Term paper

Shells for Linux (details of specification of

different old and new shell interfaces of Linux)

From 16/11/2022 to 16/12/2022

SUBMITTED BY:

Name- Rohit Kumar (12219614) Submitted to:

Section – DOC12 Dr. Devender Kumar
Roll No – 54

E-mail:-rohit4love20016@gmail.com

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 Content

ABSTRACT
Keywords
Introduction

History of the Shell

Uses of the Shell

Responsibilities of the Shell
Shells for Linux
Types of Linux Shells
The Shell Interface
Exiting the shell
Environment Variables
Table
Features
Conclusion
Bibliography

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ABSTRACT
echo read set unset
The purpose of the study is to find the best
shells available in Linux Operating System.
The study has been narrowed down to eight
most prominent shells in use today. With so readonly shift export if
many different Linux distributions and a
plethora of shells, there exists a problem of
plenty, which is rather a good problem to fi else while do
have. Amid all this confusion, one wonders
which shell to use. This is most suitable to
one’s requirement, is modern, up to date and
provides all sorts of features which fulfil the
done for until case
desire of the user as well as the developer.
The article deals in brief about Linux and its
distributions, its philosophy and the freedom esac break continue exit
it provides. Shells, its scripting and shell
types have been explained, one gets an idea
of the study from the introduction. The return trap wait eval
seven Linux shells have been explained in
detail to familiarize the reader with the most
popular and most used shells available. A
clear, concise and comparative analysis of exec ulimit umask
the shells based on their general, interactive,
programming and security features has been
given. Programming features are important
for the developers while a good interface
makes everyone happy. Security features are
a must for anyone who values their privacy
and would like no intrusion in their system Introduction
or their files. The mechanism of
communication is important for I/O Linux comes with several different shells.
handling, as well as managing, interrupts. Although a distribution has a default shell,
The speed of the system is greatly affected users can change to another type or install a
by the level of efficiency of inter-process new one. If you're looking to change your
communication. default shell, knowing the different available
types helps provide a clear overview of the
Keywords possible options.
Keywords are the words whose meaning has
already been explained to the shell.the
keywords cannot be used as variable names
because of it are reserved words with
containing reserved meaning.

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History of the Shell Responsibilities of the Shell

The first significant, standard UNIX shell The shell is ultimately responsible for
was introduced in V7 (seventh edition of making sure that any commands typed at the
AT&T) UNIX in late 1979, and was named prompt get executed properly. Included in
after its creator, Stephen Bourne. The those responsibilities are:
Bourne shell as a programming language is
based on a language called Algol, and was 1. Reading input and parsing the
primarily used to automate system command line
administration tasks. Although popular for 2. Evaluating special characters, such
its simplicity and speed, it lacks many as wildcards and the history
of the features for interactive use, such as character
history, aliasing, and job control. 3. Setting up pipes, redirection, and
background processing
The C shell, developed at the University of 4. Handling signals
California, Berkeley, in the late 1970s, was 5. Setting up programs for execution
released as part of BSD UNIX. The shell,
written primarily by Bill Joy, offered a number Each of these topics is discussed in detail as
of additional features not provided in the it pertains to a particular shell.
standard Bourne shell. The C shell is based on
the C programming language, and when used as
a programming language, it shares a similar
Shells for Linux
syntax. It also offers enhancements for
A shell is a command-line interpreter
interactive use, such as command-line history,
aliases, and job control. Because the shell was
program that parses and sends commands to
designed on a large machine and a number of the operating system. This program
additional features were added, the C shell has a represents an operating system's interactive
tendency to be slow on small machines and interface and the kernel's outermost layer (or
sluggish even on large machines when compared shell). It allows users and programs to send
with the Bourne shell. signals and expose an operating system's
low-level utilities.
Uses of the Shell
For this exists that shell built-in command
called compgen which most certainly you
When running interactively, one of the did not notice it when you run help -m.
major functions of a shell is to interpret $ compgen -k
commands entered at the command-line if
prompt. The shell parses the command line, then
breaking it into words (called tokens) else
separated by whitespace, which consists of elif
tabs, spaces, or a newline. If the words fi
contain special metacharacters, the shell case
evaluates them. The shell handles file I/O esac
and background processing. After the for
command line has been processed, the shell select
searches for the command and starts its while
execution. until

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do The terminal program (or terminal emulator)
done enables interaction with the system's
in utilities. When we run any command in the
function terminal, such as ls or cat,, the shell parses,
time evaluates, searches for, and executes the
Coproc corresponding program, if found.
See help -m compgen for more info
about compgen. Types of Linux Shells
1. Bourne Shell (sh)

The Bourne shell was the first default shell

on Unix systems, released in 1979. The shell
program name is sh,, and the traditional
location is /bin/sh. The prompt switches
to $,, while the root prompt is #.

The Bourne shell quickly became popular

because it is compact and fast.
fast
However, sh lacks some standard features,
such as:

Fig.1
 Logicall and arithmetic expansion.
 Command history.
 Other comprehensive features, such
as auto complete.

Modern Unix-likelike systems have

the /bin/sh executable file. The program
does not start the Bourne shell but acts as an
executable file pointing to the default
system shell.

2. C Shell (csh)

The C shell (csh)) is a Linux shell from the

late 1970s whose main objective was to
improve interactive use and mimic the C
language. Since the Linux kernel is
predominantly written in C, the shell aims to
provide stylistic consistency
istency across the
system.

The path to the C shell executable

Fig.2 is /bin/csh.. The prompt uses % for regular
users and # for the root user.

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New interactive features included:
 History of the previous command.
 User-defined aliases for programs.
 Relative home directory (~).
 Built-in expression grammar.
The main drawbacks of the C shell are:
 Syntax inconsistencies.
 No support for standard input/output
(stdio) file handles or functions.
 Not fully recursive, which limits
complex command handling.
The C shell improved readability and
performance compared to the Bourne shell.
The interactive features and innovations in
csh influenced all subsequent Unix shells.
3. TENEX C Shell (tcsh)
The TENEX C shell (tcsh) is an extension
of the C shell (csh) merged in the early
1980s. The shell is backward compatible
with csh, with additional features and
concepts borrowed from the TENEX OS.
The TENEX C shell executable path is
in /bin/tcsh. The user prompt
is hostname:directory> while the root
prompt is hostname:directory#. Early
versions of Mac OS and the default root
shell of FreeBSD use tcsh.
Additional features of the shell include:
 Advanced command history.
 Programmable autocomplete.
 Wildcard matching.
 Job control.
 Built-in where command.
Since tcsh is an extension of the C shell,
many drawbacks persist in the extended
version.
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4.KornShell (ksh)
The KornShell (ksh) is a Unix shell and
language based on the Bourne shell (sh)
developed in the early 1980s. The location is
in /bin/ksh or /bin/ksh93, while the prompt is
the same as the Bourne shell ($ for a user
and # for root).
The shell implements features from the C
shell and Bourne shell, aiming to focus on
both interactive commands and
programming features. The KornShell adds
new features of its own, such as:
1. Built-in mathematical functions and
floating-point arithmetic.
2. Object-oriented programming.
3. Extensibility of built-in commands.
4. Compatible with the Bourne shell.
The shell is faster than both the C shell and
the Bourne shell.
5.Debian Almquist Shell (dash)
The Debian Almquist Shell (dash) is a
Unix shell developed in the late 1990s from
the Almquist shell (ash), which was ported
to Debian and renamed.
Dash is famous for being the default shell
for Ubuntu and Debian. The shell is minimal
and POSIX compliant, making it convenient
for OS startup scripts.
The executable path is /bin/dash, in addition
to /bin/sh pointing to /bin/dash on Ubuntu
and Debian. The default and root user
prompt is the same as in the Bourne shell.

Dash features include:
 Execution speeds up to 4x faster than
bash and other shells.
 Requires minimal disk space, CPU,
and RAM compared to alternatives.
The main drawback is that dash is not bash-
compatible. The features not included in
dash are known as "bashisms."
Therefore, bash scripts require additional
reworkings of bashisms to run succesfully.
6. Bourne Again Shell (bash)
The Bourne Again shell is a Unix shell and
command language created as an extension
of the Bourne shell (sh) in 1989. The shell
program is the default login shell for many
Linux distributions and earlier versions of
macOS.
The shell name shortens to bash, and the
location is /bin/bash. Like the Bourne shell,
the bash prompt is $ for a regular user
and # for root.
Bash introduces features not found in the
Bourne shell, some of which include:
 Brace expansion.
 Command completion.
 Basic debugging and signal
handling.
 Command history.
 Conditional commands, such as
the bash if and bash case statements.
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7.Z Shell (zsh).
The Z shell (zsh) is a Unix shell created as
an extension for the Bourne shell in the early
1990s. The feature-rich shell borrows ideas
from ksh and tcsh to create a well-built and
usable alternative.
The executable location is in /bin/zsh. The
prompt is user@hostname location % for
regular users and hostname# for the root
user. The Z shell is the default shell of Kali
Linux and Mac OS.
Some new features added to the zsh include:
 Shared history among all running
shell sessions.
 Improved array and variable
handling.
 Spelling corrections and command
name autofill.
 Various compatibility modes.
 Extensibility through plugins.
The shell is highly configurable and
customizable due to the community-driven
support through the Oh My Zsh framework.
8. Friendly Interactive Shell (fish)
The Friendly Interactive Shell (fish) is a
Unix shell released in the mid-2000s with a
focus on usability. The feature-rich shell
does not require additional configuration,
which makes it user-friendly from the start.
The default executable path is /usr/bin/fish.
The user prompt is user@hostname
location>, while the root prompt
is root@hostname location#.
Features in the shell include:
 Advanced suggestions/tab
completion based on the current
directory history.
 Helpful syntax highlighting and
descriptive error messages.
 Web-based configuration.
 Command history with search
options.
The main drawback of fish is non-POSIX
compliance. However, the developers aim to
improve flawed designs from POSIX.
The Shell Interface
 A Terminal window — With the
desktop GUI running, you can open
a Terminal window (right-click on
the desktop, then click New
Terminal) to start a shell. You can
begin typing commands into the
Terminal window.
If you are using a shell interface, the first
thing you see is the shell prompt. The
default prompt for a user is simply a dollar
sign:
$ keyboard). The lines that follow show the
The default prompt for the root user is a
pound sign (also called a hash mark):
# contents, or you can use the ls command
For most Red Hat Linux systems, the $ or #
prompts are preceded by your user name,
system name, and current directory name.
So, for example, a login prompt for the user
named jake on a computer
named pine with /tmp as the current
directory would appear as:
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[jake@pine tmp]$
You can change the prompt to display any
characters you like. You could use as your
prompt the current directory, the date, the
local computer name, or any string of
characters. (To configure your prompt, see
the "Setting your prompt" section later in
this chapter.)
Although there are a tremendous number of
features available with the shell, it's easy to
begin by just typing a few commands. Try
some of the commands shown in the
remainder of this section to become familiar
with your current shell environment.
Tip?If, instead of a shell prompt, you see a
GUI when you log in, you can still try
out the shell commands shown in the
next section. To access a shell from the
GUI, you can open a Terminal window
by right-clicking on your desktop and
selecting New Terminal.
In the examples that follow, the $ or #
symbols indicate a prompt. The prompt is
followed by the command that you type and
then by Enter or Return (depending on your
output that results from the command.
At this point, list the
contents of your home directory, using
the ls command. Either you can type the full
path to your home directory to list its
without a directory name to list the contents
of the current directory. Using the -a option
to ls enables you to view the hidden files
(dot files) as well as all other files. With
the -l option, you can see a long, detailed list
of information on each file. (You can put
multiple single-letter options together after a
single dash, for example, -la.)
 I just showed a few commands designed to
$ ls -la /home/chris
familiarize you quickly with your Linux
total 158 system. There are hundreds of other
commands that you can try that are
drwxrwxrwx 2 chris sales 1024 May 12 contained in directories such
13:55 .
as /bin and /usr/bin. There are also
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1024 May 10 administrative commands
01:49 .. in /sbin or /usr/sbin directories.
-rw------- 1 chris sales 2204 May 18
21:30 .bash_history Environment Variables
 PATH: The list of paths for external
-rw-r--r-- 1 chris sales 24 May 10 01:50 commands.
.bash_logout
SHELL: The type of shell There are few
-rw-r--r-- 1 chris sales 230 May 10 environment variables that are defined for
01:50 .bash_profile the shell. Until now, we understood the
PATH variable. PATH is an environment
-rw-r--r-- 1 chris sales 124 May 10
variable which provides the list of path to be
01:50 .bashrc
searched for external commands. The
drw-r--r-- 1 chris sales 4096 May 10 complete list of environment variables can
01:50 .kde be checked with the help of env command.
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chris sales 149872 May 11
The env command provides the complete list
22:49 letter of environment variables.

Displaying a long list (-l option) of the
contents of your home directory shows you
more about file sizes and directories.
Directories such as the current directory (.)
and the directory above the current directory
(..) are noted as directories by the letter "d"
at the beginning of each entry. In this case,
dot (.) represents /home/chris and two dots
(..), which is also referred to as the parent
directory, represents /home.
The /home directory is owned by root. All
other files are owned by the user chris (who
belongs to the sales group).
Some few examples for the environment
variables of shell are:
 which is currently active.
 OLDPWD: The last working directory.
 PWD: Refers to the Present Working
Directory.
 USER: The username for the active
shell.
 HOME: The home directory for the
user.

Exiting the shell

To exit the shell when you are done, either
type exit or press Ctrl+D. If you are exiting
from your login shell (the shell that started
when you first logged in), type logout to
exit the shell.

9

Conclusion
After reading about several different shell
types in this article, you have a better
overview of the available Linux shells.
Other shells exist for specific use cases, and
every shell type addresses different
problems. We discussed the definition of
shell. We also seen the philosophy behind
the shell implementation of the different
types of commands provided by shell and
the environment variables of the shell. We
have also gone through few environment
variables. Most importantly, we discussed
about the PATH variable. We have also seen
the way to update the PATH and the
importance of the variable which is
demonstrated by an example. We learned
the importance of shell and its offerings.
Bibliography
Text Books:
A PRACTICAL BEGINNING REDHAT
LINUX 9 by SANDEEP
BHTTACHARAYA, WROX
PROGRAMMER
Bill Joy, An Introduction to the C
Shell, UNIX User’s Supplementary
Documents, University of California
at Berkeley, 1986.
IEEE, IEEE Standard for Information
Technology -- Portable Operating
System Interface (POSIX) Part 2:
Shell and Utilities, 1992.
References:
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO LINUX
COMMANDS, EDITORS AND SHELL by
MARK G. SOBELL, PEARSON
Links:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_s
hell
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux
 https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/differ
ent-shells-in-linux/
 https://phoenixnap.com/kb/linux-
shells

S. R. Bourne, ‘‘UNIX Time-Sharing

System: The UNIX Shell’’, Bell
System Technical Journal, 57(6),
July-August, 1978, pp. 1971-1990.

Morris Bolsky and David Korn, The

KornShell Command and
Programming Language, Prentice
Hall, 1989.

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