Abbreviated Syntax, Symbols, SymbolDescription

Learning About the User Interface 6-5

NETBuilder family bridge/router guides and online help use upper- and lowercase letters to distinguish the full form of commands and command syntax from the abbreviated form. You can enter a command in abbreviated form by typing only the uppercase portion. It does not matter whether you type the command in upper- or lowercase letters.

Abbreviated Syntax

Abbreviated syntax is the shortest unambiguous abbreviation of a command, parameter, or value that can be entered. You can enter the abbreviated form in lower- or uppercase letters at the NETBuilder prompt.

Figure 6-2shows the abbreviated syntax that corresponds to the full-form syntax in Figure 6-1.

Commands, parameters, and service names can be entered in abbreviated form. Uppercase denotes the shortest unambiguous abbreviation of a command, service name, or parameter.

Command name

Parameter name

SETD !1 -FDDI IP = DNI

Figure 6-2Abbreviated Syntax

Value

Additional syntax examples are provided in “Full and Abbreviated Syntax Examples” on page 6-6.

Symbols

You may see a variety of symbols shown as part of the command syntax. These symbols usually explain how to enter the command, and you do not type them as part of the command itself. The exceptions to this rule are parentheses, the hyphen, and the exclamation point, which you do type as part of the command. Table 6-1summarizes command syntax symbols.

Table 6-1Command Syntax Symbols

SymbolDescription

angle brackets < > Enclose a variable or value. You must specify the variable or value; for example, in the syntax:

DELete -IP ADDRess <IP address>

you must supply an address for <IP address> when you enter the command. Do not type the angle brackets.

square brackets[ ] Enclose an optional value or a list of optional arguments. One or more values or arguments can be specified. For example, in the syntax:

SET PRIvilege = [User NetMgr]

you can specify either User or NetMgr when you enter the command. Do not type the square brackets.

parentheses ( ) Enclose a list of values that can be assigned to a single parameter. At least one of them must be selected. You must type the parentheses and separate the values with a comma if you are assigning more than one value. For example, in the syntax:

SET CurrentPorts = ALL (<port>, <port>)

you can specify two port numbers by enclosing them in parentheses and separating them with a comma when you enter the command.

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