space in command or subcommand

[achursin1986]

Hi,

thanks for the great lib!

just an idea, it was mentioned "Cisco-like" in the project description, however is there a way to implement a command like :
"show database" with space? I have tried a literal it's accepted on compile but doesn't work saying wrong command. Like in Cisco world there are commands with a common prefix :
show ip interface
show ip route
Is there a way to implement the same?
Sorry if it was asked before but I could not find it.

[daniele77]

Hi @achursin1986 , thank you for using the library.
You can get that behavior by using menus. If you set up a menu structure like this:

show         # menu
  |---- ip     # menu
          |----- interface   # command
          |----- route        # command

with that menus structure, from the root menu, you can then input the following commands:

show ip interface
show ip route

because the library shell allows you to enter the "full path" of a command, w/o entering explicitly in the submenus.
You can check this feature by starting the example complete.cpp coming with the library entering the command:

> sub subsub hello

[achursin1986]

Thanks for your prompt response @daniele77 , indeed just checked complete example. Might be a small followup: can we then block access to submenus , so "show ip route" works but we can't get into just "show" or "show ip" ?

[daniele77]

I don't see a great value in forbidding the menu access.
Can you provide a use case where this feature is essential? In this case, we can consider adding the feature to the roadmap.

[achursin1986]

yes, it can be handy to implement show commands in Cisco style:

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:IOSXR#show <----- so this is top menu as you described, it would give help for completion however entering just this command we don't fall into any menu, it produces error

% Incomplete command. <-----
RP/0/RP0/CPU0:IOSXR#show route <----- if command available we execute and etc
Thu Jun 8 08:20:22.249 UTC

Codes: C - connected, S - static, R - RIP, B - BGP, (>) - Diversion path
D - EIGRP, EX - EIGRP external, O - OSPF, IA - OSPF inter area
N1 - OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 - OSPF NSSA external type 2
E1 - OSPF external type 1, E2 - OSPF external type 2, E - EGP
i - ISIS, L1 - IS-IS level-1, L2 - IS-IS level-2
ia - IS-IS inter area, su - IS-IS summary null, * - candidate default
U - per-user static route, o - ODR, L - local, G - DAGR, l - LISP
A - access/subscriber, a - Application route
M - mobile route, r - RPL, t - Traffic Engineering, (!) - FRR Backup path

Gateway of last resort is not set

L 1.1.1.1/32 is directly connected, 00:01:01, Loopback0
C 10.1.0.0/31 is directly connected, 00:00:09, GigabitEthernet0/0/0/0
L 10.1.0.0/32 is directly connected, 00:00:09, GigabitEthernet0/0/0/0
C 10.2.0.0/31 is directly connected, 00:00:09, GigabitEthernet0/0/0/1
L 10.2.0.0/32 is directly connected, 00:00:09, GigabitEthernet0/0/0/1

People dealing with network devices will intuitively use such a cli interface

[daniele77]

I'd like to understand the value of forbidding access to the menu "show".
I mean: if you only digit "show" at the prompt, you are in the "show" path and then you can choose which item you want to "show" (e.g., "route"). I think it's simply an alternative way with respect to giving the whole command "show route", in my opinion it does not cause any problem.

[achursin1986]

That's correct, however my point - historically this show mode is not available for show commands, it's more for config , when you are at the submode like you type config , then router ospf , you are now at config/ospf , then commands are available for this mode(submenus in terms of the lib).

The value is just mimicking Cisco&Juniper clis, no any functional impact , just user experience option.