Meta Commands and File Redirection

Meta Commands and File Redirection

• GAM Configuration
• Todrive
• Introduction
• Meta Commands
  • Select section
  • Display sections
  • Select output filter section
  • Select input filter section
  • Set configuration variables
  • Specify multiprocessing termination return code
• File Redirection

Introduction

Meta commands are used to configure GAM operation. File redirection is used to intelligently redirect output from GAM: CSV data, stdout and stderr.

The meta commands and file redirection must come before all other arguments and in this order, ... indicates that additional GAM arguments may appear.

gam [<Select>] [showsections] [<SelectOutputFilter>|<SelectInputFilter>] [<Config>] [<MultiprocessExit>] [<Redirect>] ...

Meta Commands

Select section

Select a section from gam.cfg and process a GAM command using values from that section.

<Select> ::=
        select <Section> [save] [verify]

• save
  • Set section = <Section> in the [DEFAULT] section and write configuration data to gam.cfg
• verify
  • Print the variable values for the selected section
  • Values are determined in this order: Selected section, DEFAULT section, Program default

Display sections

Display all of the sections in gam.cfg and mark the currently selected section with a *.

showsections

Select output filter section

Select an output filter section from gam.cfg and process a GAM command using values from that section.

<SelectOutputFilter> ::=
        selectfilter|selectoutputfilter <Section>

The only <VariableNames> recognized in this <Section> are:

• csv_output_header_filter
• csv_output_header_drop_filter
• csv_output_header_force
• csv_output_header_order
• csv_output_row_filter
• csv_output_row_filter_mode
• csv_output_row_drop_filter
• csv_output_row_drop_filter_mode
• csv_output_row_limit
• csv_output_sort_headers

Select input filter section

Select an input filter section from gam.cfg and process a GAM command using values from that section.

<SelectInputFilter> ::=
        selectinputfilter <Section>

The only <VariableNames> recognized in this <Section> are:

• csv_input_row_filter
• csv_input_row_filter_mode
• csv_input_row_drop_filter
• csv_input_row_drop_filter_mode
• csv_input_row_limit

Set configuration variables

Set variables in gam.cfg.

<Config> ::=
        config (<VariableName> [=] <Value>)* [save] [verify]

• <VariableName> [=] <Value>
  • Set <VariableName> = <Value> in the current section
  • All <VariableNames> except section are allowed.
  • The = is optional but must be surrounded by spaces if included.
• save
  • Write configuration data to gam.cfg
• verify
  • Print the variable values for the current section
  • Values are determined in this order: Current section, DEFAULT section, Program default

You can prefix <Config> with <Select> to set a variable in a particular section.

• select default <Config> - Set a variable in the DEFAULT section
• select xyz <Config> - Set a variable in the xyz section

Specify multiprocessing termination return code

Terminate processing of a CSV or batch file when one of the subprocesses returns a matching return code.

<Operator> ::= <|<=|>=|>|=|!=

<ReturnCodeSelection> ::=
        rc<Operator><Number>|
        rcrange=<Number>/<Number>|
        rcrange!=<Number>/<Number>

<MultiProcessExit> :=
        multiprocessexit <ReturnCodeSelection>

File Redirection

You can redirect CSV file output and stdout/stderr output to files. By using redirect, you have more control over the output from GAM.

You can redirect stdout and stderr to null and stderr can be redirected to stdout.

<Redirect> ::=
        redirect csv <FileName> [multiprocess] [append] [noheader] [charset <Charset>]
                     [columndelimiter <Character>] [noescapechar <Boolean>] [quotechar <Character>]
                     [sortheaders <StringList>] [timestampcolumn <String>]
                     [todrive <ToDriveAttribute>*] |
        redirect stdout <FileName> [multiprocess] [append] |
        redirect stdout null [multiprocess] |
        redirect stderr <FileName> [multiprocess] [append] |
        redirect stderr null [multiprocess] |
        redirect stderr stdout [multiprocess]

For redirect, the optional subarguments must appear in the order shown.

If <FileName> specifies a relative path, the file will be put in the directory specified by drive_dir in gam.cfg. If <FileName> specifies an absolute path, the file will be put in the directory specified. Specify ./<FileName> to put the file in your current working directory.

The multiprocess subargument allows the multiple subprocesses started by gam csv to write intelligently to a single redirected CSV/stdout/stderr file. If you don't specify multiprocess, each subprocess writes <FileName> independently; you end up with a single file written by the last subprocess. For redirect csv, if you don't specify multiprocess and do specify todrive, each subprocess uploads a separate Google sheet.

The append subargument causes GAM to append data to <FileName> rather that rewriting the file.

The noheader subargument causes GAM to suppress writing a CSV file header. This might be used when you are running several GAM commands that output the same CSV columns but want all of the data in a single file; the second and subsequent GAM commands specify append noheader.

The charset <Charset> subargument sets the character set of the CSV file; the default is the value of charset in gam.cfg which defaults to UTF-8.

The columndelimiter <Character> subargument sets the intercolumn delimiter of the CSV file; the default value is the value of csv_output_column_delimiter in gam.cfg which defaults to comma.

The noescapechar <Boolean> subargument controls whether \ is used as an escape character when writing the CSV file; the default value is the value of csv_output_no_escape_char in gam.cfg which defaults to False.

The quotechar <Character> subargument sets the character used to quote fields in the CSV file that contaim special charactere; the default value is the value of csv_output_quote_char in gam.cfg which defaults to double quote.

The sortheaders <StringList> argument causes GAM to sort CSV output rows by the column headers specified in <StringList>. The column headers are case insensitive and if column header does not appear in the CSV output, it is ignored.

The timestampcolumn <String> adds a column named <String> to the CSV file; the value is the timestamp of when the GAM command started.

If you are doing redirect csv <FileName> multiprocess, it is more efficient to specify todrive <ToDriveAttribute>* as part of the redirect as verification of the todrive settings, which can involve several API calls, is done once rather than in each of the subprocesses.

By setting <FileName> to -, you can redirect to stdout/stderr rather than a file; this is typically used when multiprocess is specified.

• redirect csv - multiprocess - Send CSV output to stdout; intelligently aggregate data by process
• redirect stdout - multiprocess - Send normal output stdout; intelligently aggregate data by process
• redirect stderr - multiprocess - Send getting messages and error messages to stderr; intelligently aggregate data by process

If the pattern {{Section}} appears in <FileName>, it will be replaced with the name of the current section of gam.cfg.

Examples - redirect CSV

Suppose that you have a CSV file CourseList.csv with a column labeled CourseId that contains course Ids. You want a single CSV file with participant information for these courses.

gam redirect csv ./CourseInfo.csv multiprocess csv CourseList.csv gam print course-participants course "~CourseId"

redirect csv ./CourseInfo.csv multiprocess causes gam to collect output from all of the processes started by csv CourseList.csv gam print course-participants course "~CourseId" and produces a single CSV file CourseInfo.csv.

Generate a list of CrOS devices and update an existing sheet in a Google spreadsheet. The file ID and sheet IDs are preserved so other appplications can access the data using the file ID and sheet ID. By setting 'tdtimestamp true`, the file name will the updated to reflect the time of execution, but the file ID will not change.

gam redirect csv - todrive tdtitle "CrOS" tdtimestamp true tdfileid 12345-mizZ6Q2vP1rcHQH3tAZQt_NVB2EOxmS2SU3yM tdsheet id:0 tdupdatesheet true print cros fields deviceId,notes,orgUnitPath,serialNumber,osversion

For a collection of users, generate a list of files shared with anyone; combine the output for all users into a single file.

gam redirect csv - multiprocess todrive tdtitle AnyoneShares-All csv Users.csv gam user "~primaryEmail" print filelist fields id,name,permissions pm type anyone em

For a collection of users, generate a list of files shared with anyone; generate a separate file for each user. The two forms of the command are equivalent.

gam csv Users.csv gam redirect csv - todrive tdtitle "AnyoneShares-~~primaryEmail~~" user "~primaryEmail" print filelist fields id,name,permissions pm type anyone em

gam csv Users.csv gam user "~primaryEmail" print filelist fields id,name,permissions pm type anyone em todrive tdtitle "AnyoneShares-~~primaryEmail~~" 

Examples - Redirect stdout

The output from each of the gam info user "~primaryEmail" commands will be combined into the single file Users.txt. The value of show_multiprocess_info from gam.cfg controls whether information identifying the processes is also shown.

$ gam config show_multiprocess_info false redirect stdout ./Users.txt multiprocess csv Users.csv gam info user "~primaryEmail"
$ more Users.txt
User: [email protected] (1/1)
  Settings:
    First Name: Test
    Last Name: User1
    Full Name: Test User1
...
User: [email protected]@ (1/1)
  Settings:
    First Name: Test
    Last Name: User2
    Full Name: Test User2
...

$ gam config show_multiprocess_info true redirect stdout ./Users.txt multiprocess csv Users.csv gam info user "~primaryEmail"
$ more Users.txt
stdout:      0, Start: 2017-01-26T11:35:00.897773-08:00, RC:   0, Cmd: /Users/admin/gam config show_multiprocess_info true redirect stdout ./Users.txt multiprocess csv Users.csv gam info user "~primaryEmail"
stdout:      1, Start: 2017-01-26T11:35:00.902709-08:00, RC:   0, Cmd: gam info user [email protected]
User: [email protected] (1/1)
  Settings:
    First Name: Test
    Last Name: User1
    Full Name: Test User1
...
stdout:      1,   End: 2017-01-26T11:35:02.656837-08:00, RC:   0, Cmd: gam info user [email protected]
stdout:      2, Start: 2017-01-26T11:35:00.910729-08:00, RC:   0, Cmd: gam info user [email protected]
User: [email protected]@ (1/1)
  Settings:
    First Name: Test
    Last Name: User2
    Full Name: Test User2
...
stdout:      2,   End: 2017-01-26T11:35:02.849646-08:00, RC:   0, Cmd: gam info user [email protected]
stdout:      0,   End: 2017-01-26T11:35:02.907141-08:00, RC:   0, Cmd: /Users/admin/gam config show_multiprocess_info true redirect stdout ./Users.txt multiprocess csv Users.csv gam info user "~primaryEmail"