Knife Common Options

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The following options can be run with all knife subcommands and plug-ins:

-c CONFIG_FILE, --config CONFIG_FILE

The configuration file to use. For example, when knife is run from a node that is configured to be managed by the Chef Infra Server, this option is used to allow knife to use the same credentials as Chef Infra Client looks when communicating with the Chef Infra Server.

--chef-zero-host HOST

The host to start Chef Infra Zero on. Chef Infra Zero is a lightweight, in-memory Chef Infra Server.

--chef-zero-port PORT

The port (or port range) to start chef-zero on. Port ranges like 1000,1010 or 8889-9999 will try all given ports until one works.

-d, --disable-editing

Prevent the $EDITOR from being opened and accept data as-is.

--defaults

Cause knife to use the default value instead of asking a user to provide one.

-e EDITOR, --editor EDITOR

The $EDITOR that is used for all interactive commands.

-E ENVIRONMENT, --environment ENVIRONMENT

The name of the environment. When this option is added to a command, the command will run only against the named environment. This option is ignored during search queries made using the knife search subcommand.

-F FORMAT, --format FORMAT

The output format: summary (default), text, json, yaml, and pp.

-h, --help

Show help for the command.

-k KEY, --key KEY

The USER.pem file that knife uses to sign requests made by the API client to the Chef Infra Server.

--[no-]color

View colored output.

--[no-]fips

Allows OpenSSL to enforce FIPS-validated security during a Chef Infra Client run.

--print-after

Show data after a destructive operation.

-s URL, --server-url URL

The URL for the Chef Infra Server.

-u USER, --user USER

The user name used by knife to sign requests made by the API client to the Chef Infra Server. Authentication fails if the user name does not match the private key.

-v, --version

The Chef Infra Client version.

-V, --verbose

Set for more verbose outputs. Use -VV for much more verbose outputs. Use -VVV for maximum verbosity, which may provide more information than is actually helpful.

-y, --yes

Respond to all confirmation prompts with “Yes”.

-z, --local-mode

Run Chef Infra Client looks in local mode. This allows all commands that work against the Chef Infra Server to also work against the local chef-repo.