Introduction

The Cisco IOS command line has a pretty good help function. Usually you would put a ‘?’ and get a number of options that you can choose from. But when you do not have access to the enable privilege mode, the HELP functions are abbreviated.

This command is useful when you use it in combination with exec privileges. You might want someone to have full privileges but NOT to have enable level access (thus stopping them from making configuration changes). You can set users to have privilege level 15, but not able to enter the enable mode.

The problem is, that then you cannot see all the commands using the online help function. By using the ‘terminal full-help’ command you can give the user full access to the show and debug commands, with online help functions.

To enable

R1>terminal full-help
To disable
R1>terminal no full-help

See the difference!

ibm-pri-rtr>terminal full-help
ibm-pri-rtr>show ?
 access-expression  List access expression
 access-lists       List access lists
 adjacency          Adjacent nodes
 aliases            Display alias commands
 alps               Alps information
 arp                ARP table
 async              Information on terminal lines used as router interfaces
 backup             Backup status
 bridge             Bridge Forwarding/Filtering Database [verbose]
 bsc                BSC interface information
 bstun              BSTUN interface information
 buffers            Buffer pool statistics
 c3600              Show c3600 information
 call               Show call
 cca                CCA information
 cdapi              CDAPI information
 cdp                CDP information
 cef                Cisco Express Forwarding
 class-map          Show QoS Class Map
 clock              Display the system clock
 cls                DLC user information
 compress           Show compression statistics
 connection         Show Connection
 context            Show context information about recent crash(s)
 controllers        Interface controller status
 cops               COPS information
 crypto             Encryption module
 debugging          State of each debugging option
 diag               Show diagnostic information for port adapters/modules
 dial-peer          Dial Plan Mapping Table for, e.g. VoIP Peers
 dialer             Dialer parameters and statistics
 dlsw               Data Link Switching information
 dnsix              Shows Dnsix/DMDP information
 drip               DRiP DB
 dspu               Display DSPU information
 dss                DSS information
 dxi                atm-dxi information
 entry              Queued terminal entries
 environment        Environmental monitor statistics
 exception          exception informations
 flash:             display information about flash: file system
 frame-relay        Frame-Relay information
 fras               FRAS Information
 fras-host          FRAS Host Information
 funi               FUNI information
 gateway            Show status of gateway
 h323               Show H.323 VoIP information
 history            Display the session command history
 hosts              IP domain-name, lookup style, nameservers, and host table
 interfaces         Interface status and configuration
 ip                 IP information
 lat                DEC LAT information
 line               TTY line information
 llc2               IBM LLC2 circuit information
 lnm                IBM LAN manager
 local-ack          Local Acknowledgement virtual circuits
 location           Display the system location
 logging            Show the contents of logging buffers
 management         Display the management applications
 memory             Memory statistics
 mgcp               Display Media Gateway Control Protocol information
 mls                multilayer switching information
 modemcap           Show Modem Capabilities database
 mpoa               MPOA show commands
 ncia               Native Client Interface Architecture
 netbios-cache      NetBIOS name cache contents
 node               Show known LAT nodes
 ntp                Network time protocol
 num-exp            Number Expansion (Speed Dial) information
 pas                Port Adaptor Information
 pci                PCI Information
 policy-map         Show QoS Policy Map
 ppp                PPP parameters and statistics
 printers           Show LPD printer information
 privilege          Show current privilege level
 processes          Active process statistics
 protocols          Active network routing protocols
 qdm                Show information about QoS Device Manager
 qllc               Display qllc-llc2 and qllc-sdlc conversion information
 queue              Show queue contents
 queueing           Show queueing configuration
 radius             Shows radius information
 registry           Function registry information
 reload             Scheduled reload information
 rif                RIF cache entries
 rmon               rmon statistics
 route-map          route-map information
 rtr                Response Time Reporter (RTR)
 sdllc              Display sdlc - llc2 conversion information
 services           LAT learned services
 sessions           Information about Telnet connections
 settlement         Show status of settlement
 sgbp               SGBP group information
 sgcp               Display Simple Gateway Control Protocol information
 slot0:             display information about slot0: file system
 slot1:             display information about slot1: file system
 smds               SMDS information
 sna                Display SNA host information
 snapshot           Snapshot parameters and statistics
 snmp               snmp statistics
 source-bridge      Source-bridge parameters and statistics
 spanning-tree      Spanning tree topology
 srcp               Display SRCP Protocol information
 ssh                Status of SSH server connections
 ssl                Show SSL command
 stacks             Process stack utilization
 standby            Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) information
 stun               STUN status and configuration
 subsys             Show subsystem information
 tacacs             Shows tacacs+ server statistics
 tcp                Status of TCP connections
 tech-support       Show system information for Tech-Support
 template           Template information
 terminal           Display terminal configuration parameters
 tgrm               Trunk Group Resource Mananger info
 time-range         Time range
 traffic-shape      traffic rate shaping configuration
 translate          Protocol translation information
 translation-rule   Show translation rule table
 users              Display information about terminal lines
 vc-group           Show VC Group
 version            System hardware and software status
 vlans              Virtual LANs Information
 voice              Voice port configuration & stats
 vpdn               VPDN information
 whoami             Info on current tty line
 x25                X.25 information
 x29                X.29 information

And back to the standard short help form.

ibm-pri-rtr>terminal no full-help
ibm-pri-rtr>show ?
 alps              Alps information
 backup            Backup status
 c3600             Show c3600 information
 call              Show call
 cca               CCA information
 cdapi             CDAPI information
 cef               Cisco Express Forwarding
 class-map         Show QoS Class Map
 clock             Display the system clock
 compress          Show compression statistics
 connection        Show Connection
 context           Show context information about recent crash(s)
 controllers       Interface controller status
 cops              COPS information
 crypto            Encryption module
 dial-peer         Dial Plan Mapping Table for, e.g. VoIP Peers
 dialer            Dialer parameters and statistics
 drip              DRiP DB
 dss               DSS information
 exception         exception informations
 flash:            display information about flash: file system
 fras-host         FRAS Host Information
 funi              FUNI information
 gateway           Show status of gateway
 h323              Show H.323 VoIP information
 history           Display the session command history
 hosts             IP domain-name, lookup style, nameservers, and host table
 ip                IP information
 location          Display the system location
 management        Display the management applications
 memory            Memory statistics
 mgcp              Display Media Gateway Control Protocol information
 mls               multilayer switching information
 modemcap          Show Modem Capabilities database
 mpoa              MPOA show commands
 ncia              Native Client Interface Architecture
 num-exp           Number Expansion (Speed Dial) information
 policy-map        Show QoS Policy Map
 ppp               PPP parameters and statistics
 qdm               Show information about QoS Device Manager
 queue             Show queue contents
 queueing          Show queueing configuration
 radius            Shows radius information
 rmon              rmon statistics
 rtr               Response Time Reporter (RTR)
 sessions          Information about Telnet connections
 settlement        Show status of settlement
 sgbp              SGBP group information

Checking that full user help is enabled or disabled

R1>terminal no full-help
R1>sh terminal
Line 0, Location: "", Type: ""
Length: 0 lines, Width: 80 columns
Status: PSI Enabled, Ready, Active, Ctrl-c Enabled, Automore On
  0x40000
Capabilities: none
Modem state: Ready
Group codes:    0
Special Chars: Escape  Hold  Stop  Start  Disconnect  Activation
                ^^x    none   -     -       none
Timeouts:      Idle EXEC    Idle Session   Modem Answer  Session   Dispatch
               01:00:00        never                        none     not set
                            Idle Session Disconnect Warning
                              never
                            Login-sequence User Response
                             00:00:30
                            Autoselect Initial Wait
                              not set
Modem type is unknown.
Session limit is not set.
Time since activation: 00:37:27
Editing is enabled.
History is enabled, history size is 256.
DNS resolution in show commands is enabled
Full user help is disabled
Allowed input transports are none.
Allowed output transports are lat pad mop telnet rlogin nasi ssh.
Preferred transport is lat.
No output characters are padded
No special data dispatching characters

Enabling full help gives the following:

R1>terminal full-help
R1>sh terminal
Line 0, Location: "", Type: ""
Length: 0 lines, Width: 80 columns
Status: PSI Enabled, Ready, Active, Ctrl-c Enabled, Automore On
  0x40000
Capabilities: none
Modem state: Ready
Group codes:    0
Special Chars: Escape  Hold  Stop  Start  Disconnect  Activation
                ^^x    none   -     -       none
Timeouts:      Idle EXEC    Idle Session   Modem Answer  Session   Dispatch
               01:00:00        never                        none     not set
                            Idle Session Disconnect Warning
                              never
                            Login-sequence User Response
                             00:00:30
                            Autoselect Initial Wait
                              not set
Modem type is unknown.
Session limit is not set.
Time since activation: 00:37:37
Editing is enabled.
History is enabled, history size is 256.
DNS resolution in show commands is enabled
Full user help is enabled
Allowed input transports are none.
Allowed output transports are lat pad mop telnet rlogin nasi ssh.
Preferred transport is lat.
No output characters are padded
No special data dispatching characters

But a better way of doing this would be:

R1#sh termin | include Full
Full user help is enabled
R1#
[Note that the pipe is case sensitive so you must use a capital F for this to work.]

Note that when you are in enable mode you won’t see any difference.

terminal nofull-help
R1#terminal full-help
R1#sh cef ?
drop Classify packets dropped
events CEF events
idb CEF interface descriptor blocks
interface CEF interface status and configuration
linecard CEF information related to linecards
not-cef-switched Packets passed on to next switching layer
nsf Show CEF NSF statistics
state Show CEF state
timers CEF timers
R1#
R1#sh cef ?
drop Classify packets dropped
events CEF events
idb CEF interface descriptor blocks
interface CEF interface status and configuration
linecard CEF information related to linecards
not-cef-switched Packets passed on to next switching layer
nsf Show CEF NSF statistics
state Show CEF state
timers CEF timers
R1#