MDATA-LIST(1)

📦 version 0.0.1, in ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ MDATA-LIST 💅 — the mdata-list manual page, bestie edition 🎀

okay so this is the mdata-list page from the Metadata Commands collection, and honestly? it's giving "tiny command, big main character energy." let's get into it. 🦋

🌸 NAME 🌸

mdata-list — grab the list of all the metadata key-value pairs that are available. that's it, that's the whole vibe. ✨

💖 SYNOPSIS 💖

/usr/sbin/mdata-list

no flags, no arguments, no drama. just run it. 👑

🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

so the mdata-list command lets you — or a script, scripts deserve nice things too — query the metadata for a guest instance running in a SmartDataCenter (SDC) cloud. 💭

where does this metadata even come from? bestie, gather round:

  • it's generally set programmatically via CloudAPI 🌐
  • or during interactive provisioning via a Web Portal 🖥️
  • and it can also be set from inside the instance itself using the mdata-put command 🫶

and if you want the actual value of a key-value pair? you pass its name to the mdata-get command. that's the whole system. iykyk. 💅

now, the important part: the list of all customer-provided metadata key-value pairs gets printed to stdout. 📤

⚠️ heads up bestie: if the metadata service is unavailable at the time of the request, this command will block waiting for it to become available. it's not ghosting you, it's literally just waiting. 😭

Non-transient failures will cause the program to exit with a non-zero status. and depending on the nature of the error, some diagnostic output may get printed to stderr. 🙈

⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

here are the exit values it can return, and what each one means:

  • 0 — successful completion! 🎉 the list of key-value pairs was emitted to stdout. slay.
  • 2 — an error occurred. 😬 an unexpected error condition happened, and it's believed to be a non-transient condition. retrying the request is not expected to resolve it — either a software bug or a misconfiguration exists. so like, don't just hit it again and hope. periodt.
  • 3 — a usage error occurred. 🚫 malformed arguments were passed to the program. check the usage instructions to make sure you're supplying valid arguments. (this one is on you, bestie, no cap.)

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

go read these too, they're iconic:

and that's the whole page!! brought to you by Joyent SmartDataCenter, dated October 2013 — yeah she's an elder but she still ate. 💜

📦 where this page comes from