30
CLI Basics
March 2005
Command Line (?) Help
The CLI provides additional help in the form of the question
mark (
?
) character. The
?
character provides information that
helps you build your command syntax. For example, if you
enter
-> show vlan router
at the command line and are unsure of the next keyword, you
can enter the
?
character for additional options (be sure to
include a space between the last keyword and the
?
character):
-> show vlan router ?
^
MAC IP
(Vlan Manager Command Set)
The carat character (
^
) indicates the point where you invoked
the command line help. Possible keyword options, along with
the corresponding command set, are displayed. Here, you can
continue building the command by entering either
mac
or
ip
.
Some command completion options may indicate user-defined
information. For example:
<string>
,
<slot/port>
,
<hh:mm:ss>
, etc. The option
<cr>
indicates that the
command can be completed by pressing
Enter
.
Note.
The
?
character can be entered at any time. In addi-
tion, you can type the
?
character alone at the CLI prompt
to display root keywords for
all
command sets.
Partial Keyword Completion
The CLI has a partial keyword recognition feature. Instead of
typing an entire keyword, you can type only the minimum
number of characters needed to uniquely identify the keyword,
then press the
Tab
key. The CLI will complete the keyword
and place the cursor at the end of the command line.
If you do not enter enough characters to uniquely identify the
keyword, pressing the
Tab
key will have no effect.
If you enter characters that do not belong to an applicable
keyword, pressing the
Tab
key will remove the characters and
place the cursor back to its previous position.
Deleting Characters
You can delete CLI command characters by using the
Back-
space
key or the
Delete
key. The
Backspace
key deletes each
character in the line, one at a time, from right to left.
To change incorrect syntax with the
Delete
key, use the
Left
Arrow
key to move the cursor to the left of the character to be
deleted, then use the
Delete
key to remove characters to the
right of the cursor.
