# Overview

## Command line help

The CLI is divided into several commands which may themselves contain subcommands. You can investigate the various commands available using the `-h` or `--help` option:

    $ omero -h

Again, you can use `-h` repeatedly to get more details on each of these sub-commands:

    $ omero admin -h
    $ omero admin start -h

The omero help command can be used to get info on other commands or options:

    $ omero help admin       # same as omero admin -h

In addition to the CLI commands which can be listed using `omero help --list`, omero help can be used to retrieve information about the `debug` and `env` options:

    $ omero help debug     # display help about debugging options
    $ omero help env       # display help about environment variables

--all

  Display the help for all available commands and options

--recursive

  Recursively display the help of commands and/or options. This option can be used with either the omero help command or the `omero help --all` option:

      $ omero help --all --recursive
      $ omero help user --recursive

--list

  Display a list of all available commands and subcommands

## Command line workflow

There are three ways to use the command line tools:

1. By explicitly logging in to the server first i.e. by creating a session using the omero login command, e.g.:

       $ omero login username@servername:4064
       Password:

   During login, a session is created locally on disk and will remain active until you logout or it times out. You can then call the desired command, e.g. the omero import command:

       $ omero import image.tiff

2. By passing the session arguments directly to the desired command. Most commands support the same arguments as omero login:

       $ omero -s servername -u username -p 4064 import image.tiff
       Password:

   The `--sudo` option is available to all commands accepting connection arguments. For instance to import data for user username:

       $ omero import --sudo root -s servername -u username image.tiff
       Password for owner:

3. By calling the desired command without login arguments. You will be asked to login:

       $ omero import image.tiff
       Server: [servername]
       Username: [username]
       Password:

Once you are done with your work, you can terminate the current session if you wish using the omero logout command:

    $ omero logout

Visit Manage sessions to get a basic overview of how user sessions are managed.

See also

Advanced import scenarios

In-place import

OMERO.dropbox

Command Line Interface as an OMERO client