Choosing a Shell for FreeBSD

A lot of different shells are available for FreeBSD, ranging from bare-bones models to some that are loaded with features. Some shells are very strict as to the command syntaxes they accept, and insist that you type everything correctly; other shells allow you to repeat and edit previously used commands and automatically expand command lines with the Tab key. This chapter doesn’t cover all shells—such an undertaking would be nigh impossible—but rather looks at some of the more popular ones. All shells listed here can be installed from the ports (in /usr/ports/shells) or packages, as described in Chapter 16, “Installing Additional Software.”

The Bourne Shell (sh) and POSIX

The earliest shell still in common use is ...

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