The Private Internet Access desktop client includes a command-line interface that can be used to control some functionality of the PIA client from scripts.

Invoking piactl

Windows

On Windows, specify the full path to piactl.exe or change into the PIA installation directory and invoke it.  For example:

"C:\Program Files\Private Internet Access\piactl.exe" --help
"C:\Program Files\Private Internet Access\piactl.exe" connect

Or:

cd "C:\Program Files\Private Internet Access"
piactl --help
piactl connect

We do not recommend adding the PIA installation directory to PATH on Windows, as this would also add the DLLs shipped by PIA to PATH.

The rest of this article will use piactl in example commands, substitute the full path on Windows as needed.

Mac and Linux

On Mac and Linux, piactl is symlinked into /usr/local/bin at installation time if possible, so normally piactl is sufficient from a command line.  For example:

piactl --help
piactl connect

This requires that:

• There isn't already a file called piactl in /usr/local/bin
• /usr/local/bin is already in your PATH (PIA does not alter PATH)
• On Linux, the directory /usr/local/bin must already exist.

Otherwise, the full path to piactl can be used - on Mac: /Applications/Private Internet Access.app/Contents/MacOS/piactl; on Linux: /opt/piavpn/bin/piactl.

Help

piactl --help displays usage information.

Usage: piactl [options] command [parameters...]
Command-line interface to the PIA client. Some commands, such as connect, require that the graphical client is also running.

Options:
 --timeout, -t <seconds> Sets timeout for one-shot commands.
 --debug, -d Prints debug logs to stderr.
 --help, -h Displays this help.
 -v, --version Displays version information.

Arguments:
 command Command to execute
 parameters Parameters for the command

Commands:
 connect
 Connects to the VPN, or reconnects to apply new settings.
 The PIA client must be running to use this command.
 (The PIA daemon is inactive when the client is not running.)
   
 disconnect
 Disconnects from the VPN.

 get
 usage: get <type>
 Get information from the PIA daemon.
 Available types:
 - debuglogging - State of debug logging setting
 - portforward - Forwarded port number if available, or the status of the request to forward a port
 - region - Currently selected region (or "auto")
 - regions - List all available regions
 - vpnip - Current VPN IP address

 resetsettings
 Resets settings to the defaults.

 set
 usage: set <type> <value>
 Change settings in the PIA daemon.
 Available types:
 - debuglogging - Enable or disable debug logging.
      - region - Select a region (or "auto")

Options

These options control general behavior of piactl.

Commands

piactl supports several commands:

The PIA client must be running to use the connect command.  Otherwise, piactl will print a message and exit.  This is currently required because the daemon is inactive when the graphical client is not running, and so the daemon can disconnect if the user logs out.

get/set types