command line meaning: definition, quotations

command line

nounalso spelled command-line

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A shell, a command line interface; usually used with the definite article.

I'm so used to the command line that I don't even know how to find things in the GUI.
The command line offers a lot of helpful features, such as tab completion and wildcard expansion.

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences The text prompt presented to the user in a command line interface.

Type the following at the command line: du -s -h.

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A line of text that is entered at such a prompt.

Use the following command line to compile a file without linking: gcc -c main.c -o main.o

command-line

verb

Informal To write (something) in a command line.

After 8 years of MacOS, and frequent CLI conversations with the u**x heavy iron up the street, I have a vision where all OS' converge towards a unix-like system where extensions are loaded and dumped on the fly as apps need, which can be command-lined for those who want, or have the GUI of your choice to protect the innocent from actually seeing the engine.1997 April 14, Peter Kerr, “MacOS sucks, get UNIX instead”, in comp.sys.mac.wanted (Usenet), archived from the original on 09 Dec 2025:
Scoured the internet for additional resources, tried the Safe Mode fix, tried the Catroot2 log file deletion, tried the registry fix, started and rebooted and command-lined the crypto services about 27 times, tried all the so-called fixes on the entire microsoft website world of wonder.2003 August 13, Dave at the end of my rope, “Update.inf, Crypto Services Of Doom”, in microsoft.public.security.virus (Usenet), archived from the original on 09 Dec 2025:

2 more examples

One other thing, when I'm not sure, but I think that after I command-lined "/var/lib/logrotate.status" the terminal hung and then I did a "df" and wow! almost 30% of that usage evaporated for some strange reason.2004 May 16, jeraldweinstein@earthlink.net, “Which file to edit to Rotate Logs -”, in alt.os.linux.mandrake (Usenet), archived from the original on 09 Dec 2025:
> What programming language are these scripts written in ? perl. using the DBD:Pg interface instead of command-lining it through psql2005 July 19, Oliver Crosby, “Looking for tips”, in pgsql.performance (Usenet), archived from the original on 09 Dec 2025: