Alibaba Cloud CLI:Export Alibaba Cloud CLI command metadata and API metadata

Step 1: Enable the export feature

Set the temporary environment variable GENERATE_METADATA to YES in your shell execution environment to enable the metadata export feature.

The method for setting the variable differs by operating system:

• Linux/macOS

  export GENERATE_METADATA=YES

• Windows PowerShell

  $env:GENERATE_METADATA = "YES"

• Windows CMD

  set GENERATE_METADATA=YES

Step 2: Export the metadata

After you set the environment variable, run any Alibaba Cloud CLI command. Alibaba Cloud CLI starts to export metadata after the command runs. For example:

aliyun

All generated metadata files are saved in the cli-metadata directory within the current working directory. For example:

• If you run the command in the C:\Users\User directory, the metadata is saved to C:\Users\User\cli-metadata.

• If you run the command in the /home/user/ directory, the metadata is saved to /home/user/cli-metadata.

The generated metadata files include the following main subdirectories and files, which store different types of metadata information:

cli-metadata/
├── metadatas/ # Directory for all the API metadata of cloud services supported by Alibaba Cloud CLI.
│ ├── products.json # List and basic information of cloud services, including service names, endpoints, default integrated API versions, API styles, and service API lists.
│ └ ── <product-name>/ # A subdirectory for each service, such as VPC and ECS.
│ └ ── <api-name>.json # Detailed definition file for each API operation.
│
├── en-US/ # Directory for all the API metadata of cloud services supported by Alibaba Cloud CLI (English version). Services without English descriptions are not in this directory.
│ ├── products.json # List and basic information of cloud services.
│ └ ── <product-name>/ # A subdirectory for each service, such as VPC and ECS.
│ ├── <api-name>.json # Detailed definition file for each API operation.
│ └ ── version.json # API versions that the cloud service supports and the list of API operations included in each version.
│
├── zh-CN/ # Directory for all the API metadata of cloud services supported by Alibaba Cloud CLI (Chinese version). Services without Chinese descriptions are not in this directory.
│ ├── products.json
│ └── <product-name>/
│ ├── <api-name>.json
│ └── version.json
│   
├── commands.json # Definition file for the Alibaba Cloud CLI command structure, including all commands, subcommands, options, and their parameter descriptions.
└ ── version # Version number of the currently used Alibaba Cloud CLI (plain text file). 

Step 3: Disable the metadata export feature

After the metadata export is complete, disable this feature to prevent metadata files from being generated when you run subsequent commands.