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mongofiles

mongofiles

Synopsis

The mongofiles utility makes it possible to manipulate files stored in your MongoDB instance in GridFS objects from the command line. It is particularly useful as it provides an interface between objects stored in your file system and GridFS.

All mongofiles commands have the following form:

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mongofiles <options> <commands> <filename>

The components of the mongofiles command are:

1. Options. You may use one or more of these options to control the behavior of mongofiles.
2. Commands. Use one of these commands to determine the action of mongofiles.
3. A filename which is either: the name of a file on your local’s file system, or a GridFS object.

mongofiles, like mongodump, mongoexport, mongoimport, and mongorestore, can access data stored in a MongoDB data directory without requiring a running mongod instance, if no other mongod is running.

Important

For replica sets, mongofiles can only read from the set’s ‘primary.

Options

--help

Returns information on the options and use of mongofiles.

--verbose, -v

Increases the amount of internal reporting returned on standard output or in log files. Increase the verbosity with the -v form by including the option multiple times, (e.g. -vvvvv.)

--quiet

Runs the mongofiles in a quiet mode that attempts to limit the amount of output.

This option suppresses:

• output from database commands
• replication activity
• connection accepted events
• connection closed events

--version

Returns the mongofiles release number.

--host <hostname><:port>

Specifies a resolvable hostname for the mongod that holds your GridFS system. By default mongofiles attempts to connect to a MongoDB process running on the localhost port number 27017.

Optionally, specify a port number to connect a MongoDB instance running on a port other than 27017.

--port <port>

Default: 27017

Specifies the TCP port on which the MongoDB instance listens for client connections.

--ipv6

Enables IPv6 support and allows the mongofiles to connect to the MongoDB instance using an IPv6 network. All MongoDB programs and processes disable IPv6 support by default.

--ssl

New in version 2.6.

Enables connection to a mongod or mongos that has TLS/SSL support enabled.

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

--sslCAFile <filename>

New in version 2.6.

Specifies the .pem file that contains the root certificate chain from the Certificate Authority. Specify the file name of the .pem file using relative or absolute paths.

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

Warning

If the mongo shell or any other tool that connects to mongos or mongod is run without --sslCAFile, it will not attempt to validate server certificates. This results in vulnerability to expired mongod and mongos certificates as well as to foreign processes posing as valid mongod or mongos instances. Ensure that you always specify the CA file against which server certificates should be validated in cases where intrusion is a possibility.

--sslPEMKeyFile <filename>

New in version 2.6.

Specifies the .pem file that contains both the TLS/SSL certificate and key. Specify the file name of the .pem file using relative or absolute paths.

This option is required when using the --ssl option to connect to a mongod or mongos that has CAFile enabled without weakCertificateValidation.

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

--sslPEMKeyPassword <value>

New in version 2.6.

Specifies the password to de-crypt the certificate-key file (i.e. --sslPEMKeyFile). Use the --sslPEMKeyPassword option only if the certificate-key file is encrypted. In all cases, the mongofiles will redact the password from all logging and reporting output.

If the private key in the PEM file is encrypted and you do not specify the --sslPEMKeyPassword option, the mongofiles will prompt for a passphrase. See SSL Certificate Passphrase.

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

--sslCRLFile <filename>

New in version 2.6.

Specifies the .pem file that contains the Certificate Revocation List. Specify the file name of the .pem file using relative or absolute paths.

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

--sslAllowInvalidCertificates

New in version 2.6.

Bypasses the validation checks for server certificates and allows the use of invalid certificates. When using the allowInvalidCertificates setting, MongoDB logs as a warning the use of the invalid certificate.

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

--sslFIPSMode

New in version 2.6.

Directs the mongofiles to use the FIPS mode of the installed OpenSSL library. Your system must have a FIPS compliant OpenSSL library to use the --sslFIPSMode option.

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

--username <username>, -u <username>

Specifies a username with which to authenticate to a MongoDB database that uses authentication. Use in conjunction with the --password and --authenticationDatabase options.

--password <password>, -p <password>

Specifies a password with which to authenticate to a MongoDB database that uses authentication. Use in conjunction with the --username and --authenticationDatabase options.

If you do not specify an argument for --password, mongofiles will prompt interactively for a password on the console.

--authenticationDatabase <dbname>

New in version 2.4.

Specifies the database that holds the user’s credentials.

--authenticationMechanism <name>

Default: MONGODB-CR

New in version 2.4.

Changed in version 2.6: Added support for the PLAIN and MONGODB-X509 authentication mechanisms.

Specifies the authentication mechanism the mongofiles instance uses to authenticate to the mongod or mongos.

Value	Description
MONGODB-CR	MongoDB challenge/response authentication.
MONGODB-X509	MongoDB TLS/SSL certificate authentication.
PLAIN	External authentication using LDAP. You can also use PLAIN for authenticating in-database users. PLAIN transmits passwords in plain text. This mechanism is available only in MongoDB Enterprise.
GSSAPI	External authentication using Kerberos. This mechanism is available only in MongoDB Enterprise.

--gssapiServiceName

New in version 2.6.

Specify the name of the service using GSSAPI/Kerberos. Only required if the service does not use the default name of mongodb.

This option is available only in MongoDB Enterprise.

--gssapiHostName

New in version 2.6.

Specify the hostname of a service using GSSAPI/Kerberos. Only required if the hostname of a machine does not match the hostname resolved by DNS.

This option is available only in MongoDB Enterprise.

--dbpath <path>

Specifies the directory of the MongoDB data files. The --dbpath option lets the mongofiles attach directly to the local data files without going through a running mongod. When run with --dbpath, the mongofiles locks access to the data files. No mongod can access the files while the mongofiles process runs.

--directoryperdb

When used in conjunction with the corresponding option in mongod, allows the mongofiles to access data from MongoDB instances that use an on-disk format where every database has a distinct directory. This option is only relevant when specifying the --dbpath option.

--journal

Enables the durability journal to ensure data files remain valid and recoverable. This option applies only when you specify the . The mongofiles enables journaling by default on 64-bit builds of versions after 2.0.

--db <database>, -d <database>

Specifies the name of the database on which to run the mongofiles.

--collection <collection>, -c <collection>

This option has no use in this context and a future release may remove it. See SERVER-4931 for more information.

--local <filename>, -l <filename>

Specifies the local filesystem name of a file for get and put operations.

In the mongofiles put and mongofiles get commands, the required <filename> modifier refers to the name the object will have in GridFS. mongofiles assumes that this reflects the file’s name on the local file system. This setting overrides this default.

--type <MIME>

Provides the ability to specify a MIME type to describe the file inserted into GridFS storage. mongofiles omits this option in the default operation.

Use only with mongofiles put operations.

--replace, -r

Alters the behavior of mongofiles put to replace existing GridFS objects with the specified local file, rather than adding an additional object with the same name.

In the default operation, files will not be overwritten by a mongofiles put option.

Commands

list <prefix>

Lists the files in the GridFS store. The characters specified after list (e.g. <prefix>) optionally limit the list of returned items to files that begin with that string of characters.

search <string>

Lists the files in the GridFS store with names that match any portion of <string>.

put <filename>

Copy the specified file from the local file system into GridFS storage.

Here, <filename> refers to the name the object will have in GridFS, and mongofiles assumes that this reflects the name the file has on the local file system. If the local filename is different use the mongofiles --local option.

get <filename>

Copy the specified file from GridFS storage to the local file system.

Here, <filename> refers to the name the object will have in GridFS, and mongofiles assumes that this reflects the name the file has on the local file system. If the local filename is different use the mongofiles --local option.

delete <filename>

Delete the specified file from GridFS storage.

Examples

To return a list of all files in a GridFS collection in the records database, use the following invocation at the system shell:

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mongofiles -d records list

This mongofiles instance will connect to the mongod instance running on the 27017 localhost interface to specify the same operation on a different port or hostname, and issue a command that resembles one of the following:

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mongofiles --port 37017 -d records list
mongofiles --hostname db1.example.net -d records list
mongofiles --hostname db1.example.net --port 37017 -d records list

Modify any of the following commands as needed if you’re connecting the mongod instances on different ports or hosts.

To upload a file named 32-corinth.lp to the GridFS collection in the records database, you can use the following command:

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mongofiles -d records put 32-corinth.lp

To delete the 32-corinth.lp file from this GridFS collection in the records database, you can use the following command:

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mongofiles -d records delete 32-corinth.lp

To search for files in the GridFS collection in the records database that have the string corinth in their names, you can use following command:

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mongofiles -d records search corinth

To list all files in the GridFS collection in the records database that begin with the string 32, you can use the following command:

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mongofiles -d records list 32

To fetch the file from the GridFS collection in the records database named 32-corinth.lp, you can use the following command:

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mongofiles -d records get 32-corinth.lp

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