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Different Shells in LINUX

The document provides an overview of shells in Linux, describing the shell as a command interpreter and programming language that allows users to execute commands and receive output. It lists five frequently used open-source shells: Bash, Tcsh/Csh, Ksh, Zsh, and Fish, highlighting their unique features and capabilities. The document emphasizes the power and versatility of the Unix/GNU Linux shell compared to other operating systems' shells.

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Parvathi M.S
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3 views

Different Shells in LINUX

The document provides an overview of shells in Linux, describing the shell as a command interpreter and programming language that allows users to execute commands and receive output. It lists five frequently used open-source shells: Bash, Tcsh/Csh, Ksh, Zsh, and Fish, highlighting their unique features and capabilities. The document emphasizes the power and versatility of the Unix/GNU Linux shell compared to other operating systems' shells.

Uploaded by

Parvathi M.S
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Shells in LINUX

The shell is the command interpretor in an operating system such


as Unix or GNU/Linux, it is a program that executes other programs. It provides a
computer user an interface to the Unix/GNU Linux system so that the user can run
different commands or utilities/tools with some input data.
When the shell has finished executing a program, it sends an output to the
user on the screen, which is the standard output device. For this reason, it is referred
to as the “command interpretor”.
The shell is much more than just a command interpretor, it is also a
programming language of its own with complete programming language constructs
such as conditional execution, loops, variables, functions and many more.That is
why the Unix/GNU Linux shell is more powerful compared to the Windows shell.

5 Most Frequently Used Open Source Shells for Linux


1. Bash Shell
Bash stands for Bourne Again Shell and it is the default shell on many Linux
distributions today. It is also a sh-compatible shell and offers practical
improvements over sh for programming and interactive use which includes:
1. Command line editing
2. Job Control
3. Unlimited size command history
4. Shell Functions and Aliases
5. Unlimited size Indexed arrays
6. Integer arithmetic in any base from two to sixty-four

Bash Shell

2. Tcsh/Csh Shell
Tcsh is enhanced C shell, it can be used as a interactive login shell and shell
script command processor.
Tcsh has the following features:

1. C like syntax
2. Command-line editor
3. Programmable word and filename completion
4. Spelling correction
5. Job control

3. Ksh Shell
Ksh stands for Korn shell and was designed and developed by David G.
Korn. It is a complete, powerful, high-level programming language and also
an interactive command language just like many other Unix/GNU Linux shells.

4. Zsh Shell
Zsh is designed to be interactive and it incorporates many features of other
Unix/GNU Linux shells such as bash, tcsh and ksh.
It is also a powerful scripting language just like the other shells available.
Though it has some unique features that include:
1. Filename generation
2. Startup files
3. Login/Logout watching
4. Closing comments
5. Concept index
6. Variable index
7. Functions index
8. Key index and many more that you can find out in man pages

5. Fish
Fish in full stands for “friendly interactive shell” and was authored in 2005. It
was intended to be fully interactive and user friendly, just like the other shells,
it has some pretty good features that include:
1. Man page completions
2. Web based configuration
3. Auto-suggestions
4. Fully scriptable with clean scripts
5. Support for term256 terminal technology
Fish – A Smart Interactive Shell for Linux

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