frr/doc/developer/cli.rst

FRR Command Line Interface
==========================

Definition Grammar
------------------

This is a reference for the syntax used when defining new CLI commands.
An example definition is:

::

    DEFUN (command_name,
           command_name_cmd,
    -->    "example <command|line [interface]> DEFINITION...",
           <..doc strings..>)

The arrowed part is the definition string.

Explicit syntax rules in Flex and Bison may be found in
lib/command\_lex.l and lib/command\_parse.y, respectively. If you can
read BNF and regex those will be more useful than this document.

If the parser is throwing syntax or other errors and you can't figure
out why, it's unlikely to be a bug in the parser. If the error message
is not useful, please file a bug for a better error message. If all else
fails, read the token definitions in the lexer source and the Bison BNF
in the parser source.

Characters allowed in each token type:

Tokens
------

-  ``WORD`` -- A token that begins with +, -, or a lowercase letter. It
   is an unchanging part of the command and will only match itself.
   Example: "show ip bgp", every token is a WORD.
-  ``IPV4`` -- 'A.B.C.D', matches an IPv4 address.
-  ``IPV6`` -- 'X:X::X:X', matches an IPv6 address.
-  ``IPV4_PREFIX`` -- 'A.B.C.D/M', matches an IPv4 prefix in CIDR
   notation.
-  ``IPV6_PREFIX`` -- 'X:X::X:X/M', matches an IPv6 prefix in CIDR
   notation.
-  ``MAC`` -- 'M:A:C', matches a 48-bit mac address
-  ``MAC_PREFIX`` -- 'M:A:C/M', matches a 48-bit mac address with a mask
-  ``VARIABLE`` -- Begins with a capital letter. Matches any input.
-  ``RANGE`` -- Numeric range delimited by parentheses, e.g. (-100 -
   100) or (10-20). Will only match numbers in the range.

Rules
-----

-  ``<angle|brackets>`` -- Contain sequences of tokens separated by
   pipes and provide mutual exclusion. Sequences may contain
   ``<mutual|exclusion>`` but not as the first token. Disallowed:
   ``"example <<a|b> c|d>"`` Allowed: ``"example <a c|b c|d>"``
-  ``[square brackets]`` -- Contains sequences of tokens that are
   optional (can be omitted). ``[<a|b>]`` can be shortened to ``[a|b]``.
-  ``{curly|braces}`` -- similar to angle brackets, but instead of
   mutual exclusion, curly braces indicate that one or more of the
   pipe-separated sequences may be provided in any order.
-  ``VARIADICS...`` -- Any token which accepts input (so anything except
   WORD) and that occurs as the last token of a line may be followed by
   an ellipsis, which indicates that input matching the token may be
   repeated an unlimited number of times.
-  ``$name`` -- Specify a variable name for the preceding token. See
   "Variable Names" below.

Some general notes:

-  Options are allowed at the beginning of the command. The developer is
   entreated to use these extremely sparingly. They are most useful for
   implementing the 'no' form of configuration commands. Please think
   carefully before using them for anything else. There is usually a
   better solution, even if it is just separating out the command
   definition into separate ones.

-  The developer should judiciously apply separation of concerns when
   defining

CLI. CLI definitions for two unrelated or vaguely related commands or
     configuration items should be defined in separate commands. Clarity
     is preferred over LOC (within reason).

-  The maximum number of space-separated tokens that can be entered is
   presently limited to 256. Please keep this limit in mind when
   implementing new CLI.

Variable Names
--------------

The parser tries to fill the "varname" field on each token. This can
happen either manually or automatically. Manual specifications work by
appending ``"$name"`` after the input specifier:

::

    foo bar$cmd WORD$name A.B.C.D$ip

Note that you can also assign variable names to fixed input tokens, this
can be useful if multiple commands share code. You can also use "$name"
after a multiple-choice option:

::

    foo bar <A.B.C.D|X:X::X:X>$addr [optionA|optionB]$mode

The variable name is in this case assigned to the last token in each of
the branches.

Automatic assignment of variable names works by applying the following
rules:

-  manual names always have priority
-  a "[no]" at the beginning receives "no" as varname on the "no" token
-  VARIABLE tokens whose text is not "WORD" or "NAME" receive a cleaned
   lowercase version of the token text as varname, e.g. "ROUTE-MAP"
   becomes "route\_map".
-  other variable tokens (i.e. everything except "fixed") receive the
   text of the preceding fixed token as varname, if one can be found.
   E.g.: "ip route A.B.C.D/M INTERFACE" assigns "route" to the
   "A.B.C.D/M" token.

These rules should make it possible to avoid manual varname assignment
in 90% of the cases.

DEFPY
-----

``DEFPY(...)`` is an enhanced version of ``DEFUN()`` which is
preprocessed by ``python/clidef.py``. The python script parses the
command definition string, extracts variable names and types, and
generates a C wrapper function that parses the variables and passes them
on. This means that in the CLI function body, you will receive
additional parameters with appropriate types.

This is best explained by an example:

::

    DEFPY(func, func_cmd, "[no] foo bar A.B.C.D (0-99)$num", "...help...")

    =>

    func(self, vty, argc, argv,     /* standard CLI arguments */

            const char *no,         /* unparsed "no" */
            struct in_addr bar,     /* parsed IP address */
            const char *bar_str,    /* unparsed IP address */
            long num,               /* parsed num */
            const char *num_str)    /* unparsed num */

Note that as documented in the previous section, "bar" is automatically
applied as variable name for "A.B.C.D". The python code then detects
this is an IP address argument and generates code to parse it into a
``struct in_addr``, passing it in ``bar``. The raw value is passed in
``bar_str``. The range/number argument works in the same way with the
explicitly given variable name.

Type rules
~~~~~~~~~~

+------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Token(s)                     | Type                             | Value if omitted by user   |
+==============================+==================================+============================+
| ``A.B.C.D``                  | ``struct in_addr``               | 0.0.0.0                    |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| ``X:X::X:X``                 | ``struct in6_addr``              | ::                         |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| ``A.B.C.D + X:X::X:X``       | ``const union sockunion *``      | NULL                       |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| ``A.B.C.D/M``                | ``const struct prefix_ipv4 *``   | NULL                       |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| ``X:X::X:X/M``               | ``const struct prefix_ipv6 *``   | NULL                       |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| ``A.B.C.D/M + X:X::X:X/M``   | ``const struct prefix *``        | NULL                       |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| ``(0-9)``                    | ``long``                         | 0                          |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| ``VARIABLE``                 | ``const char *``                 | NULL                       |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| ``word``                     | ``const char *``                 | NULL                       |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| *all other*                  | ``const char *``                 | NULL                       |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------------------------+

Note the following details:

-  not all parameters are pointers, some are passed as values.
-  when the type is not ``const char *``, there will be an extra
   ``_str`` argument with type ``const char *``.
-  you can give a variable name not only to ``VARIABLE`` tokens but also
   to ``word`` tokens (e.g. constant words). This is useful if some
   parts of a command are optional. The type will be ``const char *``.
-  ``[no]`` will be passed as ``const char *no``.
-  pointers will be NULL when the argument is optional and the user did
   not use it.
-  if a parameter is not a pointer, but is optional and the user didn't
   use it, the default value will be passed. Check the ``_str`` argument
   if you need to determine whether the parameter was omitted.
-  if the definition contains multiple parameters with the same variable
   name, they will be collapsed into a single function parameter. The
   python code will detect if the types are compatible (i.e. IPv4 + IPv6
   variantes) and choose a corresponding C type.
-  the standard DEFUN parameters (self, vty, argc, argv) are still
   present and can be used. A DEFUN can simply be **edited into a DEFPY
   without further changes and it will still work**; this allows easy
   forward migration.
-  a file may contain both DEFUN and DEFPY statements.

Getting a parameter dump
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The clidef.py script can be called to get a list of DEFUNs/DEFPYs with
the parameter name/type list:

::

    lib/clippy python/clidef.py --all-defun --show lib/plist.c > /dev/null

The generated code is printed to stdout, the info dump to stderr. The
``--all-defun`` argument will make it process DEFUN blocks as well as
DEFPYs, which is useful prior to converting some DEFUNs. **The dump does
not list the ``_str`` arguments** to keep the output shorter.

Note that the clidef.py script cannot be run with python directly, it
needs to be run with *clippy* since the latter makes the CLI parser
available.

Include & Makefile requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A source file that uses DEFPY needs to include the ``_clippy.c`` file
**before all DEFPY statements**:

::

    /* GPL header */
    #include ...

    ...

    #include "daemon/filename_clippy.c"

    DEFPY(...)
    DEFPY(...)

    install_element(...)

This dependency needs to be marked in Makefile.am: (there is no ordering
requirement)

::

    include ../common.am

    # ...

    # if linked into a LTLIBRARY (.la/.so):
    filename.lo: filename_clippy.c

    # if linked into an executable or static library (.a):
    filename.o: filename_clippy.c

Doc Strings
-----------

Each token in a command definition should be documented with a brief doc
string that informs a user of the meaning and/or purpose of the
subsequent command tree. These strings are provided as the last
parameter to DEFUN macros, concatenated together and separated by an
escaped newline (':raw-latex:`\n`'). These are best explained by
example.

::

    DEFUN (config_terminal,
           config_terminal_cmd,
           "configure terminal",
           "Configuration from vty interface\n"
           "Configuration terminal\n")

The last parameter is split into two lines for readability. Two newline
delimited doc strings are present, one for each token in the command.
The second string documents the functionality of the 'terminal' command
in the 'configure' tree.

Note that the first string, for 'configure' does not contain
documentation for 'terminal'. This is because the CLI is best envisioned
as a tree, with tokens defining branches. An imaginary 'start' token is
the root of every command in a CLI node. Each subsequent written token
descends into a subtree, so the documentation for that token ideally
summarizes all the functionality contained in the subtree.

A consequence of this structure is that the developer must be careful to
use the same doc strings when defining multiple commands that are part
of the same tree. Commands which share prefixes must share the same doc
strings for those prefixes. On startup the parser will generate warnings
if it notices inconsistent doc strings. Behavior is undefined; the same
token may show up twice in completions, with different doc strings, or
it may show up once with a random doc string. Parser warnings should be
heeded and fixed to avoid confusing users.

The number of doc strings provided must be equal to the amount of tokens
present in the command definition, read left to right, ignoring any
special constructs.

In the examples below, each arrowed token needs a doc string.

::

      "show ip bgp"
       ^    ^  ^

      "command <foo|bar> [example]"
       ^        ^   ^     ^

Data Structures
---------------

On startup, the CLI parser sequentially parses each command string
definition and constructs a directed graph with each token forming a
node. This graph is the basis of the entire CLI system. It is used to
match user input in order to generate command completions and match
commands to functions.

There is one graph per CLI node (not the same as a graph node in the CLI
graph). The CLI node struct keeps a reference to its graph (see
lib/command.h).

While most of the graph maintains the form of a tree, special constructs
outlined in the Rules section introduce some quirks. <>, [] and {} form
self-contained 'subgraphs'. Each subgraph is a tree except that all of
the 'leaves' actually share a child node. This helps with minimizing
graph size and debugging.

As an example, the subgraph generated by looks like this:

::

                      .
                      .
                      |
                 +----+---+
           +--- -+  FORK  +----+
           |     +--------+    |
        +--v---+            +--v---+
        | foo  |            | bar  |
        +--+---+            +--+---+
           |      +------+     |
           +------> JOIN <-----+
                  +---+--+
                      |
                      .
                      .

FORK and JOIN nodes are plumbing nodes that don't correspond to user
input. They're necessary in order to deduplicate these constructs where
applicable.

Options follow the same form, except that there is an edge from the FORK
node to the JOIN node.

Keywords follow the same form, except that there is an edge from JOIN to
FORK. Because of this the CLI graph cannot be called acyclic. There is
special logic in the input matching code that keeps a stack of paths
already taken through the node in order to disallow following the same
path more than once.

Variadics are a bit special; they have an edge back to themselves, which
allows repeating the same input indefinitely.

The leaves of the graph are nodes that have no out edges. These nodes
are special; their data section does not contain a token, as most nodes
do, or NULL, as in FORK/JOIN nodes, but instead has a pointer to a
cmd\_element. All paths through the graph that terminate on a leaf are
guaranteed to be defined by that command. When a user enters a complete
command, the command matcher tokenizes the input and executes a DFS on
the CLI graph. If it is simultaneously able to exhaust all input (one
input token per graph node), and then find exactly one leaf connected to
the last node it reaches, then the input has matched the corresponding
command and the command is executed. If it finds more than one node,
then the command is ambiguous (more on this in deduplication). If it
cannot exhaust all input, the command is unknown. If it exhausts all
input but does not find an edge node, the command is incomplete.

The parser uses an incremental strategy to build the CLI graph for a
node. Each command is parsed into its own graph, and then this graph is
merged into the overall graph. During this merge step, the parser makes
a best-effort attempt to remove duplicate nodes. If it finds a node in
the overall graph that is equal to a node in the corresponding position
in the command graph, it will intelligently merge the properties from
the node in the command graph into the already-existing node. Subgraphs
are also checked for isomorphism and merged where possible. The
definition of whether two nodes are 'equal' is based on the equality of
some set of token properties; read the parser source for the most
up-to-date definition of equality.

When the parser is unable to deduplicate some complicated constructs,
this can result in two identical paths through separate parts of the
graph. If this occurs and the user enters input that matches these
paths, they will receive an 'ambiguous command' error and will be unable
to execute the command. Most of the time the parser can detect and warn
about duplicate commands, but it will not always be able to do this.
Hence care should be taken before defining a new command to ensure it is
not defined elsewhere.

Command handlers
----------------

The block that follows a CLI definition is executed when a user enters
input that matches the definition. Its function signature looks like
this:

int (*func) (const struct cmd\_element *, struct vty *, int, struct
cmd\_token *\ []);

The first argument is the command definition struct. The last argument
is an ordered array of tokens that correspond to the path taken through
the graph, and the argument just prior to that is the length of the
array.

The arrangement of the token array has changed from the prior
incarnation of the CLI system. In the old system, missing arguments were
padded with NULLs so that the same parts of a command would show up at
the same indices regardless of what was entered. The new system does not
perform such padding and therefore it is generally *incorrect* to assume
consistent indices in this array. As a simple example:

Command definition:

::

      command [foo] <bar|baz>

User enters:

::

      command foo bar

Array:

::

      [0] -> command
      [1] -> foo
      [2] -> bar

User enters:

::

      command baz

Array:

::

      [0] -> command
      [1] -> baz

Command abbreviation & matching priority
----------------------------------------

As in the prior implementation, it is possible for users to elide parts
of tokens when the CLI matcher does not need them to make an unambiguous
match. This is best explained by example.

Command definitions:

::

      command dog cow
      command dog crow

User input:

::

      c d c         -> ambiguous command
      c d co        -> match "command dog cow"

In the new implementation, this functionality has improved. Where
previously the parser would stop at the first ambiguous token, it will
now look ahead and attempt to disambiguate based on tokens later on in
the input string.

Command definitions:

::

      show ip bgp A.B.C.D
      show ipv6 bgp X:X::X:X

User enters:

::

      s i b 4.3.2.1         -> match "show ip bgp A.B.C.D"
      s i b ::e0            -> match "show ipv6 bgp X:X::X:X"

Previously both of these commands would be ambiguous since 'i' does not
explicitly select either 'ip' or 'ipv6'. However, since the user later
provides a token that matches only one of the commands (an IPv4 or IPv6
address) the parser is able to look ahead and select the appropriate
command. This has some implications for parsing the argv\*[] that is
passed to the command handler.

Now consider a command definition such as:

::

      command <foo|VAR>

'foo' only matches the string 'foo', but 'VAR' matches any input,
including 'foo'. Who wins? In situations like this the matcher will
always choose the 'better' match, so 'foo' will win.

Consider also:

::

      show <ip|ipv6> foo

User input:

::

      show ip foo

'ip' partially matches 'ipv6' but exactly matches 'ip', so 'ip' will
win.

struct cmd\_token
-----------------

::

    /* Command token struct. */
    struct cmd_token
    {
      enum cmd_token_type type;     // token type
      u_char attr;                  // token attributes
      bool allowrepeat;             // matcher allowed to match token repetitively?

      char *text;                   // token text
      char *desc;                   // token description
      long long min, max;           // for ranges
      char *arg;                    // user input that matches this token
      char *varname;                // variable name
    };

This struct is used in the CLI graph to match input against. It is also
used to pass user input to command handler functions, as it is
frequently useful for handlers to have access to that information. When
a command is matched, the sequence of cmd\_tokens that form the matching
path are duplicated and placed in order into argv\*[]. Before this
happens the ->arg field is set to point at the snippet of user input
that matched it.

For most nontrivial commands the handler function will need to determine
which of the possible matching inputs was entered. Previously this was
done by looking at the first few characters of input. This is now
considered an anti-pattern and should be avoided. Instead, the ->type or
->text fields for this logic. The ->type field can be used when the
possible inputs differ in type. When the possible types are the same,
use the ->text field. This field has the full text of the corresponding
token in the definition string and using it makes for much more readable
code. An example is helpful.

Command definition:

::

      command <(1-10)|foo|BAR>

In this example, the user may enter any one of: \* an integer between 1
and 10 \* "foo" \* anything at all

If the user enters "command f", then:

::

    argv[1]->type == WORD_TKN
    argv[1]->arg  == "f"
    argv[1]->text == "foo"

Range tokens have some special treatment; a token with ->type ==
RANGE\_TKN will have the ->min and ->max fields set to the bounding
values of the range.

Permutations
------------

Finally, it is sometimes useful to check all the possible combinations
of input that would match an arbitrary definition string. There is a
tool in tools/ called 'permutations' that reads CLI definition strings
on stdin and prints out all matching input permutations. It also dumps a
text representation of the graph, which is more useful for debugging
than anything else. It looks like this:

::

    $ ./permutations "show [ip] bgp [<view|vrf> WORD]"

    show ip bgp view WORD
    show ip bgp vrf WORD
    show ip bgp
    show bgp view WORD
    show bgp vrf WORD
    show bgp

This functionality is also built into VTY/VTYSH; the 'list permutations'
command will list all possible matching input permutations in the
current CLI node.