forkpress serve

forkpress serve starts the local ForkPress preview server in the background and returns after it is ready.

Use it for normal local work. It is the background-friendly wrapper around forkpress start.

Usage

forkpress serve [options]

Options

Option	Default	Description
--work-dir <path>	.forkpress	Site state directory to serve.
--php-bin <path>	Embedded PHP	PHP binary used to run WordPress and ForkPress runtime scripts.
--host <address>	127.0.0.1	TCP address the PHP server binds to.
--port <port>	18080	TCP port for local previews and the Git smart-HTTP remote.
--root-host <host>	wp.localhost	Root host for the main preview and branch subdomains.
--site-title <title>	ForkPress	Site title used when bootstrapping a site that needs runtime preparation.
--workers <n>	min(8, CPUs * 2)	Number of PHP CLI server workers on Linux and macOS. Pass --workers 1 for single-request debugging mode.
--background	Enabled by serve	Start in the background. Passing it is allowed but redundant.
--foreground	Disabled	Keep serve in the foreground. Conflicts with --background.

What It Does

serve turns on background mode and then runs the same startup path as start:

• prepares the embedded runtime if needed;
• checks that the requested host and port are available;
• attaches mount-backed COW storage when the site uses it;
• starts the PHP server;
• registers the server in the per-user ForkPress server registry;
• waits until the TCP port and registry entry are ready.

When startup succeeds, ForkPress prints the main preview URL, branch preview URL pattern, log commands, and stop command.

URLs

With defaults:

http://wp.localhost:18080/
http://<branch>.wp.localhost:18080/
http://wp.localhost:18080/site.git

The plain root host serves main. Branch subdomains serve the matching local branch.

Examples

Start the default site in the background:

forkpress serve

Use another port:

forkpress serve --port 18081

Keep serve attached to the terminal:

forkpress serve --foreground

Force single-request PHP mode while debugging:

forkpress serve --workers 1

Logs And Shutdown

Read logs with forkpress logs:

forkpress logs --file wp
forkpress logs --file forkpress --follow

Stop the server with forkpress stop:

forkpress stop

Use forkpress server list to see all running ForkPress servers for the current user.