Run Commands

PachCTL Shell

Learn how to use the PachCTL shell.

April 4, 2024

The HPE ML Data Management Shell is a special-purpose shell for HPE ML Data Management that provides auto-suggesting as you type. New HPE ML Data Management users will find this user-friendly shell especially appealing as it helps to learn pachctl, type commands faster, and displays useful information about the objects you are interacting with. This new shell does not supersede the classic use of pachctl shell in your standard terminal, but is a compelling convenience for power users and beginners alike. If you prefer to use just pachctl, you can continue to do so.

To enter the HPE ML Data Management Shell, type:

pachctl shell

When you enter pachctl shell, your prompt changes to display your current HPE ML Data Management context, as well as displays a list of available commands in a drop-down list.

HPE ML Data Management Shell

To scroll through the list, press TAB and then use arrows to move up or down. Press SPACE to select a command.

When in the HPE ML Data Management Shell, you do not need to prepend your commands with pachctl because HPE ML Data Management does that for you automatically behind the scenes. For example, instead of running pachctl list repo, run list repo:

HPE ML Data Management Shell list repo

With nested commands, pachctl shell can do even more. For example, if you type list file <repo>@<branch>/, you can preview and select files from that branch:

HPE ML Data Management Shell list file

Similarly, you can select a commit:

HPE ML Data Management Shell list commit

Exit the HPE ML Data Management Shell #

To exit the HPE ML Data Management Shell, press CTRL-D or type exit.

Clearing Cached Completions #

To optimize performance and achieve faster response time, the HPE ML Data Management Shell caches completion results. You can clear this cache by pressing F5 forcing the HPE ML Data Management Shell to send requests to the server for new completions.

Clearing the screen #

To clear the screen, press CTRL-L.

Limitations #

The HPE ML Data Management Shell does not support standard UNIX commands or kubectl commands. To run them, exit the HPE ML Data Management Shell or run the commands in a different terminal window.