Thread View: comp.unix.shell
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Started by MIKE PATTERSON
Wed, 12 Sep 1990 02:10
Shell selection
Author: MIKE PATTERSON
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 1990 02:10
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 1990 02:10
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I have a few novice questions concerning unix shells.
I know that a variety exists: C-shell, Bourne shell, Korn
shell. However, I'm not aware of _why_ there are several
shells as opposed to one. Please try to address the
following:
1) Are there shells other than those mentioned above?
2) Is any one shell more popular among users than the others?
3) Is any one shell more popular among installations than
the others, and why?
The reason for asking is that I don't care to learn about
all of the shells - I'd rather devote my time to the one
shell most likely to suit my changing needs over a period
of years. The machine now at my disposal has the three
shells mentioned above. Since each seems to be equally
cryptic, I'd like to stay with just one.
I realize that these are questions subject to opinions so
please respond with whatever facts you know. E-mail is
fine for responses.
Thanks in advance,
MIKE PATTERSON
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp: ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!ae221mp
Internet: ae221mp@prism.gatech.edu
--
MIKE PATTERSON
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp: ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!ae221mp
Internet: ae221mp@prism.gatech.edu
Re: Shell selection
Author: Dave Sill
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 1990 19:32
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 1990 19:32
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In article <13563@hydra.gatech.EDU>, ae221mp@prism.gatech.EDU (MIKE PATTERSON) writes: > >I have a few novice questions concerning unix shells. >I know that a variety exists: C-shell, Bourne shell, Korn >shell. However, I'm not aware of _why_ there are several >shells as opposed to one. Please try to address the >following: > > 1) Are there shells other than those mentioned above? Yes. Tcsh (TWENEX C-Shell) is a modified C-Shell. It has command completion and history editing plus some other stuff. It requires C-Shell source code, but is itself freely distributed. My favorite is Bash, the Bourne-Again SHell. It's distributed by the Free Software Foundation, so source code is readily available even for non-source sites. It has all of the features of tcsh and includes much Bourne shell compatibility. In my opinion, it's the way to go. > 2) Is any one shell more popular among users than the others? That's hard to measure. C-Shell and Bourne shell are more readily available, so numerically more users use them. But among those aware of the other choices, tcsh, ksh, and bash are preferred for their extra interactive functionality. Most shell scripts are written in Bourne shell since it's *always* available. > 3) Is any one shell more popular among installations than > the others, and why? I suppose big System V sites tend to favor Korn shell among the second-generation shells since it comes standard on their systems. >The reason for asking is that I don't care to learn about >all of the shells - I'd rather devote my time to the one >shell most likely to suit my changing needs over a period >of years. The machine now at my disposal has the three >shells mentioned above. Since each seems to be equally >cryptic, I'd like to stay with just one. Are you a shell *user* only, or do you *program* too? If the latter, I'd recommend using Bash and programming in Bash or Bourne--depending upon whether or not portability is a big issue. But then, if I knew perl I'd probably recommend programming in it. -- Dave Sill (de5@ornl.gov) These are my opinions. Martin Marietta Energy Systems Workstation Support
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