# Silent authorization commands

This topic provides information on the various silent processing options available for the ArcGIS License Manager.

Note:

The following options can also be used to authorize the Desktop and Engine software with single-use licenses on the individual machines by using softwareauthorization.exe (found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ArcGIS\bin or C:\Program Files\Common Files\ArcGIS\bin for 32-bit machines) with *.prvc files, instead of softwareauthorizationls.exe as detailed below.

These commands apply to all platforms.

From the command line, change directory to the license manager installation location. The default on Windows for ArcGIS License Manager versions 2021.0 and newer is C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\LicenseManager\bin.

Adding a -verbose switch at the end of the commands will display progress and error messages in the command window.

## Authorizing silently:

In the case of 10.1-10.8 version licenses, use: softwareauthorizationls.exe -s -ver 10.8 -lif "c:\temp\<*.prvs>" or $ ./SoftwareAuthorizationLS -s -ver 10.8 -lif path/to/file on Linux. This command can also be used with *.resps files when authorizing offline. *.prvc and *.respc file types are used when authorizing single use ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Engine, ArcGIS CityEngine, and ArcGIS Pro licenses.

Creating an authorize.txt file for offline authorization:

softwareauthorizationls.exe -s -ver 10.8 -lif "C:\Temp\<*.prvs>" -out "C:\Temp\authorize.txt"

For Linux use:

$ ./SoftwareAuthorizationLS -s -ver 10.8 -lif path/to/file -out

## Deauthorizing silently:

To deauthorize all licenses from the machine, run softwareauthorizationls.exe -s -return all. For Linux, this is $ ./SoftwareAuthorizationLS -s -return all.

To deauthorize specific licenses from the machine, you need to enter in the specific authorization numbers that you would like to deauthorize. Run softwareauthorizationls.exe -s -return EFLxxxxxxxxx-1010,EFLxxxxxxxxx-1010 (where EFLxxxxxxxxx is the authorization code).

For Linux use:

$ ./SoftwareAuthorizationLS -s -return EFLxxxxxxxxx-1010,EFLxxxxxxxxx-1010.

Note:

For silent deauthorization of 10.0 licenses only, remove the '-1010' from the example given

## Re-reading the License Manager

Whenever undertaking a silent authorization or silent deauthorization, always perform a re-read of the License Manager to update the licenses counts.

To perform a re-read, open the License Server Administrator and browse to the Start/Stop License Service view and press the Re-read Licenses button.

Alternatively, to re-read licenses from the command line, browse to C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\LicenseManager\bin (for Windows) and perform the following commands:

lmutil.exe lmreread -c @localhost (where @localhost is the local hostname).