Have the CLI Complete Commands

You do not always have to remember or type the full command or option name for the CLI to recognize it. To display all possible command or option completions, type the partial command followed immediately by a question mark.

To complete a command or option that you have partially typed, press a tab or a space. If the partially typed letters begin a string that uniquely identifies a command, the complete command name appears. Otherwise, a beep indicates that you have entered an ambiguous command, then displays the possible completions.

Command completion also applies to other strings, such as filenames and usernames. To display all possible values, type a partial string followed immediately by a question mark. However, to complete these strings, press a tab; pressing a space does not work.

Examples: Use CLI Command Completion

Issue the show interface command:

 user@host> sh<Space>ow i<Space>
 `i' is ambiguous.
 Possible completions:
     igmp                Show information about IGMP
     interface                Show interface information
     isis                Show information about IS-IS
 user@host> show in<Space>terfaces <Enter>
 Physical interface: at-0/1/0, Enabled, Physical link is Up
   Interface index: 11, SNMP ifIndex: 65
   Link-level type: ATM-PVC, MTU: 4482, Clocking: Internal, SONET mode
   Speed: OC12, Loopback: None, Payload scrambler: Enabled
   Device flags   : Present Running
   Link flags     : 0x01
 ...
 user@host>
 

Display a list of all log files whose name starts with the string "messages," and then display the contents of one of the files:

 user@myhost> show log mes?
 Possible completions:
   <filename>                                Log file to display
   messages                                Size: 1417052, Last changed: Mar  3 00:33
   messages.0.gz                                Size: 145575, Last changed: Mar  3 00:00
   messages.1.gz                                Size: 134253, Last changed: Mar  2 23:00
   messages.10.gz                                Size: 137022, Last changed: Mar  2 14:00
   messages.2.gr                                Size: 137112, Last changed: Mar  2 22:00
   messages.3.gz                                Size: 121633, Last changed: Mar  2 21:00
   messages.4.gz                                Size: 135715, Last changed: Mar  2 20:00
   messages.5.gz                                Size: 137504, Last changed: Mar  2 19:00
   messages.6.gz                                Size: 134591, Last changed: Mar  2 18:00
   messages.7.gz                                Size: 132670, Last changed: Mar  2 17:00
   messages.8.gz                                Size: 136596, Last changed: Mar  2 16:00
   messages.9.gz                                Size: 136210, Last changed: Mar  2 15:00
 user@myhost> show log mes<Tab>sages.4<Tab>.gz<Enter>
 Jan 15 21:00:00 myhost newsyslog[1381]: logfile turned over
 ...