Difference between ksh,bash and different shells.

Hello Everyone,
Can someone please tell me the key difference between the different shells availabe i.e. ksh,bash,(i don't know the others ones. :confused:

Hard to read here I think since the spacing is off. Here is the
Link

Shell features

This table below lists most features that I think would make you
choose one shell over another. It is not intended to be a definitive
list and does not include every single possible feature for every
single possible shell. A feature is only considered to be in a shell
if in the version that comes with the operating system, or if it is
available as compiled directly from the standard distribution. In
particular the C shell specified below is that available on SUNOS 4.*,
a considerable number of vendors now ship either tcsh or their own
enhanced C shell instead (they don't always make it obvious that they
are shipping tcsh.

                                     sh   csh  ksh  bash tcsh zsh  rc   es
Job control                          N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    N    N
Aliases                              N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    N    N
Shell functions                      Y(1) N    Y    Y    N    Y    Y    Y
"Sensible" Input/Output redirection  Y    N    Y    Y    N    Y    Y    Y
Directory stack                      N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    F    F
Command history                      N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Command line editing                 N    N    Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Vi Command line editing              N    N    Y    Y    Y(3) Y    L    L
Emacs Command line editing           N    N    Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Rebindable Command line editing      N    N    N    Y    Y    Y    L    L
User name look up                    N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Login/Logout watching                N    N    N    N    Y    Y    F    F
Filename completion                  N    Y(1) Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Username completion                  N    Y(2) Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Hostname completion                  N    Y(2) Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
History completion                   N    N    N    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Fully programmable Completion        N    N    N    N    Y    Y    N    N
Mh Mailbox completion                N    N    N    N(4) N(6) N(6) N    N
Co Processes                         N    N    Y    N    N    Y    N    N
Builtin artithmetic evaluation       N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    N    N
Can follow symbolic links invisibly  N    N    Y    Y    Y    Y    N    N
Periodic command execution           N    N    N    N    Y    Y    N    N
Custom Prompt (easily)               N    N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y
Sun Keyboard Hack                    N    N    N    N    N    Y    N    N
Spelling Correction                  N    N    N    N    Y    Y    N    N
Process Substitution                 N    N    N    Y(2) N    Y    Y    Y
Underlying Syntax                    sh   csh  sh   sh   csh  sh   rc   rc
Freely Available                     N    N    N(5) Y    Y    Y    Y    Y
Checks Mailbox                       N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    F    F
Tty Sanity Checking                  N    N    N    N    Y    Y    N    N
Can cope with large argument lists   Y    N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y
Has non-interactive startup file     N    Y    Y(7) Y(7) Y    Y    N    N
Has non-login startup file           N    Y    Y(7) Y    Y    Y    N    N
Can avoid user startup files         N    Y    N    Y    N    Y    Y    Y
Can specify startup file             N    N    Y    Y    N    N    N    N
Low level command redefinition       N    N    N    N    N    N    N    Y
Has anonymous functions              N    N    N    N    N    N    Y    Y
List Variables                       N    Y    Y    N    Y    Y    Y    Y
Full signal trap handling            Y    N    Y    Y    N    Y    Y    Y
File no clobber ability              N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    N    F
Local variables                      N    N    Y    Y    N    Y    Y    Y
Lexically scoped variables           N    N    N    N    N    N    N    Y
Exceptions                           N    N    N    N    N    N    N    Y

Key to the table above.

   Y      Feature can be done using this shell.
          
   N      Feature is not present in the shell.
          
   F      Feature can only be done by using the shells function
          mechanism.
          
   L      The readline library must be linked into the shell to enable
          this Feature.
          
Notes to the table above

    1. This feature was not in the orginal version, but has since become
       almost standard.
    2. This feature is fairly new and so is often not found on many
       versions of the shell, it is gradually making its way into
       standard distribution.
    3. The Vi emulation of this shell is thought by many to be
       incomplete.
    4. This feature is not standard but unoffical patches exist to
       perform this.
    5. A version called 'pdksh' is freely available, but does not have
       the full functionality of the AT&T version.
    6. This can be done via the shells programmable completion mechanism.
    7. Only by specifing a file via the ENV environment variable.
  

Code tags added for readability --- Perderabo

2 Likes

Hello to the user google,
yes the link gave me an indepth knowledge about different shells. But in there i came across some unknown names for instance:
TENEX-style completion
POSIX
System V Bourne Shell (by this time the BSD and System V versions had got slightly different).
GNU project

Can you give me some insight for the above mentioned names?

Thank you :slight_smile:

POSIX - Portable Operating Standards Interface
Although originated to refer to the original IEEE Std 1003.1-1988, the name POSIX more correctly refers to a family of related standards: IEEE Std 1003.n (where n is a number) and the parts of ISO/IEC 9945. The term POSIX was originally used as a synonym for IEEE Std 1003.1-1988. A preferred term for that standard, POSIX.1, emerged. This maintained the advantages of readability of the symbol ``POSIX'' without being ambiguous with the POSIX family of standards.

TENEX style completion - is a type of command line editing where the words being typed are matched and then completed (if a match is found) by the shell

GNU Project - (GNU's Not Unix) - is a project sponsored by the the "Free Software Foundation". Great site, lots available to you. Check them out. GNU Project

1 Like

google,

Thank you for posting such a great shell comparison matrix. Very useful.

Perderabo,

Thank you for formatting with the 'code' tags.

Neo

Google you are the man! :smiley:
Thanks for your answers, i learned a lot :slight_smile: