Help

Command line reference
F
ILEMAKER SERVER 9 HELP 172
Options for specific commands
• To specify the short form of options, use a single hyphen (-). You can specify multiple
options together. If an option requires a parameter, that option is usually the last option that
you specify. For example,
fmsadmin close -ym 'Closing for maintenance' Database.fp7
• To specify the long form of options, use double hyphens (--). Long options can be used in
scripts to increase readability. You must specify each option separately, preceded by two
hyphens. A space is required between the option and any parameters, for example,
fmsadmin close --yes --message "Closing for maintenance" Database.fp7
Parameters
• Enclose any parameters that contain spaces in single or double quotation marks.
Tip For computer and filenames, use names consisting of standard ASCII characters without
spaces.
• You can specify file IDs instead of filenames. Use fmsadmin list files [-s] to return
file IDs and other statistics. File IDs are dynamically generated.
• Symbols that may be interpreted by the shell must be escaped, that is, preceded by a
backslash character (\). Refer to the documentation for your shell or command interpreter.
• Example: the following command does not prompt for confirmation (-y), allows clients 5
minutes to close the file (-t300), and sends a message (-m). The command operates on
file IDs 20 and 22 and the folder “Solution”.
fmsadmin close -y -t300 -m "Closing for maintenance" 20 22 "filemac:/
Library/FileMaker Server/Data/Databases/Solution/"
Scripting language
If you use a scripting language that allows execution of shell or Terminal commands, you can script
many tasks with fmsadmin. On Mac OS, you can use tools such as cron or launchd to schedule
execution of fmsadmin commands like ‘run schedule’ or ‘backup’. On Windows, you can use the
Scheduled Task Wizard to schedule scripted tasks.
Administrator authentication
FileMaker Server always challenges the CLI for authentication. FileMaker Server logs all
administrator connections, both successful or failed.
Use To
-d path, --dest path Specify a destination path.
-f, --force Force close a database or shut down the server.
-m message, --message message Specify a text message to be sent to clients.
-o, --offline Perform an offline backup.
-s, --stats Return file or client
statistics.
-t seconds, --grace-time seconds Specify time in seconds before client is forced to
quit.