Linode CLI

Overview

Linode CLI is a simple command-line interface to the Linode platform. Note: There is a newer version of the Linode CLI (linode-cli) that uses the new Linode API V4.

Installation

Linode CLI is currently packaged for Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, NixOS and through Homebrew on Mac OS X. Final versions of linode-cli will be packaged up and very easy to install for major distributions.

Debian/Ubuntu

sudo bash -c 'echo "deb http://apt.linode.com/ $(lsb_release -cs) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linode.list'
wget -O- https://apt.linode.com/linode.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linode-cli

Fedora

Fedora's official repositories include Linode CLI (in F24 and newer). To install,

sudo dnf install linode-cli

CentOS

Installing Linode CLI on CentOS requires the EPEL repository to be installed and enabled, before installing Linode CLI.

sudo yum install epel-release
sudo yum install linode-cli

NixOS/Nix

Linode CLI is included in NixPkgs, so installation should be straightforward

# Using symbolic name. 
nix-env -i perl-linode-cli
# Using attribute name. (Channel name is derived using $() here)
nix-env -iA $(nix-channel --list | head -n1 | cut -d' ' -f1).linode-cli

Mac OS X

Installing the packaged version of Linode CLI on Mac OS X requires Homebrew: http://brew.sh

brew install linode/cli/linode-cli

Mac OS X segmentation faults

Linode-cli must be built using the system perl, so if you end up with segmentation faults when running linode on OSX, try

brew unlink perl
brew uninstall linode-cli
brew install linode-cli

Others

You'll need the following Perl modules. They can be installed from the CPAN using your preferred method.

JSON
LWP
Mozilla::CA
Try::Tiny
WebService::Linode

To install with root:

sudo cpan -i JSON LWP Mozilla::CP Try::Tiny WebService::Linode

To install with local::lib:

perl -MCPAN -Mlocal::lib -e 'CPAN::install(JSON, LWP, Mozilla::CA, Try::Tiny, WebService::Linode)'

Then, download the Linode CLI tarball, extract it, and install:

curl -Lo linode-cli.tar.gz https://github.com/linode/cli/archive/master.tar.gz
tar xf linode-cli.tar.gz
cd cli-master && perl Makefile.PL && sudo make install

Initial configuration

You can configure defaults, including your API key and common deployment options, by running the configuration helper:

linode configure
This will walk you through setting default values for common options.

Linode Manager username
>>
...

By default, this will (over)write $HOME/.linodecli/config. If you specify a username (-u), it will (over)write $HOME/.linodecli/config_username.

Options are in the format of option value, for example:

api-key foobarbaz123456

The API key can also be set using an environment variable (LINODE_API_KEY). Alternatively, you can pass an --api-key option on the command line.

Examples

If you didn't place linode-cli somewhere in your PATH, you'll need to call it directly: /path/to/linode-cli/linode. Otherwise, you can simply use linode.

Listing Linodes

linode list
linode list My-Linode-Label
linode list My-Linode-Label1 My-Linode-Label2

Showing details about a single Linode

linode show My-Linode-Label

Starting, stopping, or restarting a Linode

linode start My-Linode-Label
linode stop My-Linode-Label
linode restart My-Linode-Label

Renaming a Linode

linode rename mylinodename mylinodenewname

Creating a new Linode

Warning: This will attempt to charge the credit card on file, or use any account credit available, and spin up a new Linode 2GB.

linode create New-Linode --location dallas --plan linode2G --payment-term 1 --distribution 'Debian 9' --group Frontends

Resizing a Linode

Warning: This will shut the Linode down, charge/credit the account, and issue a migration to another host server.

This example resizes a Linode 2GB to a Linode 4GB.

linode resize mylinode linode4GB

Deleting a Linode

Warning: This will permanently delete a Linode, its disk images and configuration profiles.

linode delete New-Linode

Working with multiple Linodes

Actions can be performed on multiple Linodes using their labels. Using multiple --label arguments will accomplish the same thing.

linode start My-Linode-Label1 My-Linode-Label2
linode show --label My-Linode-Label1 --label My-Linode-Label2

Working with Domains

Create a master domain (requires an SOA email address).

linode domain create example.com admin@example.com

Create a slave domain (requires a master DNS server ip).

linode domain create example.com slave X.X.X.X

Displaying domains.

linode domain list
linode domain show example.com

Updating a domain.

linode domain update example.com --group main

Creating domain records.

linode domain record-create example.com A www2 X.X.X.X
linode domain record-create example.com MX subdomain mail.example.com

Updating a domain record.

linode domain record-update example.com MX mail.example.com --priority 20

Removing a domain record.

linode domain record-delete example.com A www2

Displaying domain records.

linode domain record-list example.com
linode domain record-list example.com MX
linode domain record-show example.com
linode domain record-show example.com example.com MX

Working with NodeBalancers

Create a NodeBalancer in your datacenter of choice.

linode nodebalancer create mynodebalancer dallas

Set the NodeBalancer up to handle traffic on a port (configuration).

linode nodebalancer config-create mynodebalancer 80

Create NodeBlanacer Nodes, balancing the incoming traffic between your Linodes.

linode nodebalancer node-create mynodebalancer 80 mylinode1 xx.xx.xx.1:80
linode nodebalancer node-create mynodebalancer 80 mylinode2 xx.xx.xx.2:80
linode nodebalancer node-create mynodebalancer 80 mylinode3 xx.xx.xx.3:80

Displaying NodeBalancers.

linode nodebalancer list

Displaying the Nodes, which will list the Linodes handing traffic on the port requested.

linode nodebalancer node-list mynodebalancer 80

Working with StackScripts

Actions can be performed on StackScripts.

linode stackscript list
linode stackscript create --label "StackScript Name" --codefile "/path/myscript.sh" --distribution "Debian 9"
linode stackscript show My-StackScript-Label
linode stackscript source mystackscript > myscript.sh

Working with Linode Images

Listing a Linode's disks (displays disk names and disk IDs)

linode disk-list mylinodelabel

Creating a Linode Image

linode image-create mylinodelabel --diskid diskid

Listing your Linode Images

linode image-list

Updating or removing your Linode Images

linode image-update --imageid imageid --name newname
linode image-delete --imageid imageid

Displaying account information

Account information, including the current account balance and network transfer pool usage, can be queried with the linode-account tool.

linode account show

          managed yes
          balance $ 0.00
    transfer pool 7527.00GB
transfer billable 0.00GB
     active since 2013-09-10 14:44:27.0
    transfer used 1.00GB

JSON output

JSON output is available for actions.

linode list --output json
linode list --json

{
   "linodefrontend1" : {
      "location" : "dallas",
      "group" : "",
      "status" : "powered off",
      "backupsenabled" : false,
      "totalram" : "2GB",
      "request_error" : "",
      "totalhd" : "24GB",
      "label" : "linodefrontend1",
      "linodeid" : 900001
   },
   "linodebackend1" : {
      "location" : "dallas",
      "group" : "backend",
      "status" : "running",
      "backupsenabled" : true,
      "totalram" : "4GB",
      "request_error" : "",
      "totalhd" : "48GB",
      "label" : "linodebackend1",
      "linodeid" : 900002
   }
}

Using with multiple accounts

Multiple accounts and configuration files can be accomplished with the username option.

linode list -u username1
linode list -u username2

linode configure -u username1
linode configure -u username2
...

Usage

Options

-a, --action: An action to perform on one Linode. One of: create, start, stop, restart, rename, group, resize, delete. Read-only operations are available as well: list, show.

Each action has a set of options that apply to it, which are outlined in the section ACTIONS.

--api-key: API key to use when communicating with the Linode API. Alternatively, you can specify the API key in $HOME/.linodecli/config, using the format api-key foobar.

-u, --username: Optional. Allows users to specify the username, if using with multiple accounts and configuration files.

-j, --json: Optional. JSON output.

-h, --help: Displays help documentation.

Linode Actions

Create

Create and start a new Linode.

-l, --label: Required. A Linode to operate on.

-L, --location, --datacenter: Required. The datacenter to use for deployment. Locations are Atlanta, Dallas, Frankfurt, Fremont, London, Newark, Singapore, Shinagawa.

-d, --distribution: Required when not using imageid. Distribution name or DistributionID to deploy.

-i, --imageid: Required when not using distribution. The ID of the gold-master image to use for deployment.

-p, --plan: Required. The Plan to deploy. Plans are:

Standard Instances:
linode2GB, linode4GB, linode8GB, linode16GB, linode32GB, linode64GB, linode96GB, linode128GB, linode192GB

High Memory Instances:
linode24GB, linode48GB, linode90GB, linode150GB, linode300GB

Nanode Instances:
nanode1GB

-P, --password: Required. The root user's password. Needs to be at least 6 characters and contain at least two of these four character classes: lower case letters, upper case letters, numbers, and punctuation.

-t, --payment-term: Optional. Payment term, one of 1, 12, or 24 (months). Default: 1. This is ignored when using metered.

-g, --group: Optional. Linode Manager display group to place this Linode under. Default: none.

-K, --pubkey-file: Optional. A public key file to install at /root/.ssh/authorized_keys when creating this Linode.

-S, --stackscript: Optional when creating with a distribution. Personal or public StackScript ID to use for deployment. Names of personal StackScripts are accepted.

-J, --stackscriptjson: The JSON encoded name/value pairs, answering the StackScript's User Defined Fields (UDF). A path to a JSON file is also accepted.

-w, --wait: Optional. Amount of time (in minutes) to wait for human output. Using the flag only, will use the default of 5.

Rebuild

Rebuild an existing Linode.