Chapter 2
  |  Using the Command Line Interface
Entering Commands
–  75  –
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.”