{"id":108095,"date":"2023-02-22T09:41:54","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T17:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=108095"},"modified":"2023-07-11T09:56:55","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T16:56:55","slug":"go-wild-with-wildcards-in-backblaze-b2-command-line-tool-3-7-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/go-wild-with-wildcards-in-backblaze-b2-command-line-tool-3-7-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Go Wild with Wildcards in the Backblaze B2 Command Line Tool 3.7.1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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File transfer tools such as Cyberduck<\/a>, FileZilla Pro<\/a>, and Transmit<\/a> implement a graphical user interface (GUI), which allows users to manage and transfer files across local storage and any number of services, including cloud object stores such as Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage<\/a>. Some tasks, however, require a little more power and flexibility than a GUI can provide. This is where a command line interface (CLI)<\/a> shines. A CLI typically provides finer control over operations than a GUI tool, and makes it straightforward to automate repetitive tasks. We recently released version 3.7.0 (and then, shortly thereafter, version 3.7.1) of the Backblaze B2 Command Line Tool<\/a>, alongside version 1.19.0 of the underlying Backblaze B2 Python SDK<\/a>. Let\u2019s take a look at the highlights in the new releases, and why you might want to use the Backblaze B2 CLI rather than the AWS equivalent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Battle of the CLI\u2019s: Backblaze B2 vs. AWS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As you almost certainly already know, Backblaze B2 has an S3-compatible API<\/a> in addition to its original API, now known as the B2 Native API. In most cases, we recommend using the S3-compatible API, since a rich ecosystem of S3 tools and knowledge has evolved over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the AWS CLI works perfectly well with Backblaze B2, and we explain how to use it in our B2 Developer Quick-Start Guide<\/a>, it\u2019s slightly clunky. The AWS CLI allows you to set your access key id and secret access key via either environment variables or a configuration file, but you must override the default endpoint on the command line with every command, like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

% aws --endpoint-url https:\/\/s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com s3api \\\nlist-buckets<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This is very tiresome if you\u2019re working interactively at the command line! In contrast, the B2 CLI retrieves the correct endpoint from Backblaze B2 when it authenticates, so the command line is much more concise:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
% b2 list-buckets<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, the CLI provides fine-grain access to Backblaze B2-specific functionality, such as application key management and replication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Automating Common Tasks with the B2 Command Line Tool<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re already familiar with CLI tools, feel free to skip to the next section<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imagine you\u2019ve uploaded a large number of WAV files to a Backblaze B2 Bucket for transcoding into .mp3 format. Once the transcoding is complete, and you\u2019ve reviewed a sample of the .mp3 files, you decide that you can delete the .wav files. You can do this in a GUI tool, opening the bucket, navigating to the correct location, sorting the files by extension, selecting all of the .wav files, and deleting them. However, the CLI can do this in a single command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
% b2 rm --withWildcard --recursive my-bucket 'audio\/*.wav'<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
If you want to be sure you\u2019re deleting the correct files, you can add the --dryRun<\/code> option to show the files that would be deleted, rather than actually deleting them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
% b2 rm --dryRun --withWildcard --recursive my-bucket 'audio\/*.wav'\naudio\/aardvark.wav\naudio\/barracuda.wav\n...\naudio\/yak.wav\naudio\/zebra.wav<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
You can find a complete list of the CLI\u2019s commands and their options in the documentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s take a look at what\u2019s new in the latest release of the Backblaze B2 CLI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Major Changes in B2 Command Line Tool Version 3.7.0 <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
New rm<\/code> command<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The most significant addition in 3.7.0 is a whole new command: rm<\/code>. As you might expect, rm<\/code> removes files. The CLI has always included the low-level delete-file-version<\/code> command (to delete a single file version) but you had to call that multiple times and combine it with other commands to remove all versions of a file, or to remove all files with a given prefix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new rm<\/code> command is significantly more powerful, allowing you to delete all versions of a file in a single command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
% b2 rm --versions --withWildcard --recursive my-bucket \\\nimages\/san-mateo.png<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s unpack that command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n