Install openstackclient with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• openstack

Project history

OpenStack’s early client experience mirrored its service architecture: each major project shipped its own Python client and CLI. The UnifiedCLI proposal documented the pain of inconsistent commands, options, and terminology, and proposed a single OpenStack CLI that reused existing client modules where possible rather than duplicating every REST implementation.

The `python-openstackclient` project turned that design goal into the `openstack` binary. Its documentation states the primary goal as a unified shell command structure and common language for OpenStack operations, with additional service APIs available through plugins.

Adoption history

OpenStackClient became the operator-facing CLI because it matched how cloud administrators and users actually work: they create projects, images, networks, volumes, servers, users, roles, and quotas across service boundaries. OpenStack release notes track OpenStackClient versions alongside OpenStack named releases, emphasizing cross-release compatibility instead of a one-client-per-cloud-version model.

Distributions and package managers package it as a Python application because OpenStack deployments often rely on scripted administration. Debian describes it as a thin wrapper over the stock Python service client modules, which captures its role as a unifying front end over the OpenStack client ecosystem.

How it is used

Operators configure authentication through environment variables, command-line options, or `clouds.yaml`, then use `openstack` commands for day-to-day cloud administration and automation. Output format options such as table, JSON, YAML, CSV, and value-oriented output make it useful both for humans and scripts.

The CLI is also a compatibility layer for OpenStack documentation and support: operational runbooks can say `openstack server list` or `openstack network create` without teaching users which legacy service-specific binary owns each resource.

Why package nerds care

The package is interesting because it is less a standalone tool than a negotiated interface across a large plugin-heavy cloud platform. Its dependency graph, Python compatibility, OpenStackSDK integration, and release-series mapping matter to anyone packaging private-cloud tooling.

Timeline

• 2010: OpenStack began as an open-source cloud platform, creating the multi-service client problem that OpenStackClient later addressed.
• 2010s: the UnifiedCLI design documented the plan for a single OpenStack command structure over service-specific clients.
• 2014: OpenStack Juno-era packaging used OpenStackClient 0.4.1, showing the tool’s early place in named OpenStack release cycles.
• 2023: Antelope/2023.1 release notes mapped OpenStackClient 6.1.0 to that OpenStack release.

Related projects

• Related packages include OpenStackSDK and service clients such as python-novaclient, python-glanceclient, python-cinderclient, python-neutronclient, and python-keystoneclient. OpenStackClient sits above them as the consistent user-facing shell.

Sources

• https://docs.openstack.org/releasenotes/python-openstackclient/
• https://github.com/openstack/openstackclient
• https://packages.debian.org/sid/python3-openstackclient
• https://pypi.org/project/python-openstackclient/
• https://wiki.openstack.org/w/index.php?redirect=no&title=UnifiedCLI