FD.io VPP  v17.01-9-ge7dcee4
Vector Packet Processing
Debug CLI

The VPP network stack comes equipped with a set of commands that are useful for debugging.

The easiest way to access the CLI (with proper permissions) is to use the vppctl command:

1 sudo vppctl <cli-command>

The CLI parser matches static keyword strings, eventually invoking an action function. Unambiguous partial keyword matching always occurs. The action functions consume input until satisfied or until they fail. This model makes for easy coding, but does not guarantee useful "help" output. It's up to the CLI command writer to add useful help strings.

You can find the source code of CLI commands by searching for instances of the VLIB_CLI_COMMAND macro in the code source files.

Please help maintain and improve this document to make and keep these commands clear and useful!

Todo:
Document where to modify this CLI intro text.

Debug and Telnet CLI

The debug CLI is enabled with the unix interactive parameter or startup configuration option. This causes VPP to start without daemonizing and presents a command line interface on the terminal where it is run.

The Telnet CLI is enabled with the cli-listen localhost:5002 option which will cause VPP to listen for TCP connections on the localhost address port 5002. A Telnet client can then connect to this port (for example, telnet localhost 5002) and will receive a command line prompt.

This configuration will enable both mechanisms:

1 unix {
2  interactive
3  cli-listen localhost:5002
4 }

The debug CLI can operate in line mode, which may be useful when running inside an IDE like Emacs. This is enabled with the option unix cli-line-mode. Several other options exist that alter how this CLI works, see the Startup Configuration section for details.

The CLI starts with a banner graphic (which can be disabled) and a prompt. The prompt will typically read vpp for a release version of VPP and DBGvpp# for a development version with debugging enabled, for example:

    _______    _        _   _____  ___ 
 __/ __/ _ \  (_)__    | | / / _ \/ _ \
 _/ _// // / / / _ \   | |/ / ___/ ___/
 /_/ /____(_)_/\___/   |___/_/  /_/    

vpp# 

versus:

    _______    _        _   _____  ___ 
 __/ __/ _ \  (_)__    | | / / _ \/ _ \
 _/ _// // / / / _ \   | |/ / ___/ ___/
 /_/ /____(_)_/\___/   |___/_/  /_/    

DBGvpp# 

This prompt can be configured with the unix cli-prompt setting and the banner is disabled with unix cli-no-banner.

CLI features

The CLI has several editing features that make it easy to use.

  • Cursor keys left/right will move the cursor within a command line; typing will insert at the cursor; erase will erase at the cursor.
  • Ctrl-left/right will search for the start of the next word to the left or right.
  • Home/end will jump the cursor to the start and end of the line.
  • Cursor keys up/down and ^P/^N iterate through the command history buffer. Lines from the history buffer may be edited. New commands are added to the end of the buffer when executed; though duplicates of the previous command are not added.
  • ^U erases the line contents from the left of the cursor to the start.
  • ^K erases the contents from the cursor to the end.
  • ^S/^R will search the command history forwards or in reverse for a command; start typing for matches to auto complete.
  • ^L will clear the screen (if supported by the terminal) and repaint the prompt and any current line. The cursor position is also retained.
  • The CLI can be closed with the quit command. Alternatively, ^D on an empty input line will also close the session. Closing the debug session will also shutdown VPP.

Output that exceeds the length of a terminal page will be buffered, up to a limit.

  • Space or page-down displays the next page.
  • Enter or down-arrow displays the next line.
  • Page-up goes back a page.
  • Up-arrow goes up a line.
  • Home/end jump to the start/end of the buffered output.
  • The key q quits the pager. Space and enter will also quit the pager if the end of the buffer has been reached.

Index of CLI commands

ARP and Loopback CLI

Circular Journal

Command line session

Layer 2 CLI

Layer 3 IP CLI

Unix Interface

VLIB application library

VXLAN CLI

plugins/acl-plugin/acl

plugins/flowperpkt-plugin/flowperpkt

plugins/ila-plugin/ila

plugins/ioam-plugin/ioam/encap

plugins/ioam-plugin/ioam/export

plugins/ioam-plugin/ioam/export-vxlan-gpe

plugins/ioam-plugin/ioam/lib-pot

plugins/ioam-plugin/ioam/lib-trace

plugins/ioam-plugin/ioam/lib-vxlan-gpe

plugins/lb-plugin/lb

plugins/sixrd-plugin/sixrd

plugins/snat-plugin/snat

plugins/vcgn-plugin/vcgn

vHost User

vlib-api/vlibapi

vlib-api/vlibmemory

vlib/vlib/pci

vnet/vnet

vnet/vnet/adj

vnet/vnet/cdp

vnet/vnet/classify

vnet/vnet/cop

vnet/vnet/devices/af_packet

vnet/vnet/devices/dpdk

vnet/vnet/devices/dpdk/ipsec

vnet/vnet/devices/netmap

vnet/vnet/dhcp

vnet/vnet/dhcpv6

vnet/vnet/dpo

vnet/vnet/feature

vnet/vnet/fib

vnet/vnet/flow

vnet/vnet/gre

vnet/vnet/ipsec

vnet/vnet/ipsec-gre

vnet/vnet/l2tp

vnet/vnet/lawful-intercept

vnet/vnet/lisp-cp

vnet/vnet/lisp-gpe

vnet/vnet/lldp

vnet/vnet/map

vnet/vnet/mpls

vnet/vnet/pg

vnet/vnet/policer

vnet/vnet/span

vnet/vnet/sr

vnet/vnet/unix

vnet/vnet/vxlan-gpe

vpp/app

vpp/oam

vpp/vnet

vpp/vpp-api