(cli-options)=
# CLI options

-  `--config_dir` defines directory where jobs are stored instead of default `~/.fscrawler`.
-  `--help` displays help
-  `--list` lists all jobs. See [List](#list).
-  `--loop x` defines the number of runs we want before exiting. See [Loop](#loop).
-  `--restart` restart a job from scratch. See [Restart](#restart).
-  `--rest` starts the REST service. See [Rest](#rest).
-  `--setup` creates a job configuration. See [Setup](#setup).
-  `--silent` runs in silent mode. No output is generated on the console.

Job settings can also be passed as command line arguments. For example, if you
want to set the `url` of a job named `myjob` to `/tmp/test`, you can run:

```sh
FS_JAVA_OPTS="-Dfs.url=/tmp/test" bin/fscrawler
```

A more complete example as follows, runs out of the box the indexation of the directory
`/tmp/test` in Elasticsearch running at `https://elastic.mycompany.com` with `API_KEY` as the API key, and it
exits after the first run:

```sh
FS_JAVA_OPTS="-Dfs.url=/tmp/test -Delasticsearch.urls=https://elastic.mycompany.com -Delasticsearch.api-key=API_KEY" bin/fscrawler --loop 1
```

```{note}
You can optionally specify the job name you want to use / run. If not set, the default job name is `fscrawler`.
```

## Loop

`--loop x` defines the number of runs we want before exiting:

-  `X` where X is a negative value means infinite, like `-1` (default)
-  `0` means that we don’t run any crawling job (useful when used with rest).
-  `X` where X is a positive value is the number of runs before it stops.

If you want to scan your hard drive only once, run with `--loop 1`.

## Restart

You can tell FSCrawler that it must restart from the beginning by using `--restart` option:

```sh
bin/fscrawler --restart
```

In that case, the `~/.fscrawler/{job_name}/_checkpoint.json` file will be removed,
forcing a fresh scan of the entire filesystem as if it had never been indexed before.

```{note}

The `--restart` option does **not** delete the Elasticsearch indices. It only clears the 
checkpoint file so FSCrawler will re-scan all files. If you also want to remove the indexed 
documents, you need to delete the Elasticsearch indices manually.
```

## Rest

If you want to run the {ref}`rest-service` without scanning your hard drive, launch with:

```sh
bin/fscrawler --rest --loop 0
```

## Setup

If you want to setup a new job, you can use the `--setup` option. It will create
a default configuration file named `~/.fscrawler/fscrawler/_settings.yaml`:

```sh
bin/fscrawler --setup
```

```{note}

 You can also use `--setup job_name` to create a job named `job_name` instead of the default `fscrawler`.
```

## List

If you want to list all jobs, you can use the `--list` option. It will list all the existing jobs in `~/.fscrawler`:

```sh
bin/fscrawler --list
```