SOLR-18118: Add in --prompt-inputs to bin/solr start -e cloud to programatically respond to input prompts by epugh · Pull Request #4127 · apache/solr

epugh · 2026-02-11T15:00:13Z

https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SOLR-18118

Description

Populate the prompts that bin/solr start -e cloud makes with preset answers. Prompts.... in the old school sense of the word ;-)

This would be MOST valuable if we could backport it to 9x, so we can test 9 against 10. However, even if it only makes it into 10.1, well, we can test 11 and 10 ;-)

Solution

A bit of refactoring in how we read in choices. A new --prompt=2,8983,8984,"mycollection",2,2,_default setting that provides comma delimited values.

Tests

Added a test and manual testing.

epugh · 2026-02-11T15:40:56Z

@rahulgoswami could you check out the bin/solr.cmd changes?

malliaridis

--prompt=2,8983,8984,"mycollection",2,2,_default

This seems kind of cryptic and the order can easily be messed up. It is very easy to make mistakes, imagine following scenarios:

User confuses the order of ports and shards / replicas, the prompt:

--prompts=2,2,2,"mycollection",8983,8984,_defaut

Or the user used

--prompts=2,8983,8984,"mycollection",2,2,_defaut

and now comes up with "oh, lets try 3 instead of 2 nodes" and just updates the prompts like

--prompts=3,8983,8984,"mycollection",2,2,_defaut

or user may think using it like

--prompts 3 8983 8984 "mycollection" 2 2 "_default"

So I feel like there are too many wrong inputs possible.

I would rather prefer more params where we clearly distinguish the input data too. If it is supposed for automation, we still should maintain the readability and avoid "magic numbers". I would personally prefer options like --node-count=2, --node-ports=8983,8984 and so on, so that it is at least clear what the user is setting and the order doesn't matter.

Although not exactly the same, clig.dev says:

If you’ve got two or more arguments for different things, you’re probably doing something wrong.
source

The windows script also fails with

> bin\solr.cmd start -e cloud --prompts 3,8983,8984,8985,"my_collection",6,3,"_default"

Invalid command-line option: 3

Usage: solr start [-f] [--user-managed] [...]

It seems that CMD is splitting the params by commas, so it fails after trying to parse the argument 3. In order to make it work I had to make the following changes:

:set_prompt
set "PASS_TO_RUN_EXAMPLE=--prompts %2 !PASS_TO_RUN_EXAMPLE!"

SHIFT # <-- Add a second shift to remove the argument of --prompts
SHIFT
goto parse_args

Additionally update --prompt to --prompts (see other comments), and then run the command as

> bin\solr.cmd start -e cloud --prompts "3,8983,8984,8985,my_collection,6,3,_default"

so that it is not split by comma (annoying, I know).

With these changes it worked on Windows, but I do not like it so much. The texts that are printed give the false impression that the user is supposed to make some prompt (they should be suppressed instead).

The --prompts is also specific to --e cloud, is it supposed to work for the other examples as well? If not, should it be listed in the start command, if it is only valid for -e cloud?

solr/bin/solr.cmd

solr/bin/solr

epugh · 2026-02-11T20:56:05Z

yeah, so there are some weasel words in the description of --no-prompt and --prompts about why they only work on cloud. And yes, agree that it could be better! Also, I agree that the pattern is brittle, but I don't want to add a million params, at least, not yet. I think of --prompts as kind of an expert level feature. For example, in a load testing script i am working on. I don't want to add too much to it till i know it adds value!

rahulgoswami · 2026-02-12T20:43:00Z

Partial review since I haven't had a chance to try out the .cmd changes yet. I have to agree with @malliaridis assessment that there is no way one would remember this order. On the flip side, introducing a CLI parameter for each individual value feels like an overkill. I do feel this can be mitigated through documentation both in the .adoc and especially in the CLI options itself.

May I also suggest changing "--prompt" to something like "--default-cloud-options" or "--cloud-options-list" ? The current choice of name wasn't intuitive to me at all until I looked at the diff.

rahulgoswami · 2026-02-12T20:31:20Z

solr/solr-ref-guide/modules/deployment-guide/pages/solr-control-script-reference.adoc

+
+For example, when using the "cloud" example, can start a three node cluster on specific ports:
+
+*Example*: `bin/solr start -e cloud --prompts 3,9000,9001,9002,"mycollection",2,2,_defaults`


Can we document the order ?
[number of nodes, comma separated port for each node, collection-name...]

what if we call it --example-prompts? Or --example-inputs? The docs say --no-prompt is for anything that takes user supplied prompts... --user-inputs?.

--user-inputs could work. --prompt-inputs could be another candidate?

is "prompts" too overloaded in our AI times? How about --example-inputs to relate it to our examples?

though of course then we have --no-prompts... Now I come back to --prompt-inputs.

The way I think about this...someone who is trying solr for the first time won't know that a --no-prompt or --prompt-inputs option exists unless they go looking, and when they do, both terms might sound equally ambiguous at first in today's AI world. But then we already have a --no-prompt option and we are not going back. TLDR; It doesn't matter for new users. They should come around once they read the option description and then hopefully both options make sense in conjunction.

For those familiar with running solr and playing with examples, they are likely aware of the --no-prompt option already. And for them, --prompt-inputs should be a relatable extension. Let's go with this one?

I like your reasonining @rahulgoswami and can get behind it! --prompt-inputs it is!

rahulgoswami · 2026-02-12T20:37:03Z

solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/RunExampleTool.java

+          .argName("VALUES")
+          .desc(
+              "Provide comma-separated values for prompts. Same as --no-prompt but uses provided values instead of defaults. "
+                  + "Example: --prompts 3,8983,8984,8985,\"gettingstarted\",2,2,_default")


Can we document the order here too like in the .adoc? I feel documenting here might be more important, since if my usage pattern is any indicator of a wider usage pattern, users might prefer the CLI options telling them the expectation rather than them having to look up documentation for the same.

or could --prompts take a json {"nodes":3,"port":"8983"}? Or take name of a properties file? It's an expert option so need not be beautiful

yeah.. I worry about building something that is more code then the value... and, the number of items changes depending on inputs. so if it's one node, you are 1,8983,gettingstarted,2,2,_default, and if it's four, 4,9000,9001,9003,9002,"gettingstarted\",2,2,_default. Now imagaine we add some more prompts, then it will all change...

Passing a formatted json in CLI could quickly get tricky with the quote escaping etc, especially on Windows. I like the properties file idea. Somewhat like we have for basic auth in solr.in.sh and solr.in.cmd with "SOLR_AUTHENTICATION_OPTS" (https://solr.apache.org/guide/solr/latest/deployment-guide/basic-authentication-plugin.html#using-the-solr-control-script-with-basic-auth). It can take the actual credentials as well as path to a file.

I am ok if the properties file enhancement comes as a second wave (one can hope!) and we could still use it against the same --prompts param.

epugh · 2026-02-12T22:17:46Z

Maybe we should add a @experimental type notation t this as well...

rahulgoswami · 2026-02-13T05:29:31Z

solr/bin/solr.cmd

 IF "%1"=="--jettyconfig" goto set_addl_jetty_config
 IF "%1"=="-y" goto set_noprompt
 IF "%1"=="--no-prompt" goto set_noprompt
+IF "%1"=="--prompt"s goto set_prompts


misplaced quote in "--prompts" breaks command

rahulgoswami · 2026-02-15T05:33:58Z

solr/bin/solr.cmd

+@echo.
 @echo   -y/--no-prompt Don't prompt for input; accept all defaults when running examples that accept user input
 @echo.
+@echo   --prompts "values" Don't prompt for input; comma delimited list of inputs read when running examples that accept user input.


Suggest documenting the order of inputs with an example

--prompt-inputs "number _of_nodes, list_of_ports, collection_name, number_of_shards, number_of_replicas_per_shard, configuration_name"
eg: --prompt-inputs "3,8983,8984,8985,gettingstarted,2,2,_default"

rahulgoswami · 2026-02-15T06:07:40Z

solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/RunExampleTool.java

+        echo(nextInput);
+      }
+    } else {
+      // Reading from user input - use nextLine()


Suggest moving echo(prompt); from the first line of the method to over here. It would be fair to expect the CLI output for --prompt-inputs to be similar to that of --no-prompt, aka without lines asking for inputs, since we are already providing them in one shot.

I like seeing the lines because it helps me with debugging... I did defaultss instead of default for a configset name and this let me see the error.

rahulgoswami · 2026-02-15T06:09:23Z

solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/RunExampleTool.java

+      nextInput = s.hasNext() ? s.next() : null;
+      // Echo the value being used from prompts
+      if (nextInput != null) {
+        echo(nextInput);


Do we need to print here?

I tried with and without and it looks much better with! Plus you can debug it. I was hoping that https://clig.dev/#interactivity would give some specific advice on formatting, but it didn't hold any wisdom...

epugh · 2026-02-17T11:20:03Z

THanks all for comments! In the not too distant future I'm rolling out some tests that compare user-managed (standalone) to cloud, and cloud 1 shard to cloud 2 shard, and I expect to power that using these inputs for set up.

For user-managed (standalone) to cloud, I think I need a -e user-managed setup that mimics what -e cloud does..?

epugh · 2026-02-18T10:12:35Z

I'm going to merge this as I need it for perf testing. We can iterate on it if it turns out not to be as useful as I hope it will be.

Copilot

Pull request overview

Adds a non-interactive way to run bin/solr start -e cloud by supplying ordered prompt answers on the command line, enabling scripted/automated cluster startup while keeping existing interactive behavior available.

Changes:

Introduces --prompt-inputs in RunExampleTool to read prompt answers from a comma-separated list.
Updates bin/solr and bin/solr.cmd to accept and forward --prompt-inputs, and updates the Ref Guide.
Adds a CLI test covering the new flag and adds a changelog entry.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
solr/solr-ref-guide/modules/deployment-guide/pages/solr-control-script-reference.adoc	Documents `--prompt-inputs` and reorganizes example/prompt options in the start command reference.
solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cli/TestSolrCLIRunExample.java	Adds a new test exercising `--prompt-inputs` for the SolrCloud example.
solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/RunExampleTool.java	Implements `--prompt-inputs` parsing and wiring into the SolrCloud example prompting flow.
solr/bin/solr.cmd	Adds Windows argument parsing and usage text for `--prompt-inputs`.
solr/bin/solr	Adds *nix argument parsing and usage text for `--prompt-inputs`.
changelog/unreleased/SOLR-18118.yml	Adds an unreleased changelog entry for the new flag.

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solr/solr-ref-guide/modules/deployment-guide/pages/solr-control-script-reference.adoc

solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/RunExampleTool.java

Copilot · 2026-02-18T10:22:48Z

solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/RunExampleTool.java

+      InputStream promptsStream =
+          new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream(promptsValue.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));


Using Scanner with useDelimiter(",") will skip empty tokens (e.g. a,,b), so users can’t "accept default" for a prompt in the middle while still supplying later values. Consider parsing with a CSV-aware parser or split(",", -1) to preserve empty fields so prompt positions stay aligned.

Suggested change

InputStream promptsStream =

new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream(promptsValue.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));

// Preserve empty fields so that users can "accept default" for a prompt

// while still providing values for later prompts.

String[] promptTokens = promptsValue.split(",", -1);

for (int i = 0; i < promptTokens.length; i++) {

if (promptTokens[i].isEmpty()) {

// Use a single space so that Scanner produces a token, which the

// prompting logic can then trim() back to an empty string.

promptTokens[i] = " ";

}

}

String processedPromptsValue = String.join(",", promptTokens);

InputStream promptsStream =

new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream(

processedPromptsValue.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));

…ramatically respond to input prompts (#4127) Adds a non-interactive way to run bin/solr start -e cloud by supplying ordered prompt answers on the command line, enabling scripted/automated cluster startup while keeping existing interactive behavior available. (cherry picked from commit b71c872)

…ramatically respond to input prompts (apache#4127) Adds a non-interactive way to run bin/solr start -e cloud by supplying ordered prompt answers on the command line, enabling scripted/automated cluster startup while keeping existing interactive behavior available.

Add in --prompts capablity. Its so lovely!

04ca619

github-actions bot added start-scripts tests cat:cli labels Feb 11, 2026

epugh added 2 commits February 11, 2026 10:14

support in bin/solr scirpts, reorg the param details

0e87157

rework docs

2a7b1e4

github-actions bot added the documentation Improvements or additions to documentation label Feb 11, 2026

doc the change

f5a2c4e

epugh requested review from malliaridis and rahulgoswami February 11, 2026 15:40

Fix up some commands in the docs.

b4e4332

malliaridis requested changes Feb 11, 2026

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epugh added 2 commits February 11, 2026 15:50

windows fixes!

3a05407

more fixes

e3f6106

mention Windows tip

66b631e

rahulgoswami reviewed Feb 12, 2026

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rahulgoswami reviewed Feb 13, 2026

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rahulgoswami reviewed Feb 15, 2026

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epugh added 2 commits February 17, 2026 06:06

Adopt --prompt-inputs name

077f4f7

Update parameter name

6a34214

Fix example!

64c2a3c

epugh requested a review from Copilot February 18, 2026 10:13

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of epugh February 18, 2026 10:13 View session

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epugh changed the title ~~SOLR-18118: Add in --prompts to bin/solr start -e cloud to automatically respond to prompts~~ SOLR-18118: Add in --prompt-inputs to bin/solr start -e cloud to programatically respond to input prompts Feb 18, 2026

epugh added 2 commits February 18, 2026 06:05

fix messaging

5236af7

Better docs

874798c

epugh merged commit b71c872 into apache:main Feb 18, 2026
5 of 7 checks passed

		InputStream promptsStream =
		new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream(promptsValue.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));

-      InputStream promptsStream =
-          new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream(promptsValue.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
+      // Preserve empty fields so that users can "accept default" for a prompt
+      // while still providing values for later prompts.
+      String[] promptTokens = promptsValue.split(",", -1);
+      for (int i = 0; i < promptTokens.length; i++) {
+        if (promptTokens[i].isEmpty()) {
+          // Use a single space so that Scanner produces a token, which the
+          // prompting logic can then trim() back to an empty string.
+          promptTokens[i] = " ";
+        }
+      }
+      String processedPromptsValue = String.join(",", promptTokens);
+      InputStream promptsStream =
+          new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream(
+              processedPromptsValue.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));

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epugh commented Feb 11, 2026

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