LINUX BASICS
Which Linux Shell Should I Use?
Bash (and Other Shells)
Bash, the default Linux shell, is popular and offers lots of advanced features. It combines many of the niceties found in the Bourne shell (the original Unix shell) and other modern shells.
But there are alternatives. The Korn shell is popular among many Unix users because it offers a rich scripting (programming) facility. Korn is commercial software, but there is a public-domain (free) version for Linux called pdksh. Another shell that's
popular with C language programmers is the C shell, which exists for Linux as tcsh.
Most versions of Linux provide both pdksh and tcsh, and you can try them out by entering their names at your shell prompt. If you decide to make a permanent switch to something other than the default bash shell, you must log in as root
and edit the entry for your user ID in the /etc/passwd file.
Entries in the /etc/passwd file look like the following example. Just change "bash" at the end of the line to "pdksh" or "tcsh," and you're done. (If you're not familiar with Linux-based text editors, see "Text Editors").
hermie:x:501:1::/home/hermie:/bin/bash
Though there are alternatives, I suggest you familiarize yourself with bash's features first, because bash is the most commonly used Linux shell. In the rest of this section, we'll go over the basics of working in the bash shell, so go
ahead and log in as user hermie now and follow right along. It'll help a lot to enter the commands as you go, experiment with them on your own, and see the actual output.
For more information on the bash shell, see the
bash manual.
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Comments
Humphrey (
09 Feb 2010, 09:21)
Hi Bob, was reading your interesting prose, unfortunately the link "Text
Editor s" on the "Which Linux Shell Should I Use" just sends me at the end
of the page.
Could you provide me with the correct address or fix the link Please?
Many thanks, and many Years of Bliss Life to You.
Bob Rankin (
09 Feb 2010, 09:47)
Sorry for the confusion, but if you look in the nav bar to the left, you'll
see the "Linux Editors" section after clicking that link.
Cliff (
26 Feb 2010, 07:30)
I'm sorry Bob, color me stupid, but I get to section "Which Linux Shell
Should I Use?" line "In the rest of this section, we'll go over the basics
of working in the bash shell, so go ahead and log in as user hermie now and
follow right along." and I am suddenly lost - log into WHAT? All I have
been doing so far is reading. I have not been directed to download
anything to anywhere in anyway!? Should I download UBUNTU or some other
distro and if so, where and how. I am an old COBOL programer here, so, I
am not completely stupid, but I think I missed something along the way.
You also indicated previously that I now know how to pronounce Linux - is
it Linux (like Lennox) or is it Linux (like Lionel) - short i or long i? I
learned Fortran, RPG II, COBOL, and even IBM Assembly language, work on DEC
machines in a language I can't even remember anymore, managed 25 DEC
databases as a DBA, but, I AM old. This shouldn't be this tough, but you
have lost me on 2 key points. Has it been so long that I should read
something else before I come back to this? BTW, this is the 2nd time I
have read this far only to get frustrated and quit. Any help would be
appreciated.
Cliff
Bob Rankin (
01 Mar 2010, 07:00)
@Cliff, the text assumes you have a computer with Linux installed. If you
want to try Linux, see this article:
http://askbobrankin.com/wanna_wubi.html
Copyright ©
by Bob Rankin
All rights reserved - Redistribution is allowed only with permission.
