Starting Hudson

The easiest way to execute Hudson is through the built in Winstone 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

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.

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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=$HTTP_PORT where $HTTP_PORT is the port you want Hudson to run on. Other command line parameters include:

Command Line Parameter	Description
--httpPort=$HTTP_PORT	Runs Hudson listener on port $HTTP_PORT using standard http protocol. The default is port 8080. To disable (because you're using https), use port `-1`.
--httpListenAddress=$HTTP_HOST	Binds Hudson to the IP address represented by $HTTP_HOST. The default is 0.0.0.0 — i.e. listening on all available interfaces.
--httpsPort=$HTTP_PORT	Uses HTTPS protocol on port $HTTP_PORT
--httpsListenAddress=$HTTPS_HOST	Binds Hudson to listen for HTTPS requests on the IP address represented by $HTTPS_HOST.
--argumentsRealm.passwd.$ADMIN_USER	Sets the password for user $ADMIN_USER. If Hudson security is turned on, you must log in as the $ADMIN_USER in order to configure Hudson or a Hudson project. NOTE: You must also specify that this user has an admin role. (See next argument below).
--argumentsRealm.roles.$ADMIN_USER=admin	Sets that $ADMIN_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 Winstone servlet container, so you can get more information by looking at the Winstone Command Line Parameter Reference

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/206

#!/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