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Enterprise Server
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Article version: Enterprise Server 2.16
Enterprise Server 2.19 Enterprise Server 2.18 Enterprise Server 2.17 Enterprise Server 2.16

This version of GitHub Enterprise will be discontinued on This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2020-01-22. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Command-line utilities

GitHub Enterprise Server includes a variety of utilities to help resolve particular problems or perform specific tasks.

In this article

You can execute these commands from anywhere on the VM after signing in as an SSH admin user. For more information, see "Accessing the administrative shell (SSH)."

General

Clustering

Git

Import and export

Support

Upgrading GitHub Enterprise Server

User management

General

ghe-announce

This utility sets a banner at the top of every GitHub Enterprise page. You can use it to broadcast a message to your users.

Usage:
# Sets a message that's visible to everyone
$ ghe-announce -s MESSAGE
> Announcement message set.
# Removes a previously set message
$ ghe-announce -u
> Removed the announcement message

ghe-check-disk-usage

This utility checks the disk for large files or files that have been deleted but still have open file handles. This should be run when you're trying to free up space on the root partition.

Usage:
ghe-check-disk-usage

ghe-cleanup-caches

This utility cleans up a variety of caches that might potentially take up extra disk space on the root volume. If you find your root volume disk space usage increasing notably over time it would be a good idea to run this utility to see if it helps reduce overall usage.

Usage:
ghe-cleanup-caches

ghe-cleanup-settings

This utility wipes all existing Management Console settings.

Tip: Typically, you will only execute this if you've contacted support and they've asked you to do so.

Usage:
ghe-cleanup-settings

ghe-config

With this utility, you can both retrieve and modify the configuration settings of your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.

Usage:
$ ghe-config core.github-hostname
# Gets the configuration value of `core.github-hostname`
$ ghe-config core.github-hostname 'example.com'
# Sets the configuration value of `core.github-hostname` to `example.com`
$ ghe-config -l
# Lists all the configuration values

ghe-config-apply

This utility applies Management Console settings, reloads system services, prepares a storage device, reloads application services, and runs any pending database migrations. It is equivalent to clicking Save settings in the Management Console's web UI or to sending a POST request to the /setup/api/configure endpoint.

You will probably never need to run this manually, but it's available if you want to automate the process of saving your settings via SSH.

Usage:
ghe-config-apply

ghe-console

This utility opens the GitHub Rails console on your GitHub Enterprise appliance. Do not use this command without direction from GitHub Enterprise Support. Incorrect use could cause damage or data loss.

Usage:
ghe-console

ghe-dbconsole

This utility opens a MySQL database session on your GitHub Enterprise appliance. Do not use this command without direction from GitHub Enterprise Support. Incorrect use could cause damage or data loss.

Usage:
ghe-dbconsole

ghe-es-index-status

This utility returns a summary of Elasticsearch indexes in CSV format.

Usage:

Print an index summary with a header row to STDOUT:

$ ghe-es-index-status -do
> warning: parser/current is loading parser/ruby23, which recognizes
> warning: 2.3.3-compliant syntax, but you are running 2.3.4.
> warning: please see https://github.com/whitequark/parser#compatibility-with-ruby-mri.
> Name,Primary,Searchable,Writable,UpToDate,RepairProgress,Version
> code-search-1,true,true,true,true,100.0,72e27df7c631b45e026b42bfef059328fa040e17
> commits-5,true,true,true,true,100.0,7ed28813100c47813ef654c0ee2bb9abf21ab744
> gists-4,true,true,true,true,100.0,cf8e7d04fcf2564c902e2873c424a279cc41079d
> issues-4,false,false,false,true,100.0,d0bb08f71eebf6e7b070572aa399b185dbdc8a76
> issues-5,true,true,true,true,100.0,d0bb08f71eebf6e7b070572aa399b185dbdc8a76
> projects-2,true,true,true,true,100.0,c5cac1c4b3c66d42e609d088d174dbc3dd44469a
> pull-requests-6,true,true,true,true,100.0,6a466ad6b896a3499509990979bf9a18d7d41de3
> repos-6,true,true,true,true,100.0,6c8b5fbba0fc1e409558db411d05e092c1387082
> users-5,true,true,true,true,100.0,38984875552bb826c9ec42999f409cb2e95556eb
> wikis-4,true,true,true,true,100.0,2613dec44bd14e14577803ac1f9e4b7e07a7c234

Print an index summary and pipe results to column for readability:

$ ghe-es-index-status -do | column -ts,
> warning: parser/current is loading parser/ruby23, which recognizes
> warning: 2.3.3-compliant syntax, but you are running 2.3.4.
> warning: please see https://github.com/whitequark/parser#compatibility-with-ruby-mri.
> Name             Primary  Searchable  Writable  UpToDate  RepairProgress  Version
> code-search-1    true     true        true      true      100.0           72e27df7c631b45e026b42bfef059328fa040e17
> commits-5        true     true        true      true      100.0           7ed28813100c47813ef654c0ee2bb9abf21ab744
> gists-4          true     true        true      true      100.0           cf8e7d04fcf2564c902e2873c424a279cc41079d
> issues-4         false    false       false     true      100.0           d0bb08f71eebf6e7b070572aa399b185dbdc8a76
> issues-5         true     true        true      true      100.0           d0bb08f71eebf6e7b070572aa399b185dbdc8a76
> projects-2       true     true        true      true      100.0           c5cac1c4b3c66d42e609d088d174dbc3dd44469a
> pull-requests-6  true     true        true      true      100.0           6a466ad6b896a3499509990979bf9a18d7d41de3
> repos-6          true     true        true      true      100.0           6c8b5fbba0fc1e409558db411d05e092c1387082
> users-5          true     true        true      true      100.0           38984875552bb826c9ec42999f409cb2e95556eb
> wikis-4          true     true        true      true      100.0           2613dec44bd14e14577803ac1f9e4b7e07a7c234

git-import

These utilities are a suite of tools that can import from Subversion, Mercurial and Team Foundation Version Control into Git repositories. For more information, see Importing data from third party version control systems.

Individual commands for git-import
git-import-detect
Given a URL, detect which type of source control management system is at the other end. During a manual import this is likely already known, but this can be very useful in automated scripts.
git-import-hg-raw
Imports a Mercurial repository to this Git repository.
git-import-svn-raw
Imports Subversion history and file data into a Git branch. This is a straight copy of the tree, ignoring any trunk or branch distinction.
git-import-tfs-raw
Imports from Team Foundation Version Control.
git-import-rewrite
The final step of importing is to rewrite the repository. This gives you a chance to rename authors, and it produces Git branches based on folders (for Subversion and TFS).

ghe-legacy-github-services-report

This utility lists repositories on your appliance that use GitHub Services, an integration method that will be discontinued on October 1, 2018. Users on your appliance may have set up GitHub Services to create notifications for pushes to certain repositories. For more information, see "Announcing the deprecation of GitHub Services" on the GitHub Blog or "Replacing GitHub Services" in the GitHub Developer documentation. For more information about this command or for additional options, use the -h flag.

Usage:
ghe-legacy-github-services-report

ghe-logs-tail

This utility lets you tail log all relevant log files from your installation. You can pass options in to limit the logs to specific sets. Use the -h flag for additional options.

Usage:
ghe-logs-tail

ghe-maintenance

This utility allows you to control the state of the installation's maintenance mode. It's designed to be used primarily by the Management Console behind-the-scenes, but it can be used directly.

Usage:
ghe-maintenance -h

ghe-nwo

This utility returns a repository's name and owner based on the repository ID.

Usage:
ghe-nwo REPOSITORY_ID

ghe-org-admin-promote

Use this command to give organization owner privileges to users with site admin privileges on the appliance, or to give organization owner privileges to any single user in a single organization. You must specify a user and/or an organization. The ghe-org-admin-promote command will always ask for confirmation before running unless you use the -y flag to bypass the confirmation.

You can use these options with the utility:

  • The -u flag specifies a username. Use this flag to give organization owner privileges to a specific user. Omit the -u flag to promote all site admins to the specified organization.
  • The -o flag specifies an organization. Use this flag to give owner privileges in a specific organization. Omit the -o flag to give owner permissions in all organizations to the specified site admin.
  • The -a flag gives owner privileges in all organizations to all site admins.
  • The -y flag bypasses the manual confirmation.

This utility cannot promote a non-site admin to be an owner of all organizations. You can promote an ordinary user account to a site admin with ghe-user-promote.

Usage:

Give organization owner privileges in a specific organization to a single user

ghe-org-admin-promote -u USERNAME -o ORGANIZATION

Give organization owner privileges in all organizations to a specific site admin

ghe-org-admin-promote -u USERNAME

Give organization owner privileges in a specific organization to all site admins

ghe-org-admin-promote -o ORGANIZATION

Give organization owner privileges in all organizations to all site admins

ghe-org-admin-promote -a

ghe-reactivate-admin-login

Use this command to immediately unlock the Management Console after 10 failed login attempts in the span of 10 minutes.

Usage:
$ ghe-reactivate-admin-login

ghe-resque-info

This utility displays information on background jobs, both active and in the queue. It provides the same job count numbers as the admin stats bar at the top of every page.

This utility can help identify whether the Resque server is having problems processing background jobs. Any of the following scenarios might be indicative of a problem with Resque:

  • The number of background jobs is increasing, while the active jobs remain the same.
  • The event feeds are not updating.
  • Service hooks are not being triggered.
  • The web interface is not updating after a Git push.

If you suspect Resque is failing, contact GitHub Enterprise Support or GitHub Premium Support for help.

With this command, you can also pause or resume jobs in the queue.

Usage:
$ ghe-resque-info
# lists queues and the number of currently queued jobs
$ ghe-resque-info -p QUEUE
# pauses the specified queue
$ ghe-resque-info -r QUEUE
# resumes the specified queue

ghe-service-list

This utility lists all of the services that have been started or stopped (are running or waiting) on your appliance.

Usage:
$ ghe-service-list
start/running
  - github-resqued, process 12711
  - github-unicorn, process 12726
  - github-gitauth, process 12743
  - git-daemon, process 12755
  - babeld, process 12771
  - github-svn-proxy, process 12802
  - gist-unicorn, process 12832
  - gist-resqued, process 12881
  - render-unicorn, process 12939
  - hookshot-unicorn, process 13076
  - nodeload2, process 13192
  - slumlord-unicorn, process 13304
  - ghe-storage, process 2012
  - enterprise-manage-unicorn, process 2024
  - enterprise-manage-resque, process 2053

stop/waiting
  - ghe-replica-mode

The service names returned from this command can be used with 'Upstart' commands to stop, start, or restart these services manually, if needed. For example:

$ sudo restart github-resqued

Stopping services will cause downtime on your installation, so we recommend you contact GitHub Enterprise Support or GitHub Premium Support before stopping or restarting any service.

ghe-set-password

With ghe-set-password, you can set a new password to authenticate into the Management Console.

Usage:
ghe-set-password

ghe-ssh-check-host-keys

This utility checks the existing SSH host keys against the list of known leaked SSH host keys.

Usage:
$ ghe-ssh-check-host-keys

If a leaked host key is found the utility exits with status 1 and a message:

> One or more of your SSH host keys were found in the blacklist.
> Please reset your host keys using ghe-ssh-roll-host-keys.

If a leaked host key was not found, the utility exits with status 0 and a message:

> The SSH host keys were not found in the SSH host key blacklist.
> No additional steps are needed/recommended at this time.

ghe-ssh-roll-host-keys

This utility rolls the SSH host keys and replaces them with newly generated keys.

Usage:
$ sudo ghe-ssh-roll-host-keys
Proceed with rolling SSH host keys? This will delete the
existing keys in /etc/ssh/ssh_host_* and generate new ones. [y/N]

# Press 'Y' to confirm deleting, or use the -y switch to bypass this prompt

> SSH host keys have successfully been rolled.

ghe-ssh-weak-fingerprints

This utility returns a report of known weak SSH keys stored on the GitHub Enterprise appliance. You can optionally revoke user keys as a bulk action. The utility will report weak system keys, which you must manually revoke in the Management Console.

Usage:
# Print a report of weak user and system SSH keys
$ ghe-ssh-weak-fingerprints

# Revoke all weak user keys
$ ghe-ssh-weak-fingerprints --revoke

ghe-ssl-acme

This utility allows you to install a Let's Encrypt certificate on your GitHub Enterprise appliance. For more information, see "Configuring TLS."

You can use these additional options with the utility:

  • The -x flag removes the ACME configuration.
Usage:
ghe-ssl-acme -e

ghe-ssl-ca-certificate-install

This utility allows you to install a custom root CA certificate on your GitHub Enterprise server. The certificate must be in PEM format. Furthermore, if your certificate provider includes multiple CA certificates in a single file, you must separate them into individual files that you then pass to ghe-ssl-ca-certificate-install one at a time.

Run this utility to add a certificate chain for S/MIME commit signature verification. For more information, see "About commit signature verification."

Run this utility when your GitHub Enterprise Server instance is unable to connect to another server because the latter is using a self-signed SSL certificate or an SSL certificate for which it doesn't provide the necessary CA bundle. One way to confirm this is to run openssl s_client -connect host:port -verify 0 -CApath /etc/ssl/certs from your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. If the remote server's SSL certificate can be verified, your SSL-Session should have a return code of 0, as shown below.

SSL-Session:
    Protocol  : TLSv1
    Cipher    : AES128-SHA
    Session-ID: C794EBCC3CBC10F747C9AFC029C03C1048FC99CFC34D13D7444E0F267C58DF4C
    Session-ID-ctx:
    Master-Key: 02A7C47CFD6EEC87D3C710E9DD87390E04EF82DDD7514AE03127D5DC1945FC0CAEFB5395791AEA598667EFA61B9EA8C5
    Key-Arg   : None
    Start Time: 1394581597
    Timeout   : 300 (sec)
    Verify return code: 0 (ok)

If, on the other hand, the remote server's SSL certificate can not be verified, your SSL-Session should have a nonzero return code:

SSL-Session:
    Protocol  : TLSv1
    Cipher    : AES128-SHA
    Session-ID: 82CB288051A6DB66094C50A69CF1292AEE7E54C6B01B659B98AB336F8C33863E
    Session-ID-ctx:
    Master-Key: 01B025B2F764043A27919A8D1355AAECD8844FF0831B1D664042334790574A6F4025BAB085D4ED71D71AAB3091B849E5
    Key-Arg   : None
    Start Time: 1394581782
    Timeout   : 300 (sec)
    Verify return code: 27 (certificate not trusted)

You can use these additional options with the utility:

  • The -r flag allows you to uninstall a CA certificate.
  • The -h flag displays more usage information.
Usage:
ghe-ssl-ca-certificate-install -c /path/to/certificate

ghe-ssl-generate-csr

This utility allows you to generate a private key and certificate signing request (CSR), which you can share with a commercial or private certificate authority to get a valid certificate to use with your instance. For more information, see "Configuring TLS."

For more information about this command or for additional options, use the -h flag.

Usage:
ghe-ssl-generate-csr

ghe-storage-extend

Some platforms require this script to expand the user volume. For more information, see "Increasing Storage Capacity".

Usage:
$ ghe-storage-extend

ghe-version

This utility prints the version, platform, and build of your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.

Usage:
$ ghe-version

ghe-webhook-logs

This utility returns webhook delivery logs for administrators to review and identify any issues.

Usage:
ghe-webhook-logs
Show all failed hook deliveries in the past day
ghe-webhook-logs -f -a YYYYMMDD
Show the full hook payload, result, and any exceptions for the delivery
ghe-webhook-logs -g delivery-guid -v
Show global webhook deliveries
ghe-webhook-logs --global

Clustering

ghe-cluster-support-bundle

This utility creates a support bundle tarball containing important logs from each of the nodes in either a Geo-replication or Clustering configuration.

By default, the command creates the tarball in /tmp, but you can also have it cat the tarball to STDOUT for easy streaming over SSH. This is helpful in the case where the web UI is unresponsive or downloading a support bundle from /setup/support doesn't work. You must use this command if you want to generate an extended bundle, containing older logs. You can also use this command to upload the cluster support bundle directly to GitHub Enterprise support.

Usage:
Standard bundle
$ ssh -p 122 admin@hostname -- 'ghe-cluster-support-bundle -o' > cluster-support-bundle.tgz
Extended bundle
$ ssh -p 122 admin@hostname -- 'ghe-cluster-support-bundle -x -o' > cluster-support-bundle.tgz
Sending a bundle to support
$ ssh -p 122 admin@hostname -- 'ghe-cluster-support-bundle -u'
Sending a bundle to support and associating it with a ticket
$ ssh -p 122 admin@hostname -- 'ghe-cluster-support-bundle -t ticket-id'

ghe-dpages

This utility allows you to manage the distributed pages server.

Usage:
ghe-dpages
Show a summary of repository location and health
ghe-dpages status

ghe-spokes

This utility allows you to manage the three copies of each repository on the distributed git servers.

Usage:
ghe-spokes
Show a summary of repository location and health
ghe-spokes status
Show the servers in which the repository is stored
ghe-spokes route

Git

ghe-btop

A top-like interface for current Git operations.

Usage:

ghe-btop [  | --help | --usage ]

ghe-repo

This utility allows you to change to a repository's directory and open an interactive shell as the git user. You can perform manual inspection or maintenance of a repository via commands like git-* or git-nw-*.

Usage:
ghe-repo username/reponame

ghe-repo-gc

This utility manually repackages a repository network to optimize pack storage. If you have a large repository, running this command may help reduce its overall size. GitHub Enterprise automatically runs this command throughout your interaction with a repository network.

You can add the optional --prune argument to remove unreachable Git objects that aren't referenced from a branch, tag, or any other ref. This is particularly useful for immediately removing previously expunged sensitive information.

Usage:
ghe-repo-gc username/reponame

Import and export

ghe-migrator

ghe-migrator is a hi-fidelity tool to help you migrate from one GitHub instance to another. You can consolidate your instances or move your organization, users, teams, and repositories from GitHub.com to GitHub Enterprise.

For more information, please see our guide on migrating user, organization, and repository data.

Support

ghe-diagnostics

This utility performs a variety of checks and gathers information about your installation that you can send to support to help diagnose problems you're having.

Currently, this utility's output is similar to downloading the diagnostics info in the Management Console, but may have additional improvements added to it over time that aren't available in the web UI. For more information, see "Creating and sharing diagnostic files."

Usage:
ghe-diagnostics

ghe-support-bundle

Note: If you are using a Geo-replication configuration, or GitHub Enterprise Clustering, you should use the ghe-cluster-support-bundle command to retrieve the support bundle. For more information, see "Command-line utilities."

This utility creates a support bundle tarball containing important logs from your instance.

By default, the command creates the tarball in /tmp, but you can also have it cat the tarball to STDOUT for easy streaming over SSH. This is helpful in the case where the web UI is unresponsive or downloading a support bundle from /setup/support doesn't work. You must use this command if you want to generate an extended bundle, containing older logs. You can also use this command to upload the support bundle directly to GitHub Enterprise support.

Usage:
Standard bundle
$ ssh -p 122 admin@hostname -- 'ghe-support-bundle -o' > support-bundle.tgz
Extended bundle
$ ssh -p 122 admin@hostname -- 'ghe-support-bundle -x -o' > support-bundle.tgz
Sending a bundle to support
$ ssh -p 122 admin@hostname -- 'ghe-support-bundle -u'
Sending a bundle to support and associating it with a ticket
$ ssh -p 122 admin@hostname -- 'ghe-support-bundle -t ticket-id'

ghe-support-upload

This utility sends information from your appliance to GitHub Enterprise support. You can either specify a local file, or provide a stream of up to 100MB of data via STDIN. The uploaded data can optionally be associated with a support ticket.

Usage:
Sending a file to support and associating it with a ticket
ghe-support-upload -f path/to/your/file -t ticket-id
Uploading data via STDIN and associating it with a ticket
ghe-repl-status -vv | ghe-support-upload -t ticket-id -d "Verbose Replication Status"
  • In this example, ghe-repl-status -vv sends verbose status information from a replica appliance. You should replace ghe-repl-status -vv with the specific data you'd like to stream to STDIN, and Verbose Replication Status with a brief description of the data. Typically, you will only execute this if you've contacted support and they've asked you to do so.

Upgrading GitHub Enterprise Server

ghe-upgrade

This utility installs or verifies an upgrade package. You can also use this utility to roll back a patch release if an upgrade fails or is interrupted. For more information, see "Upgrading GitHub Enterprise Server."

Usage:
Verify an upgrade package
ghe-upgrade --verify UPGRADE-PACKAGE-FILENAME
Install an upgrade package
ghe-upgrade UPGRADE-PACKAGE-FILENAME
Roll back a patch release

When rolling back an upgrade, you must use an upgrade package file with the .pkg extension. Hotpatch package files with the .hpkg extension are not supported.

ghe-upgrade --allow-patch-rollback EARLIER-RELEASE-UPGRADE-PACKAGE.pkg

A reboot is required after running the command. Rolling back does not affect the data partition, as migrations are not run on patch releases.

ghe-upgrade-scheduler

This utility manages scheduled installation of upgrade packages. You can show, create new, or remove scheduled installations. You must create schedules using cron expressions. For more information, see the Cron Wikipedia entry.

Usage:
New scheduled installation for a package
$ ghe-upgrade-scheduler -c "0 2 15 12 *" UPGRADE-PACKAGE-FILENAME
Show scheduled installations for a package
$ ghe-upgrade-scheduler -s UPGRADE PACKAGE FILENAME
> 0 2 15 12 * /usr/local/bin/ghe-upgrade -y -s UPGRADE-PACKAGE-FILENAME > /data/user/common/UPGRADE-PACKAGE-FILENAME.log 2>&1
Remove scheduled installations for a package
$ ghe-upgrade-scheduler -r UPGRADE PACKAGE FILENAME

ghe-update-check

This utility will check to see if a new patch release of GitHub Enterprise is available. If it is, and if space is available on your instance, it will download the package. By default, it's saved to /var/lib/ghe-updates. An administrator can then perform the upgrade.

A file containing the status of the download is available at /var/lib/ghe-updates/ghe-update-check.status.

To check for the latest GitHub Enterprise release, use the -i switch.

Usage:
$ ssh -p 122 admin@hostname -- 'ghe-update-check'

User management

ghe-org-membership-update

This utility will enforce the default organization membership visibility setting on all members in your instance. For more information, see "Configuring visibility for organization membership." Setting options are public or private.

Usage:
ghe-org-membership-update --visibility=SETTING

ghe-user-csv

This utility dumps out a list of all the users in the installation into CSV format. The CSV file includes the email address, which type of user they are (e.g., admin, user), how many repositories they have, how many SSH keys, how many organization memberships, last logged IP address, etc. Use the -h flag for more options.

Usage:
ghe-user-csv -o > users.csv

ghe-user-demote

This utility demotes the specified user from admin status to that of a regular user. We recommend using the web UI to perform this action, but provide this utility in case the ghe-user-promote utility is run in error and you need to demote a user again from the CLI.

Usage:
ghe-user-demote some-user-name

ghe-user-promote

This utility promotes the specified user account to a site administrator.

Usage:
ghe-user-promote some-user-name

ghe-user-suspend

This utility suspends the specified user, preventing them from logging in, pushing, or pulling from your repositories.

Usage:
ghe-user-suspend some-user-name

ghe-user-unsuspend

This utility unsuspends the specified user, granting them access to login, push, and pull from your repositories.

Usage:
ghe-user-unsuspend some-user-name

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