1OVS-APPCTL(8) Open vSwitch OVS-APPCTL(8)
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6 ovs-appctl - utility for configuring running Open vSwitch daemons
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9 ovs-appctl [--target=``<target> | ``-t <target>] [--timeout=``<secs> |
10 ``-T <secs>] <command> [<arg>…]
11 ovs-appctl --help
13 ovs-appctl --version
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17 Open vSwitch daemons accept certain commands at runtime to control
18 their behavior and query their settings. Every daemon accepts a common
19 set of commands documented under Common Commands below. Some daemons
20 support additional commands documented in their own manpages.
21 ovs-vswitchd in particular accepts a number of additional commands doc‐
22 umented in ovs-vswitchd(8).
23 The ovs-appctl program provides a simple way to invoke these commands.
25 The command to be sent is specified on ovs-appctl’s command line as
26 non-option arguments. ovs-appctl sends the command and prints the dae‐
27 mon’s response on standard output.
28 In normal use only a single option is accepted:
30 • -t <target> or --target <target>
32 Tells ovs-appctl which daemon to contact.
34 If <target> begins with / it must name a Unix domain socket on which
36 an Open vSwitch daemon is listening for control channel connections.
37 By default, each daemon listens on a Unix domain socket in the rundir
38 (e.g. /run) named <program>.<pid>.ctl, where <program> is the pro‐
39 gram’s name and <pid> is its process ID. For example, if
40 ovs-vswitchd has PID 123, it would listen on ovs-vswitchd.123.ctl.
41 Otherwise, ovs-appctl looks in the rundir for a pidfile, that is, a
43 file whose contents are the process ID of a running process as a dec‐
44 imal number, named <target>.pid. (The --pidfile option makes an Open
45 vSwitch daemon create a pidfile.) ovs-appctl reads the pidfile, then
46 looks in the rundir for a Unix socket named <target>.<pid>.ctl, where
47 <pid> is replaced by the process ID read from the pidfile, and uses
48 that file as if it had been specified directly as the target.
49 On Windows, <target> can be an absolute path to a file that contains
51 a localhost TCP port on which an Open vSwitch daemon is listening for
52 control channel connections. By default, each daemon writes the TCP
53 port on which it is listening for control connection into the file
54 <program>.ctl located inside the rundir. If <target> is not an abso‐
55 lute path, ovs-appctl looks in the rundir for a file named <tar‐
56 get>.ctl. The default target is ovs-vswitchd.
57 • -T <secs> or --timeout=<secs>
59 By default, or with a <secs> of 0, ovs-appctl waits forever to con‐
61 nect to the daemon and receive a response. This option limits run‐
62 time to approximately <secs> seconds. If the timeout expires,
63 ovs-appctl exits with a SIGALRM signal.
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66 Every Open vSwitch daemon supports a common set of commands, which are
67 documented in this section.
68 General Commands
70 These commands display daemon-specific commands and the running ver‐
71 sion. Note that these commands are different from the --help and
72 --version options that return information about the ovs-appctl utility
73 itself.
74 • list-commands
76 Lists the commands supported by the target.
78 • version
80 Displays the version and compilation date of the target.
82 Logging Commands
84 Open vSwitch has several log levels. The highest-severity log level
85 is:
86 • off
88 No message is ever logged at this level, so setting a logging desti‐
90 nation’s log level to off disables logging to that destination.
91 The following log levels, in order of descending severity, are avail‐
93 able:
94 • emer
96 A major failure forced a process to abort.
98 • err
100 A high-level operation or a subsystem failed. Attention is war‐
102 ranted.
103 • warn
105 A low-level operation failed, but higher-level subsystems may be able
107 to recover.
108 • info
110 Information that may be useful in retrospect when investigating a
112 problem.
113 • dbg
115 Information useful only to someone with intricate knowledge of the
117 system, or that would commonly cause too-voluminous log output. Log
118 messages at this level are not logged by default.
119 Every Open vSwitch daemon supports the following commands for examining
121 and adjusting log levels:
122 • vlog/list
124 Lists the known logging modules and their current levels.
126 • vlog/list-pattern
128 Lists logging pattern used for each destination.
130 • vlog/set [<spec>]
132 Sets logging levels. Without any <spec>, sets the log level for ev‐
134 ery module and destination to dbg. Otherwise, <spec> is a list of
135 words separated by spaces or commas or colons, up to one from each
136 category below:
137 • A valid module name, as displayed by the vlog/list command on
139 ovs-appctl(8), limits the log level change to the specified module.
140 • syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level change to only to
142 the system log, to the console, or to a file, respectively.
143 On Windows platform, syslog is only useful if <target> was started
145 with the --syslog-target option (it has no effect otherwise).
146 • off, emer, err, warn, info, or dbg, to control the log level. Mes‐
148 sages of the given severity or higher will be logged, and messages
149 of lower severity will be filtered out. off filters out all mes‐
150 sages.
151 Case is not significant within <spec>.
153 Regardless of the log levels set for file, logging to a file will not
155 take place unless the target application was invoked with the
156 --log-file option.
157 For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is accepted within
159 <spec> but it has no effect.
160 • vlog/set PATTERN:<destination>:<pattern>
162 Sets the log pattern for <destination> to <pattern>. Each time a
164 message is logged to <destination>, <pattern> determines the mes‐
165 sage’s formatting. Most characters in <pattern> are copied literally
166 to the log, but special escapes beginning with % are expanded as fol‐
167 lows:
168 • %A
170 The name of the application logging the message, e.g. ovs-vswitchd.
172 • %B
174 The RFC5424 syslog PRI of the message.
176 • %c
178 The name of the module (as shown by ovs-appctl --list) logging the
180 message.
181 • %d
183 The current date and time in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS).
185 • %d{<format>}
187 The current date and time in the specified <format>, which takes
189 the same format as the <template> argument to strftime(3). As an
190 extension, any # characters in <format> will be replaced by frac‐
191 tional seconds, e.g. use %H:%M:%S.### for the time to the nearest
192 millisecond. Sub-second times are only approximate and currently
193 decimal places after the third will always be reported as zero.
194 • %D
196 The current UTC date and time in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD
198 HH:MM:SS).
199 • %D{<format>}
201 The current UTC date and time in the specified <format>, which
203 takes the same format as the <template> argument to strftime``(3).
204 Supports the same extension for sub-second resolution as ``%d{...}.
205 • %E
207 The hostname of the node running the application.
209 • %m
211 The message being logged.
213 • %N
215 A serial number for this message within this run of the program, as
217 a decimal number. The first message a program logs has serial num‐
218 ber 1, the second one has serial number 2, and so on.
219 • %n
221 A new-line.
223 • %p
225 The level at which the message is logged, e.g. DBG.
227 • %P
229 The program’s process ID (pid), as a decimal number.
231 • %r
233 The number of milliseconds elapsed from the start of the applica‐
235 tion to the time the message was logged.
236 • %t
238 The subprogram name, that is, an identifying name for the process
240 or thread that emitted the log message, such as monitor for the
241 process used for --monitor or main for the primary process or
242 thread in a program.
243 • %T
245 The subprogram name enclosed in parentheses, e.g. (monitor), or the
247 empty string for the primary process or thread in a program.
248 • %%
250 A literal %.
252 A few options may appear between the % and the format specifier char‐
254 acter, in this order:
255 • -
257 Left justify the escape’s expansion within its field width. Right
259 justification is the default.
260 • 0
262 Pad the field to the field width with 0 characters. Padding with
264 spaces is the default.
265 • <width>
267 A number specifies the minimum field width. If the escape expands
269 to fewer characters than <width> then it is padded to fill the
270 field width. (A field wider than <width> is not truncated to fit.)
271 The default pattern for console and file output is %D{%Y-%m-%dT
273 %H:%M:%SZ}|%05N|%c|%p|%m; for syslog output, %05N|%c|%p|%m.
274 Daemons written in Python (e.g. ovs-monitor-ipsec) do not allow con‐
276 trol over the log pattern.
277 • vlog/set FACILITY:<facility>
279 Sets the RFC5424 facility of the log message. <facility> can be one
281 of kern, user, mail, daemon, auth, syslog, lpr, news, uucp, clock,
282 ftp, ntp, audit, alert, clock2, local0, local1, local2, local3, lo‐
283 cal4, local5, local6 or local7.
284 • vlog/close
286 Causes the daemon to close its log file, if it is open. (Use
288 vlog/reopen to reopen it later.)
289 • vlog/reopen
291 Causes the daemon to close its log file, if it is open, and then re‐
293 open it. (This is useful after rotating log files, to cause a new
294 log file to be used.)
295 This has no effect if the target application was not invoked with the
297 --log-file option.
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300 -h, --help
301 Prints a brief help message to the console.
302 -V, --version
304 Prints version information to the console.
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307 ovs-appctl can control all Open vSwitch daemons, including
308 ovs-vswitchd(8) and ovsdb-server(1).
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311 The Open vSwitch Development Community
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314 2016-2023, The Open vSwitch Development Community
3153.2 Oct 04, 2023 OVS-APPCTL(8)