jctl is a command line tool that allows you to read, create, edit, and delete Jamf Pro data. python-jamf is the Python library that powers jctl. python-jamf interacts with Jamf Pro’s Classic API and hides all the details and complexity of retrieving, modifying, and uploading the Classic API data. Some people still use curl and shell CLI tools to parse and modify the raw Jamf Pro data. python-jamf converts all the data to Python dictionaries and arrays, so only a little bit of Python knowledge makes it extremely easy to do far more than curl and the shell can do like mass modify records and cross-reference records. For example, once the preferences are configured, import jamf and then jamf.Computers() will give you an object that contains all the computers on your server. You can get an array of computers with a specific name with jamf.Computers().recordsWithName("mac"). Once you pick a computer, you can change some data by simply writing computer.data['general']['name'] = "old mac" and then saving it computer.save(). It’s really that easy. This is made abundantly clear by the pkgctl tool, which was written very quickly, has only about 550 lines of code, and interactively goes through all of the packages stored in Jamf and allows you to “promote” packages, that is, swap one package for another in policies, patch management, and computer group criteria. Half of the pkgctl code is the interactive print and input statements. You can do a tremendous amount with very little code. In this presentation, James will demo jctl, pkgctl, and a little bit of Python code showing how easy they are to use.

The jctl command line tool interacts with Jamf Pro or Jamf Cloud and allows the administrator perform repetitive tasks quickly and easily. The python-jamf library simplifies interacting with the Classic API and powers jctl. This session will introduce python-jamf and jctl, give some usage examples, show how it works internally, and show how easy it is to add your own functionality to perform and automate any repetitive and complex task you want.

If you have additional questions, or need more help getting started, post a question on the MacAdmin's Slack #jctl channel.

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