On Wed, 9 Mar 2005, Lindsay wrote:
This 'greenie' wants to know what 'bash' is please.
In the beginning, there was shell. Known to the ancient Unix guru's as the program "/bin/sh".
It was The Command Line.
Since then there has been a vast proliferation of newer, and for various values of the word "better", better implementations of the Command Line.
All such programs are called "shells". csh, ash, zsh, ksh, ...
In particular, there was one known as the Bourne Shell.
It died.
Later it was revived as the Bourne Again Shell, or bash.
I Kid You Not. Ask "man bash" is don't believe me.
The default shell, or Command Line interface for most linux systems is bash.
That is the program you are talking to at the command line prompt.
My favourite esoterica in this direction is the Magic Marker at the start of any shell script which tells the load which interpreter to us..
Running grep will find you many examples.. grep '#!/' /usr/bin/* /usr/bin/GET:#!/usr/bin/perl -w /usr/bin/HEAD:#!/usr/bin/perl -w /usr/bin/LeakCheck:#!/bin/sh /usr/bin/POST:#!/usr/bin/perl -w /usr/bin/R:#!/bin/sh /usr/bin/abw2html:#!/usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/aclocal:#!/usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/aclocal-1.6:#!/usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/aclocal-1.7:#!/usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/aclocal-1.8:#!/usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/aclocal-1.9:#!/usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/ada_count:#!/bin/sh /usr/bin/alien:#!/usr/bin/perl -w /usr/bin/allcm:#!/bin/sh /usr/bin/allec:#!/bin/sh /usr/bin/allneeded:#!/bin/sh /usr/bin/anjuta_import.sh:#!/bin/bash /usr/bin/any2djvu:#!/bin/bash /usr/bin/anytopnm:#!/bin/sh /usr/bin/apt-file:#!/usr/bin/perl -w /usr/bin/apt-howto:#!/bin/sh /usr/bin/apt-move:#!/bin/sh /usr/bin/artsdsp:#!/bin/sh /usr/bin/asm_count:#!/usr/bin/perl -w /usr/bin/aspell-import:#!/usr/bin/perl
So how do you pronounce that? Well '!' is pronounced "BANG".
So the bash marker is #!/bin/bash or HASH BANG BIN BASH
Has quite a rhythm, doesn't it?
John Carter Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639 Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632 PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] New Zealand
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