Terminology and Basics - Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Command-Line Interface - page 26

Chapter 3
Terminology and Basics
EM CLI can seem overwhelming at first, as with any command-line utility. But like anything else in technology, the
more one understands how something works, the more useful and the easier it will be to work with.
There is too much information in EM CLI to memorize even a small part of it. Documention is as critical as the
tool itself. Understanding the terminology that the documentation, built-in manuals, and the tool itself use will allow
you to quickly find what you need by asking the right questions. For example, if you are looking for the command to
create a user, you need to know you are searching for a verb, not a parameter or a variable.
Once one understands EM CLI's terminology, a basic understanding of its functionality allows one to
immediately get started with basic tasks, and that is where the real learning begins. This chapter introduces the basics
of EM CLI first by explaining how it works with Enterprise Manager and then by providing a number of detailed
examples.
Terminology: Verbs
EM CLI functionality uses verbs to perform actions. A verb is a task or action in the form of a user command that
exposes Enterprise Manager functionality. Understanding verbs and how they are used to accomplish tasks is
essential to fully utilizing EM CLI.
Verbs can include one or more parameters. The mode being used determines what those parameters look like.
For example, when using EM CLI in command-line mode, the parameters are positional arguments that follow the
verb. Each argument is preceded by a dash and followed by an equal sign. The argument may then be assigned a
value, which is usually enclosed with quotation marks.
Some of the parameters are required and some are optional. The documentation identifies optional arguments
by enclosing them in brackets. For example, the clear_privilege_delegation_setting verb has one required
argument and two optional arguments (Listing 3-1).
Listing 3-1. Required and optional parameters for the clear_privilege_delegation_setting verb
emcli clear_privilege_delegation_setting
-host_names="name1;name2;..."
[-input_file="FILE:file_path"]
[-force="yes/no"]
As of version 12.1.0.3, there are 362 verbs. To more easily help you find and manage verbs, they are grouped
into 58 categories. The categories represent logical functionality. For example, if you were looking for verbs related
to patching, you would find them in the Patch Verbs category. If you were looking for verbs related to blackouts, you
would look in the Blackout Verbs category.