redis/redis · info

./redis-server -h or --help\n

Error message

       ./redis-server -h or --help\n

What it means

Usage-banner line printed by usage() at src/server.c:7291, documenting the `-h` / `--help` flag itself. It is emitted to stderr alongside the rest of the banner when the user requests help (src/server.c:8178-8179), followed by exit(1). Like the other banner lines it is instructional text, not an exception.

Source

Thrown at src/server.c:7291

}

sds getVersion(void) {
    sds version = sdscatprintf(sdsempty(),
        "v=%s sha=%s:%d malloc=%s bits=%d build=%llx",
        REDIS_VERSION,
        redisGitSHA1(),
        atoi(redisGitDirty()) > 0,
        ZMALLOC_LIB,
        sizeof(long) == 4 ? 32 : 64,
        (unsigned long long) redisBuildId());
    return version;
}

void usage(void) {
    fprintf(stderr,"Usage: ./redis-server [/path/to/redis.conf] [options] [-]\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"       ./redis-server - (read config from stdin)\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"       ./redis-server -v or --version\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"       ./redis-server -h or --help\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"       ./redis-server --test-memory <megabytes>\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"       ./redis-server --check-system\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"Examples:\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"       ./redis-server (run the server with default conf)\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"       echo 'maxmemory 128mb' | ./redis-server -\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"       ./redis-server /etc/redis/6379.conf\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"       ./redis-server --port 7777\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"       ./redis-server --port 7777 --replicaof 127.0.0.1 8888\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"       ./redis-server /etc/myredis.conf --loglevel verbose -\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"       ./redis-server /etc/myredis.conf --loglevel verbose\n\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"Sentinel mode:\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"       ./redis-server /etc/sentinel.conf --sentinel\n");
    exit(1);
}

void redisAsciiArt(void) {
#include "asciilogo.h"

View on GitHub (pinned to 4f20cb4893)

Solutions

1. Run `./redis-server -h` or `./redis-server --help` deliberately to view all options; expect exit code 1.
2. In automation, separate the help invocation from `set -e` / `set -o pipefail` pipelines, or capture `|| true`.
3. Cache the help output in docs rather than regenerating it in a fail-on-nonzero context.

Example fix

# before
set -e
./redis-server --help   # exits 1, aborts script
# after
./redis-server --help || true

# separate help requests from strict error handling
set +e
./redis-server --help > help.txt 2>&1
rc=$?
set -e
[ $rc -eq 1 ] && echo "help shown (expected exit 1)"

When it happens

Trigger: Triggered by `redis-server -h` or `redis-server --help`. The strcmp checks at src/server.c:8178 route to usage(), which prints the full banner (lines 7288-7304) and then calls exit(1) at line 7305.

Common situations: New operators discovering the server's CLI surface; packaging scripts that call `--help` during postinst to verify the binary is present; CI sanity checks. The non-zero exit can trip strict pipelines.

Related errors

• ./redis-server -v or --version\n
• ./redis-server --test-memory <megabytes>\n
• ./redis-server --check-system\n
• Examples:\n
• ./redis-server (run the server with default conf)\n

AI-assisted analysis of redis/redis@4f20cb4893 (2026-08-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f61ae101ebb21f9b. Report an issue: GitHub.