Setting up API tooling

In order to use Pulp we must be able to talk to the Pulp API. Usage examples throughout this documentation depend on the API tooling described below.

Setting up Pulp CLI for pulp_deb

Tip

We recommend installing Pulp CLI in a virtual python environment.

Pulp CLI for pulp_deb can be installed via the pulp-cli-deb python package, on any host that can reach the REST API of your Pulp instance:

pip install pulp-cli-deb

This will also pull in the pulp-cli python package as a dependency. The pulp-cli package contains the core of Pulp CLI, as well as the subcommands for many other Pulp content plugins like pulp_file and pulp_rpm.

Once you have installed Pulp CLI, you will need to configure it, so that it can talk to the REST API of your Pulp instance:

pulp config create --help  # List a description of available config options
pulp config create -e  # Open a generated default config file for editing

Make sure you set the base_url, the api_root and any API credentials. The default location for the CLI config file is ~/.config/pulp/cli.toml.

To test if Pulp CLI can reach the Pulp API use:

pulp status

Note

The status API endpoint does not require authentication, so this will work even if the configured API credentials are incorrect.

For more information see the pulp-cli documentation. To open bug reports or feature requests against pulp-cli-deb, see the pulp-cli-deb issue tracker.

To start using the CLI commands for pulp_deb, consult:

pulp deb --help

Setting up httpie and jq

Where there are feature gaps in Pulp CLI, or for advanced scripting scenarios, it may be preferrable to interact with the Pulp REST API directly. Examples within this documentation will use the httpie utility for this purpose. httpie can be installed via pip, so you could install it alongside Pulp CLI in a virtual python environment using:

pip install pulp-cli-deb httpie

You will need to configure your Pulp API credentials, or else specify them with each call to http. For example, you can adjust the following .netrc example as needed:

machine localhost
login admin
password password

For alternative methods, please consult http --help.

Both in combination with Pulp CLI as well as httpie, we recommend and make use of jq for parsing API responses. jq can normally be installed via your preferred package manager, for example using sudo apt-get install jq for APT based systems. Being a simple command-line JSON parser, jq requires no additional configuration.