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Dell PowerEdge FN I/O Module Configuration Guide 9.10(0.0)

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Regular Expressions as Filters

Regular expressions are used to filter AS paths or community lists. A regular expression is a special character used to define a pattern that is then compared with an input string.

For an AS-path access list, as shown in the previous commands, if the AS path matches the regular expression in the access list, the route matches the access list.

The following lists the regular expressions accepted in the Dell Networking OS.

Regular Expression	Definition
^ (caret)	Matches the beginning of the input string. Alternatively, when used as the first character within brackets [^ ], this matches any number except the ones specified within the brackets.
$ (dollar)	Matches the end of the input string.
. (period)	Matches any single character, including white space.
* (asterisk)	Matches 0 or more sequences of the immediately previous character or pattern.
+ (plus)	Matches 1 or more sequences of the immediately previous character or pattern.
? (question)	Matches 0 or 1 sequence of the immediately previous character or pattern.
( ) (parenthesis)	Specifies patterns for multiple use when one of the multiplier metacharacters follows: asterisk *, plus sign +, or question mark ?
[ ] (brackets)	Matches any enclosed character and specifies a range of single characters.
- (hyphen)	Used within brackets to specify a range of AS or community numbers.
_ (underscore)	Matches a ^, a $, a comma, a space, or a {, or a }. Placed on either side of a string to specify a literal and disallow substring matching. You can precede or follow numerals enclosed by underscores by any of the characters listed.
\| (pipe)	Matches characters on either side of the metacharacter; logical OR.

As seen in the following example, the expressions are displayed when using the show commands. To view the AS-PATH ACL configuration, use the show config command in CONFIGURATION AS-PATH ACL mode and the show ip as-path-access-list command in EXEC Privilege mode.

For more information about this command and route filtering, refer to Filtering BGP Routes.

The following example applies access list Eagle to routes inbound from BGP peer 10.5.5.2. Access list Eagle uses a regular expression to deny routes originating in AS 32. The first lines shown in bold create the access list and filter. The second lines shown in bold are the regular expression shown as part of the access list filter.

Example of Using Regular Expression to Filter AS Paths

Dell(config)#router bgp 99
                                 Dell(conf-router_bgp)#neigh AAA peer-group
                                 Dell(conf-router_bgp)#neigh AAA no shut
                                 Dell(conf-router_bgp)#show conf
                                 !
                                 router bgp 99
                                 neighbor AAA peer-group
                                 neighbor AAA no shutdown
                                 neighbor 10.155.15.2 remote-as 32
                                 neighbor 10.155.15.2 shutdown
                                 Dell(conf-router_bgp)#neigh 10.155.15.2 filter-list 1 in
                                 Dell(conf-router_bgp)#ex
                                 
                                 
                                 Dell(conf)#ip as-path access-list Eagle
                                    Dell(config-as-path)#deny 32$
                                 
                                 Dell(config-as-path)#ex
                                 Dell(conf)#router bgp 99
                                 Dell(conf-router_bgp)#neighbor AAA filter-list Eagle in
                                 Dell(conf-router_bgp)#show conf
                                 !
                                 router bgp 99
                                 neighbor AAA peer-group
                                 neighbor AAA filter-list Eaglein
                                 
                                  neighbor AAA no shutdown
                                    neighbor 10.155.15.2 remote-as 32
                                    
                                  neighbor 10.155.15.2 filter-list 1 in
                                 neighbor 10.155.15.2 shutdown
                                 Dell(conf-router_bgp)#ex