Cisco PIPE Command: PIPE Feature in Cisco IOS

Network administrators working on Cisco devices have to search through a lot of detailed information when they run Cisco IOS commands. This is when the Cisco PIPE command comes as a pretty helpful utility. Let’s see what are the options we get after inputting PIPE “|” command.

Cisco PIPE Command Cheat Sheet

R1#sh run | ?

append       Append redirected output to URL (URLs supporting append operation only)
begin        Begin with the line that matches

exclude      Exclude lines that match

include      Include lines that match

redirect     Redirect output to URL

section      Filter a section of output

tee          Copy output to URL

We will use above options under PIPE to have more understanding on their usage.

In below scenario, the command using PIPE will provide output of interfaces which are down –

Switch#show ip interface brief | include down

GigabitEthernet0/5        unassigned         YES         unset    down    down
GigabitEthernet0/6        unassigned         YES         unset    down    down

GigabitEthernet0/11       unassigned         YES         unset    down    down

GigabitEthernet0/17       unassigned         YES         unset    down    down

GigabitEthernet0/19       unassigned         YES         unset    down    down

GigabitEthernet0/21       unassigned         YES         unset    down    down

Below is output after issuing “show running-config | section bgp” command which displays only BGP section of the running configuration –

Router#show running-config | section bgp

router bgp 65111
bgp router-id 1.1.1.1

bgp log-neighbor-changes

neighbor 2.2.2.2 remote-as 65112

bgp graceful-restart

Next, with command “show run | begin interface” ,the output starts from the first occurence of the word “interface”.

Router#show run | begin interface

Interace FastEthernet0/0
No ip address

Shoutdown

Duplex auto

Speed auto

!

Interace FastEthernet0/0

No ip address

Shutdown

Duplex auto

Speed auto

Few More Examples

Further, below are some more examples where PIPE function is used –

show interface status | include Vlan | connected
show ip int brief | exclude ^G

Hope you would have understood this Cisco PIPE commands cheat sheet.

Read some other related articles –

Cisco Device Interface Description – Command & Configuration

Cisco Datasheets

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rashmi Bhardwaj

Founder of AAR TECHNOSOLUTIONS, Rashmi is an evangelist for IT and technology. With more than 12 years in the IT ecosystem, she has been supporting multi domain functions across IT & consultancy services, in addition to Technical content making.

You can learn more about her on her linkedin profile – Rashmi Bhardwaj