We provide a variety of utilities to help resolve particular problems or perform specific tasks. Below, you'll find a description of each utility that's available for you to use.

These commands can be executed 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

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 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.

Note: In the GitHub Enterprise 2.11 series, the ghe-legacy-github-services-report command-line utility is only available to use in 2.11.24 and higher. For more information about upgrading your appliance, see "Updating the virtual machine and physical resources."

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-org-admin-promote

Use this command to give organization owner privileges to users with site admin privileges on the appliance. By default, it gives admin privileges to all site admins in all organizations.

You can use these additional options with the utility:

  • The -u flag specifies a username. Use this flag to give organization owner privileges to a specific user.
  • The -o flag specifies an organization. Use this flag to give owner privileges in a specific organization.

This utility only works on site admin accounts; you can promote an ordinary user account to a site admin with ghe-user-promote.

Usage:
ghe-org-admin-promote

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 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 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-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 when your GitHub Enterprise 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 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-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 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

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 browsing to

http(s)://hostname/setup/diagnostics

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'

Upgrading GitHub Enterprise

ghe-rollback-rootfs

This utility will roll your installation back to the fallback partition, restoring your root disk and reverting any migrations. If an upgrade fails, you can use this script to safely roll back to your previous version of GitHub Enterprise. However, you will still need to manually restore your data disk to a previous snapshot.

Usage:
ghe-rollback-rootfs

ghe-upgrade

This utility installs or verifies an upgrade package. For more information, see "Upgrading GitHub Enterprise."

Usage:
Verify an upgrade package
ghe-upgrade --verify UPGRADE-PACKAGE-FILENAME
Install an upgrade package
ghe-upgrade 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'

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