How to get CLI help, support, and fixes

Owned by Bob Swift
Last updated: Feb 06, 2020 by Michael Kuhl
3 min read

Description

This describes the way to get help, support, and fixes for any of the CLI tools. By following these steps, it will help you get help sooner and reduce the amount of time needed to support the CLI. Users are encouraged to help others if they have solved similar problems by answering questions or contributing How to pages!

First steps

Help yourself as much as possible!

  1. Make sure you are on the latest CLI release.
  2. Use the documentation and issue tracker information.
  3. Search this site using the search box.
  4. Google (http://google.com) the question and problem.
  5. Search community.atlassian.com.
  6. Review Tips.
  7. Go to What to do?.

Tips

Encoding

If your client PC encoding does not match your server encoding (usually UTF\-8), then the following may help:

In your Atlassian or product specific command file, add:

-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 just after java on the java command.

English

A few actions lack good underlying product API support, so depend on screen like information that is analysed. This analysis may depend on English being the language setting for the user accessing the information. In some cases, the following may help resolve issue stemming from this:

In your Atlassian or product specific command file, add:

-Duser.language=en just after java on the java command.

Jira names

Jira often allows names to contain leading or trailing blanks. This can cause confusion since many of the actions require use of the exact configured name to work correctly and if the name is different than what it appears to be, failures will result that are hard to figure out. Have your Administrator review construct names like custom fields, link types, versions, and similar for unintended blanks and remove.

Use verbose setting

Use -v or --verbose to see more information that might help you to narrow down the problem or figure out a workaround.

Releases

Supported CLI releases are made as needed, usually for significant enhancements and/or multiple important fixes. All releases are regression tested using GINT tests included with the project source. The CLI is tested against specific Atlassian product releases noted in the release notes and other documentation. Usually, about 3 major product releases are tested ranging from the oldest release the CLI officially supports to the newest Atlassian release available. Documentation and other information is updated for CLI releases. A CLI release takes significant effort, so release dates are often many months apart (sad).

Getting a fix or improvement

In order to support more timely delivery of fixes or improvements, the following process is in place:

  1. Go to the Jira issue.
  2. Note the status, fix release, and comments.
  3. If the status is not Resolved or Closed, then no fix is available (sad). Vote for the issue and leave a comment if it is important for you!
  4. If the issue has been Resolved that normally means code has been changed and submitted to BitBucket.
  5. If the status indicates Resolved and the fix release indicated is not available yet, then you may be able to get an EAP (Early access program) SNAPSHOT release.
    • SNAPSHOT releases are work in progress.
    • SNAPSHOT releases are regression tested against at least one supported Atlassian product release.
    • SNAPSHOT releases have limited support - you need to ensure you have the latest installed SNAPSHOT.
    • See if there is a SNAPSHOT for the release indicated on the issue on the Downloads page.
    • Check the date it was uploaded - if it is later than the date the issue was resolved, then it contains the fix!
    • Download, install, and test.
    • Provide feedback in the issue.

Automated release process

All CLI products are released together for SNAPSHOT and full releases.

Installing a SNAPSHOT

Installing a SNAPSHOT is the same as a normal release.

If you already have an existing installation and want to add a SNAPSHOT fix (new release code works the same way!), then follow these steps:

  1. Unpack the new distribution (product specific or ACLI level).
  2. Copy any new jar files from the \lib directory to the existing \lib directory.
    • DO NOT REMOVE any existing jar files - it is ok to have multiple similar jar files with different release numbers!!! This makes it easier to support and upgrade production automation environments.
    • If you already had an older SNAPSHOT jar file with the same release number, replace it - different SNAPSHOTs do not have different release numbers - you need to be more careful with SNAPSHOTS!
  3. Update your customized Atlassian or product specific bat or sh script to reference the newer SNAPSHOT jar.
    • Recommend you compare the script with the new distribution script for any script updates (rarely needed).

What to do?

Problem determination information

  1. CLI version
  2. Environment:
    • Atlassian product version
    • Client OS
    • Java version
    • Other
  3. Command line causing problem
  4. Output of command using --debug option
  5. Stack trace from server logs, if applicable