A Command-Line Interface (CLI) is a text-based interface that allows users to interact with a computer program or operating system by typing in text commands. A CLI is a powerful tool for developers and system administrators to perform various tasks quickly and efficiently.
Using CLI commands in bash is easy. For example, to list the contents of a directory, you can use the ls
command. To change directories, you can use the cd
command. To remove a file, you can use the rm
command. These commands can also be combined with flags and arguments to perform more specific actions.
Flags are options that modify the behavior of a command. For example, the -a
flag can be used with the ls
command to show hidden files. Arguments, on the other hand, are values or inputs that are provided to a command. For example, the mkdir
command requires an argument that specifies the name of the directory to be created.
Creating a CLI in Node.js is a popular choice for developers. It allows you to create a custom CLI that can be used to perform specific tasks. You can use third-party libraries such as commander
and yargs
to create a CLI in Node.js. These libraries provide an easy way to parse arguments and flags and execute commands.
When creating a CLI, you need to decide whether it should be installed globally or locally. A global installation allows the CLI to be used from any directory on your system, while a local installation requires the user to be in the directory where the CLI is installed.
Installing CLIs is easy. You can use the npm
command to install a CLI from the Node.js package manager. For example, to install the create-react-app
CLI globally, you can use the following command:
npm install -g create-react-app