Documentation Center

Exporting Objects via Command Line

To export objects using the command line, you specify as command-line arguments individual objects or types of objects to export. The export utility gathers information about the objects and, optionally, any objects that they reference. It writes this information as a collection of XML elements to a file. The file must not already exist. (If it does exist, the export process issues an error message and terminates.)

The export includes each object only once in the output file, even though the object may participate in multiple ways among the exported objects. For example, a user that belongs to multiple exported locales is still exported only once in the file.

Export Modes

The export supports two export modes, as follows:
  • Nonrecursive. In this mode, the utility finds and exports the object itself, but not the objects that object references. This is the default mode.
  • Recursive. In this mode, the utility finds and exports the object itself, along with all of the objects it references. You specify recursive mode with the command-line parameter -r.

When you later import objects, you choose from a different set of import modes. Coordinate your choice of import mode with your export mode. For more information, see the Coordinating Export and Import Modes topic.