CLI contexts

This topic explains the concept of contexts within the Delphix Engine command-line interface.

The CLI is built on the concept of modal “contexts” that represent an administrative point for interacting with the web service APIs. These contexts can be divided into the following types:

Context	Description
Static children	These contexts exist for the purpose of navigating between points in the hierarchy, but have no properties of their own and do not correspond to any server-side object. The root context is an example of this, as are most of the top-level contexts such as `database` or `group`.
Object	These contexts represent an object on the server, either a specific object (such as databases) or system-wide state (such as SMTP configuration). These contexts have properties that can be retrieved via the get command.
Operation	These contexts represent a request to the server. Commands may or may not require input and may or may not change state on the server, but in all cases require an explicit commit operation to execute the command. When in a command context, the prompt includes a trailing asterisk (*) to indicate that `commit` or `discard` is required before exiting the context.

User can move between contents by typing the name of the context. To move to a previous context, the up or back commands can be used. In addition, the CLI supports UNIX-like aliases for cd and ls, allowing navigation similar to a UNIX filesystem. For more information on these commands, see the Command Reference section.