Using the CLI : Tips & tricks
 
Tips & tricks
Basic features and characteristics of the CLI environment provide support and ease of use for many CLI tasks.
This section includes:
Help
Shortcuts & key commands
Command abbreviation
Special characters
Language support & regular expressions
Screen paging
Editing the configuration file in a text editor
Help
To display brief help during command entry, press the question mark (?) key.
Press the question mark (?) key at the command prompt to display a list of the commands available and a description of each.
Press the question mark (?) key after a command keyword to display a list of the objects available with that command and a description of each.
Type a word or part of a word, then press the question mark (?) key to display a list of valid word completions or subsequent words, and to display a description of each.
Shortcuts & key commands
Table 5: Shortcuts and key commands
Action
Keys
List valid word completions or subsequent words.
If multiple words could complete your entry, display all possible completions with helpful descriptions of each.
?
Complete the word with the next available match.
Press the key multiple times to cycle through available matches.
Tab
Recall the previous command.
Command memory is limited to the current session.
Up arrow, or
Ctrl + P
Recall the next command.
Down arrow, or
Ctrl + N
Move the cursor left or right within the command line.
Left or Right arrow
Move the cursor to the beginning of the command line.
Ctrl + A
Move the cursor to the end of the command line.
Ctrl + E
Move the cursor backwards one word.
Ctrl + B
Move the cursor forwards one word.
Ctrl + F
Delete the current character.
Ctrl + D
Abort current interactive commands, such as when entering multiple lines.
If you are not currently within an interactive command such as config or edit, this closes the CLI connection.
Ctrl + C
Continue typing a command on the next line for a multi-line command.
For each line that you want to continue, terminate it with a backslash ( \ ). To complete the command line, terminate it by pressing the spacebar and then the Enter key, without an immediately preceding backslash.
\ then Enter