Using the Cloud Platform Pipelines client | Cloud Platform

The Cloud Platform Pipelines client gives you access to a set of commands you can run to start, manage, and troubleshoot your continuous delivery pipeline jobs from the command line.

Note

Installing the Pipelines command-line client is optional, and not required for Pipelines to function with your application.
For a list of custom commands available for use in your YAML file, see Commands available in Pipelines.

Pipelines client commands¶

The Pipelines client provides the following commands:

Command	Parameter	Description
`pipelines`	`start`	Execute a Pipelines job. Learn more.
`pipelines`	`configure`	Configure the client with the credentials required to authenticate with Cloud Platform.
`pipelines`	`encrypt`	Encrypt confidential data for use with Cloud Platform. For more information, see Encrypting keys and variables.
`pipelines`	`github-connect`	Use a GitHub repository as the source repository, instead of your Cloud Platform repository. For more information, see Using GitHub with the Pipelines client.
`pipelines`	`github-disconnect`	Disconnect Pipelines from a GitHub repository. For more information, see Disconnecting from GitHub.
`pipelines`	`help`	Display help for a command.
`pipelines`	`list`	List the available commands.
`pipelines`	`list-applications`	List the application ID and other information about all of the Cloud Platform applications that you have access to. Learn more.
`pipelines`	`list-jobs`	Return a list of jobs for a given application ID, including the start time and duration of the jobs.
`pipelines`	`logs`	Display the logs for a given application and job.
`pipelines`	`self-update`	Check for a newer version of the Pipelines client, and if found, update to the latest version.
`pipelines`	`set-application-id`	Set the default application ID, for cases where you are not using a Cloud Platform repository as a remote. Learn more.
`pipelines`	`show-connection`	Verify the connection used to execute Pipelines jobs.
`pipelines`	`status`	Display the status of a Pipelines job. Learn more.
`pipelines`	`terminate-job`	Terminates a Pipelines job. Learn more.
`pipelines-artifact`	`start`	Start the upload of a artifact. Be sure to enter the artifact’s custom name as a second parameter; otherwise, Cloud Platform will expect a `branch_name@commit_hash` artifact name structure. (Used only with Node.js applications.)
`pipelines-artifact`	`upload`	Upload the artifact and provide notifications regarding its status. (Used only with Node.js applications.)
`pipelines-artifact`	`fail`	Notify with the failure status. (Used only with Node.js applications.)
`pipelines-deploy`		Deploy a completed build to a Platform CD environment. Execute only after the `build` event. Learn more.
`pipelines-sync-dbs`		Synchronizes databases from an existing environment to a Cloud Platform CD environment after executing `pipelines-deploy`. Learn more.

Help and troubleshooting¶

Each of these commands is documented in the Pipelines client help. To find the documentation for a command from the client, enter a command similar to the following:

pipelines help [command]

where [command] is the name of the command for which you want to obtain help.

If a command fails, re-running the command with the -x flag will enable debugging output, which may help you identify the cause of the error.

Using the start command¶

Using Pipelines with Node.js applications

For information about using the pipelines-artifact command to access Pipelines in your Node.js applications, see Getting started with Node.js applications and environments.

The command that does most of the work in the Pipelines client is the start command, which has the following syntax:

pipelines start

Use the start command with a build definition file to build your application. The start command accepts the following parameters:

Parameter	Description
`--application-id`	The Cloud Platform application ID See Application IDs for more information
`--format`, `-f`	The output format—either``text`` (default) or `json`
`--vcs-path`	The Git branch or tag that contains the build definition file for executing the build job
`--deploy-vcs-path`	The Git branch or tag to which the build artifact should be written. By default, this value is `pipelines-build-[BRANCHNAME]`
`--source-vcs-uri`	The URI of a Git repository from which the source will be cloned. If present, the specified URI will be used instead of the Cloud Platform code repository
`--source-key-path`	The path to an SSH private key file used to access an external code repository
`--environment-variable`, `-D`	Specify one or more environment variables for this job, which are set for the duration of the job and can supplement or override variables set in the build definition file For example: `pipelines start -D [variable name 1]=[value] -D [another variable name]=[value]`
`--keep-process-alive`	Keeps the container process active for up to 60 minutes for debugging purposes
`--tail`	Tail your complete build logs
`--retries`	Number of retries (default: 50)
`--delay`	Number of seconds to wait between retries (default: 1)
`--help`, `-h`	Display information about the `start` command’s parameters
`--quiet`, `-q`	Do not output any message
`--version`, `-V`	Display this application version
`--ansi`	Force ANSI output
`--no-ansi`	Disable ANSI output
`--no-interaction`, `-n`	Do not provide any interactive questions
`--verbose`, `-v\|vv\|vvv`	Use this to output more verbose messages, which can help with debugging (1 for normal output, 2 for more verbose output and 3 for debug)

Application IDs¶

Some Pipelines client commands require an application ID, which corresponds to the Cloud Platform application or website that you want to build against. The pipelines start command determines the application ID itself when you run it from within a Platform Git repository clone. To run the start command from outside of a Cloud Platform Git repository clone, use the --application-id argument. To find the application ID, run the following command:

pipelines list-applications

The response will include the application ID for each of your applications. If you have many applications, you can run list-applications through grep to filter for the name of the application you are looking for:

pipelines list-applications|grep my_app

You can also find the application ID in the Cloud Platform interface. Sign in at cloud.acquia.com, and then click your subscription. The application ID is in the URL, which appears similar to the following:

https://cloud.acquia.com/app/develop/applications/12cc63dd-57db-4d50-6bc5-4b60d2198d14

In this example, 12cc63dd-57db-4d50-6bc5-4b60d2198d14 is the application ID.

Viewing job status¶

You can view the output of a Pipelines job using the status command. If a build job does not complete as expected, the status output will include descriptions of any errors. For example, you may get errors if your build definition file is malformed (contains missing elements or elements that cannot be parsed) or if it includes secure elements that cannot be decrypted. For more information, see FAQs and troubleshooting.

The status command displays the results of the most recent build job. You can optionally specify a different job, using the --job-id option. You can find the job ID in the output of the start command, or by running the list-jobs command.

If you are using the pipelines_metadata element in your build definition file to set tracking variables for any purpose, adding the --format=json option to the status command will return the keys you set and their values.