Entering Commands
This section describes how to enter CLI commands.

Keywords and Arguments

A CLI command is a series of keywords and arguments. Keyword s 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 com mand ke yword.
• To enter multiple commands, ent er each co mmand in the requir ed order. For
example, to enable Privileged Exec command mode, and display th e startup
configuration, enter:
Console>enable
Console#show startup-config
• To enter commands that require paramet ers, ente r the requir ed parame ters after
the command keyword. For example, to set a password for the ad ministrato r,
enter:
Console(config)#username admin password 0 smith

Minimum Abbreviation

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

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” examp le, 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.

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Entering Commands

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