Before jumping in and discussing how to program using a shell, let’s review the shell’s function and the
different shells available for Linux. A shell is a program that acts as the interface between you and the Linux
system, enabling you to enter commands for the operating system to execute. In that respect, it resembles the
Windows command prompt, but as mentioned earlier, Linux shells are much more powerful. For example,
input and output can be redirected using < and >, data piped between simultaneously executing programs
using |, and output from a subprocess grabbed by using $(...). On Linux it’s quite feasible to have multiple
shells installed, with different users able to pick the one they prefer.
You can check the version of bash you have with the following command:
$ /bin/bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.9(1)-release (i686-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
different shells available for Linux. A shell is a program that acts as the interface between you and the Linux
system, enabling you to enter commands for the operating system to execute. In that respect, it resembles the
Windows command prompt, but as mentioned earlier, Linux shells are much more powerful. For example,
input and output can be redirected using < and >, data piped between simultaneously executing programs
using |, and output from a subprocess grabbed by using $(...). On Linux it’s quite feasible to have multiple
shells installed, with different users able to pick the one they prefer.
You can check the version of bash you have with the following command:
$ /bin/bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.9(1)-release (i686-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
