View Source: Shell - Waikato Linux Users Group

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These days, more people know it as the CommandLine.

Traditionally, the main program that is used for interacting with a computer, for example for running other programs.

"Real" Unixes simply have "sh", which is the Bourne shell (or a variant). (?? - is this correct?).

There are now many "sh-compatible" shells, which use similar syntax. The shell used on [GNU]/[Linux] systems is bash(1), but others include ash(1), ksh(1) and zsh(1). ksh is quite common on systems such as [Solaris] but it (and the original Bourne shell) have licences that don't meet the definition of [Free] software.

See BashNotes for hints and examples for using bash.


Another common shell (with different syntax than sh-compatible shells) is csh(1) (the c-shell.... get it?), and its [Free] counterpart tcsh(1). The [BSD] family use csh as the default shell for some reason.

See CshProgrammingConsideredHarmful for why you shouldn't use this.

Version 1, saved on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 9:19:02 am by JohnMcPherson

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