14.1 The flexible command-line interface

The command-line interface provides a prompt and after it an editable text area much like a command-line in Unix or DOS. Each command is immediately executed after it is entered⁸. The commands (see Commands) are a subset of those available in the configuration file, used with exactly the same syntax.

Cursor movement and editing of the text on the line can be done via a subset of the functions available in the Bash shell:

C-f

PC right key

Move forward one character.

C-b

PC left key

Move back one character.

C-a

HOME

Move to the start of the line.

C-e

END

Move the the end of the line.

C-d

DEL

Delete the character underneath the cursor.

C-h

BS

Delete the character to the left of the cursor.

C-k

Kill the text from the current cursor position to the end of the line.

C-u

Kill backward from the cursor to the beginning of the line.

C-y

Yank the killed text back into the buffer at the cursor.

C-p

PC up key

Move up through the history list.

C-n

PC down key

Move down through the history list.

When typing commands interactively, if the cursor is within or before the first word in the command-line, pressing the TAB key (or C-i) will display a listing of the available commands, and if the cursor is after the first word, the TAB will provide a completion listing of disks, partitions, and file names depending on the context. Note that to obtain a list of drives, one must open a parenthesis, as root (.

Note that you cannot use the completion functionality in the TFTP filesystem. This is because TFTP doesn’t support file name listing for the security.