Batch Mode¶

ibcli supports non-interactive scripting through two mechanisms: batch files and the -e flag.

-e: single command¶

Use -e to run exactly one command and exit. Useful for cron jobs, CI pipelines, and ad-hoc scripting.

ibcli -s gm -u admin -p pass -e "show zone corp.example"
type=auth fqdn=corp.example view=default

Credentials can be embedded directly:

ibcli -s gm -u admin -p pass -e "configure zone add new.corp.example"

The exit code is 0 on success. Errors are printed to stdout with the Error: prefix (two leading spaces).

Batch files¶

Pass one or more file paths as positional arguments. ibcli reads each file line-by-line and runs every non-blank, non-comment line through process_line. It then exits.

ibcli -s gm -u admin -p pass provision-zones.ibcli

During batch processing, ibcli echoes each line before executing it:

read line 3: configure zone add zone1.example.com
read line 4: configure zone add zone2.example.com
read line 5: configure zone add zone3.example.com

Comment lines (starting with #) are written to stdout as-is without the read line N: prefix.

Line continuation¶

Use \ at the end of a line to split a long command across multiple lines, just like bash:

configure grid Infoblox member add dns1.example.com \
    ipaddress 10.0.0.5/24 \
    platform VNIOS hwtype IB-V4126 \
    license enterprise license dns

ibcli joins the fragments before tokenising, so this is identical to writing the command on a single line. A \ followed only by whitespace (or end-of-file) is also stripped cleanly.

Example batch file¶

# provision-zones.ibcli
# Create three new zones and add records to each

configure zone add zone1.example.com
configure zone add zone2.example.com
configure zone add zone3.example.com

configure zone zone1.example.com add a www 10.0.0.1
configure zone zone2.example.com add a www 10.0.0.2
configure zone zone3.example.com add a www 10.0.0.3

Run it:

ibcli -s gm -u admin -p pass provision-zones.ibcli
read line 4: configure zone add zone1.example.com
read line 5: configure zone add zone2.example.com
read line 6: configure zone add zone3.example.com
read line 8: configure zone zone1.example.com add a www 10.0.0.1
...

Multiple files¶

Multiple files are processed in order:

ibcli -s gm -u admin -p pass create-zones.ibcli add-records.ibcli

.ibcli.cf auto-load¶

If a file named .ibcli.cf exists in the current working directory when ibcli starts, it is read silently before the REPL begins (or before -e / batch files run). No prompts, no read line N: echo.

This is useful for per-project connection settings:

# .ibcli.cf in your project directory
configure server gridmaster.corp.example user admin password s3cr3t
configure master 10.0.0.1

Lines starting with # and blank lines are skipped.

Error handling in batch mode¶

Each command is independent - an error on line N does not abort lines N+1 and beyond. Errors are printed to stdout with two leading spaces:

read line 5: configure zone add duplicate.example.com
  Error: IB.Data.Conflict: The zone already exists in the system.
read line 6: configure zone add next.example.com

If you need to abort on error, post-process the output and check for lines matching ^ Error:.

Output format¶

Output in batch mode is identical to interactive mode - the same field=value format on stdout. This makes it straightforward to pipe through grep, awk, or Python scripts.