Wikipedia
A command-line interface (CLI) processes commands to a computer program in the form of lines of text The program which handles the interface is called a command-line interpreter or command-line processor Operating systems implement a command-line interface in a shell for interactive access to operating system functions or services Such access was primarily provided to users by computer terminals starting in the mid-1960s, and continued to be used throughout the 1970s and 1980s on VAX/VMS, Unix systems and personal computer systems including DOS, CP/M and Apple DOS Today, users rely upon graphical user interfaces and menu-driven interactions However some programming and maintenance tasks may not have a graphical user interface and may still use a command line
Command-line interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia