Command Line Interface (CLI)

MLNX-OS is equipped with an industry-standard command line interface (CLI). The CLI is accessed through SSH or Telnet sessions or directly through the console port on the front panel, if it exists.

The CLI can be in one of various modes. Each of the modes makes available a certain group (or level) of commands for execution. The following are some of the CLI configuration modes:

To help identify the different parts of a CLI command, the following table explains conventions of presenting the syntax of commands.

Context-sensitive help may be requested at any time by pressing “?” in the command line. This will show a list of choices for the word that is currently selected or, if nothing has been typed yet, will show a list of top-level commands.
For example, typing "?" in the command line in Standard mode, will provide a link of the following available commands.

            

            
switch > ?
cli              Configure CLI shell options
enable           Enter enable mode
exit             Log out of the CLI
help             View description of the interactive help system
no               Negate or clear certain configuration options
show             Display system configuration or statistics
slogin           Log into another system securely using ssh
switch           Configure switch on system
telnet           Log into another system using telnet
terminal         Set terminal parameters
traceroute       Trace the route packets take to a destination
switch >
        

Typing a legal string and then pressing “?” without a space character before it, will provide either a description of the command that was typed so far or the possible command/parameter completions. Typing “?” after a space character and “<cr>” is shown, means that, so far, a complete command has been typed. Pressing Enter (carriage return) will execute the command.

Try the following, to get started:

            

            
?
show ?
show c?
show clock?
show clock ?
show interfaces ?     (from enable mode)
        

Enter “help” to view a description of the interactive help system.
Note also that the CLI supports command and/or parameter tab-completions and their shortened forms. For example, you can enter “en” instead of the “enable” command, or “cli cl” instead of “cli clear-history”. In case of ambiguity (in case more than one completion option is a vailable), press Tabs twice to obtain the disambiguation options. Thus, to learn which commands start with the letter “c”, type “c” and click twice on the Tab key to get the following:

            

            
switch # c<tab>
clear       cli       configure
switch # c
        

This signifies that there are three commands that start with the letter “c”: "clear", "cli", and "configure".

The prompt always begins with the hostname of the system. What follows depends on what command mode the user is in. To demonstrate by example, assuming the machine name is “switch”, the prompts for each of the modes are:

            

            
switch >              (Standard mode)
switch #              (Enable mode)
switch (config) #     (Config mode)
        

The following session shows how to move between command modes:

            

            
switch >			           	(You start in Standard mode)
switch > enable					(Move to Enable mode)
switch #						(You are in Enable mode)
switch # configure terminal		(Move to Config mode)
switch (config) #				(You are in Config mode)
switch (config) # exit			(Exit Config mode)
switch #						(You are back in Enable mode)
switch # disable				(Exit Enable mode)
switch >						(You are back in Standard mode)
        

Commands entered do not print any response and simply show the command prompt after pressing <Enter>.

If an error is encountered while executing a command, the response will begin with “%”, followed by a description of the error.

Several Config commands use the “no” form of the command to reset a parameter value to its inherited, or default, value.

The command sequence below performs the following:

1. Displays the current CLI session option.

2. Disables auto-logout.

3. Displays the new CLI session options (auto-logout is disabled).

4. Re-enables auto-logout (after 15 minutes).

5. Displays the final CLI session options (auto-logout is enabled).

   Collapse Source

   Copy

   Copied!

               
   
               
   // 1. Display the current CLI session options
   switch (config) # show cli
   CLI current session settings:
   Maximum line size: 8192
   Terminal width: 157 columns
   Terminal length: 60 rows
   Terminal type: xterm
   Auto-logout: 15 minutes
   Paging: enabled
   Progress tracking: enabled
   Prefix modes: enabled
   ...
   // 2. Disable auto-logout
   switch (config) # no cli session auto-logout
   // 3. Display the new CLI session options
   switch (config) # show cli
   CLI current session settings:
   Maximum line size: 8192
   Terminal width: 157 columns
   Terminal length: 60 rows
   Terminal type: xterm
   Auto-logout: disabled
   Paging: enabled
   Progress tracking: enabled
   Prefix modes: enabled
   ...
   // 4. Re-enable auto-logout after 15 minutes
   switch (config) # cli session auto-logout 15
   // 5. Display the final CLI session options
   switch (config) # show cli
   CLI current session settings:
   Maximum line size: 8192
   Terminal width: 157 columns
   Terminal length: 60 rows
   Terminal type: xterm
   Auto-logout: 15 minutes
   Paging: enabled
   Progress tracking: enabled
   Prefix modes: enabled
   ...
           

This page provides a key to the meaning and format of angle-bracketed parameters in the commands that are listed in this document.

CLI Filtration Options “include” and “exclude”

The MLNX-OS CLI supports filtering “show” commands to display lines containing or excluding certain phrases or characters. To filter the outputs of the “show” commands use the following format:

            

            
switch (config) # <show command> | {include | exclude} <extended regular expression> [<ignore-case>] [next <lines>] [prev <lines>]
        

The filtering parameters are separated from the show command they filter by a pipe character (“|”). Quotation marks may be used to include or exclude a string including space, and multiple filters can be used simultaneously as shown in the example below.

            

            
switch (config) # <show command> | {include <extended regular expression>} [<ignore-case>] [next <lines>] [prev <lines>] | exclude <extended regular expression> [<ignore-case>] [next <lines>] [prev <lines>]]
        

Example:

            

            
switch (config) # show asic-version | include SIB2
MGMT              SIB2                15.2008.0236
 
switch (config) # show module | exclude PS
======================
 Module    Status
======================
 MGMT      ready
 FAN1      ready
 FAN2      ready
        

CLI Monitoring Option “watch”

MLNX-OS

            

            
switch (config) # <show command> | watch [diff] [interval <1-100 secs>]
        

Running this command displays a show-command output that is updated at a time interval specified by the “interval” parameter (2 seconds is the default).

The “diff” parameter highlights the differences between each iteration of the command.

For example running the command “show power | watch diff interval 1” yields something similar to the following:

            

            
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Module  Device			Sensor	Power	Voltage  Current  Feed	Status
								[Watts]	[Watts]  [Amp]	  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PS1		power-mon		input	85.00	230.00   0.38	  AC	OK
PS2		power-mon		-		-		-		 -		  -		FAIL
 
Total power used : 85.00 Watts
Total power capacity : 460.00 Watts
Total power available : 375.00 Watts
Maximum consumed power of all turned on modules: 46.00 Watts
        

With the highlighted black blocks indicating the change that has occurred between one iteration of the command from one second to the next.

To exit “watch” mode, press Ctrl+C.
The “watch” option may be used in conjunction with the “include” and “exclude” options as follows:

            

            
switch (config) # <show command> | {include | exclude} <extended regular expression> | watch [diff] [interval <1-100 secs>]
        

Example:

            

            
switch (config) # show power | include PS | watch diff interval 1
        

It is possible to count the number of lines in an output of a “show” command by using the following command:

            

            
switch (config) # <show command> | count
        

Example:

            

            
switch (config) # show clock
Time:       16:05:43
Date:       2020/05/25
Time zone:  UTC (Etc/UTC)
UTC offset: same as UTC
# show clock | count
4
        

CLI “json-print” Option

The MLNX-OS CLI supports printing “show” commands in JSON syntax.
To print the output of the “show” commands as JSON, use the following format:

            

            
switch (config) # <show command> | json-print
        

Running the command displays an output of the “show” command in JSON syntax structure instead of its regular format. See the following as an example:

            

            
switch (config) # show system profile
Profile: eth-single-switch
switch (config) # show system profile | json-print
{
"Profile": "eth-single-switch"
}
        

The “json-print” option cannot be used together with filtering (“include” and “exclude”) and/or monitoring (“watch”).

For more information on JSON usage, please refer to “JSON API”.

CLI Shortcuts

The following table presents the available keyboard shortcuts on the MLNX-OS CLI.