OpenStackClient has an interactive mode, similar to the :program:`virsh(1)` or :program:`lvm(8)` commands on Linux. This mode is useful for executing a series of commands without having to reload the CLI, or more importantly, without having to re-authenticate to the cloud.
Enter interactive mode by issuing the :command:`openstack` command with no
subcommand. An (openstack) prompt will be displayed. Interactive mode
is terminated with :command:`exit`.
Authentication happens exactly as before, using the same global command line options and environment variables, except it only happens once. The credentials are cached and re-used for subsequent commands. This means that to work with multiple clouds interactive mode must be ended so a authentication to the second cloud can occur.
Using interactive mode inside scripts sounds counter-intuitive, but the same
single-authentication benefit can be achieved by passing OSC commands to
the CLI via stdin.
Sample session:
# assume auth credentials are in the environment
$ openstack
(openstack) keypair list
+--------+-------------------------------------------------+
| Name | Fingerprint |
+--------+-------------------------------------------------+
| bunsen | a5:da:0c:52:e8:52:42:a3:4f:b8:22:62:7b:e4:e8:89 |
| beaker | 45:9c:50:56:7c:fc:3a:b6:b5:60:02:2f:41:fb:a9:4c |
+--------+-------------------------------------------------+
(openstack) image list
+--------------------------------------+----------------+
| ID | Name |
+--------------------------------------+----------------+
| 78b23835-c800-4d95-9d2a-e4de59a553d8 | OpenWRT r42884 |
| 2e45d43a-7c25-45f1-b012-06ac313e2f6b | Fedora 20 |
| de3a8396-3bae-42de-84bd-f4e398b8c320 | CirrOS |
+--------------------------------------+----------------+
(openstack) flavor list
+--------------------------------------+----------+--------+--------+-----------+------+-------+-------------+-----------+-------------+
| ID | Name | RAM | Disk | Ephemeral | Swap | VCPUs | RXTX Factor | Is Public | Extra Specs |
+--------------------------------------+----------+--------+--------+-----------+------+-------+-------------+-----------+-------------+
| 12594680-56f7-4da2-8322-7266681b3070 | m1.small | 2048 | 20 | 0 | | 1 | | True | |
| 9274f903-0cc7-4a95-9124-1968018e355d | m1.tiny | 512 | 5 | 0 | | 1 | | True | |
+--------------------------------------+----------+--------+--------+-----------+------+-------+-------------+-----------+-------------+
(openstack) server create --image CirrOS --flavor m1.small --key-name beaker sample-server
+-----------------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+-----------------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
| config_drive | |
| created | 2014-11-19T18:08:41Z |
| flavor | m1.small (12594680-56f7-4da2-8322-7266681b3070) |
| id | 3a9a7f82-e902-4948-9245-52b045c76a1d |
| image | CirrOS (de3a8396-3bae-42de-84bd-f4e398b8c320) |
| key_name | bunsen |
| name | sample-server |
| progress | 0 |
| properties | |
| security_groups | [{u'name': u'default'}] |
| status | BUILD |
| tenant_id | 53c93c7952594d9ba16bd7072a165ce8 |
| updated | 2014-11-19T18:08:42Z |
| user_id | 1e4eea54c7124688a8092bec6e2dbee6 |
+-----------------------------+-------------------------------------------------+A similar session can be issued all at once:
$ openstack <<EOF
> keypair list
> flavor show m1.small
> EOF
(openstack) +--------+-------------------------------------------------+
| Name | Fingerprint |
+--------+-------------------------------------------------+
| bunsen | a5:da:0c:52:e8:52:42:a3:4f:b8:22:62:7b:e4:e8:89 |
| beaker | 45:9c:50:56:7c:fc:3a:b6:b5:60:02:2f:41:fb:a9:4c |
+--------+-------------------------------------------------+
(openstack) +----------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+----------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| OS-FLV-DISABLED:disabled | False |
| OS-FLV-EXT-DATA:ephemeral | 0 |
| disk | 20 |
| id | 12594680-56f7-4da2-8322-7266681b3070 |
| name | m1.small |
| os-flavor-access:is_public | True |
| ram | 2048 |
| swap | |
| vcpus | 1 |
+----------------------------+--------------------------------------+The obvious limitations to Interactive Mode is that it is not a Domain Specific Language (DSL), just a simple command processor. That means there are no variables or flow control.