command line

See also: command-line

English

Alternative forms

• command-line

Noun

command line (plural command lines) (computing)

2. 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.

3. The text prompt presented to the user in a command line interface.

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

4. 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

Translations

text prompt

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 命令行 (mìnglìngháng) (Mainland China), 命令列 (mìnglìngliè) (Taiwan, Hong Kong)

• Czech: příkazový řádek m, příkazová řádka f
• Dutch: opdrachtregel (nl) c, commandoregel (nl) c
• Esperanto: komanda linio
• Finnish: komentorivi (fi)
• French: ligne de commande (fr) f
• German: Kommandozeile (de) f, Befehlszeile f
• Greek: γραμμή εντολής (el) f (grammí entolís)
• Hebrew: שורת הפקודה
• Japanese: コマンドライン (komandorain)
• Korean: 커맨드 라인 (keomaendeu rain), 명령(命令)줄 (myeongnyeongjul), 명령행(命令行) (myeongnyeonghaeng)
• Persian: خط فرمان (xatt-e farmân)
• Portuguese: linha de comando f (Brazil), linha de comandos f (Portugal)
• Romanian: text de comandă, linie de comandă (linie textuală de comandă)
• Russian: кома́ндная строка́ (ru) f (komándnaja stroká)
• Swedish: kommandorad c

line of text

• Esperanto: komanda linio
• Swedish: kommandorad c

Verb

command line (third-person singular simple present command lines, present participle command lining, simple past and past participle command lined)

1. Alternative form of command-line.
   • 2002 August 19, Nikola Janceski, “Problems with rsh command”, in perl.beginners‎^[1] (Usenet), archived from the original on 9 December 2025:

     host1 is one host. the only host that I have been testing this on. via command line it works. via rsh command line it doesn't. via rsh to command prompt, then command lining it, it works.

   • 2003 November 14, Nobody, “um...help?”, in alt.os.linux.mandrake‎^[2] (Usenet), archived from the original on 9 December 2025:

     Next, I am on the slow road to nvidia to try for those Linux drivers, already formatted Linux for a clean install so how does the installation go? It seems I will be command lining it for a bit and my documentation is all sparse (non existent) for commands?

   • 2004 January 29, Chronocidal Charlie, “Hey! I Built One of Them Thangs”, in alt.recovery.aa‎^[3] (Usenet), archived from the original on 9 December 2025:

     And allowed me to innitiate^[sic] my first connection to an ISP with LeadHat after two or three years of screwing wtih Linux, still using Windows to connect to Internet and having countless ISP tell me, "We don't support Linux" or forcing me to use a Windows interface and dialer to connect." and one day my light came on and I command lined a ppp-on and my modem dialed my ISP here in Temple who had told me, "No way Jose. You ain't gonna be able to get it to work."