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34<h1><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation"></a>Apache Felix Usage Documentation</h1>
35
36<ul>
37 <li><a href="#ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-startingfelix" title="starting-felix on Apache Felix Usage Documentation">Starting Felix</a></li>
38 <li><a href="#ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-felixshell" title="felix-shell on Apache Felix Usage Documentation">Felix Shell</a>
39 <ul>
40 <li><a href="#ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-installingbundles" title="installing-bundles on Apache Felix Usage Documentation">Installing Bundles</a></li>
41 <li><a href="#ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-installingbundlesproxies" title="installing-bundles-proxies on Apache Felix Usage Documentation">Web Proxy Issues when Installing Bundles</a></li>
42 </ul>
43 </li>
44 <li><a href="#ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-configuringfelix" title="configuring-felix on Apache Felix Usage Documentation">Configuring Felix</a>
45 <ul>
46 <li><a href="#ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-propertysubstitution" title="property-substitution on Apache Felix Usage Documentation">System Property Substitution</a></li>
47 <li><a href="#ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-defaultshell" title="default-shell on Apache Felix Usage Documentation">Changing the Command Shell User Interface</a></li>
48 </ul>
49 </li>
50 <li><a href="#ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-configuringbundles" title="configuring-bundles on Apache Felix Usage Documentation">Configuring Bundles</a></li>
51 <li><a href="#ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-feedback" title="feedback on Apache Felix Usage Documentation">Feedback</a></li>
52</ul>
53
54
55<p><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-startingfelix"></a></p>
56
57<h2><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-StartingFelix"></a>Starting Felix</h2>
58<p>Start Felix from the installation directory by typing:</p>
59<div class="preformatted"><div class="preformattedContent">
60<pre>java -jar bin/felix.jar
61</pre>
62</div></div>
63<p>After executing the above command, you will be prompted to enter a
64profile name; a profile is a simple way to organize sets of installed
65bundles and any arbitrary name will suffice. Entering the same profile
66name for subsequent executions of Felix will restore the installed
67bundles associated with that profile. By default, Felix creates a
68directory, called <tt>.felix</tt>, in your home directory and inside
69of this directory Felix creates a separate sub-directory for each
70profile; this behavior is configurable, see the <a href="http://cwiki.apache.org/FELIX/apache-felix-bundle-cache.html" title="Apache Felix Bundle Cache">Apache Felix Bundle Cache</a>
71document for more details. After you have specified a profile name, the
72text-based shell interface is started. It is possible to <a href="#ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-defaultshell" title="default-shell on Apache Felix Usage Documentation">change your default shell user interface</a>.</p>
73
74<p><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-felixshell"></a></p>
75
76<h2><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-FelixShell"></a>Felix Shell</h2>
77<p>The main way to interact with Felix is via its shell service. Felix'
78shell service is implemented as an OSGi service that, be default, uses
79a simple text-based user interface. After starting Felix, type <tt>help</tt> into the shell to see the list of the available commands; these are the default commands:</p>
80<div class="preformatted"><div class="preformattedContent">
81<pre>bundlelevel &lt;level&gt; &lt;id&gt; ... | &lt;id&gt; - set or get bundle start level.
82cd [&lt;base-URL&gt;] - change or display base URL.
83headers [&lt;id&gt; ...] - display bundle header properties.
84help - display shell commands.
85install &lt;URL&gt; [&lt;URL&gt; ...] - install bundle(s).
86obr help - OSGi bundle repository.
87packages [&lt;id&gt; ...] - list exported packages.
88ps [-l | -u] - list installed bundles.
89refresh - refresh packages.
90services [-u] [-a] [&lt;id&gt; ...] - list registered or used services.
91shutdown - shutdown Felix.
92start &lt;id&gt; [&lt;id&gt; &lt;URL&gt; ...] - start bundle(s).
93startlevel [&lt;level&gt;] - get or set framework start level.
94stop &lt;id&gt; [&lt;id&gt; ...] - stop bundle(s).
95uninstall &lt;id&gt; [&lt;id&gt; ...] - uninstall bundle(s).
96update &lt;id&gt; [&lt;URL&gt;] - update bundle.
97version - display version of framework.
98</pre>
99</div></div>
100<p>For a detailed description of how to install bundles into Felix refer to the next <a href="#ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-installingbundles" title="installing-bundles on Apache Felix Usage Documentation">sub-section</a>; the remainder of this section briefly describes shell behavior.</p>
101
102<p>Despite the fact that the Felix shell tries to mimic a typical Unix-like shell, it is actually quite limited. The notion of <tt>cd</tt>,
103for example, is only used to specify a default base URL in order to
104save typing. To illustrate, assume that you want to install several
105bundles from a directory on your disk, you could type:</p>
106<div class="preformatted"><div class="preformattedContent">
107<pre>cd file:/c:/projects/felix/bundle/
108</pre>
109</div></div>
110<p>After issuing this <tt>cd</tt> command, you no longer need to type
111the complete URL for bundles located in the above directory, only the
112name of the bundle JAR file is necessary. It is not possible to perform
113an equivalent <tt>ls</tt> command to list the contents of the current
114base URL, since this operation is not possible with URLs. To view all
115currently installed bundles, use the <tt>ps</tt> command.</p>
116
117<p>To exit the Felix shell, simply type <tt>shutdown</tt>; any bundles
118that are loaded will automatically be reloaded the next time you start
119the associated profile. Additionally, any bundles that are active, will
120be reactivated the next time you start the associated profile.</p>
121
122<p><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-installingbundles"></a></p>
123
124<h3><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-InstallingBundles"></a>Installing Bundles</h3>
125<p>A bundle is the OSGi term for a component for the OSGi framework. A
126bundle is simply a JAR file containing a manifest and some combination
127of Java classes, embedded JAR files, native code, and resources. A
128bundle may provide some specific functionality for the user or it may
129implement a service that other bundles can use; bundles can only use
130functionality from other bundles through shared services and packages.</p>
131
132<p>Felix is packaged with four bundles, which are located in the <tt>bundle/</tt>
133directory of the Felix installation directory. There are bundles for
134the Felix shell service, a text-based shell service user interface, a
135bundle repository service, and a simple example bundle. In addition to
136these bundles, the bundle repository services provides access to many
137other bundles for easy installation. The bundle repository service
138provides a shell command, named <tt>obr</tt>, to access available bundles; refer to the <a href="http://cwiki.apache.org/FELIX/apache-felix-osgi-bundle-repository-obr.html" title="Apache Felix OSGi Bundle Repository (OBR)">Apache Felix OSGi Bundle Repository (OBR)</a> for more information.</p>
139
140<p>Before installing any bundles, it is important to understand how
141bundles are manually deployed into the framework. Bundles are deployed
142in two stages; first they are installed, then they are started. To
143install a bundle use the <tt>install</tt> shell command followed by a bundle URL. For example, to install the <tt>simple.jar</tt> bundle included with Felix you type (assuming you have started Felix from its installation directory):</p>
144<div class="preformatted"><div class="preformattedContent">
145<pre>install file:bundle/simple.jar
146</pre>
147</div></div>
148<p>Once a bundle is installed, it can then be started by using the <tt>start</tt> command and the bundle identifier of the desired bundle. The <tt>ps</tt>
149shell command is used to list all installed bundles and to obtain the
150bundle's identifier. The following Oscar shell session capture
151illustrates how to start the <tt>simple.jar</tt> bundle:</p>
152<div class="preformatted"><div class="preformattedContent">
153<pre>-&gt; install [file:bundle/simple]
154-&gt; ps
155START LEVEL 1
156 ID State Level Name
157[ 0] [Active ] [ 0] System Bundle (0.8.0)
158[ 1] [Active ] [ 1] Shell Service (0.8.0)
159[ 2] [Active ] [ 1] Shell TUI (0.8.0)
160[ 3] [Active ] [ 1] Bundle Repository (0.8.0)
161[ 4] [Installed ] [ 1] Simple (0.8.0)
162-&gt; start 4
163Simple bundle 4 has started.
164From native: Hello!
165From embedded JAR: Hello!
166Entry: META-INF/
167Entry: org/
168Entry: libfoo.so
169The 'javax.servlet.http' package is not available.
170The 'javax.servlet' package is not available.
171-&gt;
172</pre>
173</div></div>
174<p>The <tt>stop</tt> command is used to stop a bundle and the <tt>uninstall</tt> command is used to remove a bundle from the Felix profile. As an alternative to using the <tt>install</tt> and <tt>start</tt> commands explicitly, it is also possible to install and start a bundle in one step by using the <tt>start</tt> command with a bundle URL.</p>
175
176<p>Bundles can be updated using the <tt>update</tt> command. The update
177command allows you to specify an URL from which to retrieve the updated
178bundle, but if one is not specified it will try to update the bundle
179from the bundle's <tt>Bundle-UpdateLocation</tt> manifest attribute, if present, or the bundle's original location URL.</p>
180
181<p><b>Important:</b> When you <tt>update</tt> or <tt>uninstall</tt> a
182bundle, the changes appear to take effect immediately, but in reality
183the changes are only partially enacted. If a bundle is updated or
184uninstalled and it was exporting packages, these packages are not
185removed until the framework is refreshed using the <tt>PackageAdmin</tt> service. The Felix shell offers a convenient <tt>refresh</tt> command for this purpose.</p>
186
187<p>For an introduction to writing bundles and services, refer to the Felix bundle tutorial.</p>
188
189<p><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-installingbundlesproxies"></a></p>
190
191<h3><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-WebProxyIssueswhenInstallingBundles"></a>Web Proxy Issues when Installing Bundles</h3>
192<p>If you use a proxy for Web access, then you may run into difficulty
193using the Felix shell to install bundles from a remote URL. To remedy
194this situation, certain system properties must be set to make Felix
195work with your proxy. These properties are:</p>
196<ul>
197 <li><tt>http.proxyHost</tt> - the name of the proxy host.</li>
198 <li><tt>http.proxyPort</tt> - the port of the proxy host.</li>
199 <li><tt>http.proxyAuth</tt>
200- the user name and password to use when connecting to the proxy; this
201string should be the user name and password separated by a colon (e.g.,
202<tt>rickhall:mypassword</tt>).</li>
203</ul>
204
205
206<p>These system properties can be set directly on the command line when starting the JVM using the standard "<tt>-D&lt;prop&gt;=&lt;value&gt;</tt>" syntax or you can put them in the <tt>lib/system.properties</tt> file of your Felix installation; see the next section on <a href="#ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-configuringfelix" title="configuring-felix on Apache Felix Usage Documentation">configuring Felix</a> for more information.</p>
207
208<p><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-configuringfelix"></a></p>
209
210<h2><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-ConfiguringFelix"></a>Configuring Felix</h2>
211<p>Felix uses properties to configure certain aspects of its behavior. When you execute Felix using <tt>bin/felix.jar</tt> there are two property files that are consulted, they are <tt>conf/system.properties</tt> and <tt>conf/config.properties</tt> in the Felix installation directory. Both files use standard Java property file syntax.</p>
212
213<p>The <tt>conf/system.properties</tt> file provides a convenient
214mechanism for defining Java system properties, but it is largely
215ignored by Felix, since Felix does not use system properties for
216configuration purposes. Any properties placed in the <tt>conf/system.properties</tt> file are available at run time via <tt>System.getProperty()</tt> and <tt>BundleContext.getProperty()</tt>. It is also possible to specify a different location for the system properties file by using the <tt>felix.system.properties</tt> system property when executing Felix. For example:</p>
217<div class="preformatted"><div class="preformattedContent">
218<pre>java -Dfelix.system.properties=file:/home/rickhall/system.properties -jar bin/felix.jar
219</pre>
220</div></div>
221<p>When executing Felix, nearly configuration occurs using properties in the <tt>conf/config.properties</tt> file. It is possible to change the location of the configuration properties file by specifying a new location value using the <tt>felix.config.properties</tt>
222system property. It is necessary to use a system property here since
223Felix needs this value to start execution. As an example, the following
224command could be used to specify a custom location for the
225configuration properties file:</p>
226<div class="preformatted"><div class="preformattedContent">
227<pre>java -Dfelix.config.properties=file:/home/rickhall/config.properties -jar bin/felix.jar
228</pre>
229</div></div>
230<p>In this example the configuration properties will be read from the
231specified URL. All remaining configuration properties should be defined
232in the <tt>config.properties</tt> file itself. All configuration properties are accessible at run time via <tt>BundleContext.getProperty()</tt>.</p>
233
234<p>Felix does provide one other way to specify configuration
235properties, but to do so you must manually instantiate an instance of
236Felix, rather than executing Felix' JAR file. When you create your own
237instance of Felix, it is possible to pass in precise configuration
238properties to the <tt>Felix.start()</tt> method. If this approach is used, then no property files are consulted.</p>
239
240<p>The following properties describes the purpose of each Felix configuration property:</p>
241<ul>
242 <li><tt>felix.log.level</tt> - An integer value indicating the
243degree of logging reported by the framework; a higher value results in
244more logging. If zero ('0') is specified, then logging is turned off
245completely. The log levels match those specified in the OSGi Log
246Service (i.e., 1 = error, 2 = warning, 3 = information, and 4 = debug).
247The default value is 1.</li>
248 <li><tt>felix.auto.install.&lt;n&gt;</tt> - Space-delimited list of bundle URLs to automatically install when Felix is started, where <tt>&lt;n&gt;</tt> is the start level into which the bundle will be installed (e.g., <tt>felix.auto.install.2</tt>).</li>
249 <li><tt>felix.auto.start</tt> - Space-delimited list of bundle URLs to automatically install and start when Oscar is started, where <tt>&lt;n&gt;</tt> is the start level into which the bundle will be installed (e.g., <tt>felix.auto.start.2</tt>).</li>
250 <li><tt>felix.startlevel.framework</tt> - The initial start level of the framework once it starts execution; the default value is 1.</li>
251 <li><tt>felix.startlevel.bundle</tt> - The default start level for newly installed bundles; the default value is 1.</li>
252 <li><tt>felix.service.urlhandlers</tt> - Flag to indicate whether Felix should enable the URL Handlers service, which will result in calls to <tt>URL.setURLStreamHandlerFactory()</tt> and <tt>URLConnection.setContentHandlerFactory()</tt>. The default value is "<tt>true</tt>" to enable the URL Handlers service.</li>
253 <li><tt>felix.embedded.execution</tt> - Flag to indicate whether Felix is embedded into a host application; the default value is "<tt>false</tt>". If this flag is "<tt>true</tt>" then Felix will not call <tt>System.exit()</tt> upon termination.</li>
254 <li><tt>felix.strict.osgi</tt> - Flag to indicate whether Felix is running in strict OSGi mode; the default value is "<tt>true</tt>". If this flag is "<tt>false</tt>" it currently enables a single non-OSGi-compliant feature: persisting <tt>BundleActivator</tt>s that implement <tt>Serializable</tt>. This feature is not recommended since it is non-compliant.</li>
255 <li><tt>felix.cache.bufsize</tt>
256- Sets the buffer size to be used by the bundle cache when copying JAR
257files and input streams; the default value is 4096 bytes. The integer
258value of this string provides control over the size of the internal
259buffer of the disk cache for performance reasons.</li>
260 <li><tt>felix.cache.dir</tt>
261- Sets the directory to be used by the bundle cache as its cache
262directory. The cache directory is where all profile directories are
263stored and a profile directory is where a set of installed bundles are
264stored. By default, the cache directory is <tt>.felix</tt> in the user's home directory. If this property is specified, then its value will be used as the cache directory instead of <tt>.felix</tt>. This directory will be created if it does not exist.</li>
265 <li><tt>felix.cache.profile</tt>
266- Sets the profile name that will be used to create a profile directory
267inside of the bundle cache directory. The created directory will
268contain all installed bundles associated with the profile.</li>
269 <li><tt>felix.cache.profiledir</tt>
270- Sets the directory to use as the profile directory for the bundle
271cache; by default the profile name is used to create a directory in the
272<tt>.felix</tt> bundle cache directory (more precisely <tt>${felix.cache.dir}/${felix.cache.profile</tt>}). If the <tt>felix.cache.profiledir</tt>
273property is specified, then the cache directory and profile name
274properties are ignored since they are only used to calculate the
275profile directory. The specified value of the profile directory
276property is used directly as the directory to contain all cached
277bundles. This directory will be created if it does not exist.</li>
278</ul>
279
280
281<p>The Felix installation contains a default <tt>conf/config.properties</tt> file for automatically starting the shell-related bundles.</p>
282
283<p><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-propertysubstitution"></a></p>
284
285<h3><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-SystemPropertySubstituion"></a>System Property Substituion</h3>
286<p>It is possible to use system properties to specify the values of properties in the <tt>conf/config.properties</tt> file. This is achieved through system property substitution, which is instigated by using <tt>${&lt;property&gt;</tt>} syntax, where <tt>&lt;property&gt;</tt>
287is the name of a system property to substitute. When such a property
288value is retrieved by a bundle, the system property value will be
289substituted into the bundle property value as appropriate.</p>
290
291<p><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-defaultshell"></a></p>
292
293<h3><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-ChangingtheCommandShellUserInterface"></a>Changing the Command Shell User Interface</h3>
294<p>Felix' shell service supports multiple user interface
295implementations; the default shell user interface is text-based, but a
296simple graphical shell is also available. To change the default shell
297user interface, you must download the Shell GUI and Shell GUI Plugin
298bundles. Then you must modify the <tt>felix.auto.start</tt> property in the <tt>conf/config.properties</tt> file of your Felix installation. For the text-based user interface, the property value should look like this:</p>
299<div class="preformatted"><div class="preformattedContent">
300<pre>felix.auto.start.1=file:bundle/shell.jar file:bundle/shelltui.jar \
301 file:bundle/bundlerepository.jar
302</pre>
303</div></div>
304<p>This property value instructs Felix to automatically start the shell
305service, the shell textual user interface, and the bundle repository. (<em>Note:
306The "\" character at the end of the above line indicates that the
307property value continues on the next line; it is also possible to
308specify the property value on one line.</em>) For the GUI-based shell user interface, the property value should look something like this:</p>
309<div class="preformatted"><div class="preformattedContent">
310<pre>felix.auto.start.1=file:bundle/shell.jar file:bundle/bundlerepository.jar \
311 file:bundle/shellgui.jar file:bundle/shellplugin.jar
312</pre>
313</div></div>
314<p>This property value instructs Felix to automatically start the shell
315service, the bundle repository, the shell GUI, and the shell GUI
316plugins.</p>
317
318<p><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-configuringbundles"></a></p>
319
320<h2><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-ConfiguringBundles"></a>Configuring Bundles</h2>
321<p>Some bundles use properties to configure certain aspects of their behavior. As an example, the default URL for the <tt>cd</tt> command of the shell service can be specified using the property <tt>felix.shell.baseurl</tt>.
322It is a good idea, when implementing bundles, to parameterize them with
323properties where appropriate. To learn about the configuration options
324for specific bundles, refer to the documentation that accompanies them.</p>
325
326<p>Bundle properties are also defined in the <tt>conf/config.properties</tt> property file. Any property placed in this file will be accessible via <tt>BundleContext.getProperty()</tt>
327at run time. The property file uses the standard Java property file
328syntax (i.e., attribute-value pairs). For information on changing the
329default location of this file, refer to the section on <a href="#ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-configuringfelix" title="configuring-felix on Apache Felix Usage Documentation">configuring Felix</a>.</p>
330
331<p><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-feedback"></a></p>
332
333<h2><a name="ApacheFelixUsageDocumentation-Feedback"></a>Feedback</h2>
334
335<p>Subscribe to the Felix users mailing list by sending a message to <span class="nobr"><a href="mailto:users-subscribe@incubator.apache.org" title="Send mail to users-subscribe@felix.apache.org" rel="nofollow">users-subscribe@felix.apache.org<sup><img class="rendericon" src="apache-felix-usage-documentation_files/mail_small.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" height="12" width="13"></sup></a></span>; after subscribing, email questions or feedback to <span class="nobr"><a href="mailto:users@felix.apache.org" title="Send mail to users@felix.apache.org" rel="nofollow">users@felix.apache.org<sup><img class="rendericon" src="apache-felix-usage-documentation_files/mail_small.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" height="12" width="13"></sup></a></span>.</p>
336 </div>
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