arangodb/Documentation/UserManual/Arangosh.md

The ArangoDB Shell

@NAVIGATE_UserManualArangosh @EMBEDTOC{UserManualArangoshTOC}

ArangoDB Shell Introduction

The ArangoDB shell (arangosh) is a command-line tool that can be used for administration of ArangoDB, including running ad-hoc queries.

The arangosh binary is shipped with ArangoDB, and can be invoked like so:

unix> arangosh

By default, arangosh will try to connect to an ArangoDB server running on server localhost on port 8529. It will use the username root and an empty password by default. Additionally, it will connect to the default database (_system). All these defaults can be changed using the following command-line options:

--server.endpoint
--server.username
--server.password
--server.database

For example, to connect to an ArangoDB server on IP 192.168.173.13 on port 8530 with the user foo and using the database test, use

unix> arangosh  \
  --server.endpoint tcp://192.168.173.13:8530  \
  --server.username foo  \
  --server.database test  \
  --server.disable-authentication false

arangosh will then display a password prompt and try to connect to the server after the password was entered.

The change the current database after the connection has been made, you can use the db._useDatabase() command in arangosh:

arangosh> db._useDatabase("myapp");

To get a list of available commands, arangosh provides a help() function. Calling it will display helpful information.

arangosh also provides auto-completion. Additional information on available commands and methods is thus provided by typing the first few letters of a variable and then pressing the tab key. It is recommend to try this with entering db. (without pressing return) and then pressing tab.

ArangoDB Shell Output

In general the ArangoDB shell prints its as output to standard output channel using the JSON stringifier.

arangosh> db.five.all().toArray();
[{ _id : "five/3665447", _rev : "3665447", name : "one" }, 
{ _id : "five/3730983", _rev : "3730983", name : "two" }, 
{ _id : "five/3862055", _rev : "3862055", name : "four" }, 
{ _id : "five/3993127", _rev : "3993127", name : "three" }]

@CLEARPAGE @FUN{start_pretty_print()}

While the standard JSON stringifier is very concise it is hard to read. Calling the function @FN{start_pretty_print} will enable the pretty printer which formats the output in a human readable way.

arangosh> start_pretty_print();
using pretty printing
arangosh> db.five.all().toArray();
[
  { 
_id : "five/3665447", 
_rev : "3665447", 
name : "one"
   }, 
  { 
_id : "five/3730983", 
_rev : "3730983", 
name : "two"
   }, 
  { 
_id : "five/3862055", 
_rev : "3862055", 
name : "four"
   }, 
  { 
_id : "five/3993127", 
_rev : "3993127", 
name : "three"
   }
]

@CLEARPAGE @FUN{stop_pretty_print()}

The functions disable the pretty printer, switching back to the standard JSON output format.