Entering Commands

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4
Entering Commands
This section describes how to enter CLI commands.

Keywords and Arguments

A CLI command is a series of keywords and arguments. Keywords identify a
command, and arguments specify configuration parameters. For example, in the
command “show interfaces status ethernet 1/5,” show interfaces and status are
keywords, ethernet is an argument that specifies the interface type, and 1/5
specifies the unit/port.
You can enter commands as follows:
To enter a simple command, enter the command keyword.
To enter multiple commands, enter each command in the required order. For
example, to enable Privileged Exec command mode, and display the startup
configuration, enter:
Console>enable
Console#show startup-config
To enter commands that require parameters, enter the required parameters after
the command keyword. For example, to set a password for the administrator,
enter:
Console(config)#username admin password 0 smith

Minimum Abbreviation

The CLI will accept a minimum number of characters that uniquely identify a
command. For example, the command “configure” can be entered as con. If an
entry is ambiguous, the system will prompt for further input.

Command Completion

If you terminate input with a Tab key, the CLI will print the remaining characters of a
partial keyword up to the point of ambiguity. In the “logging history” example, typing
log followed by a tab will result in printing the command up to “logging.”

Getting Help on Commands

You can display a brief description of the help system by entering the help
command. You can also display command syntax by using the “?” character to list
keywords or parameters.