dfx stop

Use the dfx stop command to stop the local canister execution environment processes that you currently have running on your computer. In most cases, you run the canister execution environment locally so that you can deploy canisters and test your dapps during development. To simulate the connection to the IC, these processes run continuously either in a terminal shell where you started them or the in the background until you stop or kill them.

You can run this command from any directory unless you are working with a dfx.json project that defines a project-specific local network. See Local Server Configuration for details.

Basic usage

dfx stop [flag]

Examples

You can stop the local canister execution environment processes that are running in the background by changing to a project directory then running the following command:

dfx stop

If the local canister execution environment is running in a current shell rather than in the background, open a new terminal shell, change to a project directory, then run the dfx stop command.

The current process identifier (pid) for the canister execution environment process started by dfx is recorded in a file named pid. You can view the process identifier before running the dfx stop command by running one of the following commands:

For a project-specific local network:

cat .dfx/network/local/pid

For the shared local network, on Linux:

cat $HOME/.local/share/dfx/network/local/pid

For the shared local network, on MacOS:

cat '$HOME/Library/Application Support/org.dfinity.dfx/network/local/pid'

This command displays a process identifier similar to the following:

1896

If you are still having trouble with a persistent service running after attempting to stop, you can terminate all running jobs with:

killall dfx replica