Knife Common Options¶

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The following options can be run with all knife subcommands and plug-ins:

-c CONFIG_FILE, --config CONFIG_FILE: The configuration file to use. For example, when knife is run from a node that is configured to be managed by the Chef server, this option is used to allow knife to use the same credentials as the chef-client when communicating with the Chef server.
--chef-zero-host HOST: The host to start chef-zero on.
--chef-zero-port PORT: The port (or port range) to start chef-zero on. Port ranges like 1000,1010 or 8889-9999 will try all given ports until one works.
-d, --disable-editing: Prevent the $EDITOR from being opened and accept data as-is.
--defaults: Cause knife to use the default value instead of asking a user to provide one.
-e EDITOR, --editor EDITOR: The $EDITOR that is used for all interactive commands.
-E ENVIRONMENT, --environment ENVIRONMENT: The name of the environment. When this option is added to a command, the command will run only against the named environment. This option is ignored during search queries made using the knife search subcommand.
-F FORMAT, --format FORMAT: The output format: summary (default), text, json, yaml, and pp.
-h, --help: Show help for the command.
-k KEY, --key KEY: The USER.pem file that knife uses to sign requests made by the API client to the Chef server.
--[no-]color: View colored output.
--[no-]fips: Allows OpenSSL to enforce FIPS-validated security during the chef-client run.
--print-after: Show data after a destructive operation.
-s URL, --server-url URL: The URL for the Chef server.
-u USER, --user USER: The user name used by knife to sign requests made by the API client to the Chef server. Authentication fails if the user name does not match the private key.
-v, --version: The version of the chef-client.
-V, --verbose: Set for more verbose outputs. Use -VV for maximum verbosity.
-y, --yes: Respond to all confirmation prompts with “Yes”.
-z, --local-mode: Run the chef-client in local mode. This allows all commands that work against the Chef server to also work against the local chef-repo.