OpenStack Client

python-openstackclient is a unified command-line client for the OpenStack APIs. It is a thin wrapper to the stock python-*client modules that implement the actual REST API client actions.

This is an implementation of the design goals shown in http://wiki.openstack.org/UnifiedCLI. The primary goal is to provide a unified shell command structure and a common language to describe operations in OpenStack.

python-openstackclient is designed to add support for API extensions via a plugin mechanism.

For release management:

* https://launchpad.net/python-openstackclient

For blueprints and feature specifications:

* https://blueprints.launchpad.net/python-openstackclient

For issue tracking:

* https://bugs.launchpad.net/python-openstackclient

Note

OpenStackClient is considered to be alpha release quality as of the 0.2 release; no assurances are made at this point for ongoing compatibility in command forms or output. We do not, however, expect any major changes at this point.

Getting Started

We recommend using a virtualenv to install the client. This description uses the install_venv.py script to create the virtualenv:

python tools/install_venv.py
source .venv/bin/activate
python setup.py develop

Unit tests can be ran simply by running:

run_tests.sh

The client can be called interactively by simply typing:

openstack

Alternatively command line parameters can be called non-interactively:

openstack --help

Configuration

The CLI is configured via environment variables and command-line options as listed in https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/OpenStackClient/Authentication.

The 'password flow' variation is most commonly used:

export OS_AUTH_URL=<url-to-openstack-identity>
export OS_PROJECT_NAME=<project-name>
export OS_USERNAME=<user-name>
export OS_PASSWORD=<password>  # (optional)
export OS_USE_KEYRING=true  # (optional)

The corresponding command-line options look very similar:

--os-auth-url <url>
--os-project-name <project-name>
--os-username <user-name>
[--os-password <password>]
[--os-use-keyring]

If a password is not provided above (in plaintext), you will be interactively prompted to provide one securely. If keyring is enabled, the password entered in the prompt is stored in keyring. From next time, the password is read from keyring, if it is not provided above (in plaintext).

The token flow variation for authentication uses an already-aquired token and a URL pointing directly to the service API that presumably was acquired from the Service Catalog:

export OS_TOKEN=<token>
export OS_URL=<url-to-openstack-service>

The corresponding command-line options look very similar:

--os-token <token>
--os-url <url-to-openstack-service>

Additional command-line options and their associated environment variables are listed here:

--debug             # turns on some debugging of the API conversation
--verbose | -v      # Increase verbosity of output. Can be repeated.
--quiet | -q        # suppress output except warnings and errors
--help | -h         # show a help message and exit

Building Documentation

This documentation is written by contributors, for contributors.

The source is maintained in the doc/source folder using reStructuredText and built by Sphinx

• Building Manually:

  $ export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=local.local_settings
  $ python doc/generate_autodoc_index.py
  $ sphinx-build -b html doc/source build/sphinx/html

Results are in the build/sphinx/html directory.