ownCloud Server Administration Manual

Using the occ Command

ownCloud’s occ command (ownCloud console) is ownCloud’s command-line interface. You can perform many common server operations with occ:

* Manage apps
* Manage users
* Reset passwords, including administrator passwords
* Convert the ownCloud database from SQLite to a more performant DB
* Query and change LDAP settings

occ is in the owncloud/ directory; for example /var/www/owncloud on Ubuntu Linux. occ is a PHP script. You must run it as your HTTP user to ensure that the correct permissions are maintained on your ownCloud files and directories.

Run occ As Your HTTP User

The HTTP user is different on the various Linux distributions. See Setting Strong Directory Permissions to learn how to find your HTTP user

  • The HTTP user and group in Debian/Ubuntu is www-data.
  • The HTTP user and group in Fedora/CentOS is apache.
  • The HTTP user and group in Arch Linux is http.
  • The HTTP user in openSUSE is wwwrun, and the HTTP group is www.

Running it with no options lists all commands and options, like this example on Ubuntu:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ
ownCloud version 8.1
Usage:
 [options] command [arguments]

Options:
 --help (-h)           Display this help message
 --quiet (-q)          Do not output any message
 --verbose (-v|vv|vvv) Increase the verbosity of messages: 1 for normal
                       output, 2 for more verbose output and 3 for debug
 --version (-V)        Display this application version
 --ansi                Force ANSI output
 --no-ansi             Disable ANSI output
 --no-interaction (-n) Do not ask any interactive question

Available commands:
 check                       check dependencies of the server environment
 help                        Displays help for a command
 list                        Lists commands
 status                      show some status information
 upgrade                     run upgrade routines after installation of a new
                             release. The release has to be installed before.

This is the same as sudo -u www-data php occ list.

Run it with the -h option for syntax help:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ -h

Display your ownCloud version:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ -V
  ownCloud version 8.1

Query your ownCloud server status:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ status
  - installed: true
  - version: 8.1.0.4
  - versionstring: 8.1 alpha 3
  - edition:

occ has options, commands, and arguments. Options and arguments are optional, while commands are required. The syntax is:

occ [options] command [arguments]

Get detailed information on individual commands with the help command, like this example for the maintenance:mode command:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ help maintenance:mode
  Usage:
  maintenance:mode [--on] [--off]

  Options:
  --on                  enable maintenance mode
  --off                 disable maintenance mode
  --help (-h)           Display this help message.
  --quiet (-q)          Do not output any message.
  --verbose (-v|vv|vvv) Increase the verbosity of messages: 1 for normal
  output, 2 for more verbose output and 3 for debug
  --version (-V)        Display this application version.
  --ansi                Force ANSI output.
  --no-ansi             Disable ANSI output.
  --no-interaction (-n) Do not ask any interactive question.

The status command from above has an option to define the output format. Default is plain text, but it can also be json:

$ sudo -u www-data php status --output json
{"installed":true,"version":"8.1.0.4","versionstring":"8.1 alpha 3",
"edition":"Enterprise"}

or json_pretty:

$ sudo -u www-data php status --output json_pretty
{
    "installed": true,
    "version": "8.1.0.4",
    "versionstring": "8.1 alpha 3",
    "edition": "Enterprise"
}

This output option is available on all list and list-like commands: status, check, app:list, encryption:status and encryption:list-modules

Apps Commands

The app commands list, enable, and disable apps. This lists all of your installed apps, and shows whether they are enabled or disabled:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ app:list

Enable an app:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ app:enable external
  external enabled

app:check-code checks if the app uses ownCloud’s public API (OCP) or private API (OC_). If the app uses the private API it will print a warning:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ app:check-code activity
  [snip]
  Analysing /var/www/owncloud/apps/activity/extension/files_sharing.php
  0 errors
  Analysing /var/www/owncloud/apps/activity/extension/files.php
  0 errors
App is not compliant

Disable an app:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ app:disable external
  external disabled

Background Jobs Selector

Select which scheduler you want to use for controlling background jobs: Ajax, Webcron, or Cron. This is the same as using the Cron section on your Admin page.

This example selects Ajax:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ background:ajax
  Set mode for background jobs to 'ajax'

The other two commands are:

  • background:cron
  • background:webcron

See Defining Background Jobs to learn more.

Database Conversion

The SQLite database is good for testing, and for ownCloud servers with small workloads, but production servers with multiple users should use MariaDB, MySQL, or PostgreSQL. You can use occ to convert from SQLite to one of these other databases. You need:

  • Your desired database and its PHP connector installed
  • The login and password of a database admin user
  • The database port number, if it is a non-standard port

This is example converts to SQLite MySQL/MariaDB:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ db:convert-type mysql oc_dbuser 127.0.0.1
oc_database

For a more detailed explanation see Converting Database Type

Encryption

When you are using encryption, you must manually migrate your encryption keys after upgrading your ownCloud server:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ encryption:migrate-keys

File Operations

The files:scan command scans for new files and updates the file cache. You may rescan all files, per-user, a space-delimited list of users, and limit the search path:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ  files:scan --help
  Usage:
  files:scan [-p|--path="..."] [-q|--quiet] [--all] [user_id1] ... [user_idN]

Arguments:
  user_id               will rescan all files of the given user(s)

Options:
  --path (-p)           limit rescan to this path, eg.
  --path="/alice/files/Music", the user_id is determined by the path and the
  user_id parameter and --all are ignored
  --all                 will rescan all files of all known users

files:cleanup tidies up the server’s file cache by deleting all file entries that have no matching entries in the storage table.

Command Line Installation

You can install ownCloud entirely from the command line. After downloading the tarball and copying ownCloud into the appropriate directories, or after installing ownCloud packages (See Preferred Linux Installation Method and Manual Installation on Linux) you can use occ commands in place of running the graphical Installation Wizard.

Apply correct permissions to your ownCloud directories; see Setting Strong Directory Permissions. Then choose your occ options. This lists your available options:

$ sudo -u www-data php /var/www/owncloud/occ
ownCloud is not installed - only a limited number of commands are available
ownCloud version 8.1.0

Usage:
 [options] command [arguments]

Options:
 --help (-h)           Display this help message
 --quiet (-q)          Do not output any message
 --verbose (-v|vv|vvv) Increase the verbosity of messages: 1 for normal
 output,  2 for more verbose output and 3 for debug
 --version (-V)        Display this application version
 --ansi                Force ANSI output
 --no-ansi             Disable ANSI output
 --no-interaction (-n) Do not ask any interactive question

Available commands:
 check                 check dependencies of the server environment
 help                  Displays help for a command
 list                  Lists commands
 status                show some status information
 app
 app:check-code        check code to be compliant
 l10n
 l10n:createjs         Create javascript translation files for a given app
 maintenance
 maintenance:install   install ownCloud

Display your maintenance:install options:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ help maintenance:install
ownCloud is not installed - only a limited number of commands are available
Usage:
 maintenance:install [--database="..."] [--database-name="..."]
[--database-host="..."] [--database-user="..."] [--database-pass[="..."]]
[--database-table-prefix[="..."]] [--admin-user="..."] [--admin-pass="..."]
[--data-dir="..."]

Options:
 --database               Supported database type (default: "sqlite")
 --database-name          Name of the database
 --database-host          Hostname of the database (default: "localhost")
 --database-user          User name to connect to the database
 --database-pass          Password of the database user
 --database-table-prefix  Prefix for all tables (default: oc_)
 --admin-user             User name of the admin account (default: "admin")
 --admin-pass             Password of the admin account
 --data-dir               Path to data directory (default:
                          "/var/www/owncloud/data")
 --help (-h)              Display this help message
 --quiet (-q)             Do not output any message
 --verbose (-v|vv|vvv)    Increase the verbosity of messages: 1 for normal
  output, 2 for more verbose output and 3 for debug
 --version (-V)           Display this application version
 --ansi                   Force ANSI output
 --no-ansi                Disable ANSI output
 --no-interaction (-n)    Do not ask any interactive question

This example completes the installation:

$ cd /var/www/owncloud/
$ sudo -u www-data php occ maintenance:install --database
"mysql" --database-name "owncloud"  --database-user "root" --database-pass
"password" --admin-user "admin" --admin-pass "password"
ownCloud is not installed - only a limited number of commands are available
ownCloud was successfully installed

Supported databases are:

- sqlite (SQLite3 - Community Edition Only)
- mysql (MySQL/MariaDB)
- pgsql (PostgreSQL)
- oci (Oracle)

l10n, Create javascript Translation Files for Apps

Use the l10n:createjs to translate apps into various languages, using this syntax:

l10n:createjs appname language_name

This example converts the Activity app to Bosnian:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ l10n:createjs activity bs

These are the supported language codes, and Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages may be helpful:

ach                     gu     ml     sr
ady          eo         he     ml_IN  sr@latin
af_ZA        es         hi     mn     su
ak           es_AR      hi_IN  ms_MY  sv
am_ET        es_BO      hr     mt_MT  sw_KE
ar           es_CL      hu_HU  my_MM  ta_IN
ast          es_CO      hy     nb_NO  ta_LK
az           es_CR      ia     nds    te
be           es_EC      id     ne     tg_TJ
bg_BG        es_MX      io     nl     th_TH
bn_BD        es_PE      is     nn_NO  tl_PH
bn_IN        es_PY      it     nqo    tr
bs           es_US      ja     oc     tzm
ca           es_UY      jv     or_IN  ug
ca@valencia  et_EE      ka_GE  pa     uk
cs_CZ        eu         km     pl     ur
cy_GB        eu_ES      kn     pt_BR  ur_PK
da           fa         ko     pt_PT  uz
de           fi         ku_IQ  ro     vi
de_AT        fi_FI      lb     ru     yo
de_CH        fil        lo     si_LK  zh_CN
de_DE        fr         lt_LT  sk     zh_HK
el           fr_CA      lv     sk_SK  zh_TW
en_GB        fy_NL      mg     sl
en_NZ        gl         mk     sq

LDAP Commands

You can run the following LDAP commands with occ.

Search for an LDAP user, using this syntax:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ ldap:search [--group] [--offset="..."]
[--limit="..."] search

This example searches for usernames that start with “rob”:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ ldap:search rob

Check if an LDAP user exists. This works only if the ownCloud server is connected to an LDAP server:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ ldap:check-user robert

ldap:check-user will not run a check when it finds a disabled LDAP connection. This prevents users that exist on disabled LDAP connections from being marked as deleted. If you know for certain that user you are searching for is not in one of the disabled connections, and exists on an active connection, use the --force option to force it to check all active LDAP connections:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ ldap:check-user --force robert

ldap:create-empty-config creates an empty LDAP configuration. The first one you create has no configID, like this example:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ ldap:create-empty-config
  Created new configuration with configID ''

This is a holdover from the early days, when there was no option to create additional configurations. The second, and all subsequent, configurations that you create are automatically assigned IDs:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ ldap:create-empty-config
   Created new configuration with configID 's01'

Then you can list and view your configurations:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ ldap:show-config

And view the configuration for a single configID:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ ldap:show-config s01

ldap:delete-config [configID] deletes an existing LDAP configuration:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ ldap:delete  s01
 Deleted configuration with configID 's01'

The ldap:set-config command is for manipulating configurations, like this example that sets search attributes:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ ldap:set-config s01 ldapAttributesForUserSearch
"cn;givenname;sn;displayname;mail"

ldap:test-config tests whether your configuration is correct and can bind to the server:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ ldap:test-config s01
The configuration is valid and the connection could be established!

ldap:show-remnants is for cleaning up the LDAP mappings table, and is documented in LDAP User Cleanup.

Maintenance Commands

These maintenance commands put your ownCloud server into maintenance and single-user mode, and run repair steps during updates.

You must put your ownCloud server into maintenance mode whenever you perform an update or upgrade. This locks the sessions of all logged-in users, including administrators, and displays a status screen warning that the server is in maintenance mode. Users who are not already logged in cannot log in until maintenance mode is turned off. When you take the server out of maintenance mode logged-in users must refresh their Web browsers to continue working:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ maintenance:mode --on
$ sudo -u www-data php occ maintenance:mode --off

Putting your ownCloud server into single-user mode allows admins to log in and work, but not ordinary users. This is useful for performing maintenance and troubleshooting on a running server:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ maintenance:singleuser --on
  Single user mode enabled

And turn it off when you’re finished:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ maintenance:singleuser --off
  Single user mode disabled

The maintenance:repair command runs automatically during upgrades to clean up the database, so while you can run it manually there usually isn’t a need to:

 $ sudo -u www-data php occ maintenance:repair
    - Repair mime types
- Repair legacy storages
- Repair config
- Clear asset cache after upgrade
    - Asset pipeline disabled -> nothing to do
- Generate ETags for file where no ETag is present.
    - ETags have been fixed for 0 files/folders.
- Clean tags and favorites
    - 0 tags for delete files have been removed.
    - 0 tag entries for deleted tags have been removed.
    - 0 tags with no entries have been removed.
- Re-enable file app

User Commands

The user commands create and remove users, reset passwords, display a simple report showing how many users you have, and when a user was last logged in.

You can create a new user with their display name, login name, and any group memberships with the user:add command. The syntax is:

user:add [--password-from-env] [--display-name[="..."]] [-g|--group[="..."]]
uid

The display-name corresponds to the Full Name on the Users page in your ownCloud Web UI, and the uid is their Username, which is their login name. This example adds new user Layla Smith, and adds her to the users and db-admins groups. Any groups that do not exist are created:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ user:add --display-name="Layla Smith"
  --group="users" --group="db-admins" layla
  Enter password:
  Confirm password:
  The user "layla" was created successfully
  Display name set to "Layla Smith"
  User "layla" added to group "users"
  User "layla" added to group "db-admins"

Go to your Users page, and you will see your new user.

password-from-env allows you to set the user’s password from an environment variable. This prevents the password from being exposed to all users via the process list, and will only be visible in the history of the user (root) running the command. This also permits creating scripts for adding multiple new users.

To use password-from-env you must run as “real” root, rather than sudo, because sudo strips environment variables. This example adds new user Fred Jones:

$ su
Password:
# export OC_PASS=newpassword
# su -s /bin/sh www-data -c 'php occ user:add --password-from-env
  --display-name="Fred Jones" --group="users" fred'
The user "fred" was created successfully
Display name set to "Fred Jones"
User "fred" added to group "users"

You can reset any user’s password, including administrators (see Resetting a Lost Admin Password):

$ sudo -u www-data php occ user:resetpassword layla
  Enter a new password:
  Confirm the new password:
  Successfully reset password for layla

You may also use password-from-env to reset passwords:

# export OC_PASS=newpassword
# su -s /bin/sh www-data -c 'php occ user:resetpassword --password-from-env
  layla'
  Successfully reset password for layla

You can delete users:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ user:delete fred

View a user’s most recent login:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ user:lastseen layla
  layla's last login: 09.01.2015 18:46

Generate a simple report that counts all users, including users on external user authentication servers such as LDAP:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ user:report
+------------------+----+
| User Report      |    |
+------------------+----+
| Database         | 12 |
| LDAP             | 86 |
|                  |    |
| total users      | 98 |
|                  |    |
| user directories | 2  |
+------------------+----+

Upgrade Command

List all options, like this example on CentOS Linux:

$ sudo -u apache php occ upgrade -h
Usage:
upgrade [--skip-migration-test] [--dry-run] [--no-app-disable]

Options:
--skip-migration-test  skips the database schema migration simulation and
   update directly
--dry-run              only runs the database schema migration simulation, do
  not actually update
--no-app-disable       skips the disable of third party apps
--help (-h)            Display this help message.
--quiet (-q)           Do not output any message.
--verbose (-v|vv|vvv)  Increase the verbosity of messages: 1 for normal output,
  2 for more verbose output and 3 for debug.
--version (-V)         Display this application version.
--ansi                 Force ANSI output.
--no-ansi              Disable ANSI output.
--no-interaction (-n)  Do not ask any interactive question

When you are performing an update or upgrade on your ownCloud server (see the Maintenance section of this manual), it is better to use occ to perform the database upgrade step, rather than the Web GUI, in order to avoid timeouts. PHP scripts invoked from the Web interface are limited to 3600 seconds. In larger environments this may not be enough, leaving the system in an inconsistent state. After performing all the preliminary steps (see Upgrading Your ownCloud Server) use this command to upgrade your databases, like this example on CentOS Linux. Note how it details the steps:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ upgrade
ownCloud or one of the apps require upgrade - only a limited number of
commands are available
Turned on maintenance mode
Checked database schema update
Checked database schema update for apps
Updated database
Updating <gallery> ...
Updated <gallery> to 0.6.1
Updating <activity> ...
Updated <activity> to 2.1.0
Update successful
Turned off maintenance mode

If there is an error it throws an exception, and the error is detailed in your ownCloud logfile, so you can use the log output to figure out what went wrong, or to use in a bug report:

Turned on maintenance mode
Checked database schema update
Checked database schema update for apps
Updated database
Updating <files_sharing> ...
Exception
ServerNotAvailableException: LDAP server is not available
Update failed
Turned off maintenance mode

Before completing the upgrade, ownCloud first runs a simulation by copying all database tables to a temporary directory and then performing the upgrade on them, to ensure that the upgrade will complete correctly. This takes twice as much time, which on large installations can be many hours, so you can omit this step with the --skip-migration-test option:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ upgrade --skip-migration-test

You can perform this simulation manually with the --dry-run option:

$ sudo -u www-data php occ upgrade --dry-run