# chef-server-ctl

The open source server includes a command-line utility named chef-server-ctl, which is used to start and stop individual services, reconfigure the server, and tail server log files.

## Options

This command has the following syntax:

    chef-server-ctl OPTION

This command has the following options:

`help`
  Shows help for the command.
`reconfigure`
  Use to reconfigure the server. This option will read from the `/etc/chef-server/chef-server.rb` file and apply that configuration to the server. Any time changes are made to the chef-server.rb file, the chef-server-ctl command should be run with this option.
`restart [SERVICE_NAME]`
  Use to restart all enabled services or to restart a single service.
`start [SERVICE_NAME]`
  Use to start all enabled services or to start a single service.
`status [SERVICE_NAME]`
  Use to view the status of all services or to view the status of a single service.
`stop [SERVICE_NAME]`
  Use to stop all enabled services or to stop a single service.
`tail [SERVICE_NAME]`
  Use to follow the server logs for all services or for a single service.
`test --all`
  Use to execute chef-pedant, an integration test suite for the server installation. By default, only a subset of the available test are run. Add the `--all` flag to run the full test suite.

## Examples

The following examples show how to use chef-server-ctl to manage services.

View the status of a service

    $ ctl-chef-server status name_of_service

For example, to view the status for a service named `erchef`, enter:

    $ ctl-chef-server status erchef

Restart a service

    $ ctl-chef-server restart name_of_service

For example, to restart a service named `erchef`, enter:

    $ ctl-chef-server restart erchef

Restart all services

    $ ctl-chef-server restart