.TH datalad-plugin 1 2018\-03\-16 "datalad-plugin 0.9.3"
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nh
.HP
\fBdatalad\-plugin\fR [-h] [-d\~DATASET] [-H] [--show-plugin-info] [PLUGINSPEC [PLUGINSPEC ...]]


.hy
.SH DESCRIPTION
Generic plugin interface
.PP
Using this command, arbitrary DataLad plugins can be executed. Plugins in
three different locations are available
.PP
1. official plugins that are part of the local DataLad installation
.PP
2. system\-wide plugins, location configuration::
.PP
   datalad.locations.system\-plugins
.PP
3. user\-supplied plugins, location configuration::
.PP
   datalad.locations.user\-plugins
.PP
Identically named plugins in latter location replace those in locations
searched before.
.PP
.SS Using plugins
.PP
A list of all available plugins can be obtained by running this command
without arguments::
.PP
datalad plugin
.PP
To run a specific plugin, provide the plugin name as an argument::
.PP
datalad plugin export_tarball
.PP
A plugin may come with its own documentation which can be displayed upon
request::
.PP
datalad plugin export_tarball \-H
.PP
If a plugin supports (optional) arguments, they can be passed to the plugin
as key=value pairs with the name and the respective value of an argument,
e.g.::
.PP
datalad plugin export_tarball output=myfile
.PP
Any number of arguments can be given. Only arguments with names supported
by the respective plugin are passed to the plugin. If unsupported arguments
are given, a warning is issued.
.PP
When an argument is given multiple times, all values are passed as a list
to the respective argument (order of value matches the order in the
plugin call)::
.PP
datalad plugin fancy_plugin input=this input=that
.PP
Like in most commands, a dedicated \-\-dataset option is supported that
can be used to identify a specific dataset to be passed to a plugin's
DATASET argument. If a plugin requires such an argument, and no
dataset was given, and none was found in the current working directory,
the plugin call will fail. A dataset argument can also be passed alongside
all other plugin arguments without using \-\-dataset.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
PLUGINSPEC
plugin name plus an optional list of KEY=VALUE pairs with arguments for the plugin call. [Default: None]

.TP
\fB-h\fR, \fB--help\fR, \fB--help-np\fR
show this help message. --help-np forcefully disables the use of a pager for displaying the help message
.TP
\fB-d\fR \fI\s-1DATASET\s0\fR, \fB--dataset\fR \fI\s-1DATASET\s0\fR
specify the dataset for the plugin to operate on If no dataset is given, but a plugin take a dataset as an argument, an attempt is made to identify the dataset based on the current working directory. Constraints: Value must be a Dataset or a valid identifier of a Dataset (e.g. a path) [Default: None]
.TP
\fB-H\fR, \fB--show-plugin-help\fR
show help for a particular. [Default: False]
.TP
\fB--show-plugin-info\fR
show additional information in plugin overview (e.g. plugin file location. [Default: False]
.SH AUTHORS
 datalad is developed by The DataLad Team and Contributors <team@datalad.org>.