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Rules for specifying values in the CLI

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Most commands include one or more required or optional parameters. Many parameters require you to specify a value for them. A few rules exist for specifying values in the CLI.

  • A value can be a number, a Boolean specifier, a selection from an enumerated list of predefined values, or a text string.

    Some parameters can accept a comma-separated list of two or more values. Comma-separated lists of values do not need to be in quotation marks (" "). Whenever you specify text, a space, or a query character (when not meant as a query or text starting with a less-than or greater-than symbol), you must enclose the entity in quotation marks.

  • The CLI interprets a question mark (“?”) as the command to display help information for a particular command.

  • Some text that you enter in the CLI, such as command names, parameters, and certain values, is not case-sensitive.

    For example, when you enter parameter values for the vserver cifs commands, capitalization is ignored. However, most parameter values, such as the names of nodes, storage virtual machines (SVMs), aggregates, volumes, and logical interfaces, are case-sensitive.

  • If you want to clear the value of a parameter that takes a string or a list, you specify an empty set of quotation marks ("") or a dash ("-").

  • The hash sign (“#”), also known as the pound sign, indicates a comment for a command-line input; if used, it should appear after the last parameter in a command line.

    The CLI ignores the text between “#” and the end of the line.

In the following example, an SVM is created with a text comment. The SVM is then modified to delete the comment:

cluster1::> vserver create -vserver vs0 -subtype default -rootvolume root_vs0
-aggregate aggr1 -rootvolume-security-style unix -language C.UTF-8 -is-repository false -ipspace ipspaceA -comment "My SVM"
cluster1::> vserver modify -vserver vs0 -comment ""

In the following example, a command-line comment that uses the “#” sign indicates what the command does.

cluster1::> security login create -vserver vs0 -user-or-group-name new-admin
-application ssh -authmethod password #This command creates a new user account