The Linux Command Line Interface

Introduction

This topic describes the Linux command line interface (CLI).

Prerequisites

  1. The CLI commands are designed for the command line. If run inside a graphical interface's terminal window, certain commands will defer to the GUI version.

    Running abr start in a GUI terminal window shows the following message:

    NOTE

    The screenshots in this section were taken on a Linux Ubuntu 24.04 desktop, switching between GUI and command line interfaces:

    • From GUI to command line:

      systemctl set-default multi-user.target
      reboot

    • From command line to GUI:

      systemctl set-default graphical.target
      reboot

  2. Using the CLI requires Admin By Request for Linux version 3.1.9 or greater.

    You can check which version of Admin By Request you have installed on a Linux endpoint as follows:

    GUI

    Command line

    From the icon in the menu bar, select
    About     Admin By Request:

    At the command prompt, enter abr version:

    You can also check the version using the Admin Portal. Log in to the portal and click Inventory. Find the device concerned and note the version listed in column SW:

Commands

From version 3.1.9, the following commands are supported:

  • abr finish

  • abr settings

  • abr start

  • abr status

  • abr version

There are also four global options:

  • abr --help

  • abr --master-config-file <arg>

  • abr --system-config-file <arg>

  • abr --log-level <arg>

Run abr --help to see a full list of commands and options.

Command

Output

abr finish

Ends an admin session.

When the messages above disappear, the countdown timer in the bottom right of the status bar also disappears and the CLI prompt is restored.


Command

Output

abr settings

Lists the settings from the portal that currently apply to this endpoint.

  • To output settings to a text file:

    abr settings > settings.txt

  • To reload settings as a service refresh that applies a policy change without a reboot:

    abr settings --reload

 



Command

Output

abr start

Starts an admin session.

The sequence of messages that follow depends on settings in the portal; i.e. whether or not the user must have requests approved before running elevated tasks.

  3. IMPORTANT

    Check email for approval.

    Once approval is granted, start the admin session before entering any commands that require elevation, including sudo. If an admin session is not running, sudo is treated as "Run As Admin" and will prompt again for a reason even if approval has already been given for the admin session.

    To start the session, enter abr start a second time.

The final screenshot shows a countdown timer in the status bar. When the timer reaches zero, the session will terminate.


Command

Output

abr version

Displays the current version of the Admin By Request client for Linux.

abr version --details

Adds Build and Description information.



Command

Output

abr status

Equivalent to selecting About Admin By Request > Connectivity in the GUI app (see Connecting via a Proxy Server).

In this example, both Internet and Cloud connectivity are Online, and neither the computer nor the user is joined to a domain.

From version 4.1, the output also reports the state of the client's connection to the IoT hub, the same information the IoT hub status row shows on the Connectivity panel of the graphical interface (see Other Panels  (accessed via their respective buttons). in the GUI topic).

Entering abr --help shows all available commands and options:

Shows the master configuration file.

NOTE

This is for the use of Admin By Request and not something customers should be changing. It is provided here for information only and may be hidden in future releases.

Shows the system configuration file.

NOTE

This is for the use of Admin By Request and not something customers should be changing. It is provided here for information only and may be hidden in future releases.

Sets the level for logging (e.g. info, debug etc.). Use this option together with a command as indicated in the following examples:

  • abr --log-level info start

  • abr --log-level info status

  • abr --log-level debug start

  • abr --log-level debug status

The default level is info and the current level can be seen in either the master config file or the system config file.

Auditlog

In the same way as the graphical interface, all activity is logged, both for Run As Admin and Admin Sessions.

The following examples show typical activity recorded in the auditlog.