Using Hudson/Starting and Accessing Hudson

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	Starting and Accessing Hudson

Starting Hudson

The easiest way to execute Hudson is through the built in Jetty servlet container. You can execute Hudson like this:

$ java -jar hudson.war

Of course, you probably want to send the output of Hudson to a log file, and if you're on Unix, you probably want to use nohup:

$ nohup java -jar hudson.war > $LOGFILE 2>&1

You can also use the --logfile command line option.

Accessing Hudson

To see Hudson, simply bring up a web browser and go to URL http://myServer:8080 where myServer is the name of the system running Hudson.

Environment Variables

Hudson recognizes environment variables that tell where to write Hudson metadata, workspaces and builds.

Environment Variable	Description
HUDSON_HOME=dir‑path	The root location for Hudson data.
HUDSON_WORKSPACES=dir‑path	The root location for storing individual workspaces. If not specified, the location is $HUDSON_HOME/jobs. Each job's workspace is at $HUDSON_WORKSPACES/project‑name/workspace.
HUDSON_BUILDS=dir-path	The root location for storing build data. If not specified, the location is $HUDSON_HOME/jobs. Each job's builds is at $HUDSON_BUILDS/project‑name/builds.
hudson.lifecycle=class-name	Use the fully qualified class-name to select a Lifecycle extension (from a plugin). Lifecycle extensions control how Hudson restart and soft-restart CLI methods work.

Command Line Parameters

Hudson normally starts up using port 8080, however, if you have other web services starting up, you might find that this port is already taken, you can specify a different port by using the --httpPort=port where port is the port you want Hudson to run on. Other command line parameters include:

Command Line Parameter	Description
--version	Show Hudson version and quit
--httpPort=port	Runs Hudson listener on port using standard HTTP protocol. The default is port 8080. To disable (because you're using HTTPS), use port -1.
--httpListenAddress=http-host	Binds Hudson to the IP address represented by http-host. The default is 0.0.0.0 — i.e. listening on all available interfaces.
--httpsPort=port	Uses HTTPS protocol on port
--httpsListenAddress=https-host	Binds Hudson to listen for HTTPS requests on the IP address represented by https-host.
--httpsKeyStore=file-path	Location of the SSL KeyStore file.
--httpsKeyStorePassword=value	Password for the SSL KeyStore file.
--logfile=file-path	Send the output log to this file
--prefix=prefix	Add this prefix to all URLs (e.g., http://localhost:8080/prefix/resource)
--updateServer=URL	Specify your own update server (e.g., http://updates.mycompany.com).
--disableUpdateCenterSwitch	Disable the ability to specify alternate Update Center via Plugin Manager Advanced tab.
--skipInitSetup	Skip the initial setup screen and start Hudson directly.
‑‑argumentsRealm.passwd.user=password	Sets the password for user to password. If Hudson security is turned on, you must log in as the admin user in order to configure Hudson or a Hudson project. NOTE: You must also specify that this user has an admin role. (See next argument below).
‑‑argumentsRealm.roles.user=admin	Sets that user is an administrative user and can configure Hudson if Hudson's security is turned on. See Securing Hudson for more information.

Hudson passes all command line parameters to the Jetty servlet container. You can get more information at the Jetty Quickstart Configuration page

Be Careful with Command Line Parameters
Hudson ignores command line parameters it doesn't understand instead of producing an error. Be careful when using command line parameters and make sure you have the correct spelling. For example, the parameter needed for defining the Hudson administrative user is --argumentsRealm and not --argumentRealm.

A very simple init script

The following script is for Ubuntu based systems. For a good startup/shutdown script for Red Hat based systems, see http://www.wakaleo.com/component/content/article

#!/bin/sh

DESC="Hudson CI Server"
NAME=hudson
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
RUN_AS=hudson
COMMAND=java -jar /home/hudson/hudson.war

d_start() {
	start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --background --make-pidfile --pidfile $PIDFILE --chuid $RUN_AS --exec $COMMAND
}

d_stop() {
	start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE
	if [ -e $PIDFILE ]
		then rm $PIDFILE
	fi
}

case $1 in
	start)
	echo -n "Starting $DESC: $NAME"
	d_start
	echo "."
	;;
	stop)
	echo -n "Stopping $DESC: $NAME"
	d_stop
	echo "."
	;;
	restart)
	echo -n "Restarting $DESC: $NAME"
	d_stop
	sleep 1
	d_start
	echo "."
	;;
	*)
	echo "usage: $NAME {start|stop|restart}"
	exit 1
	;;
esac

exit 0

In Ubuntu 9.04-Server this init-script doesn't work. You have to change the start line to

start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --background -m --pidfile $PIDFILE --chuid $RUN_AS --exec /usr/bin/java -- -jar /opt/hudson/hudson.war

Using HTTPS with an existing certificate

If you're setting up Hudson using the built-in Winstone servlet and want to use an existing certificate for HTTPS you'll need to do some converting. First, convert your pem-formatted certificate and key files to a format that the Java keytool can use:

openssl pkcs12 -export -in /path/to/cert -inkey /path/to/key -name "Whatever you want" -out keystore.p12

Then use the Java keytool to create a new keystore with that file (keep track of the password you use for the store, you'll need it in the next step):

keytool -importkeystore -srckeystore keystore.p12 -srcstoretype pkcs12 -destkeystore /path/to/hudsonhome/winstone.ks -deststoretype JKS

Finally, add these parameters to your command (filling in or changing values as needed):

--httpPort=-1 --httpsPort=443 --httpsKeyStore=/path/t/hudsonhome/winstone.ks --httpsKeyStorePassword=yourchosenpass