Cisco CLI More Prompt: Turning Off Pagination for Long Output

Removing the “–More–” Prompt in the Cisco CLI

If you’re running a command on Cisco IOS that returns more output than fits on one screen, the CLI pages it with a “–More–” prompt, requiring you to press a key to see the next page — fine for interactive use, but genuinely infuriating if you’re trying to capture the full output of a long command (like a large routing table or a full configuration) in one go. Once you’re logged into the CLI, run:

terminal length 0

This disables paging for your current terminal session, so long command output prints straight through without stopping. It only affects your current session — if you disconnect and reconnect, you’ll need to run it again, which is a sensible default rather than a limitation, since you don’t want to accidentally leave paging off for every user of a shared device. If you want your output logged to a file rather than just scrolled past on screen, most terminal emulators (PuTTY, SecureCRT, and others) offer session logging, which combined with terminal length 0 gives you a clean, complete capture of long command output.

Still Current on Modern IOS and IOS XE (Updated for 2026)

Nothing has changed here. terminal length 0 remains a live, documented command — it appears unchanged in Cisco’s current command references (confirmed against a June 2026-dated ASR 9000 System Management Command Reference), and works the same way across classic IOS, IOS XE, and NX-OS platforms. The one exception worth flagging if you’re working with Cisco ACI fabric switches specifically: ACI’s NX-OS variant has been reported to reject terminal length 0 (and the related terminal width 511) in a way classic IOS/IOS XE/NX-OS devices don’t — if you hit an unexpected error running this on an ACI leaf or spine, that’s likely why, and it’s worth checking your platform’s specific CLI documentation rather than assuming the command is simply broken.

Resources

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