to verify the integrity of compressed journals or compressed checkpoints.
`-z`	Compress (in `gzip` format) checkpoints and journals. When you use this option with the `-jd` option, Helix server automatically adds the `.gz` extension to the checkpoint file. So, the command: `p4d -jd -z myCheckpoint` creates two files: `myCheckpoint.gz` and `myCheckpoint.md5`. Warning If you have downstream replicas, use -Z instead of -z because they cannot read from a compressed journal.
`-Z`	Compress (in `gzip` format) checkpoint, but leave journal uncompressed for use by replica servers. That is, it applies to `-jc`, not `-jd`. Note Can be used when taking a checkpoint that rotates the journal: p4d -Z -jc The -Z option is not used for recovery: p4d -jr

Journal restore options

Journal restore options	Meaning
`-jrc file`	Journal-restore with integrity-checking. Because this option locks the database, this option is intended only for use by replica servers started with the `p4 replicate` command.
`-jrF file`	Allow replaying a checkpoint over an existing database. (Bypass the check done by the `-jr` option to see if a checkpoint is being replayed into an existing database directory by mistake.)
`-b bunch -jr file`	Read `bunch` lines of journal records, sorting and removing duplicates before updating the database. The default is `5000`, but can be set to `1` to force serial processing. This combination of options is intended for use with replica servers started with the `p4 replicate` command.
`-f -jr file`	Ignore failures to delete records. This meaning of `-f` applies only when `-jr` is present. This combination of options is intended for use with replica servers started with the `p4 replicate` command. By default, journal restoration halts if record deletion fails. As with all journal-restore commands, if you specify the `-r $P4ROOT` option on the command line, the `-r` option must precede the `-jr` option.
`-m -jr file`	Schedule new revisions for replica network transfer. Required only in environments that use `p4 pull -u` for archived files, but `p4 replicate` for metadata. Not required in replicated environments based solely on `p4 pull`.
`-s -jr file`	Record restored journal records into regular journal, so that the records can be propagated from the server’s journal to any replicas downstream of the server. This combination of options is intended for use in conjunction with Perforce Support.

Replication and multi-server options

Replication and multi-server options	Meaning
`-a host:port`	In multi-server environments, specify an authentication server for licensing and protections data. Overrides `P4AUTH` setting. Default is null.
`-g host:port`	In multi-server environments, specify a changelist server from which to obtain changelist numbers. Overrides `P4CHANGE` setting. Default is null.
`-t host:port`	For replicas, specify the target (master) server from which to pull data. Overrides `P4TARGET` setting. Default is null.
`-u serviceuser`	For replicas, authenticate as the specified `serviceuser` when communicating with the master. The service user must have a valid ticket before replica operations will succeed.

Journal dump and restore filtering

Journal dump/restore filtering	Meaning
`-jd file db.table`	Dump `db.table` by creating a checkpoint `file` that contains only the data stored in `db.table`. This command can also be used with non-journaled tables.
`-k db.table1,db.table2,... -jd file`	Dump a set of named tables to a single dump `file`.
`-K db.table1,db.table2,... -jd file`	Dump all tables except the named tables to the dump `file`.
`-P serverid -jd file`	Specify filter patterns for `p4d -jd` by specifying a `serverid` from which to read filters (see `p4 help server`, or use the older syntax described in `p4 help export`). This option is useful for seeding a filtered replica.
`-k db.table1,db.table2,... -jr file`	Restore from `file`, including only journal records for the tables named in the list specified by the `-k` option.
`-K db.table1,db.table2,... -jr file`	Restore from `file`, excluding all journal records for the tables named in the list specified by the `-K` option.

Certificate handling

Certificate Handling Meaning

Certificate Handling	Meaning
`-Gc`	Generate SSL credentials files for the server: create a private key and certificate file in `P4SSLDIR`, and then exit. Requires that `P4SSLDIR` be set to a directory that is owned by the user invoking the command, and that is readable only by that user. If `config.txt` is present in `P4SSLDIR`, generate a self-signed certificate with specified characteristics.
`-Gf`	Display the fingerprint of the server’s public key, and exit. Administrators can communicate this fingerprint to end users, who can then use the `p4 trust` command to determine whether or not the fingerprint (of the server to which they happen to be connecting) is accurate.

-Gc

Generate SSL credentials files for the server: create a private key and certificate file in P4SSLDIR, and then exit.

Requires that P4SSLDIR be set to a directory that is owned by the user invoking the command, and that is readable only by that user. If config.txt is present in P4SSLDIR, generate a self-signed certificate with specified characteristics.

-Gf

Display the fingerprint of the server’s public key, and exit.

Administrators can communicate this fingerprint to end users, who can then use the p4 trust command to determine whether or not the fingerprint (of the server to which they happen to be connecting) is accurate.

Configuration options

Configuration options Meaning

Configuration options	Meaning
`-cshow`	Display the contents of `db.config` without starting the service. (That is, run `p4 configure show allservers`, but without a running service.)
`-cset server#var=val`	Set a Helix server configurable without starting the service, optionally specifying the server for which the configurable is to apply. For example, p4d -r . "-cset replica#P4JOURNAL=off" p4d -r . "-cset replica#P4JOURNAL=off replica#server=3" It is best to include the entire `variable=value` expression in quotation marks.
`-cunset server#var`	Unset the specified configurable.

-cshow

Display the contents of db.config without starting the service. (That is, run p4 configure show allservers, but without a running service.)

-cset server#var=val

Set a Helix server configurable without starting the service, optionally specifying the server for which the configurable is to apply. For example,

p4d -r . "-cset replica#P4JOURNAL=off"

p4d -r .  "-cset replica#P4JOURNAL=off replica#server=3"

It is best to include the entire variable=value expression in quotation marks.

-cunset server#var

Unset the specified configurable.

Usage Notes

On all systems, journaling is enabled by default. If P4JOURNAL is unset when p4d starts, the default location for the journal is $P4ROOT. If you want to manually disable journaling, you must explicitly set P4JOURNAL to off.
Take checkpoints and truncate the journal often, preferably as part of your nightly backup process.
Checkpointing and journaling preserve only your Helix server metadata (data about your stored files). The stored files themselves (the files containing your source code) reside under P4ROOT and must be also be backed up as part of your regular backup procedure.
It is best to keep journal files and checkpoints on a different hard drive or network location than the Helix server database.
If your users use triggers, don’t use the -f (non-forking mode) option. To run trigger scripts, the Perforce service needs to be able to "fork" (spawn copies of itself).
After a hardware failure, the options required for restoring your metadata from your checkpoint and journal files can vary, depending on whether data was corrupted.
Because restorations from backups involving loss of files under P4ROOT often require the journal file, we strongly recommend that the journal file reside on a separate filesystem from P4ROOT. This way, in the event of corruption of the filesystem containing P4ROOT, the journal is likely to remain accessible.
The database upgrade option (-xu) can require considerable disk space. For details, see the Release Notes.

Typical tasks

To start the service, listening to port `1999`, with journaling enabled and written to `journalfile`.	`p4d -d -p 1999 -J /opt/p4d/journalfile`
To checkpoint a server with a non-default journal file, the `-J` option (or the environment variable `P4JOURNAL`) must match the journal file specified when the server was started.	Checkpoint with: `p4d -J /p4d/jfile -jc` or `P4JOURNAL=/p4d/jfile ; export P4JOURNAL; p4d -jc`
To compress checkpoints and journals, which creates two files: myCheckpoint.gz and myCheckpoint.md5.	p4d -jd -z myCheckpoint
To create a compressed checkpoint from a server with files in directory `P4ROOT`.	`p4d -r $P4ROOT -z -jc`
To create a compressed checkpoint with a user-specified prefix of “ckp” from a server with files in directory `P4ROOT`.	`p4d -r $P4ROOT -z -jc ckp`
To restore metadata from a checkpoint named `checkpoint.3` for a server with root directory `P4ROOT`.	`p4d -r $P4ROOT -jr checkpoint.3`
To restore metadata from a compressed checkpoint named `checkpoint.3.gz` for a server with root directory `P4ROOT`.	`p4d -r $P4ROOT -z -jr checkpoint.3.gz`

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