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.