doctl

doctl is a command line interface for the DigitalOcean API.

Usage:
  doctl [command]

Available Commands:
  account     account commands
  auth        auth commands
  completion  completion commands
  compute     compute commands
  databases   database commands
  help        Help about any command
  kubernetes  kubernetes commands
  projects    projects commands
  version     show the current version

Flags:
  -t, --access-token string   API V2 Access Token
  -u, --api-url string        Override default API V2 endpoint
  -c, --config string         config file (default is $HOME/.config/doctl/config.yaml)
      --context string        authentication context name
  -h, --help                  help for doctl
  -o, --output string         output format [text|json] (default "text")
      --trace                 trace api access
  -v, --verbose               verbose output

Use "doctl [command] --help" for more information about a command.

• doctl
  • Installing doctl
    • Using a Package Manager (Preferred)
      • MacOS
      • Snap supported OS
        • Use with kubectl
        • Using doctl compute ssh
      • Arch Linux
      • Nix supported OS
    • Docker Hub
    • Downloading a Release from GitHub
    • Building with Docker
    • Building the Development Version from Source
      • Dependencies
  • Authenticating with DigitalOcean
    • Logging in to multiple DigitalOcean accounts
  • Configuring Default Values
  • Enabling Shell Auto-Completion
    • Linux
    • macOS
  • Examples
  • Tutorials
  • doctl Releases

Installing doctl

Using a Package Manager (Preferred)

A package manager allows you to install and keep up with new doctl versions using only a few commands. Our community distributes doctl via a growing set of package managers in addition to the officially supported set listed below; chances are good a solution exists for your platform.

MacOS

Use Homebrew to install doctl on macOS:

brew install doctl

doctl is also available via MacPorts. Note that the port is community maintained and may not be on the latest version.

Snap supported OS

Use Snap on Snap-supported systems to install doctl:

sudo snap install doctl

Use with kubectl

Using kubectl requires the kube-config personal-files connection for doctl:

sudo snap connect doctl:kube-config

Using doctl compute ssh

Using doctl compute ssh requires the core ssh-keys interface:

sudo snap connect doctl:ssh-keys :ssh-keys

Arch Linux

Arch users not using a package manager can install from the AUR.

Nix supported OS

Users of NixOS or other supported platforms may install doctl from Nixpkgs. Please note this package is also community maintained and may not be on the latest version.

Docker Hub

Containers for each release are available under the digitalocean organization on Docker Hub. Links to the containers are available in the github releases.

Downloading a Release from GitHub

Visit the Releases page for the doctl GitHub project, and find the appropriate archive for your operating system and architecture. Download the archive from from your browser or copy its URL and retrieve it to your home directory with wget or curl.

For example, with wget:

cd ~
wget https://github.com/digitalocean/doctl/releases/download/v<version>/doctl-<version>-linux-amd64.tar.gz

Or with curl:

cd ~
curl -OL https://github.com/digitalocean/doctl/releases/download/v<version>/doctl-<version>-linux-amd64.tar.gz

Extract the binary:

tar xf ~/doctl-<version>-linux-amd64.tar.gz

Or download and extract with this oneliner:

curl -sL https://github.com/digitalocean/doctl/releases/download/v<version>/doctl-<version>-linux-amd64.tar.gz | tar -xzv

where <version> is the full semantic version, e.g., 1.17.0.

On Windows systems, you should be able to double-click the zip archive to extract the doctl executable.

Move the doctl binary to somewhere in your path. For example, on GNU/Linux and OS X systems:

sudo mv ~/doctl /usr/local/bin

Windows users can follow How to: Add Tool Locations to the PATH Environment Variable in order to add doctl to their PATH.

Building with Docker

If you have Docker configured, you can build a Docker image using doctl's Dockerfile and run doctl within a container.

docker build --tag=doctl .

Then you can run it within a container.

docker run --rm --interactive --tty --env=DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN="your_DO_token" doctl any_doctl_command

Building the Development Version from Source

If you have a Go environment configured, you can install the development version of doctl from the command line.

go get github.com/digitalocean/doctl/cmd/doctl

While the development version is a good way to take a peek at doctl's latest features before they get released, be aware that it may have bugs. Officially released versions will generally be more stable.

Dependencies

doctl's dependencies are managed with dep. To add dependencies, use dep ensure -add github.com/foo/bar

Authenticating with DigitalOcean

In order to use doctl, you need to authenticate with DigitalOcean by providing an access token, which can be created from the Applications & API section of the Control Panel. You can learn how to generate a token by following the DigitalOcean API guide.

Docker users will have to use the DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN environmental variable to authenticate, as explained in the Installation section of this document.

If you're not using Docker to run doctl, authenticate with the auth init command.

doctl auth init

You will be prompted to enter the DigitalOcean access token that you generated in the DigitalOcean control panel.

DigitalOcean access token: your_DO_token

After entering your token, you will receive confirmation that the credentials were accepted. If the token doesn't validate, make sure you copied and pasted it correctly.

Validating token: OK

This will create the necessary directory structure and configuration file to store your credentials.

Logging in to multiple DigitalOcean accounts

doctl allows you to log in to multiple DigitalOcean accounts at the same time and easily switch between them with the use of authentication contexts.

By default, a context named default is used. To create a new context, run doctl auth init --context new-context-name. You may also pass the new context's name using the DIGITALOCEAN_CONTEXT variable. You will be prompted for your API access token which will be associated with the new context.

To use a non-default context, pass the context name as described above to any doctl command. To set a new default context, run doctl auth switch. This command will save the current context to the config file and use it for all commands by default if a context is not specified.

The --access-token flag or DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN variable are acknowledged only if the default context is used. Otherwise, they will have no effect on what API access token is used. To temporarily override the access token if a different context is set as default, use doctl --context default --access-token your_DO_token ....

Configuring Default Values

The doctl configuration file is used to store your API Access Token as well as the defaults for command flags. If you find yourself using certain flags frequently, you can change their default values to avoid typing them every time. This can be useful when, for example, you want to change the username or port used for SSH.

On OS X and Linux, doctl's configuration file can be found at ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/doctl/config.yaml if the ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME} environmental variable is set. Otherwise, the config will be written to ~/.config/doctl/config.yaml. For Windows users, the config will be available at %LOCALAPPDATA%/doctl/config/config.yaml.

The configuration file was automatically created and populated with default properties when you authenticated with doctl for the first time. The typical format for a property is category.command.sub-command.flag: value. For example, the property for the force flag with tag deletion is tag.delete.force.

To change the default SSH user used when connecting to a Droplet with doctl, look for the compute.ssh.ssh-user property and change the value after the colon. In this example, we changed it to the username sammy.

. . .
compute.ssh.ssh-user: sammy
. . .

Save and close the file. The next time you use doctl, the new default values you set will be in effect. In this example, that means that it will SSH as the sammy user (instead of the default root user) next time you log into a Droplet.

Enabling Shell Auto-Completion

doctl also has auto-completion support. It can be set up so that if you partially type a command and then press TAB, the rest of the command is automatically filled in. For example, if you type doctl comp<TAB><TAB> drop<TAB><TAB> with auto-completion enabled, you'll see doctl compute droplet appear on your command prompt.

Note: Shell auto-completion is not available for Windows users.

How you enable auto-completion depends on which operating system you're using. If you installed doctl via Homebrew, auto-completion is activated automatically, though you may need to configure your local environment to enable it.

doctl can generate an auto-completion script with the doctl completion your_shell_here command. Valid arguments for the shell are Bash (bash) and ZSH (zsh). By default, the script will be printed to the command line output. For more usage examples for the completion command, use doctl completion --help.

Linux

The most common way to use the completion command is by adding a line to your local profile configuration. At the end of your ~/.profile file, add this line:

source <(doctl completion your_shell_here)

Then refresh your profile.

source ~/.profile

macOS

macOS users will have to install the bash-completion framework to use the auto-completion feature.

brew install bash-completion

After it's installed, load bash_completion by adding following line to your .profile or .bashrc/.zshrc file.

source $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion

Then refresh your profile using the appropriate command for bash configurations file.

source ~/.profile
source ~/.bashrc
source ~/.zshrc

Examples

doctl is able to interact with all of your DigitalOcean resources. Below are a few common usage examples. To learn more about the features available, see the full tutorial on the DigitalOcean community site.

• List all Droplets on your account:

doctl compute droplet list

• Create a Droplet:

doctl compute droplet create <name> --region <region-slug> --image <image-slug> --size <size-slug>

• Assign a Floating IP to a Droplet:

doctl compute floating-ip-action assign <ip-addr> <droplet-id>

• Create a new A record for an existing domain:

doctl compute domain records create --record-type A --record-name www --record-data <ip-addr> <domain-name>

doctl also simplifies actions without an API endpoint. For instance, it allows you to SSH to your Droplet by name:

doctl compute ssh <droplet-name>

By default, it assumes you are using the root user. If you want to SSH as a specific user, you can do that as well:

doctl compute ssh <user>@<droplet-name>

Tutorials

• How To Use Doctl, the Official DigitalOcean Command-Line Client
• How To Work with DigitalOcean Load Balancers Using Doctl
• How To Secure Web Server Infrastructure With DigitalOcean Cloud Firewalls Using Doctl
• How To Work with DigitalOcean Block Storage Using Doctl