|  | 4.2 | Router Show Commands
| 4.2.1 | Examining router status by using router status commands
In this section, you will learn basic commands that you can issue to determine the current status of a router. These commands help you obtain vital information you need when monitoring and troubleshooting router operations. It is important to be able to monitor the health and state of your router at any given time. As shown in the Figure, Cisco routers have a series of commands that allow you to determine whether the router is functionally correct or where problems have occurred. In addition, router status commands are shown below: show version -- displays the configuration of the system hardware, the software version, the names and sources of configuration files, and the boot image show processes -- displays information about the active processes show protocols -- displays the configured protocols; shows the status of all configured Layer 3 protocols show mem -- shows statistics about the router's memory, including memory free pool statistics show stacks -- monitors the stack use of processes and interrupt routines and displays the reason for the last system reboot show buffers -- provides statistics for the buffer pools on the router show flash -- shows information about the Flash memory device show running-config (write term on Cisco IOS Release 10.3 or earlier) -- displays the active configuration file show startup-config (show config on Cisco IOS Release 10.3 or earlier) -- displays the backup configuration file show interfaces -- displays statistics for all interfaces configured on the router