Commands

Command Structure

OpenStackClient has a consistent and predictable format for all of its commands.

Commands take the form:

openstack [<global-options>] <object-1> <action> [<object-2>] [<command-arguments>]

• All long options names begin with two dashes (--) and use a single dash (-) internally between words (--like-this). Underscores (_) are not used in option names.

Global Options

Global options are global in the sense that they apply to every command invocation regardless of action to be performed. They include authentication credentials and API version selection. Most global options have a corresponding environment variable that may also be used to set the value. If both are present, the command-line option takes priority. The environment variable names are derived from the option name by dropping the leading dashes (--), converting each embedded dash (-) to an underscore (_), and converting to upper case.

For example, the default value of --os-username can be set by defining the environment variable OS_USERNAME.

Command Object(s) and Action

Commands consist of an object described by one or more words followed by an action. Commands that require two objects have the primary object ahead of the action and the secondary object after the action. Any positional arguments identifying the objects shall appear in the same order as the objects. In badly formed English it is expressed as “(Take) object1 (and perform) action (using) object2 (to it).”

<object-1> <action> <object-2>

Examples:

group add user <group> <user>

volume type list   # 'volume type' is a two-word single object

Command Arguments and Options

Each command may have its own set of options distinct from the global options. They follow the same style as the global options and always appear between the command and any positional arguments the command requires.

Actions

The actions used by OpenStackClient are defined below to provide a consistent meaning to each action. Many of them have logical opposite actions. Those actions with an opposite action are noted in parens if applicable.

• authorize - authorize a token (used in OAuth)
• add (remove) - add some object to a container object; the command is built in the order of container add object <container> <object>, the positional arguments appear in the same order
• create (delete) - create a new occurrence of the specified object
• delete (create) - delete a specific occurrence of the specified object
• issue (revoke) - issue a token
• list - display summary information about multiple objects
• lock (unlock)
• migrate - move a server to a different host; --live performs a live migration if possible
• pause (unpause) - stop a server and leave it in memory
• reboot - forcibly reboot a server
• rebuild - rebuild a server using (most of) the same arguments as in the original create
• remove (add) - remove an object from a group of objects
• rescue (unrescue) - reboot a server in a special rescue mode allowing access to the original disks
• resize - change a server’s flavor
• resume (suspend) - return a suspended server to running state
• revoke (issue) - revoke a token
• save - download an object locally
• set (unset) - set a property on the object, formerly called metadata
• show - display detailed information about the specific object
• suspend (resume) - stop a server and save to disk freeing memory
• unlock (lock)
• unpause (pause) - return a paused server to running state
• unrescue (rescue) - return a server to normal boot mode
• unset (set) - remove an attribute of the object

Implementation

The command structure is designed to support seamless addition of plugin command modules via setuptools entry points. The plugin commands must be subclasses of Cliff’s command.Command object. See Plugins for more information.

Command Entry Points

Commands are added to the client using setuptools entry points in setup.cfg. There is a single common group openstack.cli for commands that are not versioned, and a group for each combination of OpenStack API and version that is supported. For example, to support Identity API v3 there is a group called openstack.identity.v3 that contains the individual commands. The command entry points have the form:

verb_object = fully.qualified.module.vXX.object:VerbObject

For example, the list user command for the Identity API is identified in setup.cfg with:

openstack.identity.v3 =
    # ...
    list_user = openstackclient.identity.v3.user:ListUser
    # ...