# 'ipfs init' does nothing

**URL:** <https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/ipfs-init-does-nothing/9133>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [September 25, 2020, 6:37am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/ipfs-init-does-nothing/9133 "2020-09-25T06:37:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sydbarrett74](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/sydbarrett74/32/4121_2.png) [@sydbarrett74](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/sydbarrett74)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 6:37am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/ipfs-init-does-nothing/9133/1 "2020-09-25T06:37:36Z")

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Hi all,

I installed go-ipfs on my FreeBSD box via install.sh (using sudo) and tried to initialise my repo. When I run ‘ipfs init’, I get nothing. No errors, nada. What am I doing wrong? Version information is below.

Regards and TIA.

FreeBSD version (via ‘uname -a’): 12.1-RELEASE-p7 GENERIC amd64  
ipfs version: go-ipfs\_v0.7.0\_freebsd-amd64

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**Author:** ![hector](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/hector/32/178_2.png) [@hector](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/hector)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 10:48am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/ipfs-init-does-nothing/9133/2 "2020-09-27T10:48:35Z")

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what is the return value of the command?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sydbarrett74](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/sydbarrett74/32/4121_2.png) [@sydbarrett74](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/sydbarrett74)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 7:46am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/ipfs-init-does-nothing/9133/3 "2020-09-28T07:46:10Z")

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There was no output generated, unfortunately. I ran ipfs again piping stderr to a temp file, and that file was empty. Is there a switch to launch ipfs in verbose mode?

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**Author:** ![hector](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/hector/32/178_2.png) [@hector](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/hector)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 10:30am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/ipfs-init-does-nothing/9133/4 "2020-09-28T10:30:18Z")

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Can you `strace` the execution? Process return is stored in `$?` variable:

```auto
ipfs init
echo $?

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sydbarrett74](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/sydbarrett74/32/4121_2.png) [@sydbarrett74](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/sydbarrett74)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2020, 4:23am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/ipfs-init-does-nothing/9133/5 "2020-11-22T04:23:47Z")

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I feel like a complete idiot. The reason it wasn’t working is because I was launching the FreeBSD ipfs utility (firewall related). Once I explicitly invoked /usr/local/ipfs, it worked properly. _doh!_