Getting Started with the cf CLI

This topic describes configuring and getting started with the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface (cf CLI).

Overview

The cf CLI is the official command line client for Cloud Foundry. You can use the cf CLI to manage apps, service instances, orgs and spaces, and users in your environment.

Prerequisite

To do the procedures in this topic, you must download and install the latest version of the cf CLI. See Installing the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface.

Log In With the CLI

The cf login command uses the following syntax to specify a target API endpoint, login credentials, an org, and a space.

The cf CLI prompts for credentials as needed. If you are a member of multiple orgs or spaces, cf login prompts you for which ones to log into. Otherwise it targets your org and space automatically.

To log in to the cf CLI:

cf login -a API_URL -u USERNAME -p PASSWORD -o ORG -s SPACE

Where:

• API_URL: This is your API endpoint, the URL of the Cloud Controller in your App Cloud instance.
• USERNAME: Your username.
• PASSWORD: Your password. Use of the -p option is discouraged as it may record your password in your shell history.
• ORG: The org where you want to deploy your apps.
• SPACE: The space in the org where you want to deploy your apps.

$ cf login -a https://api.example.com -u username@example.com -o example-org -s development
API endpoint: https://api.example.com

Password>
Authenticating...
OK

Targeted org example-org

Targeted space development



API endpoint:   https://api.example.com
User:           username@example.com
Org:            example-org
Space:          development

Log In With the API

You can write a script to log in to the cf CLI. This allows you to avoid manually logging in to the cf CLI each time you use it.

To write a script to log in, set your target using the non-interactive cf api , cf auth, and cf target commands.

For more information about these commands, see the following topics in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide:

• api
• auth
• target

After you log in, the cf CLI saves a config.json file that contains your API endpoint, org, space values, and access token.

If you change these settings, the config.json file is updated accordingly.

By default, config.json is located in the ~/.cf directory. The CF_HOME environment variable allows you to relocate the config.json file.

Localize the CLI

The cf CLI translates terminal output into the language that you select. The default language is en-US.

The cf CLI supports the following languages:

• Chinese (simplified): zh-Hans
• Chinese (traditional): zh-Hant
• English: en-US
• French: fr-FR
• German: de-DE
• Italian: it-IT
• Japanese: ja-JP
• Korean: ko-KR
• Portuguese (Brazil): pt-BR
• Spanish: es-ES

For more information, see config in Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

Note: Localization with cf config --locale affects only messages that the cf CLI generates.

To set the language of the cf CLI:

1. Log in to the cf CLI:

   cf login
   

2. Run the following command:

   $ cf config --locale YOUR-LANGUAGE
   

   Where YOUR-LANGUAGE is the desired language.

   For example:

   $ cf config --locale pt-BR
   

3. Confirm the language change:

   cf help
   

   For example:

   
   $ cf help
   NOME:
      cf - Uma ferramenta de linha de comando para interagir com Cloud Foundry
   
   USO:
      cf [opções globais] comando [argumentos...] [opções de comando]
   
   VERSÃO:
      6.14.1
      ...
   

Manage Users and Roles

The cf CLI includes commands that list users and assign roles in orgs and spaces.

List Users

This section describes how to list users in an org or space. For more information, see org-users and space-users in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

To list users in an org or a space:

1. Log in to the cf CLI:

   cf login
   

2. Do one of the following:

   • List org users:

     cf org-users
   

   • List space users:

     cf space-users
   

The following example shows the cf CLI output for listing the users of an org:

$ cf org-users example-org
Getting users in org example-org as username@example.com...

ORG MANAGER
  username@example.com

BILLING MANAGER
  huey@example.com
  dewey@example.com

ORG AUDITOR
  louie@example.com

Manage Roles

The following commands can be used to manage roles in the cf CLI. These commands require Cloud Foundry admin permissions and take username, org or space, and role as arguments:

• cf set-org-role. See set-org-role in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

• cf unset-org-role. See unset-org-role in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

• cf set-space-role. See set-space-role in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

• cf unset-space-role. See unset-space-role in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

The following are the available roles:

• OrgManager

• BillingManager

• OrgAuditor

• SpaceManager

• SpaceDeveloper

• SpaceAuditor

For more information about user roles, see Orgs, Spaces, Roles, and Permissions.

The following example shows the cf CLI output for assigning the Org Manager role to a user within an org:

$ cf set-org-role huey@example.com example-org OrgManager

Assigning role OrgManager to user huey@example.com in org example-org as username@example.com...
OK

Note: If you are not a Cloud Foundry admin, you see this message when you try to run these commands: error code: 10003, message: You are not authorized to perform the requested action

Manage Roles for Users with Identical Usernames in Multiple Origins

If a username corresponds to multiple accounts from different user stores, such as both the internal UAA store and an external SAML or LDAP store, the cf set-org-role and the cf unset-org-role commands above return the following error:

The user exists in multiple origins. Specify an origin for the requested user from: ‘uaa’, ‘other’

To resolve this ambiguity, construct a curl command that uses the CF API to perform the desired role-management function.

For an example, see the PUT v2/organizations/:guid/auditors API function.

Push an App

This section describes how to use the cf push command to push a new app or sync changes to an existing app.

For more information, see push in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

Push a New App or Push Changes to an App

The following procedure describes how to push an app from the cf CLI.

To push an app:

1. Log in to the cf CLI:

   cf login
   

2. Navigate to the directory of the app.

3. Push a new app or push changes to an app:

   cf push APP-NAME
   

   Where APP-NAME is the name of the app.

Push an App Using a Manifest

You can provide a path to a manifest file when you push an app. The manifest file may include information such as the name of the app, disk limit, and number of instances. You can use a manifest file rather than adding flags to the cf push command.

cf push locates the manifest.yml file in the current working directory by default. Or, you can provide a path to the manifest with the -f flag.

For more information about the -f flag, see push in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

Note: When you provide an app name at the command line, cf push uses that app name whether or not there is a different app name in the manifest. If the manifest describes multiple apps, you can push a single app by providing its name at the command line; the cf CLI does not push the others. Use these behaviors for testing.

Push an App with a Buildpack

You can specify a buildpack when you push an app with the -b flag. If you use the -b flag to specify a buildpack, the app remains permanently linked to that buildpack. To use the app with a different buildpack, you must delete the app and then push it again.

For more information about available buildpacks, see Buildpacks.

The following example pushes an app called my-awesome-app to the URL http://my-awesome-app.example.com and specifies the Ruby buildpack with the -b flag:

$ cf push my-awesome-app -b ruby_buildpack
Creating app my-awesome-app in org example-org / space development as username@example.com...
OK

Creating route my-awesome-app.example.com...
OK
...

1 of 1 instances running

App started
...

requested state: started
instances: 1/1
usage: 1G x 1 instances
urls: my-awesome-app.example.com
last uploaded: Wed Jun 8 23:43:15 UTC 2016
stack: cflinuxfs3
buildpack: ruby_buildpack

     state     since                    cpu    memory    disk      details
#0   running   2016-06-08 04:44:07 PM   0.0%   0 of 1G   0 of 1G

Map a Route to an App

You can provide a hostname for your app when you push the app. If you do not provide a hostname, the cf push command routes your app to a URL of the form APPNAME.DOMAIN, where APPNAME is the name of your app and DOMAIN is your default domain.

For information about mapping a route to your app, see Routes and Domains.

To map a route to the app:

1. Log in to the cf CLI:

   cf login
   

2. Map a route:

   cf push APP-NAME --hostname MY-HOSTNAME
   

   Where:

   • APP-NAME is the name of the app.
   • MY-HOSTNAME is the hostname.

Manage User-Provided Service Instances

This section describes how to create or update a service instance.

Create a Service Instance

To create a new service instance, use the cf create-user-provided-service or cf cups commands. See cf cups in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

To create or update a user-provided service instance, you need to supply basic parameters. For example, a database service might require a username, password, host, port, and database name.

You can provide these parameters in the following ways:

• Interactively. See Supply Parameters Interactively.
• Non-interactively. See Supply Parameters Non-Interactively.
• With third-party log management software as described in RFC 6587. See Supply Parameters Through a Third-Party. For more information, see RFC 6587

  Note: When used with third-party logging, the cf CLI sends data formatted according to RFC 5424. See RFC 5424.

Supply Parameters Interactively

This procedure describes how to create a new service instance by supplying parameters interactively:

To supply parameters interactively:

1. Log in to the cf CLI:

   cf login
   

2. List parameters in a comma-separated list after the -p flag:

   cf cups MY-SERVICE -p "MY-PARAMETER, MY-SECOND-PARAMETER, MY-THIRD-PARAMETER"
   

   Where:

   • MY-SERVICE is the name of the service to create.
   • MY-PARAMETER, MY-SECOND-PARAMETER, and MY-THIRD-PARAMETER are parameters such as username, password, host, port, and database name.

   For example:

   $ cf cups sql-service-instance -p "host, port, dbname, username, password"
   host> mysql.example.com
   port> 1433
   dbname> mysqldb
   username> admin
   password> Pa55w0rd
   Creating user provided service sql-service-instance in org example-org / space development as username@example.com...
   OK
   

Supply Parameters Non-Interactively

This procedure describes how to create a new service instance by supplying parameters non-interactively:

To supply parameters non-interactively:

1. Log in to the cf CLI:

   cf login
   

2. Pass parameters and their values in as a JSON hash, bound by single quotes, after the -p tag.

   cf cups MY-SERVICE -p '{"host":"HOSTNAME", "port":"PORT"}'
   

   Where:

   • MY-SERVICE is the name of the service to create.
   • HOSTNAME and PORT are service parameters.

   For example:

   $ cf cups sql-service-instance -p '{"host":"mysql.example.com", "port":"1433", "dbname":"mysqldb", "username":"admin","password":"pa55woRD"}'
   Creating user provided service sql-service-instance in org example-org / space development as username@example.com...
   OK
   

Supply Parameters Through a Third-Party

For specific log service instructions, see Service-Specific Instructions for Streaming Application Logs.

To create a service instance that sends data to a third-party:

1. Log in to the cf CLI:

   cf login
   

2. Create a service instance that sends data to a third-party:

   cf cups MY-SERVICE -l THIRD-PARTY-DESTINATION-URL
   

   Where:

   • MY-SERVICE is the name of the service to create.
   • THIRD-PARTY-DESTINATION-URL is the external URL of the third-party service.

   For example, the following command creates a service instance that sends log information to the syslog drain URL of a third-party log management service:

   $ cf cups mylog -l syslog://logs4.example.com:25258
   Creating user provided service mylog in org example-org / space development as username@example.com...
   OK
   

Bind and Unbind Service Instances

After you create a user-provided service instance, you can do the following with the cf CLI:

• Bind the service to an app with cf bind-service. See bind-service in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

• Unbind the service with cf unbind-service. See unbind-service in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

• Rename the service with cf rename-service. See rename-service in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

• Delete the service with cf delete-service. See delete-service in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

Update a Service Instance

To update one or more of the parameters for an existing user-provided service instance, use cf update-user-provided-service or cf uups.

For more information, see update-user-provided-service in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

Note: The cf uups command does not update any parameter values that you do not supply.

Retrieve cf CLI Return Codes

The cf CLI uses exit codes, which help with scripting and confirming that a command has run successfully. If a command was successful, the exit code is 0.

To view a cf CLI exit code:

1. Log in to the cf CLI:

   cf login
   

2. Run one of the following commands to see that the login was successful, depending on your OS:

   • Mac: echo $?
   • Windows: echo %ERRORLEVEL%

   If the command was successful, the exit code is 0.

View CLI Help Output

The cf help command lists the cf CLI commands and a brief description of each. For more information, see help in the Cloud Foundry CLI Reference Guide.

To list detailed help on any cf CLI command, add the -h flag to the command.

The following example shows detailed help output for cf delete:

$ cf delete -h
NAME:
   delete - Delete an app

USAGE:
   cf delete APP_NAME [-f -r]

ALIAS:
   d

OPTIONS:
   -f       Force deletion without confirmation
   -r       Also delete any mapped routes