CISCO IOS in a Nutshell

Setting the System Prompt

By default, the router uses its hostname as the prompt; the hostname is “Router” if you haven’t defined it explicitly. It’s often a good idea to put other useful information in the prompt by using the prompt command. For example:

Sphinx(config)#prompt %h:%n%p
Sphinx(config)#exit
Sphinx:5#

We’ve used three escape sequences to set the prompt to the hostname (%h), followed by the command number (%n), followed by the appropriate prompt character for the current command mode (%p). The escape sequences for the prompt command are listed in Table 3-1.

Table 3-1. Prompt variables

Escape sequence	Meaning
%%	Percent character
%h	Hostname of the router
%n	TTY number for this EXEC session
%p	Prompt character: either > for user level or # for privileged level
%s	Space character
%t	Tab character

The no prompt command returns the router to the default prompt.