CLI basics

This section describes the basic features and characteristics of the CLI environment.

Getting help

Press the question mark (?) key to display command help and complete commands.

• Press the question mark (?) key at the command prompt to display a list of the commands available and a description of each command.
• Enter a command followed by a space and press the question mark (?) key to display a list of the options available for that command and a description of each option.
• Enter a command followed by an option and press the question mark (?) key to display a list of additional options available for that command option combination and a description of each option.
• Enter a question mark after entering a portion of a command to see a list of valid complete commands and their descriptions. If there is only one valid command, it will be automatically filled in.

Shortcuts and key commands

Shortcut key	Action
?	List valid complete or subsequent commands. If multiple commands can complete the command, they are listed with their descriptions.
Tab	Complete the word with the next available match. Press multiple times to cycle through available matches.
Up arrow or Ctrl + P	Recall the previous command. Command memory is limited to the current session.
Down arrow, or Ctrl + N	Recall the next command.
Left or Right arrow	Move the cursor left or right within the command line.
Ctrl + A	Move the cursor to the beginning of the command line.
Ctrl + E	Move the cursor to the end of the command line.
Ctrl + B	Move the cursor backwards one word.
Ctrl + F	Move the cursor forwards one word.
Ctrl + D	Delete the current character.
Ctrl + C	Abort current interactive commands, such as when entering multiple lines. If you are not currently within an interactive command such as config or edit, this closes the CLI connection.
\ then Enter	Continue typing a command on the next line for a multiline command. For each line that you want to continue, terminate it with a backslash ( \ ). To complete the command, enter a space instead of a backslash, and then press Enter.

Command abbreviation

You can abbreviate words in the command line to their smallest number of non-ambiguous characters.

For example, the command diagnose system status could be abbreviated to d sy s.

Adding and removing options from lists

When configuring a list, the set command will remove the previous configuration.

For example, if a user group currently includes members A, B, and C, the command set member D will remove members A, B, and C. To avoid removing the existing members from the group, the command set members A B C D must be used.

To avoid this issue, the following commands are available:

append	Add an option to an existing list. For example, append member D adds user D to the user group without removing any of the existing members.
select	Clear all of the options except for those specified. For example, select member B removes all member from the group except for member B.
unselect	Remove an option from an existing list. For example, unselect member C removes only member C from the group, without affecting the other members.

Environment variables

The following environment variables are support by the CLI. Variable names are case-sensitive.

$USERFROM	The management access type (ssh, jsconsole, and so on) and the IPv4 address of the administrator that configured the item.
$USERNAME	The account name of the administrator that configured the item.
$SerialNum	The Container FortiOS serial number.

For example, to set the Container FortiOS host name to its serial number, use the following CLI command:

config system global
    set hostname $SerialNum
end

Special characters

The following characters cannot be used in most CLI commands: <, >, (, ), #, ', and "

If one of those characters, or a space, needs to be entered as part of a string, it can be entered by using a special command, enclosing the entire string in quotes, or preceding it with an escape character (backslash, \).

To enter a question mark (?) or a tab, Ctrl + V or Ctrl + Shift + - (depending on the method being used to access the CLI) must be entered first.

Question marks and tabs cannot be copied into the CLI Console or some SSH clients. They must be typed in.

Character	Keys
?	Ctrl + V or Ctrl + Shift + - then ?
Tab	Ctrl + V then Tab
Space (as part of a string value, not to end the string)	Enclose the string in single or double quotation marks: "Security Administrator" or 'Security Administrator'. Precede the space with a backslash: Security\ Administrator.
' (as part of a string value, not to begin or end the string)	\'
" (as part of a string value, not to begin or end the string)	\"
\	\\