Upgrading to cf CLI v7

The main goal of Cloud Foundry CLI (cf CLI) v7 and CAPI V3 is to unlock new app developer workflows for users who require granular control of their apps and other advanced deployment strategies. For more information, see New Workflows Supported below. These workflows were previously limited by CAPI V2.

The cf CLI development team aims to provide:

• A seamless upgrade experience from cf CLI v6. Changes have been kept to a minimum. Where there are changes, the team has incorporated feedback from the community to simplify the cf CLI user experience.

• Details about breaking potential breaking changes and alternative workflows for scripting environments.

To understand the differences between specific commands, see Command Differences below.

For more information about CAPI V3, see the CAPI V3 documentation. For more information about CAPI V2, see the CAPI V2 documentation.

New workflows supported by cf CLI v7

cf CLI v7 uses CAPI V3, which offers developers more granular control over their apps. It enables new workflows by exposing packages, droplets, builds, and processes. CAPI V3 also includes new resources such as sidecars, manifests, deployments.

Some key new features available through the cf CLI v7 are:

• Rolling App Deployments: Push updates to apps without incurring downtime.

• Running cf push Sub-Step Commands: Exercise granular control over the cf push process. These commands break down the cf push process into sub-steps that can run independently.

• Pushing an App with Multiple Processes: Use a single command to push apps that run multiple processes. One example is a web app that has a UI process and a worker process.

• Pushing Apps with Sidecar Processes: Run additional processes in the same container as your app.

• Using Metadata: Add metadata to objects such as spaces and apps. This can help with operating, monitoring, and auditing.

Install cf CLI v7

To install cf CLI v7, see the README in the Cloud Foundry CLI repository on GitHub. It includes instructions for downloading the latest CAPI release candidate, which is what the cf CLI v7 beta is tested against.

Prerequisites

The cf CLI v7 requires cf-deployment v13.5.0 or later.

This version of cf-deployment contains CAPI release v1.95.0, which provides the CAPI V3 API v3.85.0.

For more information, see the CAPI release notes and the Cloud Controller release notes on GitHub.

If you target an older version of cf-deployment, cf CLI v7 presents a warning saying that the API version is less than the minimum supported. Not all commands run correctly. For example, cf apps does not work.

Command differences

These sections describe changes in commands from cf CLI v6 to cf CLI v7. They also provide important information for those who use the cf CLI in scripts.

For information about possible breaking changes, see the Table of Differences below. This table includes removed flag options, removed commands, and removed or changed argument requirements.

About scripting

If you have scripts that rely on the cf CLI, this section describes possible changes in cf CLI v7 which might affect scripts.

Some of these changes are:

• In cf CLI v7, if your scripts parse error text, output text errors are returned directly from CAPI. Where possible, cf CLI v7 no longer wraps errors it receives from the API.

• cf CLI v7 commands output errors and warnings to stderr rather than stdout to simplify debugging.

• Style changes including flavor text updates. For more information, see Colors in CF CLI Style Guide in the Cloud Foundry CLI repository on GitHub.

• Key-value and table column headers are displayed in lowercase.

• Single-quote resource names appear in error cases.

Caution If the services attribute is declared at the top-level of the manifest.yml file, cf CLI v6 generates a warning, but in cf CLI v7, there is no warning and the app is still pushed.

Exit codes

cf CLI v7 attempts to consistently apply the principles of idempotency across all commands which require it. For more information, see General Principles in CF CLI Style Guide in the Cloud Foundry CLI repository on GitHub. Commands now exit 0 if the outcome a user expresses when running a specific command is unchanged after the command is executed. Examples include:

• Attempting to delete a resource which does not exist, such as a space. Commands such as delete-route and delete-space return 0 in those cases.

• If the create-buildpack command fails to create a buildpack, the command exits with 1 instead of 0, which is the current cf CLI v6 behavior.

Table of differences

The table below summarizes how commands differ between cf CLI v7 and cf CLI v6.

Command	Changes
cf add-network-policy	[Removed flag]: The flag --destination-app is deprecated. Instead, the destination app is the required second argument, using no flag.
cf apps	[Update]: Displays information about processes. [Update]: The url field is renamed to routes. [Update]: Information about instances, memory, and disk is removed. [Update]: Apps are listed alphabetically.
cf bind-security-group	[Update]: SPACE is no longer an argument. To provide a space, use the --space flag.
cf check-route	[Update]: HOST is no longer a required argument. [Update]: No longer requires a backslash. [Added flag]: Use --hostname to specify a hostname.
cf create-buildpack	[Removed flag]: --enable. Creating a buildpack activates it by default. [Removed flag]: --disable. You can not deactivate a buildpack upon creation. [Update]: Creating a buildpack with position set to 0 is no longer valid.
cf create-domain	[Renamed]: This command is renamed to create-private-domain.
cf create-org	[Update]: clients.read scope (or clients.admin, or zones.uaa.admin) is now required when logged in using client credentials.
cf create-quota	[Renamed]: This command is renamed to create-org-quota.
cf create-space	[Update]: clients.read scope (or clients.admin, or zones.uaa.admin) is now required when logged in using client credentials.
cf create-route	[Update]: SPACE is no longer a required argument. The command creates a route in the space you are targeting. [Removed flag]: --random-port. This is now default behavior for routes with TCP domains if the --port flag is not provided.
cf create-service-auth-token	This command is removed.
cf create-service-broker	[Update]: If the command does not successfully complete all phases, a service broker object may exist, which can then be updated or deleted.
cf create-user	[Added flag]: --password-prompt. This option enhances security by removing the requirement to type your password on the command line.
cf delete	[Change in flag behavior]: -r no longer deletes routes when the route is mapped to more than one app.
cf delete-domain	[Renamed]: This command is renamed to delete-private-domain.
cf delete-org	[Update]: The command fails if the org contains shared private domains.
cf delete-quota	[Renamed]: This command is renamed to delete-org-quota.
cf delete-service-auth-token	This command is removed.
cf domains	[Update]: The status column is renamed to availability. [Update]: The table refers to private domains with private instead of own.
cf files	This command is removed.
cf map-route	[Removed flag]: --random-port. In the cf CLI v7, when you map a TCP route to an app, a random port is assigned to the route by default. To specify a port for a TCP route, use the --port flag.
cf marketplace	[Renamed flag]: The -s flag is renamed to -e for consistency with other commands. [Update]: When the -e flag is specified, plan costs advertised by the service broker are displayed. [Update]: When the -e flag is specified, and no service offering with that name is found, the exit code returned is 0. This is in contrast to the cf CLI v6, which returned exit code 1 in this case.
cf migrate-service-instances	This command is removed.
cf packages	[Update]: Displays packages from most recent to least recent.
cf push	[Removed flag]: --route-path. You can use the routes property in the manifest instead. [Removed flag]: -d for domain. You can use the routes property in the manifest instead. [Removed flag]: --no-hostname. You can use the routes property in the manifest instead. [Removed flag]: --hostname. You can use the routes property in the manifest instead. [Added flag]: --strategy. You can deploy an app without causing downtime using cf push app_name --strategy rolling. Exits when at least one instance of each process is healthy. [Added flag]: --no-wait. When used, the command exits when the one instance one process becomes healthy. [Added flag]: --endpoint. Required if you set health check type to http when pushing an app. [Updated flag]: --health-check-type none is removed in favor of --health-check-type process. [Updated flag]: --no-route no longer unbinds all existing routes associated with the app. [Updated flag]: -t now has a long form --app-start-timeout. All short-form flags now have long-form equivalents.
cf purge-service-offering	[Removed flag]: The -p flag is removed.
cf quota	[Renamed]: This command is renamed to org-quota.
cf quotas	[Renamed]: This command is renamed to org-quotas.
cf remove-network-policy	[Removed flag]: The flag --destination-app is deprecated. Instead, the destination app is the required second argument, using no flag.
cf rename-buildpack	This command is removed. Instead, use --rename flag with cf update-buildpack.
cf restart-app-instance	[Added Flag]: --process
cf routes	[Updated output]: port, type, and service no longer appear in the table. [Renamed flag]: --orglevel is now --org-level.
cf run-task	[Updated]: COMMAND is no longer an argument. To specify a command, use the --command flag. [Added Flag]: --process
cf scale	[Added flag]: --process
cf service-access	[Update]: When a service offering comes from a space-scoped service broker, the space and org are displayed.
cf service-auth-tokens	This command is removed.
cf set-health-check	[Added flag]: --process [Added flag]: --invocation-timeout
cf set-quota	[Renamed]: This command is renamed to set-org-quota.
cf set-running-environment-variable-group	[Update]: System environment variables can only be strings. This is enforced on the API.
cf set-staging-environment-variable-group	[Update]: System environment variables can only be strings. This is enforced on the API.
cf ssh	[Added flag]: --process [Added environment variable]: all_proxy. Specifies a proxy server for all requests.
cf start	[Update]: Stages an app to support cf push app --no-start use cases. If there is a new package, start stages and starts using the new package. If the app has been rolled back, start starts using the droplet you used to roll back your app. In the case of a droplet that is in a FAILED state, start ignores the failed droplet and restages the latest READY package to try to produce a healthy droplet. In cf CLI v6, start fails if the droplet is in a FAILED state.
cf unshare-private-domain	[Update]: This command now provides a warning and requires confirmation before it proceeds.
cf update-buildpack	[Added flag]: --rename [Change in flag behavior]: --unlock and --path are now compatible.
cf update-quota	[Renamed]: This command is renamed to update-org-quota.
cf update-service-auth-token	This command is removed.
cf v3-COMMAND	[Update]: v3 prefixes have been removed, since the commands now use CAPI V3 by default.
cf apply-manifest	[Update]: If no flags are passed, the command defaults to using the manifest located in your pwd.
cf v3-cancel-zdt-push	This command is removed. Instead, use cf cancel-deployment.
cf v3-zdt-push	This command is removed. Instead, use --strategy rolling flag with cf push.
cf buildpacks	The order of the columns are changed. The buildpack column header is renamed.