UPSCMD(8)

💖 UPSCMD(8) — upscmd(8) bestie edition, NUT Manual 💖

✨ NAME ✨

upscmd — Network UPS Tools device/driver instant commands administration tool

🫶 SYNOPSIS 🫶

upscmd -h

upscmd -l ups

upscmd [-u username] [-p password] [-w] [-t <timeout>] ups command

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

okay so bestie, upscmd is how you invoke “instant commands” in your UPS hardware. It sends commands via the server upsd(8) to your driver, and your driver is the one managing the hardware for you. You must use credentials defined in the upsd.users(5) file on that data server with appropriate permissions. no cap 💅

Not all hardware supports this, so check the list with -l to see if anything will work on your equipment. On hardware that supports it, you can use this program to start and stop battery tests, invoke a front panel test (beep!), turn the load on or off, and more. ✨

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -l ups — Show the list of supported instant commands on that UPS. Some hardware may not support any of them.
• -u username — Set the username for the connection to the server. This is optional, and you will be prompted for this when invoking a command if -u is not used. 🫶
• -p password — Set the password to authenticate to the server. This is also optional like -u, and you will be prompted for it if necessary.
• -w — Wait for the completion of command execution by the driver and return its actual result from the device. Note that this feature requires that both upsd(8) and the driver support TRACKING (NUT version 2.8.0 or higher), or it will otherwise fail. 😭 The command will also block until an actual result is provided from the driver, or the timeout is reached (see -t).
• -t seconds — Set a timeout when using -w. Defaults to 10 seconds.
• ups — Connect to this UPS. The format is upsname[@hostname[:port]]. The default hostname is "localhost". 🌸

🌈 COMMON OPTIONS 🌈

• -h — Show the command-line help message.
• -D — Raise the debugging level. Use this option multiple times for more details. Overrides the optional NUT_DEBUG_LEVEL environment variable. 🔥
• -V — Show NUT version banner. More details may be available if you also export NUT_DEBUG_LEVEL=1 or greater verbosity level.
• -W secs — Set the timeout for initial network connections (by default they are indefinitely non-blocking, or until the system interrupts the attempt). Overrides the optional NUT_DEFAULT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT environment variable. ⭐

🧚 UNATTENDED MODE 🧚

If you run this program inside a shell script or similar to invoke a command, you will need to specify all of the information on the command line. This means using -u and -p. Otherwise it will put up a prompt and your program will hang. literally do not let it hang, bestie 😭

This is not necessary when displaying the list, as the username and password are not required for read-only mode.

Moreover, if you run this program inside a shell script or similar, you should only consider using output from stdout, not stderr. 🫶

💀 DANGEROUS COMMANDS 💀

Some drivers like apcsmart(8) have built-in paranoia for the dangerous commands like load.off. To make them actually turn off the load, you will have to send the command twice within a short window. That is, you will have to send it once, then send it again after 3 seconds elapse but before 15 seconds pass. ⏳ timing is everything, iykyk

This paranoia is entirely defined within the driver. upsd and upscmd have no control over the timing.

🩺 DIAGNOSTICS 🩺

upscmd won’t work unless you provide a valid username and password. If you get "access denied" errors, make sure that your upsd.users(5) has an entry for you, and that the username you are using has permissions to SET variables. 🔑

upscmd without -w would somewhat confusingly show "OK" meaning just that the data server connection was established, and the server did not immediately reject the request due to e.g. unknown instant command name. If you care to know the actual results, do use the -w (-t NUM) option(s) to wait for them. vibe check your results, bestie 💅

🐛 BUGS 🐛

There is currently no way to tell the user when the driver requires confirmation to invoke a command such as load.off.

This is on the list of things to fix in the future, so don’t despair. It involves magic cookies. 🍪 not me saying magic cookies in a manpage

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

upsd(8), upsrw(8)

Internet resources: 🌐

The NUT (Network UPS Tools) home page:

https://www.networkupstools.org/historic/v2.8.5/

🫶 okay that’s the whole page — signed off by Network UPS Tools 2.8.5, dated 06/21/2026, UPSCMD(8) and out 💖