Using the Felix Gogo Shell

This document has been updated and ported to Liferay Learn and is no longer maintained here.

The Gogo shell provides a way to interact with Liferay DXP’s module framework. You can

• dynamically install/uninstall bundles
• examine package dependencies
• examine extension points
• list service references
• etc.

There are two ways you can access the Gogo shell.

The recommended way to access the Gogo shell for a production environment is through the Control Panel. Accessing it there is the most secure way to use the Gogo shell. You can set permissions in your Liferay DXP instance to only give certain people access to it. The Gogo shell is extremely powerful and should only be given to trusted admins, as you can manipulate the platform’s core functionality. You can access the Gogo shell in the Control Panel by navigating to Configuration → Gogo Shell.

You can also interact with Liferay DXP’s module framework via a local telnet session. This is only recommended when you’re developing your Liferay DXP instance. This is not recommended for production environments.

To open the Gogo shell via telnet, execute the following command:

telnet localhost 11311

Running this command requires a local running instance of Liferay DXP and your machine’s telnet command line utilities enabled. You must also have Developer Mode enabled.

To disconnect the session, execute the disconnect command. Avoid using the following commands, which stop the OSGi framework:

• close
• exit
• shutdown

If you have Blade CLI installed and the telnet capability enabled, you can run the Gogo shell via Blade command too:

blade sh <gogoShellCommand>

Here are some useful Gogo shell commands:

b [BUNDLE_ID]: lists information about a specific bundle including the bundle’s symbolic name, bundle ID, data root, registered (provided) and used services, imported and exported packages, and more

diag [BUNDLE_ID]: lists information about why the specified bundle is not working (e.g., unresolved dependencies, etc.)

headers [BUNDLE_ID]: lists metadata about the bundle from the bundle’s MANIFEST.MF file

help: lists all the available Gogo shell commands. Notice that each command has two parts to its name, separated by a colon. For example, the full name of the help command is felix:help. The first part is the command scope while the second part is the command function. The scope allows commands with the same name to be disambiguated. E.g., scope allows the felix:refresh command to be distinguished from the equinox:refresh command.

help [COMMAND_NAME]: lists information about a specific command including a description of the command, the scope of the command, and information about any flags or parameters that can be supplied when invoking the command.

inspect capability service [BUNDLE_ID]: lists services exposed by a bundle

install [PATH_TO_JAR_FILE]: installs the specified bundle into Liferay’s module framework

lb: lists all of the bundles installed in Liferay’s module framework. Use the -s flag to list the bundles using the bundles’ symbolic names.

packages [PACKAGE_NAME]: lists all of the named package’s dependencies

scr:list: lists all of the components registered in the module framework (scr stands for service component runtime)

scr:info [COMPONENT_NAME]: lists information about a specific component including the component’s description, services, properties, configuration, references, and more.

services: lists all of the services that have been registered in Liferay’s module framework

start [BUNDLE_ID]: starts the specified bundle

stop [BUNDLE_ID]: stops the specified bundle

uninstall [BUNDLE_ID]: uninstalls the specified bundle from Liferay’s module framework. This does not remove the specified bundle from Liferay’s module framework; it’s hidden from Gogo’s lb command, but is still present. Adding a new version of the uninstalled bundle, therefore, will not reinstall it; it will update the currently hidden uninstalled version. To remove a bundle from Liferay’s module framework permanently, manually delete it from the LIFERAY_HOME/osgi folder. For more information on the uninstall command, see OSGi’s uninstall documentation.

For more information about the Gogo shell, visit Apache’s official documentation.