# What is your favorite UNIX shell?



## xoot (Jul 18, 2002)

Mine is tcsh. How about yours?


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## gibbs (Jul 18, 2002)

A lot of nerds I know love *orn [A]gain [SH]ell*


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## Scummer (Jul 18, 2002)

bash.. i even have the bash t-shirt from thinkgeek 

Thomas


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## gatorparrots (Jul 18, 2002)

For me:
*bash-2.05*
[tcsh if Apple made some assumption that requires it.]

For other users on my system:
_/dev/null_ or _/usr/bin/false_!!!


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## xaqintosh (Jul 18, 2002)

what are the differences?
I'm not very Unix-y


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## btoneill (Jul 18, 2002)

Actually gibbs it's "Bourne Again Shell" which is a play on words refering to Stephen Bourne who wrote the original sh shell (hence why sh is called the Bourne Shell) and the fact that bash is based on the sh shell (also ksh among others, which is based off of sh, but thats another topic).

Also can't believe ksh was left out of the list, probably the greatest shell ever created. Ofcourse ksh, or Korn shell, was created by David Korn.

And, to all those [t]csh folks out there, I must post my standard link: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/unix-faq/shell/csh-whynot
Read it, learn it, live it.

For xaq take a look at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/unix-faq/shell/shell-differences/ it has a very good intro to the common unix shells, their history, and funtionality. If you have any more specific questions, feel free to send them this way 

Brian


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## TBoNe (Jul 19, 2002)

Korn then Bash


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## kommakazi (Jul 19, 2002)

I've only used tcsh cuz it's the default in X, and I've gotten some experience in csh and sh since I installed NetBSD on my Mac LC III... Guess I'm yet to see the light. Will someone guide me?


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## tony (Jul 19, 2002)

My vote also goes to the Korn shell (ksh).  I can't believe it was left off the list.

I only wish it was available on OS X.


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## hazmat (Jul 19, 2002)

I voted for tcsh.  I've been using it for about seven years now, since I started using SunOS.  It's what I learned on and am used to for job control, navigation, etc.  That's why.  That is almost always why people prefer a shell.  It's what they're used to.  You can imagine how giddy I got when the first time I tried OS X and the default shell was tcsh!


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## nimrod (Jul 19, 2002)

First experiences on non-Windows machines came from RedHat/SUSE Linux.  bash is the default on those systems.  One of the first things I did with my Mac was change the default shell.  

To the ksh people...What are some differences between shells to make you choose one over the other?


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## btoneill (Jul 19, 2002)

ksh is available for OS X, you can get the source from: http://www.research.att.com/sw/download/

Or, you can also install it via fink, it's in the current-unstable application list. If you're not familiar with fink, go to http://fink.sourceforge.net

As to why I prefer ksh over bash is simple, ksh is on just about every commerical unix. bash/tcsh are fairly new to find installed via the default installs on commerical os's, altho they have been pretty standard for years on free os's. But seeing as I make my living working with commerical *nix's, and I like to be able to work with a common environment wherever I go, the only shell I can rely on is ksh. Also, ksh has some cool things that bash doesn't, like subsititution with cd.

for instance: 
cd /usr/local/bin
cd bin etc
and bingo, you're now in /usr/local/etc

Brian


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## Xaemyl (Jul 19, 2002)

zsh babee!


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## dani++ (Jul 22, 2002)

- tcsh for interactive handling

- and 'bash' for programming (that solves all the gripes about tcsh, because all it's problems are related to shell scripting)


dani++


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## bkiser (Jul 22, 2002)

I cant believe Korn shell was not an option!  Blasphemy!


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## rharder (Jul 23, 2002)

> _Originally posted by dani++ _
> *- tcsh for interactive handling
> 
> - and 'bash' for programming (that solves all the gripes about tcsh, because all it's problems are related to shell scripting)
> ...


Hear! Hear! I've used tcsh for years because of its nice interactivity with the tab thingy (I wonder if bash does that now). I don't do casual shell scripting while I'm navigating the comand line, and for script files? That's what the shebang's for!

-Rob


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## ladavacm (Jul 23, 2002)

> _Originally posted by rharder _
> * and for script files? That's what the shebang's for!
> 
> -Rob *



I just hope it ain't followed by /bin/csh (the shebang, that is  )

Regarding tab completion, pretty much all modern shells (zsh, (pd)ksh, bash, tcsh) got it from the same place: TENEX


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## newzworld (Jul 24, 2002)

why do people like zsh?


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## wiz (Jul 24, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Xaemyl _
> *zsh babee!  *



yeah zsh is pretty cooooool!!!


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## dreael (Jul 31, 2002)

The ksh (Korn Shell) was forgotten - I set my vote to it...


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## pianophile (Aug 13, 2002)

>why do people like zsh?

Because it is the emacs of shells: every little whizbang shell feature in existence is a builtin or option. It also has the longest and most numerous man(1) pages (and UNIX geeks like man(1) pages).

Check it out:

http://zsh.sunsite.dk/

Oh, my vote is for ksh, btw.


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## thwomp (Aug 14, 2002)

ZSH!

It's great.  Scripting and interactive are both fun.

 Does anyone know if 10.2 includes version 4.0.x?  I have a .zshrc setup for the Suns I use, and it uses some of the new features. 10.1 has 3.0.something...


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## thwomp (Aug 14, 2002)

Good call, testuser.  I've actually just been waiting for fink to have a release of it in the stable branch, but hey.  I figured it had been tried and didn't work for some reason (hence the unstable), so I was being lazy. I'll go try though.  Thanks!


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