Now that you have a :term:`master` and at least one :term:`minion` communicating with each other you can perform commands on the minion via the :command:`salt` command. Salt calls are comprised of three main components:
salt '<target>' <function> [arguments]
.. seealso:: :doc:`salt manpage </ref/cli/salt>`
The target component allows you to filter which minions should run the following function. The default filter is a glob on the minion id. For example:
salt '*' test.ping salt '*.example.org' test.ping
Targets can be based on minion system information using the Grains system:
salt -G 'os:Ubuntu' test.ping
.. seealso:: :doc:`Grains system </topics/targeting/grains>`
Targets can be filtered by regular expression:
salt -E 'virtmach[0-9]' test.ping
Targets can be explicitly specified in a list:
salt -L 'foo,bar,baz,quo' test.ping
Or Multiple target types can be combined in one command:
salt -C 'G@os:Ubuntu and webser* or E@database.*' test.ping
A function is some functionality provided by a module. Salt ships with a large collection of available functions. List all available functions on your minions:
salt '*' sys.doc
Here are some examples:
Show all currently available minions:
salt '*' test.ping
Run an arbitrary shell command:
salt '*' cmd.run 'uname -a'
.. seealso:: :doc:`the full list of modules </ref/modules/index>`
Space-delimited arguments to the function:
salt '*' cmd.exec_code python 'import sys; print sys.version'
Optional, keyword arguments are also supported:
salt '*' pip.install salt timeout=5 upgrade=True
They are always in the form of kwarg=argument.