Command Line Operation

Running Arelle on the Command Line:

Method or System	Command
Python source code	python arelleCmdLine.py [arguments]
Windows x64 or 32 bit	"c:\Program Files\arelleCmdLine.exe" [arguments]
MacOS App	/Applications/Arelle.app/contents/MacOS/arelleCmdLine [arguments]
Linux/Unix	./arelleCmdLine [arguments]

Arguments

General Arguments

Flag	Description
-a or --about	Prints build, copyright, and license information then exits
-h or --help	Prints help message and exits
--diagnostics	Prints diagnostic information
--version	Prints Arelle’s version number and exits

Input File Arguments

Flag	Description
-f FILE or --file FILE	The FILE for Arelle to process. The FILE may be an entry point to be loaded, instance, schema, linkbase, inline XBRL instance, testcase file, or testcase index file. The FILE may be local or a URL to a web-located file.
--username USERNAME	The USERNAME if needed (with the password flag) for web file retrieval .
--password PASSWORD	The PASSWORD if needed (with username flag) for web file retrieval.
-i FILE or --import FILE	Imports a v to the DTS, such as additional formula or label linkbases. FILE may contain multiple files separated by the | character.
-d DTS or --diff DTS	Compares a second DTS for versioning report generation. The -f file is the fromDTS and the -d DTS is the toDTS.
-r FILE or --report FILE	Saves the versioning report (with the diff flag) to the specified FILE.

Validation Arguments

Flag	Description
-v or --validate	Validate the file according to the entry file type. For an XBRL file, it is validated according to XBRL validation 2.1 Performs calculation linkbase validation if either --calcDecimals or --calcPrecision are specified Performs SEC EDGAR Filing Manual validations (if --efm selected) Performs Global Filer Manual disclosure system validation (if --gfm=XXX selected). If a test suite or testcase, the test case variations are individually so validated. If formulae are present they will be validated and run unless --formula=none is specified.
--noValidateTestcaseSchema or --novalidatetestcaseschema	Validate testcases against their schemas.
--calc=CALCS	Specify calculations validations: CALCS can be one of: none – no calculations validation. c10 or xbrl21 – Calc 1.0 (XBRL 2.1) calculations. c10d or xbrl21-dedup – Calc 1.0 (XBRL 2.1) calculations with de-duplication c11r or round-to-nearest – Calc 1.1 round-to-nearest mode c11t or truncation - Calc 1.1 truncation mode
--calcDecimals or --calcdecimals	DEPRECATED - XBRL v2.1 calculation linkbase validation inferring decimals.
--calcPrecision or --calcprecision	DEPRECATED - pre-2010 XBRL v2.1 calculation linkbase validation inferring precision.
--calcDeduplicate or --calcdeduplicate	DEPRECATED - de-duplication of consistent facts when performing calculation validation, chooses most accurate fact.
--efm	Select Edgar Filer Manual (U.S. SEC) disclosure system validation (strict).
--efm-skip-calc-tree	Skip walking of calculation tree during EFM validation.
--disclosureSystem=NAME or --disclosuresystem=NAME	Specify a disclosure system, and enable disclosure system-specific validation. Enter --disclosureSystem=help for list of names or help-verbose for list of names and descriptions.
--hmrc	Select U.K. HMRC disclosure system validation.
--utr	Select validation with respect to Unit Type Registry.
--utrUrl=UTRURL or --utrurl=UTRURL	Used with --utr flag. Override disclosure systems Unit Type Registry. UTRURL is the location (URL or file path).
--infoset	Select validation with respect testcase infosets.

Output Arguments

These arguments can override the system language settings for the output options below.

Flag	Description
--labelLang=LABELLANG or --labellang=LABELLANG	provides an xml:lang language code to override the system language settings for labels output by the following file options, e.g. --labelLang=en-US
--disableRtl	Disable reversing string read order for right to left languages, useful for some locale settings
--labelRole=LABELROLE or --labelrole=LABELROLE	overrides the standard XBRL 2.1 label role for the labels output by the following file options. e.g. --labelRole=http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/terseLabel

The following file options determine the type of file saved by the extension of the file name, the extension may be any of: .html, .htm, .xhtml, .json or .csv

Flag	Description
--DTS=DTSFILE or DEPRECATED --csvDTS=DTSFILE	Write DTS tree into DTSFILE. May be .csv or .html.
--facts=FACTSFILE or DEPRECATED --csvFacts=FACTSFILE	Write fact list into FACTSFILE.
--factListCols=FACTLISTCOLS	Columns for fact list file. The FACTLISTCOLS are comma separated and can be any of these: Label, Name, contextRef, unitRef, Dec, Prec, Lang, Value, EntityScheme, EntityIdentifier, Period, or Dimensions. The default columns list is Label,contextRef,unitRef,Dec,Prec,Lang,Value.
--factTable=FACTTABLEFILE or DEPRECATED --csvFactTable=FACTTABLEFILE	Write fact table into FACTTABLEFILE
--factListCols=FACTLISTCOLS	Columns for fact list file
--factTable=FACTTABLEFILE or DEPRECATED --csvFactTable=FACTTABLEFILE	Write fact table into FILE FACTTABLEFILE
--factTableCols=FACTTABLECOLS	Columns for fact table file
--concepts=CONCEPTSFILE or DEPRECATED --csvConcepts=CONCEPTSFILE	Write concepts into CONCEPTSFILE
--pre=PREFILE or --csvPre=PREFILE	Write presentation linkbase into PREFILE
--table=TABLEFILE or --csvTable=TABLEFILE	Write table linkbase into TABLEFILE
--cal=CALFILE or --csvCal=CALFILE	Write calculation linkbase into CALFILE
--dim=DIMFILE or --csvDim=DIMFILE	Write dimensions (of definitions) into DIMFILE
--anch=ANCHFILE	Write anchoring relationships (of definition) linkbase into ANCHFILE The wider-narrower hierarchy is shown in a tree view. For each anchored concept, if there are multiple parent (wider) concepts, the others are shown in a second column, “wider”. To additionally show name, documentation, and references on this view, specify one or all of --relationshipCols “Name,Documentation,References”
--formulae=FORMULAEFILE or --htmlFormulae=FORMULAEFILE	Write formulae linkbase into FORMULAEFILE
--viewArcrole=ARCROLE or --viewarcrole=ARCROLE	Store relationships for the ARCROLE in the file specified by --viewFile argument.
--viewFile=FILE	Specifies the file to store the --viewArcrole relationships.
--roleTypes=FILE	Store defined role types in specified FILE
--arcroleTypes=FILE`	Store defined arcrole types in specified FILE
--testReport=FILE	Write a test report of validation (of test cases) in specified FILE
--testReportCols=REPORTCOLS	Used with --testReport argument. Specifies columns for test report. REPORTCOLS are comma separated and can be any of these: Index, Testcase, ID, Name, Reference, ReadMeFirst, Status, Expected, Actual“.
--rssReport=FILE	Write a test report of RSS feed processing in specified FILE
--rssReportCols=RSSCOLS	Used with --rssReport argument. Specifies columns for RSS processing. RSSCOLS are comma separated and can be any of these: Company Name, Accession Number, Form, Filing Date, CIK, Status, Period, Yr End, Results”.

Logging Arguments

Flag	Description
--logFile=FILE	Write log messages into FILE, otherwise they go to standard output. If FILE ends in .xml it is xml-formatted, otherwise it is text. XML log files contain significant additional details not provided in the text files. Default files named logToPrint, logToStdOut.xml and logToStdError provide output on standard output and standard error streams.
--logFormat=FORMAT	Specify the Python logger FORMAT for the text description of messages, if absent the default is [%(messageCode)s] %(message)s - %(file)s.
--logLevel=LEVEL	Minimum LEVEL for messages capture, otherwise the message is ignored. Current order of levels are: debug, info, info-semantic, warning, warning-semantic, warning, assertion-satisfied, inconsistency, error-semantic, assertion-not-satisfied, and error.
--logLevelFilter=LOGREGX	Regular expression filter for logLevel. (E.g., to not match \*-semantic levels, --logLevelFilter=(?!^.*-semantic$)(.+).
--collectProfileStats	Collect profile statistics, such as timing of validation activities and formulae.

Validation and Formula Options

Flag	Description
--parameters	Specifies parameters for formula and validation (name=value[,name=value]).
--parameterSeparator	Used with --parameters argument. Specify parameters separator string (if other than comma, may be a multi-character separator).
--formula	Specify formula action, If this option is not specified, -v or --validate will validate and run formulas if present: validate - validate only, without running run - validate and run none - prevent formula validation or running when also specifying -v or --validate.
--formulaParamExprResult	Enable ParamExprResult formula tracing.
--formulaParamInputValue	Enable ParamInputValue formula tracing.
--formulaCallExprSource	Enable CallExprSource formula tracing.
--formulaCallExprCode	Enable CallExprCode formula tracing.
--formulaCallExprEval	Enable CallExprEval formula tracing.
--formulaCallExprResult	Enable CallExprResult formula tracing.
--formulaVarSetExprEval	Enable VarSetExprEval formula tracing.
--formulaVarSetExprResult	Enable VarSetExprResult formula tracing.
--formulaVarSetTiming	Show times of variable set evaluation
--formulaAsserResultCounts	Enable AsserResultCounts formula tracing.
--formulaFormulaRules	Enable FormulaRules formula tracing.
--formulaVarsOrder	Enable VarsOrder formula tracing.
--formulaVarExpressionSource	Enable VarExpressionSource formula tracing.
--formulaVarExpressionCode	Enable VarExpressionCode formula tracing.
--formulaVarExpressionEvaluation	Enable VarExpressionEvaluation formula tracing.
--formulaVarExpressionResult	Enable VarExpressionResult formula tracing.
--formulaVarFiltersResult	Enable VarFiltersResult formula tracing.
--formulaVarFiltersWinnowing	Show winnowing process of successive application of formulas, helpful in debugging to find out which filter affects the facts that pass a filtering step
--formulaVarFiltersResult	Show result of filters.

Configuration options

It is possible to specify options to be defaults for the web server, such as disclosureSystem and validations, but not including file names.

Flag	Description
--uiLang	Language for user interface (override system settings, such as program messages). Does not save setting. Does not affect labels language of above reports (see --labelLang)
--proxy	Modify and re-save proxy settings configuration. Enter system to use system proxy setting, none to use no proxy, a specific proxy in the format http://[user[:password]@]host[:port] (e.g., http://192.168.1.253, http://example.com:8080, http://joe:secret@example.com:8080), or show to show current (saved)setting.
--internetConnectivity	Specify internet connectivity: online or offline.
--internetTimeout	Specify internet connection timeout in seconds (0 means unlimited).
--internetRecheck	Specify frequency of rechecking web file’s time stamps to cached file copy and determine if newer file to be reloaded: weekly (default), daily or never.
--noCertificateCheck	Skip https SSL certificate checking.
--internetLogDownloads	Log an info message for downloads to the web cache.
--xdgConfigHome	Specify non-standard location for configuration and cache files (overrides environment parameter XDG_CONFIG_HOME, if also provided).
--plugin or --plugins	Specify plugins to load (no longer saved or shared with GUI) Module urls are | separated. Standard plugin modules do not need “.py” specified. Relative URLs are relative to installation plug-in directory. Packaged plug-in urls are their directory’s url.
--packages=FILE or --packages=URL	Load XBRL taxonomy packages. Option can be repeated to specify multiple packages. Specifying a directory will attempt to load all .zip files in the directory. Command line taxonomy package configuration is not persisted or shared with the GUI. URLs must be full absolute paths. Multiple packages may also be specified as |-separated list.
--abortOnMajorError	Abort process on major error, such as when load is unable to find an entry or discovered file.
--webserver	Start web server on host:port[:server] for REST and web access. (e.g., --webserver locahost:8080, or specify nondefault a server name, such as cherrypy, --webserver locahost:8080:cherrypy.)

Standard Plugins and Options

Many of the plug-ins add command line (in addition to GUI menu) options.
For additional detail see the plug-in documentation. A summary of standard plugin options is provided here.

inlineDocumentSet	Specify an inline XBRL document set by JSON parameter: --file ‘[{“ixDocumentSet”:[{“file”:file1},{“file”:file2}…]}]’
--save-instance	Provides a file name into which to save an XBRL instance document derived from a loaded manifest (Japan FSA) of a document set of inline documents, or loaded single inline document. (Currently supports one target instance document only.)

loadFromExcel	Load from Excel file
	No command line options, but the -f and --file options can specify an Excel document which represents a DTS.

profileCmdLine	Profiles command line operation
--save-profiler-report	Specifies file into which to save a Python profiler report of the timings of Arelle Python methods and routines for the operations performed by the other command line functions. Useful to determine if a long running function is spending excessive time in a function that needs implementation attention.

saveDTS	Produces a Taxonomy Package.
--package-DTS	Specifies a file into which to save a Taxonomy Package representing the loaded DTS.

saveHtmlEBAtables	EBA Table Sets.
--save-EBA-tablesets	Specifies an index file (usually index.html) to represent an html page that holds a table of contents to the EBA tables generated for all loaded EBA Table Linkbase tables in the DTS.

saveLoadableExcel	Saves an Excel workbook
--save-loadable-excel	Saves an Excel workbook representing the DTS (which can be subsequently loaded by loadFromExcel.py plugin.

saveSKOS	Saves a SKOS (OMG standard OWL file).
--save-skos	Saves a SKOS (OMG standard OWL file) representing a semantic view of a DTS based on presentation linkbase entries (for US-GAAP, IFRS, and EDInet style taxonomies).

xbrlDB	Saves XBRL data to a database.
--store-to-XBRL-DB=DBSTR	Store into XBRL DB. Provides connection string: host,[port], user, password, database, [timeout], technology.
	technology can be: postgres - XBRL-US Postgres SQL mssqlSemantic - Semantic MSSQL SQL mysqlSemantic - Semantic MySQL SQL orclSemantic - Semantic Oracle SQL pgSemantic - Semantic Postgres SQL rexster - Rexter (Titan Cassandra) rdfDB - RDF (Turtle, NanoSparqlServer) json - JSON (JSON, MongoDB)
	For rdfDB if hostname is rdfTurtleFile or rdfXmlFile, then database specifies a local file system pathname to store a file. For json, if hostname is jsonFile then database specifies a local file system path name to store into a file.

Example storing into postgres database using XBRL-US schema:

arelleCmdLine -f c:\temp\test.rss -v --disclosureSystem efm-pragmatic-all-years --store-to-XBRL-DB "myhost.com,8084,pgUserId,pgPassword,test_db,90,postgres"

Example storing into local MSSQL database using SQLEXPRESS instance:

arelleCmdLine -f c:\temp\test.rss -v --disclosureSystem efm-pragmatic-all-years --store-to-XBRL-DB "localhost\SQLEXPRESS,,sqlLogin,sqlPassword,,90,mssqlSemantic"

Disclosure System Selections

Run with --disclosureSystem=help to list the disclosure systems that are available for the currently loaded plugins.