Creating a license for an offline environment

Using the Command Line Tool you can create a license for a machine in a restricted environment, as long as you have means to transfer a single text file.

As the prerequisite, you also need a machine with Tower and its Command Line Tool installed, which can reach the internet.

With the CLI Tool, you can gather the anonymous identification information for your install and transmit this information to Tower's licensing server.

Keep your CLI tool up-to-date
Before proceeding, please make sure the CLI tool installed on both machines is up to date: run gittower --version and check that it matches Tower's own version. If it doesn't, click Update in Tower's Settings → Integration. Starting with Tower 18, the CLI tool is updated automatically along with Tower.

A Sample Workflow

We have two machines: Charly's Mac is connected to the Internet, Richard's Mac is in a restricted environment. Both of them have Tower and the gittower CLI Tool installed.

On Richard's machine, execute this command:

  $ gittower license -i > ~/Desktop/richard-info.plist

This saves anonymous identification information about Richard's install in a file on the desktop.
Transfer richard-info.plist to Charly's Mac.

On Charly's machine, you can now receive either a Trial or a License file for Richard.
For this example, we place the file richard-info.plist on Charly's Desktop.

To receive a trial license, execute this command:

  $ gittower license -t ~/Desktop/richard-info.plist > ~/Desktop/richard-trial.plist

To activate a license for Richard, prepare your license information.
You need both your license key (starting with TOWR), referenced as LICENSE_KEY and your registered email address, referenced as EMAIL:

  $ gittower license -a ~/Desktop/richard-info.plist --code "LICENSE_KEY" --email "EMAIL" > ~/Desktop/richard-license.plist
  # an example could look like this:
  $ gittower license -a ~/Desktop/richard-info.plist --code "TO2M-DRAH-CIRL-SYEK" --email "devteam@acmecorp.com" > ~/Desktop/richard-license.plist

Please make sure to enclose both the license key and the email address in ".

Transfer the richard-license.plist back to Richard's Desktop.

To finish the process, install the license with this command and start Tower afterward:

  $ gittower license --install ~/Desktop/richard-license.plist

Should hardware changes occur, these three steps have to be repeated as they'll change Richard's anonymous identification information.