Unix Shell Scripts Introduction
March 15, 2007 by Mark Marucot
A shell script is a script written for the shell or command line interpreter of an operating system like Unix. This script contains list of commands that are run in sequence.
History of Shell Scripting
Steve Bourne create the first Unix shell designed for scripting named Bourne shell (sh) which appeared in the Seventh Edition Bell Labs Research version of Unix. It remains the standard command line interface to Unix. The first Unix shell was Thompson shell written by Ken Thompson in the first version of Unix in 1971.
Bourne Shell (sh)
sh is the first shell language created by Steve Borne. It remains a popular default shell for Unix accounts. The binary program of Bourne shell is located at /bin/sh on most Unix systems.
C Shell (csh)
C shell was developed by Bill Joy for BSD Unix system. It was originally derived from Thompson shell. The syntax is modeled from C programming language. The original C shell is not widely use and superseded by other shells such as Tenex C Shell (tcsh).
Korne Shell (ksh)
Korne Shell was developed by David Korn in early 1980s. It is wholly upward compatible with Bourne Shell and includes many features of C Shell such as command history. The main advantage of ksh over traditional Unix shell is in its use as a programming language.
Prerequisites
The prerequisite to continue learning Unix Shell Scripting, you should have a basic understanding of the following:
- Unix Shell
- Unix Commands
- Programming Language Concepts (such as variable usage, functions, etc).
Comments
Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!