Silo Client (mcli / mc)

The Pigsty-maintained client is distributed as mcli in standalone archives and Linux packages. Its source build, container entrypoint, configuration directory, module path, and command syntax retain mc for compatibility. It provides familiar commands such as ls, cat, cp, mirror, and diff for filesystems and Amazon S3-compatible object storage.

The mc command-line tool is built for compatibility with the AWS S3 API. Its current source retains compatibility with Silo, upstream MinIO, and AWS S3.

The Silo project cannot guarantee behavior against every other S3-compatible service because implementations differ. Test the operations your workload relies on before treating another service as compatible.

mc has the following syntax:

mc [GLOBALFLAGS] COMMAND --help

See Command Quick Reference for a list of supported commands.

Version Alignment with Silo Server

The client releases separately from the Silo server.

For best functionality and compatibility, use a client version released close to your Silo or MinIO server version. A client released on the same day or later than the server is generally the safer choice.

You can install a client newer than the server. If the versions skew too far apart, however, administrative features or flags may differ even when core S3 operations such as mc cp remain compatible.

Quickstart

1) Install the client

Use Download & Install to select a Linux package, an archive for Linux, macOS, or Windows, or the client container. Versioned artifacts and checksums are also available from GitHub Releases.

Standalone archives and Linux packages install the command as mcli. The container and source build retain mc. The commands are aliases of the same client; when this reference shows mc, substitute mcli if that is the name installed on your host.

To build the maintained fork from source:

git clone https://github.com/pgsty/mc.git
cd mc
make build
./mc --version

2) Create an Alias for the S3-Compatible Service

Use the mc alias set command to add an Amazon S3-compatible service to the mc configuration.

bash +o history
mc alias set ALIAS HOSTNAME ACCESS_KEY SECRET_KEY
bash -o history

• Replace ALIAS with a name to associate to the S3 service. mc commands typically require ALIAS as an argument for identifying which S3 service to execute against.
• Replace HOSTNAME with the URL endpoint or IP address of the S3 service.
• Replace ACCESS_KEY and SECRET_KEY with the access and secret keys for a user on the S3 service.

Replace each argument with the required values. If you omit the ACCESS_KEY and SECRET_KEY, the command prompts you to enter those values in the CLI.

Each of the following tabs contains a provider-specific example:

mc alias set silo https://silo.example.net ACCESS_KEY SECRET_KEY

mc alias set myS3 https://s3.{your-region-code}.amazonaws.com/endpoint ACCESS_KEY SECRET_KEY

mc alias set myGCS https://storage.googleapis.com/endpoint ACCESS_KEY SECRET_KEY

3) Test the Connection

Use the mc admin info command to test the connection to the newly added Silo deployment:

mc admin info silo

The command returns information on the S3 service if successful. If unsuccessful, check each of the following:

• The host machine has connectivity to the S3 service URL (i.e. using ping or traceroute).

• The specified ACCESSKEY and SECRETKEY correspond to a user on the S3 service. The user must have permission to perform actions on the service.

  For MinIO deployments, see Access Management for more information on user access permissions. For other S3-compatible services, defer to the documentation for that service.

Command Quick Reference

The following table lists mc commands:

Configuration File

mc uses a JSON formatted configuration file used for storing certain kinds of information, such as the aliases for each configured S3-compatible service.

For Linux and macOS, the default configuration file location is ~/.mc/config.json.

For Windows, mc attempts to construct a default file path by trying specific environment variables. If a variable is unset, mc moves to the next variable. If all attempts fail, mc returns an error. The following list describes each possible file path location in the order mc checks them:

1. HOME\.mc\config.json
2. USERPROFILE\.mc\config.json
3. HOMEDRIVE+HOMEPATH\.mc\config.json

You can use the --config-dir

Certificates

The MinIO Client stores certificates and CAs for deployments to the following paths:

Linux, macOS, and other Unix-like systems:

~/.mc/certs/ # certificates
~/.mc/certs/CAs/ # Certificate Authorities

Windows systems:

C:\Users\[username]\mc\certs\ # certificates
C:\Users\[username]\mc\certs\CAs\ # Certificate Authorities

When creating a new alias, the MinIO Client fetches the peer certificate, computes the public key fingerprint, and asks the user whether to accept the deployment’s certificate. If you decide to trust the certificate, the MinIO Client adds the certificate to the certificate authority path listed above.

Pattern Matching

Some commands and flags allow for pattern matching. When enabled, a pattern can include either of these wildcards for character replacement:

• * to represent a string of characters to match, either in the middle or end.
• ? to represent a single character.

For example, refer to the following examples for wildcard uses and their results.

Global Options

All commands support the following global options. You can also define some of these options using Environment Variables.

--config-dir

option

The path to a JSON formatted configuration file that mc uses for storing data. See Configuration File for more information on how mc uses the configuration file.

Alternatively, set the environment variable MC_CONFIG_DIR.

--debug

option

Enables verbose output to the console.

For example, the following operation adds verbose output to the mc ls command:

mc --debug ls play

Alternatively, set the environment variable MC_DEBUG.

--disable-pager --dp

option

Disable the pager functionality of the MinIO Client in the CLI. When used, output prints to raw STDOUT instead.

--insecure

option

Disables TLS/SSL certificate verification. Allows TLS connectivity to servers with invalid certificates. Exercise caution when using this option against untrusted S3 hosts.

Alternatively, set the environment variable MC_INSECURE.

--json

option

Enables JSON lines formatted output to the console.

For example, the following operation adds JSON Lines output to the mc ls command:

mc --json ls play

Alternatively, set the environment variable MC_JSON.

--no-color

option

Disables the built-in color theme for console output. Useful for dumb terminals.

Alternatively, set the environment variable MC_NO_COLOR.

--quiet

option

Suppresses console output.

Alternatively, set the environment variable MC_QUIET.

--resolve

option

Creates a custom DNS mapping to resolve a HOST to a specified IP address.

Use the following syntax:

--resolve HOST[:PORT]=IP

For example:

mc alias set --resolve myminio.example.com:9000=192.168.188.118 'myminio' 'https://myminio.example.com:9000' 'miniouser' 'miniosecret'

Repeat the flag multiple times to add additional custom DNS mappings.

--version

option

Displays the current version of mc.

--help

mc-cmd

Optional

Displays a summary of command usage on the terminal.