Manage TiUP Components with TiUP Commands

You can use the following TiUP commands to manage components in the TiUP ecosystem:

list: Queries the component list. By using this TiUP command, you can see all the optional components to install and all the optional versions of each component.
install: Installs the specific version of a component.
update: Updates a component to the latest version.
uninstall: Uninstalls a component.
status: Checks the status of a running component.
clean: Cleans up the instance on which a component is deployed.
help: Prints the help information. If you append another TiUP command to this command, the usage of the appended command is printed.
link: Links the binary of the component to the executable directory ($TIUP_HOME/bin/).
unlink: Deletes the soft link generated by the tiup link command.

This document introduces the common component management operations and the corresponding TiUP commands.

Query the component list

You can use the tiup list command to query the component list. This usage of this command is as follows:

tiup list: checks which components can be installed.
tiup list ${component}: checks which versions of a specific component can be installed.

You can also use the following flags in the above commands:

--installed: checks which components or which version of a specific component has been installed locally. ---all: views all components, including the hidden ones ---verbose: views all columns (including installed versions and supported platforms)

Example 1: View all currently installed components.

tiup list --installed

Example 2: Get a list of the TiKV component of all installable versions from the server.

tiup list tikv

Install components

You can use the tiup install command to query the component list. This usage of this command is as follows:

tiup install <component>: installs the latest stable version of a specified component.
tiup install <component>:[version]: installs the specified version of a specified component.

Example 1: Use TiUP to install the latest stable version of TiDB.

tiup install tidb

Example 2: Use TiUP to install the nightly version of TiDB.

tiup install tidb:nightly

Example 3: Use TiUP to install TiKV v8.4.0.

tiup install tikv:v8.4.0

Upgrade components

After a new version of a component is published, you can use the tiup update command to upgrade this component. The usage of this command is basically the same as that of tiup install, except for the following flags:

--all: Upgrades all components.
--nightly: Upgrades to the nightly version.
--self: Upgrades TiUP itself to the latest version.
--force: Forcibly upgrades to the latest version.

Example 1: Upgrade all components to the latest versions.

tiup update --all

Example 2: Upgrade all components to the nightly version.

tiup update --all --nightly

Example 3: Upgrade TiUP to the latest version.

tiup update --self

Operate components

After the installation is complete, you can use the tiup <component> command to start the corresponding component:

tiup [flags] <component>[:version] [args...]

Flags:
  -T, --tag string                     Specifies the tag for the component instance.

To use this command, you need to specify the component name and the optional version. If no version is specified, the latest stable version (installed) of this component is used.

Before the component is started, TiUP creates a directory for it, and then puts this component into the directory for operation. The component generates all the data in this directory, and the name of this directory is the tag name specified when the component operates. If no tag is specified, a tag name is randomly generated. This working directory will be automatically deleted when the instance is terminated.

If you want to start the same component multiple times and reuse the previous working directory, you can use --tag to specify the same name when the component is started. After the tag is specified, the working directory will not be automatically deleted when the instance is terminated, which makes it convenient to reuse the working directory.

Example 1: Operate TiDB v8.4.0.

tiup tidb:v8.4.0

Example 2: Specify the tag with which TiKV operates.

tiup --tag=experiment tikv

Query the operating status of a component

You can use the tiup status command to check the operating status of a component:

tiup status

By executing this command, you will get a list of instances, one instance per line. The list contains the following columns:

Name: The tag name of the instance.
Component: The component name of the instance.
PID: The process ID of the operating instance.
Status: The instance status. RUNNING means that the instance is operating. TERM means that the instance is terminated.
Created Time: The starting time of the instance.
Directory: The working directory of the instance, which can be specified using --tag.
Binary: The executable program of the instance, which can be specified using --binpath.
Args: The arguments of the operating instance.

Clean component instance

You can use the tiup clean command to clean up component instances and delete the working directory. If the instance is still operating before the cleaning, the related process is killed first. The command usage is as follows:

tiup clean [tag] [flags]

The following flag is supported:

--all: Cleans up all instance information.

In the above command, tag is the instance tag to be cleaned. If --all is used, no tag is passed.

Example 1: Clean up the component instance with the experiment tag name.

tiup clean experiment

Example 2: Clean up all component instances.

tiup clean --all

Uninstall components

The components installed using TiUP take up local disk space. If you do not want to keep too many components of old versions, you can check which versions of a component are currently installed, and then uninstall this component.

You can use the tiup uninstall command to uninstall all versions or specific versions of a component. This command also supports uninstalling all components. The command usage is as follows:

tiup uninstall [component][:version] [flags]

The following flags are supported in this command:

--all: Uninstalls all components or versions.
--self: Uninstalls TiUP itself.

component is the component to be uninstalled. version is the version to be uninstalled. Both component and version can be ignored in the tiup uninstall command. If you ignore either one of these two, you need to add the --all flag.

If the version is ignored, adding --all means to uninstall all versions of this component.
If the version and the component are both ignored, adding --all means to uninstall all components of all versions.

Example 1: Uninstall TiDB v8.4.0.

tiup uninstall tidb:v8.4.0

Example 2: Uninstall TiKV of all versions.

tiup uninstall tikv --all

Example 3: Uninstall all installed components.

tiup uninstall --all

Link components

TiUP v1.13.0 adds the experimental link and unlink commands to link the binary of a component to the executable directory ($TIUP_HOME/bin/) and remove the link. This feature enables you to call a component without going through TiUP each time, while preserving the ability to switch between different versions. However, this method lacks the process of automatic update checking and setting certain environment variables and some components (such as ctl) cannot be used. Therefore, it is recommended to use it only when necessary.

Example 1: install and link the latest version of the cluster component

tiup install cluster
tiup link cluster

Example 2: switch the cluster component to version v1.13.0

tiup link cluster:v1.13.0

The following is the output of the tiup link cluster command:

package cluster provides these executables: tiup-cluster

This indicates that the binary name of the cluster component is tiup-cluster. After the link command is completed, you can use the cluster component by directly typing tiup-cluster into the command line.

Example 3: cancel the link of the cluster component

tiup unlink cluster

Example 4: manage the version of TiUP

Before v1.13.0, TiUP is installed in ~/.tiup/bin/ and different versions cannot coexist. Starting from v1.13.0, you can install and link TiUP like any other components.

tiup update --self # update tiup itself to a version that supports link
tiup link tiup:v1.13.0