command line

American  

[kuh-mand lahyn] / kəˈmænd ˌlaɪn /

noun

Computers.

1. an interface by which the user types in instructions to be carried out instantly by the operating system or other program.

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Etymology

Origin of command line

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

Linux users can follow Amnesty’s instructions on how to use the libimobiledevice command line tool to create a backup.

From The Verge • Jul. 21, 2021

Additionally, it revealed a simple command line that CIA officials used to launch attacks that compromised Macs and hack network switches from Cisco.

From Salon • Jun. 17, 2020

Eric Lyons, a computational biologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, uses the video-capture tool asciinema to record what he types into the command line, but lower-tech solutions can also work.

From Nature • Jan. 12, 2020

I asked them to set it in a monospaced, sans serif font, like a command line, and the production people did the rest.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 8, 2019

At the command line, type uudecode file.name where file.name is the file you created while in mail.

From Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet by Electronic Frontier Foundation