CLI (Command-Line Interface)

Definition

A program you use by typing commands into a terminal rather than clicking buttons in a window.

More from Automation & Scripting

• Cron Job

  A task set to run automatically on a repeating schedule, like an alarm that goes off every Monday at 9:00am

• Dry Run

  A practice run of a script or command that shows what it would do without actually doing it, so you can check the plan before anything changes.

• Exit Code

  A number a program reports when it finishes: 0 means it worked, and any other number means something went wrong.

• Idempotent

  Describes an action that is safe to repeat, because doing it twice has the same effect as doing it once.

• Pipeline

  Any chain of automated steps that run in a set order, where each step hands its result to the next and the chain stops if a step fails.

• Script

  A file of instructions that a computer runs from top to bottom on its own, so one command can do a job you would otherwise do by hand step by step.