Using the command line interface

Features for editing commands

Data ONTAP provides the following features to help you when you enter commands on the command line:

History
Command-line editor
Online command-line help
Online Data ONTAP command-line manual (man) pages

Using the history feature

The history feature enables you to scroll through recently entered commands, as described in the following table.

If you want to...	With the cursor keys	With a key-combination
Scroll back through commands	Press the Up arrow key.	Press Ctrl-P.
Scroll forward through commands	Press the Down arrow key.	Press Ctrl-N.

Using the command-line editor

The command-line editor enables you to position the cursor anywhere in a partially typed command and insert characters at the cursor position. You can use various key combinations to move the cursor within the same line and edit the command, as shown in the following table.

If you want to...	Then...
Move the cursor right one position	Press Ctrl-F or the Right arrow key.
Move the cursor left one position	Press Ctrl-B or the Left arrow key.
Move the cursor to the end of the line	Press Ctrl-E.
Move the cursor to the beginning of the line	Press Ctrl-A.
Delete all characters from the cursor to the end of the line	Press Ctrl-K.
Delete the character to the left of the cursor and move the cursor left one position	Press Ctrl-H.
Delete the line	Press Ctrl-U.
Delete a word	Press Ctrl-W.
Reprint the line	Press Ctrl-R.

Online command-line help

When using the command line, you can get command-line syntax help from the command line by entering the name of the command followed by help or the question mark (?). The fonts or symbols used in syntax help are as follows:

keyword specifies the name of a command or an option that must be entered as shown.

< > (less than, greater than symbols) specify that you must replace the variable identified inside the symbols with a value.

| (pipe) indicates you must choose one of elements on either side of the pipe.

[ ] (brackets) indicate that the element inside the brackets is optional.

{ } (braces) indicate that the element inside the braces is required.

The following example show the result of entering the environment help command at the storage system command line:

toaster> environment help

Usage: environment status |

                 [status] [shelf [<adapter>] ] |

                 [status] [chassis [all | Fans | Power |

Temperature | PS1 | PS2 | RTC battery]]

You can also type the question mark at the command line for a list of all the commands that are available at the current level of administration (administrative or advanced). For information about administration levels, see Using Data ONTAP commands at different privilege levels.

Command line man pages

Data ONTAP provides online manual (man) pages for the following types of information. They are grouped into sections according to standard UNIX naming conventions.

Types of information	Man page section
Commands	1
Special files	4
File formats and conventions	5
System management and services	8

Man pages can be viewed in the following ways:

At the storage system command line, by entering
```
man command_or_file_name
```
From the FilerView main navigational page
In the following documents:
- Commands: Manual Page Reference, Volume 1
- Commands: Manual Page Reference, Volume 2
  Note
  All man pages are stored on the storage system in files whose names are prefixed with the string "na_" to distinguish them from client man pages. The prefixed names are used to refer to storage system man pages from other man pages and sometimes appear in the NAME field of the man page, but the prefixes are not part of the command, file, or services.

For more information, see the man(1) man page.