Top 10 Magento 2 CLI commands for Frontend Development

As a frontend developer, there is a myth that CLI is for engineers or for sys admins and to don't touch it, but really, Magento 2 provides a straight forward list of commands and they can save you a lot of time on your development workflow.

What is CLI?

CLI stands for Command Line Interface and it's stated that the first one was created and used in 1950-1960. At it's core, is used to interact with a computer either by writting lines of text or with scripts.

What do I need in order to run CLI commands?

Depending on your operating system, you can use:

• Windows: Git Bash
• MAC: iTerm2 Or any other software that you're comfortable with. First of all, you can see all the available commands by running: php bin/magento The result should be something like this but it can be different depending on your project:

Usage:
 command [options] [arguments]
Options:
 --help (-h)           Display this help message
 --quiet (-q)          Do not output any message
 --verbose (-v|vv|vvv) Increase the verbosity of messages: 1 for normal output, 2 for more verbose output and 3 for debug
 --version (-V)        Display this application version
 --ansi                Force ANSI output
 --no-ansi             Disable ANSI output
 --no-interaction (-n) Do not ask any interactive question
Available commands:
 help                                      Displays help for a command
 list                                      Lists commands
admin
 admin:user:create                         Creates an administrator
 admin:user:unlock                         Unlock Admin Account
app
 app:config:dump                           Create dump of application
cache
 cache:clean                               Cleans cache type(s)
 cache:disable                             Disables cache type(s)
 cache:enable                              Enables cache type(s)
 cache:flush                               Flushes cache storage used by cache type(s)
 cache:status                              Checks cache status
catalog
 catalog:images:resize                     Creates resized product images
 catalog:product:attributes:cleanup        Removes unused product attributes.
cron
 cron:run                                  Runs jobs by schedule
customer
 customer:hash:upgrade                     Upgrade customer's hash according to the latest algorithm
deploy
 deploy:mode:set                           Set application mode.
 deploy:mode:show                          Displays current application mode.
dev
 dev:source-theme:deploy                   Collects and publishes source files for theme.
 dev:tests:run                             Runs tests
 dev:urn-catalog:generate                  Generates the catalog of URNs to *.xsd mappings for the IDE to highlight xml.
 dev:xml:convert                           Converts XML file using XSL style sheets
i18n
 i18n:collect-phrases                      Discovers phrases in the codebase
 i18n:pack                                 Saves language package
 i18n:uninstall                            Uninstalls language packages
indexer
 indexer:info                              Shows allowed Indexers
 indexer:reindex                           Reindexes Data
 indexer:reset                             Resets indexer status to invalid
 indexer:set-mode                          Sets index mode type
 indexer:show-mode                         Shows Index Mode
 indexer:status                            Shows status of Indexer
info
 info:adminuri                             Displays the Magento Admin URI
 info:backups:list                         Prints list of available backup files
 info:currency:list                        Displays the list of available currencies
 info:dependencies:show-framework          Shows number of dependencies on Magento framework
 info:dependencies:show-modules            Shows number of dependencies between modules
 info:dependencies:show-modules-circular   Shows number of circular dependencies between modules
 info:language:list                        Displays the list of available language locales
 info:timezone:list                        Displays the list of available timezones
maintenance
 maintenance:allow-ips                     Sets maintenance mode exempt IPs
 maintenance:disable                       Disables maintenance mode
 maintenance:enable                        Enables maintenance mode
 maintenance:status                        Displays maintenance mode status
module
 module:disable                            Disables specified modules
 module:enable                             Enables specified modules
 module:status                             Displays status of modules
 module:uninstall                          Uninstalls modules installed by composer
queue
 queue:consumers:list                      List of MessageQueue consumers
 queue:consumers:start                     Start MessageQueue consumer
sampledata
 sampledata:deploy                         Deploy sample data modules
 sampledata:remove                         Remove all sample data packages from composer.json
setup
 setup:backup                              Takes backup of Magento Application code base, media and database
 setup:config:set                          Creates or modifies the deployment configuration
 setup:cron:run                            Runs cron job scheduled for setup application
 setup:db-data:upgrade                     Installs and upgrades data in the DB
 setup:db-schema:upgrade                   Installs and upgrades the DB schema
 setup:db:status                           Checks if DB schema or data requires upgrade
 setup:di:compile                          Generates DI configuration and all missing classes that can be auto-generated
 setup:install                             Installs the Magento application
 setup:performance:generate-fixtures       Generates fixtures
 setup:rollback                            Rolls back Magento Application codebase, media and database
 setup:static-content:deploy               Deploys static view files
 setup:store-config:set                    Installs the store configuration
 setup:uninstall                           Uninstalls the Magento application
 setup:upgrade                             Upgrades the Magento application, DB data, and schema
theme
 theme:uninstall                           Uninstalls theme

Now that we know all commands here we go with my favourite commands:

1. Create a new admin

php bin/magento admin:user:create --admin-user='Harry' --admin-password='Expelliarmus' --admin-email='admin@hogwarts.com' --admin-firstname='Harry' --admin-lastname='Potter'

2. Empty cache folders

php bin/magento cache:clean
php bin/magento cache:flush

3. Disable or enable cache

php bin/magento cache:disable
php bin/magento cache:enable

4. Check what is the site current mode set as

php bin/magento deploy:mode:show

5. Change the mode to developer or production

php bin/magento deploy:mode:set developer
php bin/magento deploy:mode:set production

6. Get the admin url

php bin/magento info:adminuri

7. Reindex All Data

php bin/magento indexer:reindex

8. Disable or enable a module

php bin/magento module:enable {Module_Name}
php bin/magento module:disable {Module_Name}

9. Upgrade Magento 2 application

php bin/magento setup:upgrade

10. Deploy static files

php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy

Bonus round

Top 3 CLI commands, used while working on a Magento 2 project:

1. Import DB from SQL dump

mysql -u username -p database_name < file.sql

2. Check file permissions in directory

ls -la

3. Edit file from CLI

nano <filename>