Headless and CLI

Popul8 CLI is a command-line tool that extends Popul8’s functionality directly from your terminal. It is supported on both Windows and macOS.

Installing the CLI

macOS

Double-click .dmg to begin the installation (book a demo to access Popul8).
Navigate to the CLI folder. If the Contents folder is not visible, right-click in Popul8.app and select Show Package Contents.

/Applications/Popul8.app/Contents/Cli/popul8-cli

Open Terminal and drag and drop the popul8-cli file into it, and press Enter to start the popul8-cli.

Windows

Install Popul8 (book a demo to access Popul8).
Navigate to the installation folder. By default, this is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Popul8`

Locate the install-cli.exefile, drag it into your terminal, and press Enter to start the installation.

How To Use

Popul8 CLI can either launch a new unattended Popul8 process, without GUI, or connect to an existing Popul8 process.

The general syntax is:

popul8-cli [command] [options]

Supported Commands

Command	Description
start	Starts Popul8 in headless mode
stop	Stops the currently running Popul8 session
open	Opens a project, using its .pp8 file full path
export	Exports all the crowds available in the open project
verify	Exports a html report with all the intersections found in the open project
config	Show or save configurations
status	Checks if Popul8 is currently running
license	Sets a specific license file for the currently running Popul8 process
version	Show CLI and Popul8 version

Command Details

status

Checks if Popul8 is currently running.

Syntax

popul8-cli status

start

Starts Popul8 in headless mode.

Syntax

popul8-cli start [<full/path/to/binary>]

license

Sets a specific license file for the currently running Popul8 process.

Syntax

popul8-cli license <full/path/to/license/file>

open

Opens a project, using its .pp8 file full path.

Syntax

popul8-cli open <full/path/to/project/file.pp8>

verify

Exports a html report with all the intersections found in the open project. Allowed values: shapes, templates and all. All set by default

Syntax

popul8-cli verify <full/path/to/export/folder> -i templates

export

Exports all the crowds available in the open project.

Syntax

popul8-cli export <full/path/to/export/folder>

stop

Stops the currently running Popul8 session.

Syntax

popul8-cli stop

Example

> popul8-cli start
Popul8 is running
> popul8-cli license /home/user/private/popul8/license.bin
OK
> popul8-cli status
Popul8 is running
License Status: OK Valid
> popul8-cli open /home/user/popul8-projects/project.pp8
OK
> popul8-cli verify /home/user/Documents/project-exports -i templates
OK
> popul8-cli export /home/user/Documents/project-exports
OK
> popul8-cli stop
Popul8 stopped