Command Structure

Just like verbs are actions in a sentence and adverbs modify verbs, so in the newt tool, commands are actions and flags modify actions. A command can have subcommands. Arguments to commands and subcommands, with appropriate flags, dictate the execution and result of a command.

For instance, in the example below, the newt command has the subcommand target set in which the argument ‘my_target1’ is the target whose attribute, app, is set to @apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/nrf52dk

newt target set my_target1 app=@apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/nrf52dk

Global flags work uniformly across newt commands. Consider the flag -v, --verbose, It works both for command and subcommands, to generate verbose output. Likewise, the help flag -h or --help, to print helpful messsages.

A command may additionally take flags specific to it. For example, the -n flag instructs newt debug not to start GDB from command line.

newt debug <target-name> -n

In addition to the documentation in Newt Tool Guide, command-line help is available for each command (and subcommand), through the -h or --help options.

newt target  --help
Commands to create, delete, configure, and query targets

Usage:
  newt target [flags]
  newt target [command]

Available Commands:
  amend       Add, change, or delete values for multi-value target variables
  config      View or populate a target's system configuration
  copy        Copy target
  create      Create a target
  delete      Delete target
  dep         View target's dependency graph
  revdep      View target's reverse-dependency graph
  set         Set target configuration variable
  show        View target configuration variables

Global Flags:
  -h, --help              Help for newt commands
  -j, --jobs int          Number of concurrent build jobs (default 8)
  -l, --loglevel string   Log level (default "WARN")
  -o, --outfile string    Filename to tee output to
  -q, --quiet             Be quiet; only display error output
  -s, --silent            Be silent; don't output anything
  -v, --verbose           Enable verbose output when executing commands

Use "newt target [command] --help" for more information about a command.