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).
Expand the installer until the install-cli.sh file is visible.

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

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

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