If you cannot remember a command name (or if you want to reduce the amount of typing you have to perform), enter the first few letters of a command, then press the Tab key. The command line parser completes the command if the string entered is unique to the command mode. If your keyboard does not have a Tab key, press Ctrl-L.
The CLI recognizes a command once you have entered enough characters to make the command unique. If you enter "conf" within the privileged EXEC mode, the CLI associates the entry with the configure command, since only the configure command begins with conf.
In the following example, the CLI recognizes a unique string in the privileged EXEC mode when the Tab key is pressed:
nx9500-6C8809#conf[TAB]
nx9500-6C8809#configure
nx9500-6C8809#configure[ENTER] Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z. nx9500-6C8809(config)#
When using the command completion feature, the CLI displays the full command name. The command is not executed until the Return or Enter key is pressed. Modify the command if the full command was not what you intended in the abbreviation. If entering a set of characters (indicating more than one command), the system lists all commands beginning with that set of characters.
Enter a question mark (?) to obtain a list of commands beginning with that set of characters. Do not leave a space between the last letter and the question mark (?).
In the following example, all commands, available in the current context, starting with the characters ‘co‘ are listed:
nx9500-6C8809#co? commit Commit all changes made in this session configure Enter configuration mode connect Open a console connection to a remote device copy Copy from one file to another nx9500-6C8809#
Note
The characters entered before the question mark are reprinted to the screen to complete the command entry.