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layout: default
navsection: userguide
navmenu: Reference
title: "Command line interface"

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h1. Reference: Command Line Interface

If you are logged in to an Arvados VM, the command line SDK should be installed. Try:

@arv --help@

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h3. First...

Set the ARVADOS_API_HOST environment variable.

@export ARVADOS_API_HOST={{ site.arvados_api_host }}@

Log in to Workbench and get an API token for your account. Set the ARVADOS_API_TOKEN environment variable.

@export
ARVADOS_API_TOKEN=c0vdbi8wp7f703lbthyadlvmaivgldxssy3l32isslmax93k9@

If you are using a development instance with an unverifiable SSL certificate, set the ARVADOS_API_HOST_INSECURE environment variable.

@export ARVADOS_API_HOST_INSECURE=1@

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h3. Usage

@arv [global_options] resource_type resource_method [method_parameters]@

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h3. Basic examples

Get UUID of the current user
@arv user current@

Get entire record (json) for current user
@arv -h user current@

Get entire record for identified user
@arv -h user get --uuid 6dnxa-tpzed-iimd25zhzh84gbk@

Update user record
@arv user update --uuid 6dnxa-tpzed-iimd25zhzh84gbk --first-name "Bob"@

Get list of groups (showing just UUIDs)
@arv group list@

Get list of groups (showing entire records)
@arv -h group list@

Delete a group
@arv group delete --uuid 6dnxa-j7d0g-iw7i6n43d37jtog@

h3. Global options

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- @--json@, @-j@ := Output entire response as compact JSON.

- @--pretty@, @--human@, @-h@ := Output entire response as JSON with whitespace for better human-readability.

- @--uuid@ := Output only the UUIDs of object(s) in the API response, one per line.

h3. Resource types and methods

Get list of resource types
@arv --help@

Get list of resource methods for the "user" resource type
@arv user --help@