My questions is CLI (Command Line ....) Necessary to be an expert in Linux???

My answer would be yes.

CLI gives you total command over wht is going on.
It is not a must though , if your objectives are restricted to programming some simple appz not related to linux.

CLI gives you the power the way your computer behaves, and do any thing, which are far more tedious to be done by GUI.

Sometimes GUI is helpful too , if you want other things done , that too very simple ,like keeping hundreds of tabs open in your browser, like i am doing right now.

But I like to be in control of my comp, so it would learn CLI.
Rest is upto you.

You will certainly like command line if you get accustomed to it. It is the fastest way to the things done on linux.Atleast for me.

Simple answer...Yes.

Depending on your distro, you may be able to USE a Linux computer without touching a shell (unlikely, but possible), but you won't be able to utilize it to its maximum potential. Many of the most useful tools have no, or at best only limited, graphical interfaces, while the real power and flexibility is in the command-line options you can use.

DO NOT be afraid of the shell. It's not some mystical mumbo-jumbo, it's just a different way to do things. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's just typing. You type in a command, hit enter, and the computer does what you just told it to do. Even a 3-year-old child can do that. The secret all lies in learning just what to type. That takes time and effort, sure, but it isn't really all that difficult to become reasonably proficient.

The shell is such an integral part of *nix that I'd even go so far as to say you've never even really used Linux until you've become at least passibly familiar with bash and some of the major cli tools. Clicking icons does not a computer expert make.

Someone who doesn't know the cli is not linux expert I believe. Mastering it is something else.

As I started learning but was feeling sick of learning CLI (Bash Shell) but ur all answers encouraged me and I'll surely continue to learn Bash Shell Commands and masterizing may not happen but I may become well to do guy!!!!!!

Atlast Again Thank U

Good for you. Be patient and take your time. You don't have to learn everything at once. Take on each challenge as you come to it and you'll get more and more proficient as you go along.

There are many shell tutorials out there. I recommend Linuxcommand.org as a good introduction for the beginner. It covers most of the basics in a friendly and easy-to-read manner.

Also, I suggest you practice using some cli programs. For example, instead of using a gui program, try ripping some CDs to disk using cdparanoia, then use oggenc to convert those .wav files to .ogg format. This is a relatively simple exercise that will get you used to things like reading man pages and using various command option switches, things you'll be doing often when you really start using the shell. It will give you a real feeling as to how cli programs work.

Finally, don't forget that there are many helpful people here who can help explain things to you when you really need it. If you come across something you don't understand, just ask!

Actually I've downloaded a various books and presently going on with Intro Linux.PDF and I think I'm learning something. The linuxcommands.org is online where as the system I have Linux on doesn't have a net so I prefer offline reading.
The site is really useful

Thank u for ur kind suggestion

There are some docs on the www.tldp.org web site that you can download for off-line reading. An excellent one is the Advanced Bash Scripting Guide. It is easier to follow than the bashref manual and consists of commented sample code that you can try yourself. Don't let the "Advanced" scare you off. "Detailed" may be a better description of this publication.

Not only ur said book but other books also I've downloaded previous to this post itself and the link to the said book is http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/abs-guide.pdf

Nway Thank u sir

We don't have to be masters of the CLI to take advantage of most of what Linux has got to offer. Just don't be afraid to try and practice. It takes me back to the old DOS days when I could be proud of all the DOS command line statements. I'm learning that the UNIX command line syntax makes more sense than the DOS as I learn more UNIX & Linux. You can't even be a MS networking guru without knowing lots of command line statements. Get a "commands" sheet from here at LinuxQuestions and Lycos' WebMonkey has a very elementry UNIX cheat sheet to keep at hand.
Command line apps I use alot: Sox & Lame
Everytime some Linux pro recommends CLI a procees to someone,with the exception of the ones that can do damage, I try it myself just to watch it work and get comfortable with the lingo.
Try it ! Try Lynx to connect to the Internet and use a command line driven "browser" to see the same sites you see with Mozilla. You'll impress your friends with your knowledge.
Scott Nash

Thank U sir I'll surely download commands sheet

More than just impressing your friends with Lynx... early on I once crashed X and could not for the life of me get it to work. I had a hunch about what did it but no clue about how to fix it. I had no X and at the time I had no backup OS or spare computer to play with and I was on my own with an internet connection, a black screen and a prompt. I took a crash course in lynx, pine, and wget... and got information and drivers needed to fix X off the internet without having to actually use X. That was also the time I got into vi.

Good stuff.

I have officially become a command-line oriented guy. I always have to have X open but I always have a terminal handy. It takes several months of having to type the same commands over and over and over and over for it to either be automated or relegated to GUI with me. It's really more comfortable to me in a lot of ways but I certainly would not call myself a master.

Without any doubt CLI looks nastier than it really is. Some of the more complex commands like sed look like bonafide garbage but will blow you away with how simple it can actually be when you get the basics down. I was eager to take the challenge and learn but I have to admit that it was a bit discouraging at first. That changed after a little while, though.

Good luck!

Must you learn the Command Line Interface (CLI) in Linux? Think of it as learning English (or whatever the local language is).

Do you *need* to speak English in, say, England? Well, no, you don't *have* to. You can communicate basic needs through gestures. You make motions to tell someone to go left and down the stairs, or that you are hungry. Everyone would be able to understand you, even a non-English speaker. If you were in some environment specially designed to be user-friendly, like an international airport, then you could probably cope without knowing English. You could check your flight departure time, or even do complex things like change money. If you lived your entire life at airport, you might even conclude that there's no need to learn English.

In the same way, the Graphical User Interface lets you easily do the basic things. If the software author has anticipated your need to Do A Very Complex Thing, all you might need to do is click on that button that says "Do Very Complex Thing"! (I'm reminded of the GUI on Libranet Linux, with the button that said, "Click here to recompile kernel".)

But without learning English, how would you ask, "If my flight is delayed beyond 3 hours, will the airline compensate me for switching to a different airline?" You can't really use gestures for that, and there certainly won't be a sign on the wall with symbols that mean, "Line up here to find out whether you will be compensated for switching to a different airline if your flight is delayed beyond 3 hours."

In the same way, without learning the CLI, it would be rather difficult to say, "Rename all the files whose names end in two digits from 50 to 99 (but not 00 to 49), so that they will now end in four digits from 1950 to 1999."

Using a GUI for a middleman between you and the computer means that you are limited by what the middleman can do. Trust me: cut out the middleman, and you'll experience a new sort of freedom and mastery over your computer.

[End note: amazingly enough, it *is* possible to use a GUI program to rename the files as above. The name of the program is Krename, but it's easier to use the CLI.]