connect to kdb+ manually

This guide helps you verify that your KDB+ instance is running and accepting remote connections — useful for Java integration, KX Dashboards, etc.

Start a KDB+ Process Listening on a Port

Open a terminal and run:

q -p 5000

This starts KDB+ (q process) and listens for incoming IPC connections on port 5000.

Start another q session (acts like a client):

In the second q session:

h: hopen `:localhost:5000

This opens a handle h to the KDB+ server running on port 5000.

Send a command to the remote session:

h "1+1"

You should see the result in the Second q process:

If the command returns 2, your KDB+ server is reachable and working.

You can now connect to it from Java or any IPC-compatible client using:

new Connection("localhost", 5000);