help

To display a brief description of the help system, enter the help command.

help

Syntax Description

This command has no arguments or keywords.

Defaults

No default behavior or values

Command Modes

Available in all command modes.

Command History

Release	Modification
10.0	This command was introduced.

Usage Guidelines

The help command provides a brief description of the context-sensitive help system.

• To list all commands available for a particular command mode, enter a question mark (?) at the system prompt.

• To obtain a list of commands that begin with a particular character string, enter the abbreviated command entry immediately followed by a question mark (?). This form of help is called word help, because it lists only the keywords or arguments that begin with the abbreviation you entered.

• To list a command's associated keywords or arguments, enter a question mark (?) in place of a keyword or argument on the command line. This form of help is called command syntax help, because it lists the keywords or arguments that apply based on the command, keywords, and arguments you have already entered.

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Note: The help command is associated with privilege level 0. If you configure AAA authorization for a privilege level greater than 0, this command will not be included in the command set for that privilege level.

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Examples

The following example displays the help command giving a brief description of the help system:

Router# help
Help may be requested at any point in a command by entering
a question mark '?'. If nothing matches, the help list will
be empty and you must backup until entering a '?' shows the
available options.
Two styles of help are provided:
1. Full help is available when you are ready to enter a
   command argument (e.g. 'show ?') and describes each possible
   argument.
2. Partial help is provided when an abbreviated argument is entered
   and you want to know what arguments match the input
   (e.g. 'show pr?'.)

The following example shows how to use word help to display all the privileged EXEC commands that begin with the letters "co":

Router# co?
configure  connect  copy

The following example shows how to use command syntax help to display the next argument of a partially complete access-list command. One option is to add a wildcard mask. The <cr> symbol indicates that the other option is to press Return to execute the command.

Router(config)# access-list 99 deny 131.108.134.234 ?
  A.B.C.D  Mask of bits to ignore
<cr>