vnclicense Man Page

Andrew (RealVNC)

Updated August 23, 2019 14:20

vnclicense

Name

vnclicense - VNC® Server licensing utility

Synopsis

vnclicense [OPTION...] COMMAND

Description

vnclicense applies license key(s) to VNC Server, and performs related auxiliary operations. Visit this page for more on licensing.

Run vnclicense -add KEY to apply a license key. Note this operation can also be performed via the VNC Server user interface. KEY must be either:

A license key code consisting of 25 alphanumeric characters, divided by hyphens into 5 groups of 5 each, for example XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX.
A license key file with a .vnclicense extension, containing a license key with a serial number and a signature from RealVNC.

Commands

Valid commands are:

-add KEY

Applies KEY to VNC Server; note vnclicense must be run with elevated privileges. By default, a form of the license key (modified to incorporate the MAC address) is stored in /etc/vnc (in a licensekey file for a license key code, and in the licensekeys directory for a license key file).

Note that if VNC Server is hosted on a network share, you should specify the LicenseDir parameter to nominate /<install-dir>/vnc/ instead; see Options for more information.

-check

Displays the total number of computers you are licensed to control. The number of computers equates to the number of times you can start VNC Server in Virtual Mode on this computer.

-info XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX | serial-number

Lists the features, number of computers, and expiry dates (if any) of a particular license key.

To find out the serial-number of a license key file, use -list. To find out the 25 characters of a license key code, sign in to your RealVNC account.

-list

Lists the features, number of computers, and expiry dates (if any) of all license keys, in the order they were applied to VNC Server.

-reload

Re-applies all license keys and configuration files to all running instances of VNC Server started by the current user. Run vnclicense -reload with elevated privileges to do the same for all users. See also Options.

-remove [order-number | XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX | serial-number]

Removes a particular license key; note elevated privileges are required. You can omit the argument if only one license key has been applied.

To find out the order-number of a license key, or the serial-number of a license key file, use -list. To find out the 25 characters in a license key code, sign in to your RealVNC account.

Options

Options are parameters, and also the following:

-reload

Use as an option in order to cause an -add or -remove operation to take effect immediately, for example:

vnclicense -reload -add KEY

If omitted, a license key may not be applied until a VNC Viewer connects, or until an hourly check is performed.

To see a list of valid parameters, run vnclicense -help.