CLI Keybindings¶

Writing CLI commands by hand is very tedious. To make things easier the CLI has several keybindings, most significant first:

Key	Cmd/Key	Description
TAB		Complete current command, see below for example
?		Show available commands, or arguments, with help
Ctrl-c		Cancel everything on current line
Ctrl-d	`abort`/`exit`	Delete character, or abort/exit on empty line
Ctrl-z	`leave`	Leave and activate changes in configure context
Ctrl-f	Right arrow	Move cursor forward one character
Ctrl-b	Left arrow	Move cursor back one character
Meta-f	Ctrl-Right	Move cursor forward one word
Meta-b	Ctrl-Left	Move cursor back one word
Ctrl-e	End	Move cursor to end of line
Ctrl-a	Home	Move cursor to beginning of line
Ctrl-@	Ctrl-Space	Mark current position for region operations
Meta w		Copy region to kill buffer without deleting
Ctrl-k		Kill (cut) text from cursor to end of line
Ctrl-u		Delete (cut) entire line
Ctrl-y		Yank (paste) from kill buffer to cursor
Meta-.		Yank (paste) last argument from previous line
Ctrl-w		Kill region if mark set, else kill word backward
	Meta-Backspace	Delete (cut) word to the left
	Meta-Delete	Delete (cut) word to the right
Ctrl-l		Clear screen and refresh current line
Ctrl-p	Up arrow	History, previous command
Ctrl-n	Down arrow	History, next command
Ctrl-q	Ctrl-v	Insert next character literally
Ctrl-r		History, reversed interactive search (i-search)
Ctrl-t		Transpose/Swap characters before and at cursor
Meta-#	Alt-Shift-3	Prepend # to current line and submit to history

What is Meta?¶

The Meta key is called Alt on most modern keyboards. If you have neither, first tap the Esc key instead of holding down Alt/Meta.

Complete a word. Start by typing a few characters, then tap the TAB key on your keyboard:

conf<TAB> --> configure

See possible arguments, with brief help text, to a command:

show ?
bridge          Show bridge (ports/fdb/mdb/vlans)
datetime        Show current date and time, default RFC2822 format
...

Type the command, then tap the ? key.