wipeicat

Synopsis

wipeicat [options]

Description

Delete all content from an ICAT server.

In order to avoid leaving orphan content in the IDS server behind, the script first tries to delete all Datafiles having the location attribute set from the IDS server. If deleting the Datafiles succeeded, the remaing content is deleted from ICAT in palatable chunks.

Options

The configuration options may be set in the command line or in a configuration file. Some options may also be set in the environment.

These options are needed to connect the ICAT service and are common for most python-icat scripts.

-h, --help: Display a help message and exit.

-c CONFIGFILE, --configfile CONFIGFILE: Name of a configuration file.

-s SECTION, --configsection SECTION: Name of a section in the configuration file. If set, the values in this configuration section will be applied to define other options.

-w URL, --url URL: URL of the ICAT server. This should point to the web service descriptions. If the URL has no path component, a default path will be added.

--no-check-certificate: Do not verify the ICAT server’s TLS certificate. This is only relevant if the URL set with --url uses HTTPS. It is mostly only useful for connecting a test server that does not have a trusted certificate.

--http-proxy HTTP_PROXY: Proxy to use for http requests.

--https-proxy HTTPS_PROXY: Proxy to use for https requests.

--no-proxy NO_PROXY: Comma separated list of exclusions for proxy use.

-a AUTH, --auth AUTH: Name of the authentication plugin to use for login to the ICAT server.

-u USERNAME, --user USERNAME: The ICAT user name.

-p PASSWORD, --pass PASSWORD: The user’s password. Will prompt for the password if not set.

-P, --prompt-pass: Prompt for the password. This is mostly useful to override a password set in the configuration file.

Known Issues with old IDS Versions

The recommended version of the IDS server is 1.6.0 or newer. The script does not take any particular measure to work around issues in servers older than that. In particular, the script mail fail or leave rubbish behind in the following situations:

The IDS server is older then 1.6.0 and there is any Dataset with many Datafiles, see IDS Issue #42.
The IDS server is older then 1.3.0 and restoring of any Dataset takes a significant amount of time, see IDS Issue #14.

The script does however take care not trying to delete any Datafile having a NULL location attribute in order to work around IDS Issue #63 in IDS server older then 1.9.0.

Environment Variables

ICAT_CFG: Name of a configuration file, see --configfile.

ICAT_CFG_SECTION: Name of a section in the configuration file, see --configsection.

ICAT_SERVICE: URL of the ICAT server, see --url.

http_proxy: Proxy to use for http requests, see --http-proxy.

https_proxy: Proxy to use for https requests, see --https-proxy.

no_proxy: Exclusions for proxy use, see --no-proxy.

ICAT_AUTH: Name of the authentication plugin, see --auth.

ICAT_USER: ICAT user name, see --user.