Do you use the command line often?

I use the command line constantly while developing. From managing git to running npm scripts to manipulating files ... it’s an essential part of my workflow and a skill I’d recommend all developers hone.

Conversation I once had:
Me: "I work with a developer that hates using the command line."
Them: "Is he really a developer then?"
laughter

Yep. Vim and terminal all day every day.

I don't use the command-line for anything that actually requires my attention, since graphical tools generally do a better job of showing me what's needed. But if it's boring, it's on the command-line, because...if it's a repetitive task, then I know what goes in the script, so that I never need to think about it again.

For example, while working out how to change the default branch in git repositories (like the rest of the world), I realized that GitHub's CLI tool takes care of the manual step of changing the repository's default branch over on GitHub, which is a mindless step that also delays the step of deleting the now-unused master branch. Once I found that, the task is now just down to me recognizing that I haven't updated the repository, yet, and it all works without my needing to be involved.

Of course, the story doesn't always end that way. For example, I did a lot of working scaling images down with ImageMagick on the command-line. But some combination of the images I tested on, default algorithms, and general incoherence basically meant I had to start from scratch as almost all the images developed what I assume were weird compression artifacts. So, the resizing is now a manual process, so that I can make sure nothing went wrong...plus GIMP's algorithm seems better for this or more aware of what I need.

I mostly use it when debugging my code (tailing log files) and configuring a VPS.

FWIW, I don't really think I use it for any of the reasons given though. It's more about utility.

If you could take a screenshot at my desktop at random times, you would see a browser, a terminal and an IDE open. I usually use the terminal for moving around my filesystem, or opening programs.

Using the command line I can easily automate a lot of tasks. Building GUIs would take too long.