How do I actually run Apache Felix OSGi's shell?

Question

1. I downloaded the current Felix jar linked over from http://felix.apache.org/downloads.cgi (for version 4.4.1)
2. Extracted the .zip
3. Ran the bin/felix.jar with "java -jar felix.jar"
4. Observed that the felix-cache/ directory was created

I understand that I should be sitting in the Felix shell there, at that point. But I get no output. I type "help" as per the instructions here: http://felix.apache.org/documentation/subprojects/apache-felix-framework/apache-felix-framework-usage-documentation.html

But I get nothing in terms of a shell. Just a blank terminal that lets me type but doesn't respond at all.

Also, as described in the 'remote shell' instructions, I try to 'telnet localhost 6666' and also get nothing.

Am I wrong in terms of what I'm trying to do? Is the gogo shell a separate application? If not, and I'm correctly expecting to see the shell, where should I look to further debug this issue?

Answer 1

I started felix like this:

cd felix-framework-4.4.1/
java -jar bin/felix.jar

For me the shell started correctly. So I think what happens for you is that you started from the bin dir and felix looked for the shell bundles in bin/bundle where it obviously could not find any.

See the felix launcher docs for more details.

So to answer your second question. Yes the shell is not directly included in felix.jar. It is implemented by the three *gogo bundles in the bundle dir.