CF DOWNLOAD

A Cloud Foundry cli plugin for downloading your application contents after staging

##Installation #####Install from CLI (Recommended)

$ cf add-plugin-repo CF-Community http://plugins.cloudfoundry.org/
$ cf install-plugin cf-download -r CF-Community

Install from binary

1. download binary (See Download Section below)
2. cd path/to/downloaded/binary
3. If you've already installed the plugin and are updating, you must first run cf uninstall-plugin cf-download
4. Then install the plugin with cf install-plugin cf-download
   • If you get a permission error run: chmod +x cf-download on the binary
5. Verify the plugin installed by looking for it with cf plugins

Download Binaries

Mac: 64-bit

Windows: 64-bit

Linux: 64-bit

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Usage

cf download APP_NAME [PATH...] [--overwrite] [--file] [--verbose] [--omit omitted_path] [-i instance]

If no "PATH" is specified, the downloaded app files will be put in a new directory "APP_NAME" that's created within your working directory. If "PATH" is specified, the directory or file specified will be placed directly in your working directory.

Path Argument

The path argument is optional but, if included, should come immediately after the app name. It determines the starting directory that all the files will be downloaded from. By default, the entire app is downloaded starting from the root. However if desired, one could use some/starting/path to only download files within the path directory.

The path can point to a single file (or be a path to a single file) to be downloaded if the --file flag is specified. Note: this works similarly to "cf files [path]".

The last element of a path can contain standard glob characters (*, ?, [ - ]).

Any number of path arguments can be passed as long as they all come immideately after the app name, but they must all be directories or all be files (if the --file flag is specified).

Flags:

1. The --overwrite flag is needed if the download directory, "APP_NAME-download", is already taken. Using the flag, that directory will be overwritten.
2. The --file flag is needed if PATH points to a single file to be downloaded, and not a directory.
3. The --verbose flag is used to see more detailed output as the downloads are happening.
4. The --omit [omitted_path] flag is useful when certain files or directories are not wanted. You can exclude a file by typing --omit path/to/file. Multiple things can be omitted by delimiting the paths with semicolons and putting quotes around the entire parameter like so: --omit "path/to/file; another/path/to/file"
5. The -i [instance] flag will download from the given app instance. By default, the instance number is 0.

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Improving performance:

Projects usually have a enormous amount of dependencies installed by package managers, we highly recommend not downloading these dependencies. Using the --omit flag, you can avoid downloading these dependencies and significantly reduce download times.

Java/Liberty:

We highly recommend you not download the app/.java and app/.liberty directories in your java/liberty projects. They are very large and contain many permission issues the prevent proper downloads. It is best to omit them.

Node.js:

npm will download dependencies to the node_modules folder in the app directory. By omitting app/node_modules you will greatly decrease download times. You can run npm install locally on your package.json after completing a download.

PHP:

Composer is a popular PHP package manager that installs dependencies to a folder called vendors. It is recommended you omit this folder from the download to ensure a quick and error free download. example: --omit <path_to_vendors>/vendors

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Notes and FAQ:

.cfignore:

All directories and files within the .cfignore file will be omitted. Each entry should be on its own line and that the .cfignore file must be in the same working directory. Instead of using many --omit parameters, it's easier to use the .cfignore file.

Stuck Download:

In case your download seems to be stuck, we recommend terminating and redownloading using the --verbose flag. When the download stalls you can see which files were being downloaded and what could be causing the issue. It is also important to note that you do not always need to pull every file from your application. Many files can be found elsewhere and should be omitted. These files are usually a part of a buildpack or dependencies that can easily be installed using a package manager. Refer back to the "Improving performance" section for suggestions on which files can be omitted.

Downloading Jar files:

Projects containing jar files can trigger antivirus software while being downloaded. you can either temporarily disable network antivirus protection or exclude directories containing jar files.

I am getting a lot of 502 errors, why?:

On rare occasions the cf cli api that the plugin uses can get overburdened by the plugin. This will display a lot of 502 error messages to the command line. The best thing to do in this case is wait a couple minutes and try again later. The Api will hopefully return to full capacity and allow downloads to complete. In the unlikely case that you experience this often, create an issue on this repo and we can explore solutions.

Error: "App not found, or the app is in stopped state (This can also be caused by api failure)":

This error is caused when the cf cli api fails. Best solution is to wait and try again, when the api recovers.