Abbreviating Commands

You can abbreviate commands and keywords by entering the first few characters of a command. The abbreviation must include sufficient characters to make it unique from other commands or keywords. If you are having trouble entering a command, check the system prompt and enter the question mark (?) for a list of available commands. You might be in the wrong command mode or using incorrect syntax. Command abbreviation is shown in the following example:

apic1# show aaa authentication
Default : local
Console : local

apic1# sh aa a
Default : local
Console : local

Command Completion

To complete a command or keyword after entering an abbreviated string, press the Tab key. The CLI completes the command or keyword only if the partial string matches only one command or keyword.

Note	Some commands, such as show hardware internal power-management, require the Tab key for partial completion and the ESC key for the remainder of the completion.

Viewing Command Options

After typing a partial command, you can display the command options by typing a question mark (?), as shown in the following example:

apic1# show aaa ?
 authentication  Show AAA Authentication information
 groups          Show AAA group information

Command History

The history buffer stores the previous commands you entered. Using the Up arrow key (or typing Ctrl-P), you can recall commands in the history buffer, beginning with the most recent command. Repeat the key sequence to recall successively older commands. To return to more recent commands in the history buffer after recalling commands, use the Down arrow key or type Ctrl-N).

Filtering show Command Output

You can use the vertical bar (|) with any show command and include a filter option and filtering expression. The filtering is performed by matching each output line with a regular expression. By selecting different filter options you can include or exclude all output that matches the expression. You can also display all output beginning with the line that matches the expression.

An example of filtering options with the show command is as follows:

apic1# show aaa authentication 
Default : local
Console : local

apic1# show aaa authentication | grep Console
Console : local
apic1#

Displaying a List of Commands and Syntax

To display a list of CLI commands and their syntax, use the show cli list command, as shown in the following example

apic1# show cli list
[    ][mode] [None            ]  exec   
[cfg ][mode] [exec            ]  configure   [['terminal', 't']]
[cfg ][mode] [configure       ]  power   redundancy-policy <WORD>
[cfg ][cmd ] [power           ]  redundancy-mode   combined|ps-redundant|redundant
.
.
.

You can filter the output of this command, as shown in the following example:

apic1# show cli list | grep ntp
[cfg ][mode] [pod             ]  ntp   
[cfg ][cmd ] [ntp             ]  authenticate   
[cfg ][cmd ] [ntp             ]  authentication-key   <id> [md5 <md5>]
.
.
.

Negating a Command with the no Prefix

Almost every configuration command has a no form that can be used to disable a feature, revert to a default value, or remove a configuration.

To disable a feature, remove a created object, or revert a configuration setting to its default value, most configuration commands can be preceded with the prefix 'no'.