Salt allows for commands to be executed across a swath of remote systems in parallel. This means that remote systems can be both controlled and queried with ease.
Print a usage message briefly summarizing these command-line options
The timeout in seconds to wait for replies from the Salt minions.
By default as of version 0.9.8 the salt command returns data to the console as it is received from minions, but previous releases would return data only after all data was received. To only return the data with a hard timeout and after all minions have returned then use the static option.
Instead of executing on all targeted minions at once, execute on a progressive set of minions. This option takes an argument in the form of an explicit number of minions to execute at once, or a percentage of minions to execute on.
Print the version of Salt that is running.
The target expression will be interpreted as a pcre regular expression rather than a shell glob.
The target expression will be interpreted as a comma delimited list, example: server1.foo.bar,server2.foo.bar,example7.quo.qux
The target expression matches values returned by the Salt grains system on the minions. The target expression is in the format of '<grain value>:<glob expression>'; example: 'os:Arch*'
This was changed in version 0.9.8 to accept glob expressions instead of regular expression. To use regular expression matching with grains use the --grain-pcre option.
The target expression matches values returned by the Salt grains system on the minions. The target expression is in the format of '<grain value>:< regular expression>'; example: 'os:Arch.*'
Utilize many target definitions to make the call very granular. This option takes a group of targets separated by and or or. The default matcher is a glob as usual, if something other than a glob is used preface it with the letter denoting the type, example: 'webserv* and G@os:Debian or E@db*' make sure that the compound target is encapsulated in quotes.
Instead of using shell globs use the return code of a function.
Use a predefined compound target defined in the Salt master configuration file
Instead of using shell globs to evaluate the target use a range expression to identify targets. Range expressions look like %cluster.
Using the Range option requires that a range server is set up and the location of the range server is referenced in the master configuration file.
Chose an alternative returner to call on the minion, if an alternative returner is used then the return will not come back tot he command line but will be sent to the specified return system.
The -Q option is being deprecated and will be removed in version 0.9.9, Use the Salt jobs interface instead, for documentation on the Salt jobs interface execute the command "salt-run -d jobs"
Execute a salt command query, this can be used to find the results of a previous function call: -Q test.echo')
The location of the Salt master configuration file, the Salt master settings are required to know where the connections are; default=/etc/salt/master
Print the output from the salt command in raw Python form, this is suitable for re-reading the output into an executing Python script with eval.
Print the output from the salt command in the same form the shell would.
Print the output from the salt command in YAML.
Print the output from the salt command in JSON.
Disable all colored output
salt(7) salt-master(1) salt-minion(1)