CLIer

CLIer is a term used in computing to describe a person who interacts with a computer primarily through a command-line interface (CLI) rather than a graphical user interface. CLIers are commonly associated with power users, system administrators, developers, and automation enthusiasts who value reproducibility, speed, and scriptability.

In practice, a CLIer relies on shell environments, such as Bash, Zsh, Fish, or PowerShell, and on text-based tools to perform tasks. They typically create and run scripts, compose pipelines, manage files with command-line utilities, and customize their environment with aliases and functions.

Key tools include editors like Vim or Emacs, and utilities such as grep, sed, awk, find, xargs, tmux or screen, and version control systems like Git. Daily workflows may involve SSH access to remote systems, package managers, and automation through Makefiles, scripts, or configuration management tools.

Learning and culture: Many CLIers learn through hands-on practice, consulting manual pages, official documentation, and community tutorials. The term can carry connotations of efficiency and minimalism, but the community generally emphasizes accessibility and knowledge sharing.

History and scope: The concept emerged with early Unix and the development of powerful shells in the 1970s and 1980s and remains central to system administration, software development, and DevOps. In modern contexts, CLIers may work with cloud services, containers, and continuous integration pipelines.

Related concepts include the command-line interface, shell, terminal emulator, scripting languages, and automation tools.