Using P4PORT to control access to the server

Under most circumstances, your Helix Server’s P4PORT setting consists of a port number. Users must know the IP address (or be able to resolve it from a hostname) of the Helix Server in order to connect to it.

The value of P4PORT however, can also include an IP address or hostname that resolves to an IP address. You can set P4PORT to configure the following possibilities:

• P4PORT=portnumber

  In this case, the server listens on the specified port for every IP address associated with this host.

• P4PORT=ipaddress|hostname:portnumber

  In this case, the server listens on the specified port for the specified IP address or host name, and it ignores requests to any other IP address.

• P4PORT=localhost:portnumber

  In this case, the server listens on the specified port for requests that originate from users on this host. This forces the Helix Server to ignore all non-local connection requests.

P4PORT might also specify a protocol (protocol:address:port), which further restricts possible connections to those using the specified protocol. For complete information, see P4PORT in the Helix Core Command-Line (P4) Reference.