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P4 CLI Documentation | 2025.2

# Start a P4 Server

Download into your computer’s `/usr/local/bin` directory the server (`p4d`) and client (`p4`) binaries, as described in Installation. Then, follow these steps:

1. Make the server and client binaries executable, if they’re not already executable.

       chmod +x /usr/local/bin/p4d
       chmod +x /usr/local/bin/p4

2. Make a subdirectory in which to start up the server and client.

   When started, the server creates a large number of database files. It’s best not to clutter your working directory with these files, so we will start up the server and client in a different directory. Create a directory:

       mkdir /Users/bruno/server

3. Start up the shared server, using the `-r dir` option to specify the directory created in the previous step.

       p4d -r /Users/bruno/server

This produces the following output:

    Perforce db files in 'server' will be created if missing...
    Perforce Server starting...

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