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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