Installation
p4dctl is installed as part of the UNIX package
installation. The installation process automatically creates a master
configuration file located at /etc/perforce/p4dctl.conf.
As part of the package install, p4dctl is installed
as a setuid root executable because it uses root privileges
to maintain process identifier (pid) files for compatibility with systems that use them. For
all other operations, p4dctl runs with the privileges
of the executing user. This allows non-root users to start and stop the
services they own while having the pid file remain up to date.
If privileges, ownership, or configuration is incorrect, the user will see the following:
p4dctl error:
'master' p4d: '/opt/perforce/sbin/p4d -p 1666' exited with status 255.
which is also recorded in the log.
