Command Line Options

To configure Sync Gateway, you can specify command-line options when you start Sync Gateway. Command-line options can only specify a limited set of configuration properties, and cannot be used to configure multiple databases. For more comprehensive configuration, use a JSON configuration file. For information about using a configuration file, see the configuration file guide.

Configuration determines the runtime behavior of Sync Gateway, including server configuration and the database or set of databases with which a Sync Gateway instance can interact.

You can only specify a small subset of configuration properties as command-line options. Two command-line options do not have corresponding configuration properties: -help and -verbose.

When specifying command-line options, the format of the sync_gateway command is:

sync_gateway [command-line options]

Command-line options

You can prefix command-line options with one hyphen (-) or with two hyphens (--). For command-line options that take an argument, you specify the argument after an equal sign (=), for example, -bucket=db, or as a following item on the command line, for example, -bucket db. Command-line options are case-insensitive. Here we use lower camel case.

Deprecation Notice

The -bucket command line option is deprecated at Release 2.7. It will be removed in Release 2.10. Instead, use the JSON configuration file option bucket — see $dbname.bucket

Following are the command-line options that you can specify when starting Sync Gateway.

Option Default Description

Option	Default	Description
`‑adminInterface`	`127.0.0.1:4985`	Port or TCP network address (IP address and the port) that the Admin REST API listens on.
`-bucket`	`sync_gateway`	*Deprecated* Name of the Couchbase Server bucket.
`-dbname`	`sync_gateway`	Name of the Couchbase Server database to serve through the Public REST API.
`-defaultLogFilePath`	none	Path to log files, as a fallback default value when `logFilePath` is not specified. This option is generally used in service scripts.
`-help`	none	Lists the available options and exits.
`-interface`	`:4984`	Port or TCP network address (IP address and the port) that the Public REST API listens on.
`-log`	`HTTP`	Comma-separated list of log keywords to enable. The log keyword `HTTP` is enabled by default, which means that HTTP requests and error responses are always logged. Omitting `HTTP` from your list does not disable HTTP logging. HTTP logging can be disabled through the Admin API.
`-logFilePath`	none	Path to log files.
`-pool`	`default`	Name of the Couchbase Server pool in which to find buckets.
`-pretty`	`false`	Pretty-print JSON responses to improve readability. This is useful for debugging, but reduces performance.
`-url`	`walrus:`	URL of the database server. (Deprecated) An HTTP URL implies Couchbase Server. A `walrus:` URL implies the built-in Walrus database. A combination of a Walrus URL and a file-style URI (for example, `walrus:///tmp/walrus`) implies the built-in Walrus database and persisting the database to a file.
`-verbose`	Non-verbose logging	Logs more information about requests.

‑adminInterface

127.0.0.1:4985

Port or TCP network address (IP address and the port) that the Admin REST API listens on.

-bucket

sync_gateway

Deprecated Name of the Couchbase Server bucket.

-dbname

sync_gateway

Name of the Couchbase Server database to serve through the Public REST API.

-defaultLogFilePath

none

Path to log files, as a fallback default value when logFilePath is not specified. This option is generally used in service scripts.

-help

none

Lists the available options and exits.

-interface

:4984

Port or TCP network address (IP address and the port) that the Public REST API listens on.

-log

HTTP

Comma-separated list of log keywords to enable. The log keyword HTTP is enabled by default, which means that HTTP requests and error responses are always logged. Omitting HTTP from your list does not disable HTTP logging. HTTP logging can be disabled through the Admin API.

-logFilePath

none

Path to log files.

-pool

default

Name of the Couchbase Server pool in which to find buckets.

-pretty

false

Pretty-print JSON responses to improve readability. This is useful for debugging, but reduces performance.

-url

walrus:

URL of the database server. (Deprecated) An HTTP URL implies Couchbase Server. A walrus: URL implies the built-in Walrus database. A combination of a Walrus URL and a file-style URI (for example, walrus:///tmp/walrus) implies the built-in Walrus database and persisting the database to a file.

-verbose

Non-verbose logging

Logs more information about requests.

Examples

The following command does not include any parameters and just uses the default values. It connects to the bucket named sync_gateway in the pool named default of the built-in Walrus database. It is served from port 4984, with the Admin interface on port 4985.

$ sync_gateway

The following command creates an ephemeral, in-memory Walrus database, served as db, and specifies use of pretty-printed JSON responses. Because Walrus is the default database, the option -url could be omitted.

$ sync_gateway -url=walrus: -bucket=db -pretty

The following command starts Sync Gateway and specifies the address of a Couchbase Server instance (instead of using the default database server, which is Walrus):

$ ./sync_gateway -url http://cbserver:8091

The following command accomplishes the same things as the prior command, persists the Walrus database to a file named /tmp/walrus/db.walrus, and turns on additional logging for the log keys HTTP+ and CRUD.

$ sync_gateway -url=walrus:///tmp/walrus -bucket=db -log=HTTP+,CRUD