Command Central 10.3 | Command Central Developer Reference | Using the Command Line Interface | Options for the Commands | format
 
format
Deprecated. Use --output-format | -f in place of --format | -f. When you use --format | -f, Command Central executes the command with a warning.
Specifies the format you want a command to use for the data it returns. Command Central and Platform Manager support the following formats:
*Tab-separated values (tsv)
*Plain text (txt)
*XML (xml)
*Comma-separated values (csv)
*JavaScript Object Notation (json)
Although Command Central and Platform Manager support these formats, a specific command might only support a subset of the formats. Refer to the documentation for a specific command to determine the exact formats that it supports.
Syntax
{--format | -f} {tsv args | text | xml | csv args | json}
Arguments
Argument
Description
tsv args
Specifies you want the output in tab-separated values format. For more information about the arguments you can specify, see properties.
text
Specifies you want the output in plain text format.
xml
Specifies you want the output in XML format.
csv args
Specifies you want the output in comma-separated values format. For more information about the arguments you can specify, see properties.
json
Specifies you want the output in JavaScript Object Notation format.
Usage Notes
*Use the {--format | -f} option as an alternative to the {--accept | -a} option. Both options set the request content type. For more information, see accept.
*If you specify both the {--format | -f} option and the {--accept | -a} option, the command uses the content type you specify with the {--accept | -a} option and ignores the {--format | -f} option.
*If you specify the {--input | -i} option, the command ignores the {--format | -f} option and sets the request content type based on the file extension of the input file. For more information, see input.
*By default, output is written to the console. If you want the output written to a file, use the {--output | -o} option. For more information, see output.
*The following describes the typical default that a command uses if you do not specify the {--format | -f} option:
*If you execute the command from the command line, a batch script, or a shell script, the default format is tab-separated values (tsv) format.
*If you execute the command from an Ant script, the default format is XML format.
To determine the default for a command that does not support tab-separated values (tsv) or XML format, refer to the documentation for that command.
*If a command supports either the tsv or csv format, you can restrict the fields the command returns to only those fields you specify. For more information, see properties.
Examples
*To have a command return data in csv format without headers:
--format csv includeHeaders=false
*To have a command return data in xml format:
--format xml