KEA-LFC(8)

📦
version 3.0.4 · 23 versions
, in fedora 43

✨ KEA-LFC 💅 (section 8 of the manual, bestie)

okay so real talk — this is the manual page for kea-lfc, and it's giving "background process that does the quiet work and never asks for credit" energy. iconic, honestly.

🎀 NAME 🎀

kea-lfc — the Lease File Cleanup process in Kea. she cleans. she's a whole process. periodt.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

kea-lfc [-4**|-6**] [-c config-file] [-p pid-file] [-x previous-file]
[-i copy-file] [-o output-file] [-f finish-file] [-v] [-V] [-W] [-d]
[-h]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so the kea-lfc service process removes redundant information from the files used to provide persistent storage for the memfile database backend. that's the whole job. decluttering queen.

she's written to run as a stand-alone process — which, yes, means you can start her up externally, but there's usually no need to do this. lowkey you never need to. she gets run periodically by the Kea DHCP servers, like a little scheduled self-care moment for your lease files. 🧚

🌈 ARGUMENTS 🌈

the arguments are as follows, and yes we're going through every single one:

  • -4 | -6 — tells you the protocol version of the lease files; it must be either 4 or 6. no in-between, no vibes, just pick one bestie.
  • -c config-file — points at the file with the configuration for the kea-lfc process. heads up though: it may also contain configuration entries for other Kea services. currently kea-lfc gets all of its arguments from the command line, so don't go expecting the config file to be doing the heavy lifting here. 💀
  • -p pid-file — this is the PID file. when the kea-lfc process starts, it tries to figure out if another instance of the process is already running by examining the PID file. if one is already running, the new process gets terminated. if one is not running, Kea writes its PID into the PID file. it's basically a "is the bathroom occupied" situation but for processes. 🚪
  • -x previous-file — the previous, or ex-lease, file. when kea-lfc starts, this is the result of any previous run of kea-lfc; when kea-lfc finishes, it is the result of the current run. ⚠️ and if kea-lfc gets interrupted before completing, this file may not exist. so like… don't count on her being there if things went sideways.
  • -i copy-file — the input, or copy of, lease file. before the DHCP server invokes kea-lfc, it moves the current lease file here and then calls kea-lfc with this file. she doesn't fetch the file herself, okay, it gets hand-delivered. 🫶
  • -o output-file — the output lease file, which is the temporary file kea-lfc should use to write the leases. once this file is finished writing, it gets moved to the finish file (see the next one, keep scrolling bestie).
  • -f finish-file — the finish, or completion, file — another temporary file kea-lfc uses for bookkeeping. when kea-lfc finishes writing the output file, it moves it to this file name. then, after kea-lfc finishes deleting the other files (previous and input), it moves this file to the previous lease file. by moving the files in this fashion, the kea-lfc and the DHCP server processes can determine the correct file to use even if one of the processes was interrupted before completing its task. it's a whole choreographed routine and honestly? she ate. 💅
  • -v — displays the Kea version.
  • -V — displays the extended Kea version. (yes, capital V hits different. it's the extended one.)
  • -W — displays the configuration report.
  • -d — sets the logging level to debug with extra verbosity. primarily for development purposes in stand-alone mode, so don't just leave this on for funsies.
  • -h — causes the usage string to be printed. the classic "help me help you" flag.

📚 DOCUMENTATION 📚

Kea comes with an extensive Kea Administrator Reference Manual that covers all aspects of running the Kea software — compilation, installation, configuration, configuration examples, and much more. Kea also features a Kea Messages Manual, which lists all possible messages Kea can print with a brief description for each of them. both documents are available in various formats (.txt, .html, .pdf) with the Kea distribution. the Kea documentation is available at:

https://kea.readthedocs.io

Kea source code is documented in the Kea Developer's Guide, available at:

https://reports.kea.isc.org/dev_guide/

the Kea project website is available at:

https://kea.isc.org

reading the docs is self-care, no cap. 📖✨

🫶 MAILING LISTS AND SUPPORT 🫶

there are two public mailing lists available for the Kea project:

  • kea-users (kea-users at lists.isc.org) — intended for Kea users.
  • kea-dev (kea-dev at lists.isc.org) — intended for Kea developers, prospective contributors, and other advanced users.

both lists are available at:

https://lists.isc.org

the community provides best-effort support on both of those lists. 💖

ISC provides professional support for Kea services. see:

https://www.isc.org/kea/

for details.

⭐ HISTORY ⭐

the kea-lfc process was first coded in January 2015 by the ISC Kea/DHCP team. a true original. a legend. she's been cleaning up since 2015 and she's still booked and busy. 👑

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

kea-dhcp4(8), kea-dhcp6(8), kea-dhcp-ddns(8), kea-ctrl-agent(8), kea-admin(8), keactrl(8), perfdhcp(8), kea-netconf(8), Kea Administrator Reference Manual.

🦋 AUTHOR 🦋

Internet Systems Consortium

2019-2025, Internet Systems Consortium

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was Kea version 3.0.4, dated Oct 05, 2026, and I'm obsessed with her honestly. go forth and let the cleanup process do her thing. ✨💅🌸 mwah.

📦 where this page comes from