NetVault 11.4.5 - CLI Reference Guide

Formatting the reports

The nvreport utility provides several options to format the layout and content of a report. The following sections outline the use of these options.

NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, the description of the options offered in this section assume that they are being used with report templates that use a “Plain Text” output type. These templates include “clidefault” or “- cli default template” in their filename. You can view these reports from a terminal session window.

When a report is run and viewed from the CLI, the output includes several columns. The column header, referred to as “Field Name”, may not be the same as the “real name” of the column set up in the template file that is used to run the report. You must use the real name with the formatting options covered in this section.

You can use one of the following methods to find the real names:

To obtain a list of valid field names for a canned report class, type the following command:

The output includes four columns: Real name, Field name, Data type, and Description.

This command displays all fields that are available with the specified canned report. It includes even those fields that are not displayed when you run the report. You can include these additional fields using the format option. For more information, see Adding or removing columns.

To determine the default fields for a template file, follow these steps:

Open the template file in a text editor. In this file, the %FORMAT line provides the Real Name for the fields. You can find the template files in <NetVault Backup home>\reports\templates on Windows and <NetVault Backup home>/reports/templates on Linux.

The %FORMAT line of a template file only includes Real Names for the fields displayed when a report is run.

Sample template file:

Using the format option

By default, a report is displayed in a pre-defined layout when run in the terminal window. You can use the ‑format option to specify the number of characters that are displayed in a column, insert a line break, or add or remove columns. The formatting options are described in the following sections:

When you use the -format option, you must use the real name of the fields. Each name must be prefixed with a “%” symbol. If the real name includes the “%” symbol, use the escape sequence “%%” when specifying the name. Moreover, you must specify all required fields in the syntax. If you omit any field in the syntax, it is not displayed in the output.

To specify the maximum numbers of characters for a column, append two colons and a number to the Real Name:

Example:

To include a line break between each entry in the report output, append “%\n” to the end of the list of fields named with the -format option:

Example:

Some template files offer several additional fields that can be included in the output using the -format option. To add a column, obtain the full list of the available fields for a template file using the nvreport -help field <class name> command. Review the information offered in the Description column for each field, and include the applicable fields. Verify that you use the real name of the field.

The following example uses the “drives” canned report. It includes all the default fields and additionally displays the number of Write Errors for the drive.

Example:

Using the sort option

The -sort option can be used to sort the entries on a selected field. A sort expression is specified in the following format:

A report can be sorted by any field a class offers. Even a Real Name for the field that is not displayed in the output can be used for sorting the output.

When you use the -sort option, you must use the real name of the fields. Each name must be prefixed with a “%” symbol. If the real name includes the “%” symbol, use the escape sequence “%%” when specifying the name.

Example:

You can specify multiple fields with the “-sort” option. The resulting report prioritizes the sort based on the order of the field names in the syntax. When using multiple sort fields, enclose all fields in quotation marks (“ ”).

Example:

Using the include option

The -include option can be used to filter the data for a report. A filter expression is specified in the following format:

To join multiple filter expressions, use “AND” and “OR”. In addition, use parenthesis to indicate the priority of the arguments.

Examples: