etherpad-lite/doc/cli.md

CLI

Etherpad ships a set of operator tools in the bin/ directory for migrating data, reclaiming database space, repairing damaged pads, managing sessions and managing plugins. They are TypeScript scripts run through tsx, and each one is registered as a pnpm script in bin/package.json. Invoke them from the Etherpad root with:

pnpm run --filter bin <script> [args]

For example pnpm run --filter bin checkPad my-pad. Running the .ts files directly with node bin/foo.js will not work — there are no compiled .js files and the scripts need the tsx loader.

Running vs. stopped

Some tools talk to a running Etherpad over its HTTP API (they read the API key from APIKEY.txt and connect to ip/port from settings.json). Others open the database directly and must be run while Etherpad is stopped, otherwise you risk a database lock or a corrupt write. Each tool below is labelled accordingly.

Database migration (migrateDB)

migrateDB copies every record from one database to another. It takes two settings files — --file1 is the source, --file2 is the target — each describing a database with a dbType and dbSettings. Both paths are resolved relative to the Etherpad root.

In this example we migrate from the old dirty db to the new rustydb engine. Create a source descriptor source.json in the Etherpad root:

{
  "dbType": "dirty",
  "dbSettings": {
    "filename": "./var/dirty.db"
  }
}

and a target descriptor target.json:

{
  "dbType": "rustydb",
  "dbSettings": {
    "filename": "./var/rusty.db"
  }
}

Then run:

pnpm run --filter bin migrateDB --file1 source.json --file2 target.json

After some time the data is copied over to the new database. Run this with Etherpad stopped.

Pad compaction

Long-lived pads with heavy edit history accumulate revisions in the database. Three CLIs reclaim that space, in increasing scope. All of them drive a running Etherpad over the compactPad HTTP API.

Tool	Targets	When to use
pnpm run --filter bin compactPad <padID>	one pad	you know which pad is fat
pnpm run --filter bin compactAllPads	every pad	bulk reclaim across the whole instance
pnpm run --filter bin compactStalePads --older-than N	pads not edited in N days	reclaim the cold tail without touching pads still in active use

All three are gated on cleanup.enabled = true in settings.json and are destructive: history is collapsed (or trimmed). Export anything you can't afford to lose with the getEtherpad API first.

Common flags:

• --keep N — retain the last N revisions instead of collapsing all history.
• --dry-run — list pads and revision counts without writing (compactAllPads and compactStalePads only).
• --older-than N — (compactStalePads only, required) only consider pads not edited in the last N days.

Examples

# Compact a specific pad, collapsing all history.
pnpm run --filter bin compactPad my-pad

# Keep only the last 50 revisions of one pad.
pnpm run --filter bin compactPad my-pad --keep 50

# Compact every pad on the instance (per-pad failures don't stop the run).
pnpm run --filter bin compactAllPads
pnpm run --filter bin compactAllPads --dry-run

# Compact only pads not edited in the last 90 days, keeping the last 50 revisions.
pnpm run --filter bin compactStalePads --older-than 90 --keep 50
pnpm run --filter bin compactStalePads --older-than 90 --dry-run

compactStalePads is the right tool for periodic operator runs on long-lived instances — hot pads that users are still navigating in timeslider stay untouched (staleness is even re-checked right before each compaction), and only the cold tail is rewritten. Per-pad failures (including a getLastEdited fault) are counted but do not abort the bulk run; the exit code reflects whether anything failed.

See the compactPad HTTP API in doc/api/http_api.md for the same primitive over the wire (issues #6194, #7642).

Pad maintenance and debugging

Tool	Purpose	Args	Etherpad
pnpm run --filter bin checkPad <padID>	Check one pad's revisions for data corruption.	<padID>	stopped
pnpm run --filter bin checkAllPads	Check every pad on the instance for data corruption.	none	stopped
pnpm run --filter bin repairPad <padID>	Repair a pad by extracting all of its data, deleting it and re-inserting it.	<padID>	stopped (the script refuses to be useful otherwise)
pnpm run --filter bin rebuildPad <padID> <rev> [newPadID]	Rebuild a damaged pad into a new pad at a known-good revision. The new pad defaults to <padID>-rebuilt and must not already exist.	<padID> <rev> [newPadID]	stopped
node --import tsx extractPadData.ts <padID>	Export one pad's data to a <padID>.db dirtyDB file so a bug can be reproduced in a dev environment. (No pnpm alias — run with the tsx loader directly from bin/.)	<padID>	stopped

checkPad/checkAllPads report corruption but do not modify anything; repairPad and rebuildPad write. As always, back up first.

Database tools

Tool	Purpose	Args	Etherpad
pnpm run --filter bin migrateDB --file1 <src.json> --file2 <dst.json>	Copy all records from a source database to a target database (see above).	--file1 <src.json> --file2 <dst.json>	stopped
pnpm run --filter bin migrateDirtyDBtoRealDB	One-shot migration of var/dirty.db into the real database configured in settings.json. Back up dirty.db first; may need more memory (e.g. node --max-old-space-size=4096).	none (reads target db from settings.json)	stopped
pnpm run --filter bin importSqlFile <sqlFile>	Import a SQL dump (rows of REPLACE INTO store VALUES (...)) into the configured database.	<sqlFile>	stopped

Session and pad management

Tool	Purpose	Args	Etherpad
pnpm run --filter bin deletePad <padID>	Delete a single pad.	<padID>	running
pnpm run --filter bin deleteAllGroupSessions	Delete all group sessions (useful when a misconfiguration has wedged group access).	none	running
pnpm run --filter bin createUserSession	Create a throwaway group, pad, author and session, printing a sessionID you can set as a cookie — handy for debugging session-based configs.	none	running

Plugin tools

Tool	Purpose	Args	Etherpad
pnpm run --filter bin plugins <action> [names…]	Manage installed plugins. Actions: i/install, rm/remove, ls/list, up/update. Install also accepts --path <dir> and --github <repo> sources.	<action> [names…]	stopped
pnpm run --filter bin checkPlugin <ep_name> [autofix|autocommit|autopush]	Lint a plugin checkout (a sibling ../ep_name directory) against the plugin conventions; optional modes auto-fix, commit, or commit+push+publish (the last is dangerous).	<ep_name> [mode]	n/a
pnpm run --filter bin stalePlugins	List plugins in the registry not updated in over two years, with maintainer email. Requires privacy.pluginCatalog enabled.	none	n/a