Welcome to Fabric’s documentation!

This site covers fab-classic’s usage & API documentation. fab-classic is still usually referred to as Fabric in the documentation, and it is still imported as fabric.

The primary site is the GitHub project page: https://github.com/ploxiln/fab-classic/

For information about installing fab-classic: Installing.

Tutorial

For new users, and/or for an overview of Fabric’s basic functionality, please see the Overview and Tutorial. The rest of the documentation will assume you’re at least passingly familiar with the material contained within.

Usage documentation

The following list contains all major sections of Fabric’s prose (non-API) documentation, which expands upon the concepts outlined in the Overview and Tutorial and also covers advanced topics.

• The environment dictionary, env
  • Environment as configuration
  • Environment as shared state
  • Other considerations
  • Full list of env vars
• Execution model
  • Execution strategy
  • Defining tasks
  • Defining host lists
  • Intelligently executing tasks with execute
  • Failure handling
  • Connections
  • Password management
  • Leveraging native SSH config files
• fab options and arguments
  • Basic use
  • Arbitrary remote shell commands
  • Command-line options
  • Per-task arguments
  • Settings files
  • Exit status
• Fabfile construction and use
  • Fabfile discovery
  • Importing Fabric
  • Defining tasks and importing callables
• Interaction with remote programs
  • Combining stdout and stderr
  • Pseudo-terminals
  • Combining the two
• Library Use
  • Connections
  • Disconnecting
  • Final note
• Managing output
  • Output levels
  • Hiding and/or showing output levels
  • Prefix output
• Parallel execution
  • What it does
  • How to use it
  • Bubble size
  • Linewise vs bytewise output
• SSH behavior
  • Unknown hosts
  • Known hosts with changed keys
• Defining tasks
  • New-style tasks
  • Classic tasks

• Troubleshooting
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

API documentation

Fabric maintains two sets of API documentation, autogenerated from the source code’s docstrings (which are typically very thorough.)

Core API

The core API is loosely defined as those functions, classes and methods which form the basic building blocks of Fabric (such as run and sudo) upon which everything else (the below “contrib” section, and user fabfiles) builds.

• Color output functions
• Context Managers
• Decorators
• Documentation helpers
• Network
• Operations
• Tasks
• Utils

Contrib API

Fabric’s contrib package contains commonly useful tools (often merged in from user fabfiles) for tasks such as user I/O, modifying remote files, and so forth. While the core API is likely to remain small and relatively unchanged over time, this contrib section will grow and evolve (while trying to remain backwards-compatible) as more use-cases are solved and added.

• Console Output Utilities
• Django Integration
• File and Directory Management
• Project Tools

Contributing & Running Tests

For advanced users & developers looking to help fix bugs or add new features.

• Running Fabric’s Tests
  • First-time Setup
  • Running Tests
• Old Changelog