Skip to main content

The Glean CLI tool

The Glean CLI tool (glean) can create and write data into databases, perform a variety of admin tasks on databases, and also do one-off queries.

The glean tool accepts all the common options to specify how to connect to access the databases.

The available commands are as follows:

glean list​

List the available databases.

  • [DBNAME]
    List only databases that match DBNAME
  • --format (tty|plain|json|compact-json)
    Various different formats for the output. JSON is useful for processing and filtering the result in a script, e.g. using jq.
  • -v / --verbose
    Show the full metadata associated with each database.
  • --include-backups
    Also list databases in backup storage (note: may be slow).

glean create​

Create a new database.

  • --db NAME/INSTANCE or --db-name NAME --db-instance INSTANCE
    Specifies the name and instance of the database
  • --finish
    Also mark the DB as complete
  • --stacked DB
    Create a stacked database on top of DB.
  • --property NAME=VALUE
    Set properties when creating a DB
  • --update-schema-for-stacked
    When creating a stacked DB, the schema is taken from the base DB. This option specifies that the current schema should be used instead. When using this option, creation will fail if the current schema has a different definition for any predicate in the base DB schema; therefore predicates may only be added or removed relative to the base DB.
  • FILE..
    File(s) of facts to write into the database. Accepts JSON or compressed (zstd) JSONs. See Writing data to Glean.

The schema for the new DB is given by:

  • the property glean.schema_id if specified, or

  • if --stacked or --incremental, then

    • if --update-schema-for-stacked is specified, then the default schema (or the one given by the --schema option),
    • otherwise, the schema from the base DB.

  • otherwise the default schema, or the one given by the --schema flag.

Note that when creating a stacked DB, it is an error if the schema does not agree with the schema in the base DB for any predicate that has facts. That is, you cannot change the schema in a stacked DB for existing facts in the base DB.

glean write​

Write facts to a database.

  • --db NAME/INSTANCE or --db-name NAME --db-instance INSTANCE
    Specifies the name and instance of the database
  • FILE..
    File(s) of facts to write into the database. Accepts JSON or compressed (zstd) JSONs. See Writing data to Glean.
  • --finish
    Also mark the DB as complete

glean finish​

Notify server that a database is complete.

  • --db NAME/INSTANCE or --db-name NAME --db-instance INSTANCE
    Specifies the name and instance of the database

glean dump​

Dump the contents of the specified database into a file.

  • --db NAME/INSTANCE or --db-name NAME --db-instance INSTANCE
    Specifies the name and instance of the database
  • FILE
    File to write the facts into

glean delete​

Delete a database.

  • --db NAME/INSTANCE or --db-name NAME --db-instance INSTANCE
    Specifies the name and instance of the database

glean derive​

Derive and store a predicate. See Derived Predicates.

  • --page-bytes BYTES
    Maximum number of bytes per page

  • --page-facts FACTS
    Maximum number of facts per page

  • PREDICATE
    Predicates to derive

glean index​

Index some source code using one of the known indexers.

The form of the command in general is

glean index LANGUAGE DIR --db NAME/INSTANCE

There may also be additional options accepted for each LANGUAGE; try glean index LANGUAGE --help to find out.

For information on each indexer, see Indexers.

glean query​

Execute an Angle query and print the results, or write them to a file.

  • --db NAME/INSTANCE or --db-name NAME
    Specifies the database to query

  • --page-bytes BYTES
    Maximum number of bytes per page

  • --page-facts FACTS
    Maximum number of facts per page

  • --expand
    Fetch nested facts (slower)

  • --limit FACTS
    Maximum number of facts to query (default: no limit)

  • -o,--output FILE
    Output the facts to a file

  • --stats FILE
    Output stats to a file ('-' for stdout)

  • --profile
    Get full profiling information; use with --stats to include facts_searched

  • --timeout MILLISECONDS Override the default query timeout

  • QUERY query to execute (@file to read from file, - for stdin)

  • --omit-results Don't print results; use with --stat to get a count of results

glean restore​

Restore a database from backup.

  • LOCATOR
    DB location, see :list-all in glean shell.

Alternatively the DB to restore can be specified by:

  • --db NAME/INSTANCE or --db-name NAME and (--db-instance INSTANCE or --date YYY-MM-DD or --latest)

glean validate​

Perform checks on the internal integrity of a database. This is for testing and debugging Glean itself.

a local database

  • --db NAME/INSTANCE or --db-name NAME --db-instance INSTANCE
    Specifies the name and instance of the database

  • --no-typecheck
    Don't typecheck facts.

  • --no-keys
    Don't verify key uniqueness

  • --limit N
    Only validate the first N facts

glean validate-schema​

Validate a schema. Checks that a new schem does not modify any of the predicates in the existing schema, which could lead to problems.

  • FILE
    Name of schema file

glean stats​

Get fact counts and sizes. Like the :statistics command in the shell.

  • --db NAME/INSTANCE or --db-name NAME --db-instance INSTANCE
    Specifies the name and instance of the database

glean unfinish​

Unfinish a local database (turn it from complete to incomplete state). This is for testing and development and not for routine use: once a database is marked complete it could be replicated, so we shouldn't be modifying it.

  • --db NAME/INSTANCE or --db-name NAME --db-instance INSTANCE
    Specifies the name and instance of the database