Chapter 9. Introduction to the Bash Shell

Different Shells

Most UNIX variants allow you to select among several shells. The shell is important to you as a user because it is your window into the system. The many shells available on UNIX variants are similar in that you use them to issue commands, control many aspects of your user environment, write command files and shell programs, and so on. Because you’ll probably be spending a lot of time in your shell, you should develop an understanding of several different shells and see whether you develop a preference of one over the other. A particular shell, such as Bash, does not vary much going from one UNIX variant to another. The shells themselves, however, have some unique features. In general, I ...

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