Configure the Tanzu Apps CLI

This topic tells you how to configure the Tanzu Apps CLI on Tanzu Application Platform (commonly known as TAP).

Changing clusters with –context

The Tanzu Apps CLI references the default kubeconfig file to access a Kubernetes cluster. When you run a tanzu apps command, the Tanzu Apps CLI uses the default context. The default context is defined in the kubeconfig file located by default in: HOME/.kube/config.

There are two ways to change the target cluster:

1. Use kubectl config use-context CONTEXT-NAME to change the default context. All subsequent tanzu apps commands target the cluster defined in the new default kubeconfig context.

2. Include the --context CONTEXT-NAME flag when running any tanzu apps command.

   Note

   Any subsequent tanzu apps commands that do not include the --context CONTENT-NAME flag continue to use the default context set in the kubeconfig.

Overriding the default kubeconfig

There are two approaches to overriding the default kubeconfig:

1. To change the kubeconfig the Tanzu Apps CLI will reference, set the environment variable KUBECONFIG=PATH . All subsequent tanzu apps commands reference the non-default kubeconfig assigned to the environment variable.

2. Include the --kubeconfig path flag when running any tanzu apps command.

   Note

   Any subsequent tanzu apps commands that do not include the --context CONTEXT-NAME flag continue to use the default context set in the kubeconfig.

For more information about kubeconfig, see the Kubernetes documentation.

Suppressing color with –no-color flag

Most Apps Plug-in commands have emojis and colored output. In some cases, color, emojis, and other characters are not needed, such as for automated scripting, or where the misinterpretation of these features by a terminal could result in a poor user experience. Use the --no-color flag to suppress color, emojis, and animation.

The following example creates a workload with code from --local-path. The --no-color flag suppresses the emojis and animated upload progress bar:

tanzu apps workload apply my-workload --local-path path/to/my/source --type web --no-color
The files and/or directories listed in the .tanzuignore file are being excluded from the uploaded source code.
Publishing source in "path/to/my/source" to "local-source-proxy.tap-local-source-system.svc.cluster.local/source:default-my-workload""...
Published source

Create workload:
      1 + |---
      2 + |apiVersion: carto.run/v1alpha1
      3 + |kind: Workload
      4 + |metadata:
      5 + |  annotations:
      6 + |    local-source-proxy.apps.tanzu.vmware.com: registry.io/project/source:default-my-workload@sha256:447db92e289dbe3a6969521917496ff2b6b0a1d6fbff1beec3af726430ce8493
      7 + |  labels:
      8 + |    apps.tanzu.vmware.com/workload-type: web
      9 + |  name: my-workload
     10 + |  namespace: default
     11 + |spec:
     12 + |  source:
     13 + |    image: registry.io/project/source:default-my-workload@sha256:447db92e289dbe3a6969521917496ff2b6b0a1d6fbff1beec3af726430ce8493
? Do you want to create this workload? [yN]:

Persist the suppression of color, emojis, and animation across commands by setting the NO_COLOR environment variable.

export NO_COLOR=true

tanzuignore file

Use the optional .tanzuignore file at the root of your project directory to indicate which files or directories in your project are not required to build or run your application such as README.md, .git, or docs. Including these files in your .tanzuignore provides the following benefits:

1. Items included in the .tanzuignore file are not uploaded when you upload your source code. This helps to avoid unnecessary consumption of resources.
2. When iterating on code with the --live-update flag enabled, changes to directories or files listed in the .tanzuignore file do not trigger the automatic re-deployment of source code.

The following are some guidelines for the .tanzuignore file:

• The .tanzuignore file should include a reference to itself, as it provides no value when deployed.
• Directories must not end with the system separator /, or \.
• Add comments using hashtag #.
• If the .tanzuignore file contains files or directories that are not found in the source code, they are ignored.

Example of a .tanzuignore file

.tanzuignore # must contain itself in order to be ignored
# This is a comment
this/is/a/folder/to/exclude

this-is-a-file.ext

Registry flags and environment variables

You can either trust a custom certificate on a system or pass the path to the certificate via flags. Environment variables can also be set to avoid having to pass the flags and values for every command incantation.

Below is a list of each of the flags with the corresponding environment variable equivalent in parenthesis:

• --registry-ca-cert: This is the path of the self-signed certificate needed for the custom or private registry (TANZU_APPS_REGISTRY_CA_CERT).
• --registry-password: Use this when the registry requires credentials to push (TANZU_APPS_REGISTRY_PASSWORD).
• --registry-username: Use with --registry-password to set the registry credentials (TANZU_APPS_REGISTRY_USERNAME).
• --registry-token: Set when the registry authentication is done through a token (TANZU_APPS_REGISTRY_TOKEN).

For example:

tanzu apps workload apply WORKLOAD \
--local-path PATH-TO-REPO --source-image registry.url.nip.io/PACKAGE/IMAGE \
--type web --registry-ca-cert path/to/ca/cert.nip.io.crt \
--registry-username USERNAME \
--registry-password PASSWORD

Alternatively, run as:

export TANZU_APPS_REGISTRY_CA_CERT=path/to/ca/cert.nip.io.crt
export TANZU_APPS_REGISTRY_PASSWORD=USERNAME
export TANZU_APPS_REGISTRY_USERNAME=PASSWORD

tanzu apps workload apply WORKLOAD \
--local-path PATH-TO-REPO \
--source-image registry.url.nip.io/PACKAGE/IMAGE

Use the --type flag to specify the type of workload. Persist the workload type value across commands by setting the TANZU_APPS_TYPE environment variable. The default value of web is set automatically if no --type flag or TANZU_APPS_TYPE value is provided.

export TANZU_APPS_TYPE=server

Autocompletion

The Tanzu Apps CLI provides auto-completion support for commands, positional arguments, flags, and flag values.

Add one of the following commands to the shell config file according to your setup:

Bash

tanzu completion bash >  HOME/.tanzu/completion.bash.inc

Zsh

echo "autoload -U compinit; compinit" >> ~/.zshrc
tanzu completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_tanzu"