Shells are used to interact with the OSOperating System (OS) and launch other applications.
Most shellsShells also have built-in commands such as, depending on the OS. Examples are directory listings and, moving and copying files around the file system(Windows) or job control (Unix-like). Other
Most shells offer scripting capabilities, such as Bashstarting with simple sequential execution of commands. For more complex problems, control structures (bashlike conditionals or loops), can be heavily scripted to doused.
Broadly used shell include:
- Windows:
- CMD.EXE cmd
- Windows PowerShell powershell
- Unix-like:
- Bourne Shell sh
- Bourne Again Shell bash
- Korn Shell ksh
- (Tenex) C Shell csh/tcsh
- Z Shell zsh
- Friendly Interactive Shell fish
See Comparison of command shells on Wikipedia for a multitude of tasksmore extensive list.