BK-SERVICE(1)

💅 bk service(none) 💅

okay bestie, welcome to the BitKeeper User’s Manual — this page is literally the bk service(none) group-chat guide for managing a bkd as a Windows service ✨ no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

managing a bkd as a Windows service — that’s the whole vibe 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

bk service install [name] [bkdargs]
bk service uninstall [−a] [name]
bk service status [−a] name
bk service list

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so the BitKeeper daemon, bkd, is used to synchronize and query repositories. For the full bkd lore, see bk help bkd — it’s giving essential reading 🫶.

bk service is used to install (and start), uninstall (after stopping), query the status of a named BitKeeper daemon (bkd), or list all installed daemons. The main reason for using this interface is to get a service that will be restarted on each boot. iconic behavior, honestly 👑

subcommand vibe check:

• install [name] [bkdargs] — installs (and starts) a named bkd; [name] and [bkdargs] are optional per the synopsis.
• uninstall [−a] [name] — uninstalls (after stopping) the named bkd; −a means all installed daemons instead of a name.
• status [−a] name — queries the status of a named bkd; −a means all installed daemons instead of a name.
• list — lists all installed daemons.

🦋 MULTIPLE DAEMONS 🦋

yep, it is possible to install more than one BitKeeper daemon — highkey useful if you want different permissions on different repositories. All daemons must have a name, and the name must be unique across the set of BitKeeper daemons. The default name is “BKD”. The names are stored in the registry, and we suggest a single word, using mixed case if you want a name like “MyBitkeeperDaemon” ✨.

Some commands take an optional −a instead of a name which means operate on all installed BitKeeper daemons.

🌸 PERMISSIONS 🌸

By default, an installed service is run as LocalSystem, which is a system user, not the user who installed the service. This can lead to problems if the BKD is used to serve up repositories created by the user with permissions restrictive enough that the LocalSystem user cannot access some or all the files in the repository. not the vibe 😭

There are two ways around this problem: either create all the repositories through the BKD so they are all owned by LocalSystem, or change the service to be run as the user who owns the repositories, described below. periodt.

🎀 RUNNING AS A SPECIFIC USER 🎀

1. ☞ The user account must have a password. If not, go to Control Panel−>User Accounts, select the user, and create a password. Close that window.
2. ☞ The user account must be allowed to log on as a service. This is not on by default, so go to Control Panel−>Administrative Tools−>Local Security Policy−>Local Policies and double click on User Rights Assignments. Find Log on as a service and double click that. Click Add User or Group and add the user. Close that window.
3. ☞ The service needs to be modified to run as the user. Go to Control Panel−>Administrative Tools−>Services, find the BitKeeper daemon, double‐click it. Click Stop to stop the service, then click the Log On tab, change from Local System account to the user, entering the password as well. Click Apply. Click the General tab and then click Start. The daemon will restart as the selected user.

After installing a service it is a good idea to test that it works by trying a clone, pull, and/or changes from a client. bestie, please test it — it’s giving self-care 💖

😭 NOTES 😭

• This interface works only on Windows.
• Environment variables must be explicitly passed on the bkd options list, i.e.,

bk service DOCS ‐EBK_USER=docs ‐p8000

• The bkd service does not work when started from a network drive.
• The bkd service does not work when started from a subst’ed drive.
• bk uninstall may require a reboot in order to completely remove the service.

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• bk‐bkd
• bk‐Howto‐bkd

💜 CATEGORY 💜

• Repository
• Admin

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xoxo bestie 💖 BitKeeper Inc · version 1E1 · bk service(none) · and the date? not listed in the footer, so no invented date here 🙈🫶✨