7 .TH ovs\-appctl 8 "November 2009" "Open vSwitch" "Open vSwitch Manual"
11 ovs\-appctl \- utility for configuring running Open vSwitch daemons
14 \fBovs\-appctl\fR [\fB\-\-target=\fItarget\fR | \fB\-t\fR \fItarget\fR]
15 \fIcommand \fR[\fIarg\fR...]
17 \fBovs\-appctl\fR \-\-help
19 \fBovs\-appctl\fR \-\-version
21 Open vSwitch daemons accept certain commands at runtime to control
22 their behavior and query their settings. Every daemon accepts the
23 commands for querying and adjusting its logging settings documented
24 under \fBLOGGING COMMANDS\fR below, and \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR in
25 particular accepts a number of additional commands documented in
26 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR(8).
28 The \fBovs\-appctl\fR program provides a simple way to invoke these
29 commands. The command to be sent is specified on \fBovs\-appctl\fR's
30 command line as non-option arguments. \fBovs\-appctl\fR sends the
31 command and prints the daemon's response on standard output.
33 In normal use only a single option is accepted:
34 .IP "\fB\-t \fItarget\fR"
35 .IQ "\fB\-\-target=\fItarget\fR"
36 Tells \fBovs\-appctl\fR which daemon to contact.
38 If \fItarget\fR begins with \fB/\fR it must name a Unix domain socket
39 on which an Open vSwitch daemon is listening for control channel
40 connections. By default, each daemon listens on a Unix domain socket
41 named \fB@RUNDIR@/\fIprogram\fB.\fIpid\fB.ctl\fR, where \fIprogram\fR
42 is the program's name and \fIpid\fR is its process ID. For example,
43 if \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR has PID 123, it would listen on
44 \fB@RUNDIR@/ovs\-vswitchd.123.ctl\fR.
46 Otherwise, \fBovs\-appctl\fR looks for a pidfile, that is, a file
47 whose contents are the process ID of a running process as a decimal
48 number, named \fB@RUNDIR@/\fItarget\fB.pid\fR. (The \fB\-\-pidfile\fR
49 option makes an Open vSwitch daemon create a pidfile.)
50 \fBovs\-appctl\fR reads the pidfile, then looks for a Unix socket
51 named \fB@RUNDIR@/\fItarget\fB.\fIpid\fB.ctl\fR, where \fIpid\fR is
52 replaced by the process ID read from the pidfile, and uses that file
53 as if it had been specified directly as the target.
55 The default target is \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR.
58 Every Open vSwitch daemon supports the following commands for
59 examining and adjusting log levels.
62 Lists the known logging modules and their current levels.
64 .IP "\fBvlog/set\fR \fImodule\fR[\fB:\fIfacility\fR[\fB:\fIlevel\fR]]"
65 Sets the logging level for \fImodule\fR in \fIfacility\fR to
66 \fIlevel\fR. The \fImodule\fR may be any valid module name (as
67 displayed by the \fB\-\-list\fR option) or the special name \fBANY\fR to
68 set the logging levels for all modules. The \fIfacility\fR may be
69 \fBsyslog\fR or \fBconsole\fR to set the levels for logging to the
70 system log or to the console, respectively, or \fBANY\fR to set the
71 logging levels for both facilities. If it is omitted,
72 \fIfacility\fR defaults to \fBANY\fR. The \fIlevel\fR must be one of
73 \fBemer\fR, \fBerr\fR, \fBwarn\fR, \fBinfo\fR, or \fBdbg\fR, designating the
74 minimum severity of a message for it to be logged. If it is omitted,
75 \fIlevel\fR defaults to \fBdbg\fR.
77 .IP "\fBvlog/set PATTERN:\fIfacility\fB:\fIpattern\fR"
78 Sets the log pattern for \fIfacility\fR to \fIpattern\fR. Each time a
79 message is logged to \fIfacility\fR, \fIpattern\fR determines the
80 message's formatting. Most characters in \fIpattern\fR are copied
81 literally to the log, but special escapes beginning with \fB%\fR are
86 The name of the application logging the message, e.g. \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR.
89 The name of the module (as shown by \fBovs\-appctl \-\-list\fR) logging
93 The current date and time in ISO 8601 format (YYYY\-MM\-DD HH:MM:SS).
95 .IP \fB%d{\fIformat\fB}\fR
96 The current date and time in the specified \fIformat\fR, which takes
97 the same format as the \fItemplate\fR argument to \fBstrftime\fR(3).
100 The message being logged.
103 A serial number for this message within this run of the program, as a
104 decimal number. The first message a program logs has serial number 1,
105 the second one has serial number 2, and so on.
111 The level at which the message is logged, e.g. \fBDBG\fR.
114 The program's process ID (pid), as a decimal number.
117 The number of milliseconds elapsed from the start of the application
118 to the time the message was logged.
125 A few options may appear between the \fB%\fR and the format specifier
126 character, in this order:
130 Left justify the escape's expansion within its field width. Right
131 justification is the default.
134 Pad the field to the field width with \fB0\fRs. Padding with spaces
138 A number specifies the minimum field width. If the escape expands to
139 fewer characters than \fIwidth\fR then it is padded to fill the field
140 width. (A field wider than \fIwidth\fR is not truncated to fit.)
144 The default pattern for console output is \fB%d{%b %d
145 %H:%M:%S}|%05N|%c|%p|%m\fR; for syslog output, \fB%05N|%c|%p|%m\fR.
147 .IP "\fBvlog/reopen\fR"
148 Causes the daemon to close and reopen its log file. (This
149 is useful after rotating log files, to cause a new log file to be
152 This has no effect if the target application was not invoked with the
153 \fB\-\-log\-file\fR option.
161 The protocol used to speak to Open vSwitch daemons does not contain a
162 quoting mechanism, so command arguments should not generally contain
167 \fBovs\-appctl\fR can control the following daemons:
168 .BR ovs\-vswitchd (8),
169 .BR ovs\-openflowd (8),
170 .BR ovs\-controller (8),
171 .BR ovs\-brcompatd (8),
172 .BR ovs\-discover (8).