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Engine Manual

CLI

RushDB ships as one binary, rushdb. It runs the database server (rushdb serve), runs a persistent local node with one command (rushdb up), and checks whether a node is up (rushdb health). This page covers rushdb up and how it relates to rushdb serve. It is for developers who want a database running on their machine with one command.

Note: rushdb is not an interactive query shell. To run queries, use the HTTP API (for example with curl), psql over the PostgreSQL wire protocol, or a Bolt client.

Commands​

$ rushdb --help
RushDB, the LMPG database

Usage: rushdb <COMMAND>

Commands:
  serve   Run the database server. Without `--data-dir` the node is in memory
  up      Run a persistent local node: `serve` with a `./.rushdb` data directory and a startup summary. Takes every `serve` option
  health  Check that a node is up: exits 0 when `GET /health` answers 200
  help    Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -h, --help     Print help
  -V, --version  Print version

rushdb up​

Starts a persistent, single-node server in the foreground. It is rushdb serve with two differences: the data directory defaults to ./.rushdb instead of memory, and it prints where the node listens before it starts. It takes every rushdb serve option and environment variable.

rushdb up --data-dir ~/rushdb-data
RushDB 3.0.1
  HTTP     http://127.0.0.1:3000
  Postgres postgresql://127.0.0.1:5432
  Data     /home/me/rushdb-data
  Token    local-token (local default; set --token or RUSHDB_TOKEN)
Press Ctrl+C to stop.

The server listens on 127.0.0.1:3000 with the default settings. Check it:

rushdb health

Configuring a node started with rushdb up​

Pass any server option as a flag or its RUSHDB_* environment variable:

RUSHDB_TOKEN="$(openssl rand -hex 32)" \
rushdb up --data-dir ~/rushdb-data --languages sql,cypher --bolt-port 7687

config.yml. On first start the server writes config.yml into the data directory. It is the source of truth for that directory afterwards: a flag that disagrees with it is rejected. To change a stored setting, stop the server, edit the file, and start it again:

languages:
  sql: true
  gql: false
  cypher: true
  gremlin: false
  sql-pgq: false
  mongodb: false

Warning: The default bootstrap token is local-token. Set RUSHDB_TOKEN to a secret value before you expose the node to anything other than your own machine. Secrets are never written to config.yml.

For production deployments, run rushdb serve under a service manager. All of its flags are listed in the CLI reference; rushdb serve --print-config shows the effective config.yml without starting a server.

See also​