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LDM Key Features

Note

This guide catalogues the core features Liferay Docker Manager (LDM) provides out of the box. For the default stack itself -- which database, which search mode, which ports -- and for how a setting is resolved, see Conventions & Configuration.

🛠️ Key Features

  • Multi-Instance Session Isolation: Run multiple demos side-by-side on the same machine without session cross-talk. ldm automatically manages unique session cookie names and virtual hostnames.
  • Strict Infrastructure Isolation: Projects using the --sidecar search mode are cryptographically isolated from the global infrastructure. LDM guarantees that sidecar projects will not start, stop, or reconfigure the shared Global Search container, even if global search flags are provided.
  • Orchestrated Search Snapshots: Save and restore the exact state of a demonstration, including the database, files, and Elasticsearch 8.x index state.
  • Service-Specific Lifecycle: Manage individual components within a project surgically. Restart or view logs for a single extension without affecting the rest of the stack.
  • Client Extension Lifecycle: Automatically detects and builds Server-Side Client Extensions (SSCE). Subdomains are automatically generated, and traffic is routed based on LCP.json.
  • Zero-Config SSL: Automated HTTPS using mkcert and a global Traefik proxy. Works on Docker Desktop, Colima, and WSL2.
  • Proactive License Verification: Automatically detects Liferay XML licenses in common/, deploy/, or osgi/modules/ folders. Warns you before boot if a DXP license is missing or expired.
  • Fail-Fast Design: Proactive environment checking. LDM verifies Docker reachability, volume mounts, resource allocations (CPU/RAM), and Compose functionality before execution, providing clean, actionable error messages instead of tracebacks.
  • Port Conflict Detection: Proactively verifies that required host ports (80, 443, 9200, etc.) are available before starting, preventing cryptic Docker errors.
  • Atomic Configuration: All project metadata and property updates use safe atomic writes to prevent file corruption during interruptions.
  • Integrity Verification: As of v2.5.0, all project snapshots and pre-warmed bootstrap seeds include mandatory SHA-256 checksums. LDM automatically verifies these during recovery and import to ensure data validity. Users can bypass this check using the --no-verify flag if necessary for legacy or manually modified snapshots.
  • Global Project Registry: Proactively detects project and hostname collisions across the entire filesystem, preventing infrastructure conflicts.
  • Lean JVM Profile: Includes a resource-optimized JVM profile (-Xms1536m -Xmx2048m) designed for constrained environments. LDM automatically detects GitHub Actions and applies this profile to ensure reliable boots on 7GB runners. Use the --lean flag to trigger this manually.
  • Atomic Project Initialization: Employs a "Commit/Rollback" pattern for new projects. If initialization fails (e.g. DNS errors or image pull failures), LDM automatically cleans up the half-baked project directory and unregisters it to prevent zombie states.
  • Zero-Race Atomic Deployments: All file synchronizations (via ldm deploy or the deploy/ bind mount) are staged, permission-fixed (chmod 666, chown 1000:1000), and atomically moved. This definitively eliminates AutoDeployScanner "Unable to write" errors.
  • Internationalization & Unicode Transcoding: Full multi-national support for developers across all regions. ldm automatically transcodes German umlauts (ä→ae, ö→oe, ü→ue, ß→ss), normalizes European accents/diacritics (é→e, ñ→n, ç→c, å→a, ø→o), and deterministically converts non-Latin scripts (CJK, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek) into RFC-1123 safe Docker container identifiers, volume names, and hostnames.
  • Architecture-Aware: The tool detects your OS automatically to fetch the correct optimized binary during self-updates.
  • Shell Autocompletion: TAB completion for commands and project names across Bash, Zsh, and Fish.
  • Fuzzy Interactive Selection: Quickly filter through dozens of projects by typing a few characters in any interactive menu.

Last Updated: 2026-08-27 | Last Reviewed: 2026-08-27