---
name: "pysnmpcmd"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "python3-pysnmp4-apps"
version: "0.4.1-2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pysnmpcmd"
---

# pysnmpcmd(1)

options and behaviour common to most of the PySNMP command-line tools

## NAME

pysnmpcmd - options and behaviour common to most of the PySNMP command-line tools

## SYNOPSIS

**pysnmpcmd** \[OPTIONS\] AGENT \[PARAMETERS\]

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page describes the common options for the PySNMP commands: **pysnmpbulkwalk**, **pysnmpget**, **pysnmpset**,  **pysnmptranslate**, **pysnmpwalk**.  The command line applications use the SNMP protocol to communicate with an SNMP capable network entity, an agent.  Individual applications typically (but not necessarily) take additional parameters that are given after the agent specification.  These parameters are documented in the manual pages for each application.

## OPTIONS

- **-a** *authProtocol*

  Set the authentication protocol (MD5 or SHA) used for authenticated SNMPv3 messages.

- **-A** *authPassword*

  Set the authentication pass phrase used for authenticated SNMPv3 messages.

- **-c** *community*

  Set the community string for SNMPv1/v2c transactions.

- **-d**

  Dump (in hexadecimal) the raw SNMP packets sent and received.

- **-D *TOKEN\[,...\]***

  Turn on debugging output for the given *TOKEN*(s). Try *all* for extremely verbose output.

- **-e** *engineID*

  Set the authoritative (security) engineID used for SNMPv3 REQUEST messages.  It is typically not necessary to specify this, as it will usually be discovered automatically.

- **-E** *engineID*

  Set the context engineID used for SNMPv3 REQUEST messages scopedPdu. If not specified, this will default to the authoritative engineID.

- **-h, --help**

  Display a brief usage message and then exit.

- **-H**

  Display a list of configuration file directives understood by the command and then exit.

- **-I** *\[hu\]*

  Specifies input parsing options. See  **INPUT OPTIONS** below.

- **-l** *secLevel*

  Set the securityLevel used for SNMPv3 messages (noAuthNoPriv\|authNoPriv\|authPriv).  Appropriate pass phrase(s) must provided when using any level higher than noAuthNoPriv.

- **-m** *MIBLIST*

  Specifies a colon separated list of MIB modules (not files) to load for this application.

-

  The special keyword *ALL* is used to load all MIB modules in the MIB directory search list. Every file whose name does not begin with "." will be parsed as if it were a MIB file.

- **-M** *DIRLIST*

  Specifies a colon separated list of directories to search for MIBs. Note that MIBs specified using the -m option will be loaded from one of the directories listed by the -M option (or equivalents).

- **-n** *contextName*

  Set the contextName used for SNMPv3 messages.  The default contextName is the empty string "".

- **-O** *\[abeEfnqQsStTuUvxX\]*

  Specifies output printing options. See  **OUTPUT OPTIONS** below.

- **-r** *retries*

  Specifies the number of retries to be used in the requests. The default is 5.

- **-t** *timeout*

  Specifies the timeout in seconds between retries. The default is 1.

- **-u** *secName*

  Set the securityName used for authenticated SNMPv3 messages.

- **-v *1* \| *2c* \| *3***

  Specifies the protocol version to use: 1 (RFCs 1155-1157), 2c (RFCs 1901-1908), or 3 (RFCs 2571-2574).  The default is typically version 3.

- **-V, --version**

  Display version information for the application and then exit.

- **-x** *privProtocol*

  Set the privacy protocol (DES or AES) used for encrypted SNMPv3 messages.

- **-X** *privPassword*

  Set the privacy pass phrase used for encrypted SNMPv3 messages.

- **-Z** *boots,time*

  Set the engineBoots and engineTime used for authenticated SNMPv3 messages.  This will initialize the local notion of the agents boots/time with an authenticated value stored in the LCD. It is typically not necessary to specify this option, as these values will usually be discovered automatically.

## AGENT SPECIFICATION

The string *AGENT* in the **SYNOPSIS** above specifies the remote SNMP entity with which to communicate. This specification takes the form:

-

  \[\<transport-specifier\>:\]\<transport-address\>

At its simplest, the *AGENT* specification may consist of a hostname, or an IPv4 address in the standard "dotted quad" notation.  In this case, communication will be attempted using UDP/IPv4 to port 161 of the given host.  Otherwise, the \<transport-address\> part of the specification is parsed according to the following table:

- **\<transport-specifier\>**

  **\<transport-address\> format**

- udp

  hostname\[:port\] *or* IPv4-address\[:port\]

Note that \<transport-specifier\> strings are case-insensitive so that, for example, "tcp" and "TCP" are equivalent.  Here are some examples, along with their interpretation:

- *hostname:161*

  perform query using UDP/IPv4 datagrams to *hostname* on port *161*. The ":161" is redundant here since that is the default SNMP port in any case.

- *udp:hostname*

  identical to the previous specification.  The "udp:" is redundant here since UDP/IPv4 is the default transport.

## OUTPUT OPTIONS

The format of the output from SNMP commands can be controlled using various parameters of the **-O** flag. The effects of these sub-options can be seen by comparison with the following default output (unless otherwise specified):

```
$ snmpget -c public -v 1 localhost sysUpTime.0
SNMPv2-MIB::sysUpTime.0 = Timeticks: (14096763) 1 day, 15:09:27.63
```

- **-Oa**

  Display string values as ASCII strings (unless there is a  `DISPLAY-HINT` defined for the corresponding MIB object). By default, the library attempts to determine whether the value is a printable or binary string, and displays it accordingly.

  This option does not affect objects that *do* have a Display Hint.

- **-Ob**

  Display table indexes numerically, rather than trying to interpret the instance subidentifiers as string or OID values:

  ```
      $ snmpgetnext -c public -v 1 localhost vacmSecurityModel
      SNMP-VIEW-BASED-ACM-MIB::vacmSecurityModel.0."wes" = xxx
      $ snmpgetnext -c public -v 1 -Ob localhost vacmSecurityModel
      SNMP-VIEW-BASED-ACM-MIB::vacmSecurityModel.0.3.119.101.115 = xxx
  ```

- **-Oe**

  Removes the symbolic labels from enumeration values:

  ```
      $ snmpget -c public -v 1 localhost ipForwarding.0
      IP-MIB::ipForwarding.0 = INTEGER: forwarding(1)
      $ snmpget -c public -v 1 -Oe localhost ipForwarding.0
      IP-MIB::ipForwarding.0 = INTEGER: 1
  ```

- **-OE**

  Modifies index strings to escape the quote characters:

  ```
      $ snmpgetnext -c public -v 1 localhost vacmSecurityModel
      SNMP-VIEW-BASED-ACM-MIB::vacmSecurityModel.0."wes" = xxx
      $ snmpgetnext -c public -v 1 -OE localhost vacmSecurityModel
      SNMP-VIEW-BASED-ACM-MIB::vacmSecurityModel.0.\"wes\" = xxx
  ```

-

  This allows the output to be reused in shell commands.

- **-Of**

  Include the full list of MIB objects when displaying an OID:

  `    .iso.org.dod.internet.mgmt.mib-2.system.sysUpTime.0 =`

  `        Timeticks: (14096763) 1 day, 15:09:27.63`

- **-On**

  Displays the OID numerically:\
   `    .1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0 = Timeticks: (14096763) 1 day, 15:09:27.63`

- **-Oq**

  Removes the equal sign and type information when displaying varbind values:\
   `    SNMPv2-MIB::sysUpTime.0 1:15:09:27.63`

- **-OQ**

  Removes the type information when displaying varbind values:\
   `    SNMPv2-MIB::sysUpTime.0 = 1:15:09:27.63`

- **-Os**

  Display the MIB object name (plus any instance or other subidentifiers):\
   `    sysUpTime.0 = Timeticks: (14096763) 1 day, 15:09:27.63`

- **-OS**

  Display the name of the MIB, as well as the object name:\
   `    SNMPv2-MIB::sysUpTime.0 = Timeticks: (14096763) 1 day, 15:09:27.63`

-

  This is the default OID output format.

- **-Ot**

  Display `TimeTicks` values as raw numbers:\
   `    SNMPv2-MIB::sysUpTime.0 = 14096763`

- **-OT**

  If values are printed as Hex strings, display a printable version as well.

- **-Ou**

  Display the OID in the traditional UCD-style (inherited from the original CMU code). That means removing a series of "standard" prefixes from the OID, and displaying the remaining list of MIB object names (plus any other subidentifiers):\
   `    system.sysUpTime.0 = Timeticks: (14096763) 1 day, 15:09:27.63`

- **-OU**

  Do not print the UNITS suffix at the end of the value.

- **-Ov**

  Display the varbind value only, not the OID:

  ```
      $ snmpget -c public -v 1 -Oe localhost ipForwarding.0
      INTEGER: forwarding(1)
  ```

- **-Ox**

  Display string values as Hex strings (unless there is a  `DISPLAY-HINT` defined for the corresponding MIB object). By default, the library attempts to determine whether the value is a printable or binary string, and displays it accordingly.

  This option does not affect objects that *do* have a Display Hint.

- **-OX**

  Display table indexes in a more "program like" output, imitating a traditional array-style index format:

  ```
      $ snmpgetnext -c public -v 1 localhost ipv6RouteTable
      IPv6-MIB::ipv6RouteIfIndex.63.254.1.0.255.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.64.1 = INTEGER: 2
      $ snmpgetnext -c public -v 1 -OE localhost ipv6RouteTable
      IPv6-MIB::ipv6RouteIfIndex[3ffe:100:ff00:0:0:0:0:0][64][1] = INTEGER: 2
  ```

`Most of these options can also be configured via configuration tokens.` `See the` *[snmp.conf(5)](/snmp.conf/5.md)* `manual page for details.`

## INPUT OPTIONS

`The interpretation of input object names and the values to be assigned` `can be controlled using various parameters of the `**-I** flag. The default behaviour will be described at the end of this section.

- **-Ib**

  specifies that the given name should be regarded as a regular expression, to match (case-insensitively) against object names in the MIB tree. The "best" match will be used - calculated as the one that matches the closest to the beginning of the node name and the highest in the tree. For example, the MIB object `vacmSecurityModel` could be matched by the expression `vacmsecuritymodel` (full name, but different case), or `vacm.*model` (regexp pattern).

  Note that '.' is a special character in regular expression patterns, so the expression cannot specify instance subidentifiers or more than one object name.  A "best match" expression will only be applied against single MIB object names. For example, the expression *sys\*ontact.0* would not match the instance `sysContact.0` (although *sys\*ontact* would match `sysContact`). Similarly, specifying a MIB module name will not succeed (so *SNMPv2-MIB::sys.\*ontact* would not match either).

- **-Ih**

  disables the use of DISPLAY-HINT information when assigning values. This would then require providing the raw value:\
   `    snmpset ... HOST-RESOURCES-MIB::hrSystemData.0`\
  \
   `                    x "07 D2 0C 0A 02 04 06 08"`\
   instead of a formatted version:\
   `    snmpset ... HOST-RESOURCES-MIB::hrSystemDate.0`\
  \
   `                    = 2002-12-10,2:4:6.8`

- **-Ir**

  disables checking table indexes and the value to be assigned against the relevant MIB definitions.  This will (hopefully) result in the remote agent reporting an invalid request, rather than checking (and rejecting) this before it is sent to the remote agent.

  Local checks are more efficient (and the diagnostics provided also tend to be more precise), but disabling this behaviour is particularly useful when testing the remote agent.

- **-IR**

  enables "random access" lookup of MIB names. Rather than providing a full OID path to the desired MIB object (or qualifying this object with an explicit MIB module name), the MIB tree will be searched for the matching object name. Thus `.iso.org.dod.internet.mib-2.system.sysDescr.0` (or `SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr.0`) can be specified simply as `sysDescr.0`.

  - Warning:

    Since MIB object names are not globally unique, this approach may return a different MIB object depending on which MIB files have been loaded.

-

  The *MIB-MODULE::objectName* syntax has the advantage of uniquely identifying a particular MIB object, as well as being slightly more efficient (and automatically loading the necessary MIB file if necessary).

- **-Is SUFFIX**

  adds the specified suffix to each textual OID given on the command line. This can be used to retrieve multiple objects from the same row of a table, by specifying a common index value.

- **-IS PREFIX**

  adds the specified prefix to each textual OID given on the command line. This can be used to specify an explicit MIB module name for all objects being retrieved (or for incurably lazy typists).

- **-Iu**

  enables the traditional UCD-style approach to interpreting input OIDs. This assumes that OIDs are rooted at the 'mib-2' point in the tree (unless they start with an explicit '.' or include a MIB module name). So the `sysDescr` instance above would be referenced as `system.sysDescr.0`.

Object names specified with a leading '.' are always interpreted as "fully qualified" OIDs, listing the sequence of MIB objects from the root of the MIB tree.  Such objects and those qualified by an explicit MIB module name are unaffected by the **-Ib**, **-IR** and **-Iu** flags.

Otherwise, if none of the above input options are specified, the default behaviour for a "relative" OID is to try and interpret it as an (implicitly) fully qualified OID, then apply "random access" lookup (**-IR**), followed by "best match" pattern matching (**-Ib**).

## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

- PREFIX

  The standard prefix for object identifiers (when using UCD-style output). Defaults to .iso.org.dod.internet.mgmt.mib-2

- MIBS

  The list of MIBs to load. Defaults to SNMPv2-TC:SNMPv2-MIB:IF-MIB:IP-MIB:TCP-MIB:UDP-MIB:SNMP-VACM-MIB. Overridden by the **-m** option.

- MIBDIRS

  The list of directories to search for MIBs. Defaults to DATADIR/snmp/mibs. Overridden by the **-M** option.

## FILES

- SYSCONFDIR/snmp/snmpd.conf

  Agent configuration file. See *[snmpd.conf(5)](/snmpd.conf/5.md)*.

- SYSCONFDIR/snmp/snmp.conf

  - \~/.snmp/snmp.conf

  Application configuration files. See  *[snmp.conf(5)](/snmp.conf/5.md)*.

## SEE ALSO

[pysnmpbulkwalk(1)](/pysnmpbulkwalk/1.md), [pysnmpget(1)](/pysnmpget/1.md), [pysnmpset(1)](/pysnmpset/1.md), pysnmpbulktranslate(1), [pysnmpwalk(1)](/pysnmpwalk/1.md).