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Is there any functional-like Unix shell?

What is the difference between UNIX, Linux, Bash, Zsh, shell programming, and shell scripting? What is meant by the word "shell"?

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    UNIX: An operating system that was first developed in early 1970s for PDP-11 machine. UNIX was ported to many other architectures. In 1980s, UNIX was commercially maintained by several corporations, like AT&T and Sun. You can read the full history here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Unix. Linux: A kernel that is mostly written by Linus Torvalds, you can get it from here: http://kernel.org/. GNU/Linux: A free operating system project that aims to replace the proprietary UNIX. You can visit GNU website to know more: http://www.gnu.org/. Actually, you should say "What is the difference between UNIX and GNU" because Linux is just the kernel, not the OS. -------------------------------- Shell: A program that provides an interface to access the services that are provided by the OS. Examples are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMMAND.COM of MS-DOS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourne_shell of UNIX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bash_(Unix_shell) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zsh For the differences between bash and zsh, check the opinions of the community at http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1csl7c/bash_vs_zsh :) Shell scripting: The shell works as an interpreter. Shell scripting is the process of writing a "script" file for the shell. A script file typically contains the code that shall be interpreted by the shell. The code should be written in the language that the shell can understand. For example: Bash is a shell. Bash understands a scripting language that can be called "bash scripting language" You can write a bash script, which is a file that contains code written in that bash scripting language. This process is called "shell scripting". You can execute the bash script by running bash and telling it to interpret the script. Shell programming: Actually, scripting process is a programming process in its own. Scripting languages can be considered as a class of programming languages. Therefore, shell scripting = shell programming in my point of view.

Mostafa Abd El-Aziz at Quora Visit the source

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Unix is a commercial operating system built by Bell Labs in 1969.  Many modern day OSes and parts of OSes are based on concepts and standards that came from Unix. Linux is an operating system that is similar to Unix in its design. It is compliant with many of the same standards as Unix.  Unlike Unix, it is free and open-source. Bash and zsh are shells.  A shell is a command-line interface (CLI).  Before computers had graphical user interfaces (GUI), you had to communicate with them by entering words on a keyboard.  For example, to make a new directory/folder, one might enter "mkdir foldername" and hit enter.  The reason there are different shells, like bash and zsh, is that the original Unix shell 'sh' was very limited. People created new shells that met their needs better. Multiple shells exist today because some meet specific needs better than others. Shell scripting is simply taking all the commands you would type in to do something and putting them in a text file so you don't have to type them in every time. The shell executes the commands in the text file just like you had typed them in. As shells became more advanced, more complex programming became available in shell scripts, but it is still basically executing commands like you had typed them in.

Pat Roberts

Regarding shell, you usually have a "core", "internal" operating system, something close to the hardware, the processor registers, the internal memory, attached devices and so on, that speaks in their language. How to interact with that operating system? You can peek and poke through the outer layers of the operating system to know some of the things it knows, make it do things and so on, and that outer layer that you use to communicate with it is known as shell.

Gustavo Muslera

Unix, Linux:  Operating systems (OS) bash, zsh: shells shell programming = shell scripting The shell is an interpreter between you and the OS when you don't "speak" OS sufficiently understandably for the OS  to regard you as anything other than a gibbering idiot. Simples, yes?

Kok-Yong Tan

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