NNICTLDOC.md

# nnictl


## Introduction

__nnictl__ is a command line tool, which can be used to control experiments, such as start/stop/resume an experiment, start/stop NNIBoard, etc.

## Commands

nnictl support commands:
 - [nnictl create](#create) 
 - [nnictl resume](#resume)
 - [nnictl stop](#stop)
 - [nnictl update](#update)
 - [nnictl trial](#trial)
 - [nnictl top](#top)
 - [nnictl experiment](#experiment)
 - [nnictl config](#config)
 - [nnictl log](#log)
 - [nnictl webui](#webui)
 - [nnictl tensorboard](#tensorboard)
 - [nnictl package](#package)



### Manage an experiment
<a name="create"></a>
* __nnictl create__ 
   * Description 
	    
		  You can use this command to create a new experiment, using the configuration specified in config file. 
          After this command is successfully done, the context will be set as this experiment, 
          which means the following command you issued is associated with this experiment, 
          unless you explicitly changes the context(not supported yet). 
   
  * Usage
  
        nnictl create [OPTIONS] 
	  
       Options:  
    
      | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
      | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
      | --config, -c|  True| |yaml configure file of the experiment|
      | --port, -p  |  False| |the port of restful server| 
<a name="resume"></a>
* __nnictl resume__

  * Description

    You can use this command to resume a stopped experiment.

  * Usage

    ```bash
    nnictl resume [OPTIONS]
    ```

    Options:

    | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
    | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
    | id|  False| |The id of the experiment you want to resume|  
    | --port, -p|  False| |Rest port of the experiment you want to resume|
  
     
      
<a name="stop"></a>
* __nnictl stop__
  * Description

    You can use this command to stop a running experiment or multiple experiments.

  * Usage

    ```bash
    nnictl stop [id]
    ```
  
  * Detail
        
        1.If there is an id specified, and the id matches the running experiment, nnictl will stop the corresponding experiment, or will print error message.
        2.If there is no id specified, and there is an experiment running, stop the running experiment, or print error message.
        3.If the id ends with *, nnictl will stop all experiments whose ids matchs the regular.
        4.If the id does not exist but match the prefix of an experiment id, nnictl will stop the matched experiment.
        5.If the id does not exist but match multiple prefix of the experiment ids, nnictl will give id information.
        6.Users could use 'nnictl stop all' to stop all experiments  
<a name="update"></a>
* __nnictl update__
    
	 * __nnictl update searchspace__
       * Description
          
		     You can use this command to update an experiment's search space.
       
       * Usage
 
              nnictl update searchspace [OPTIONS] 
         
            Options:
        
           | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
           | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
         | id|  False| |ID of the experiment you want to set|
         | --filename, -f|  True| |the file storing your new search space|
			
 	* __nnictl update concurrency__  
        * Description
          
		      You can use this command to update an experiment's concurrency.     
	  
	     * Usage
        
		       nnictl update concurrency [OPTIONS] 

            Options:
    
            | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
            | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
           | id|  False| |ID of the experiment you want to set|
           | --value, -v|  True| |the number of allowed concurrent trials|
      	
     * __nnictl update duration__  
        * Description
        
               You can use this command to update an experiment's concurrency.  
		
		* Usage
			    	    
			    nnictl update duration [OPTIONS] 

          Options:
    
          | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
          | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
          | id|  False| |ID of the experiment you want to set|
          | --value, -v|  True| |the experiment duration will be NUMBER seconds. SUFFIX may be 's' for seconds (the default), 'm' for minutes, 'h' for hours or 'd' for days.|  

 	* __nnictl update trialnum__  
        * Description
          
		      You can use this command to update an experiment's maxtrialnum.     
	  
	     * Usage
        
		       nnictl update trialnum [OPTIONS] 

            Options:
    
            | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
            | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
           | id|  False| |ID of the experiment you want to set|
           | --value, -v|  True| |the new number of maxtrialnum you want to set|

     
<a name="trial"></a>
* __nnictl trial__

  * __nnictl trial ls__

    * Description

      You can use this command to show trial's information.

    * Usage
  
      ```bash
      nnictl trial ls
      ```

      Options:

      | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
      | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
      | id|  False| |ID of the experiment you want to set|

  * __nnictl trial kill__
      * Description
            
			You can use this command to kill a trial job.
	   * Usage
  
              nnictl trial kill [OPTIONS] 
    
	      Options:  
	        
          | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
          | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
         | id|  False| |ID of the experiment you want to set|   
         | --trialid, -t|  True| |ID of the trial you want to kill.| 
<a name="top"></a>
* __nnictl top__

    * Description
        
        Monitor all of running experiments.
      
      * Usage
  
              nnictl top
      
      	Options:  
	        
          | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
          | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
         | id|  False| |ID of the experiment you want to set|   
         | --time, -t|  False| |The interval to update the experiment status, the unit of time is second, and the default value is 3 second.| 

          
<a name="experiment"></a>
### Manage experiment information

* __nnictl experiment show__

  * Description

    Show the information of experiment.

  * Usage

    ```bash
    nnictl experiment show
    ```

    Options:

    | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
    | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
    | id|  False| |ID of the experiment you want to set|

* __nnictl experiment status__

  * Description

    Show the status of experiment.

  * Usage

    ```bash
    nnictl experiment status
    ```

    Options:

    | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
    | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
    | id|  False| |ID of the experiment you want to set|

* __nnictl experiment list__
  * Description

    Show the information of all the (running) experiments.

  * Usage

    ```bash
    nnictl experiment list
    ```

 
<a name="config"></a>
* __nnictl config show__
    * Description
             
		    Display the current context information.
   
    * Usage
    
	      nnictl config show
        
<a name="log"></a>
### Manage log

* __nnictl log stdout__

  * Description

    Show the stdout log content.

  * Usage

    ```bash
    nnictl log stdout [options]
    ```

    Options:

    | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
    | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
    | id|  False| |ID of the experiment you want to set|
    | --head, -h| False| |show head lines of stdout|
    | --tail, -t|  False| |show tail lines of stdout|
    | --path, -p|  False| |show the path of stdout file|

* __nnictl log stderr__
  * Description

    Show the stderr log content.
  
  * Usage

    ```bash
    nnictl log stderr [options]
    ```

    Options:

    | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
    | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
    | id|  False| |ID of the experiment you want to set|
    | --head, -h| False| |show head lines of stderr|
    | --tail, -t|  False| |show tail lines of stderr|
    | --path, -p|  False| |show the path of stderr file|

* __nnictl log trial__
  * Description
  
    Show trial log path.
  
  * Usage

<a name="webui"></a>
### Manage webui

* __nnictl webui url__

<a name="tensorboard"></a>
### Manage tensorboard

* __nnictl tensorboard start__

  * Description

    Start the tensorboard process.
  
  * Usage

    ```bash
    nnictl tensorboard start
    ```

    Options:

    | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
    | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
    | id|  False| |ID of the experiment you want to set|
    | --trialid|  False| |ID of the trial|
    | --port|  False| 6006|The port of the tensorboard process|

  * Detail

    1. NNICTL support tensorboard function in local and remote platform for the moment, other platforms will be supported later.   
    2. If you want to use tensorboard, you need to write your tensorboard log data to environment variable [NNI_OUTPUT_DIR] path.  
    3. In local mode, nnictl will set --logdir=[NNI_OUTPUT_DIR] directly and start a tensorboard process.
    4. In remote mode, nnictl will create a ssh client to copy log data from remote machine to local temp directory firstly, and then start a tensorboard process in your local machine. You need to notice that nnictl only copy the log data one time when you use the command, if you want to see the later result of tensorboard, you should execute nnictl tensorboard command again.
    5. If there is only one trial job, you don't need to set trialid. If there are multiple trial jobs running, you should set the trialid, or you could use [nnictl tensorboard start --trialid all] to map --logdir to all trial log paths.

* __nnictl tensorboard stop__
   * Description
     
	     Stop all of the tensorboard process. 
   
   * Usage
         
		    nnictl tensorboard stop
        
    	Options:
    	
       | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
       | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
     | id|  False| |ID of the experiment you want to set|

<a name="package"></a>
### Manage package
* __nnictl package install__
   * Description
     
	     Install the packages needed in nni experiments. 
   
   * Usage
         
		    nnictl package install [OPTIONS] 
        
    	Options:
    	
       | Name, shorthand | Required|Default | Description |
       | ------ | ------ | ------ |------ |
     | --name|  True| |The name of package to be installed|

* __nnictl package show__
   * Description
     
	     List the packages supported. 
   
   * Usage
         
		    nnictl package show