Comparison of command shells
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For more details on this topic, see Shell (computing).
A command shell is a command line interface computer program to an operating system.
Contents |
[edit] General characteristics
| Usual environment | Usually invoked | Introduced | Platform-independent | Default login shell in | Default script shell in | License | Unicode | Stream redirection | Native CIM/WBEM support | Blocking of unsigned scripts | available as statically linked, independent single file executable | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bourne shell | 7th Ed. UNIX | sh | 1977 | No | 7th Ed. UNIX | 7h Ed. UNIX | AT&T prop.[1] | No | Yes (arbitrary fds) | No | No | Yes |
| POSIX shell[2] | POSIX | sh | 1992[3] | Yes | N/A | POSIX | N/A | Yes, if used by configured locale | Yes (arbitrary fds) | No | No | N/A |
| bash (v4.0) | POSIX | bash, sh | 1989[4] | Yes | GNU, Mac OS X 10.3+ | GNU, Haiku |
GPL | Yes | Yes (arbitrary fds) | No | No | Yes |
| csh | POSIX | csh | 1978 | Yes | ? | ? | BSD | No | Yes (stdin, out, out+err) | No | No | Yes |
| tcsh | POSIX | tcsh, csh | 1983[5] | Yes | FreeBSD, formerly Mac OS X | ? | BSD | Yes | Yes (stdin, out, out+err) | No | No | Yes |
| Scsh | POSIX | scsh | 1994 | Yes | ? | ? | BSD-style | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| ksh (ksh93t+) | POSIX | ksh | 1983[6][7] | Yes | AIX, HP-UX | OpenSolaris | Common Public License | Yes | Yes (arbitrary fds) | No | No | Yes |
| pdksh | POSIX | ksh, sh | 1989 ? | Yes | OpenBSD[8] | OpenBSD[8] | Public Domain | No | Yes (arbitrary fds) | No | No | Yes |
| zsh | POSIX | zsh | 1990 | Yes | Grml, Gobolinux | Grml | BSD-style | Yes | Yes (arbitrary fds) | No | No | Yes |
| ash | POSIX | sh | 1989 | Yes | Minix, BusyBox based systems | FreeBSD, NetBSD, Minix, BusyBox based systems | BSD-style | Yes | Yes (arbitrary fds) | No | No | Yes |
| Windows cmd.exe[9] |
Win32 | cmd | 1993 | No | Windows NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista | Windows NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista | MS-EULA[10] | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| TCC (formerly 4NT) | Win32 | ? | 1993 | No | ? | ? | Shareware | Yes | Yes (stdin, out, err) | No | No | No |
| Windows PowerShell | .NET | powershell | 2006 | No (3rd party in dev[11]) |
Windows Server 2008, 7, Vista, XP[12] | Windows Server 2008, 7 | MS-EULA[10] or BSD/GPL (PASH) |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| COMMAND.COM | DOS | command | 1980 | No (3rd party available[13]) |
DOS, Windows 95, 98, ME | DOS, Windows 95, 98, ME | MS-EULA[14] or BSD/GPL (free clones) |
No | Yes (stdin, out, COMn/LPT only) | No | No | Yes |
| 4DOS | DOS | ? | 1989 | No | ? | ? | MIT License, with restrictions | No | Yes (stdin, out, err) | No | No | No |
| OS/2 cmd.exe |
OS/2 | cmd | 1987 | No | OS/2 | OS/2 | IBM-EULA[15] | No | Yes (stdin, out, err) | No | No | ? |
| rc | Plan 9, POSIX | rc | 1989 | Yes | Plan 9, Version 10 Unix | Plan 9, Version 10 Unix | Lucent Public License | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| BeanShell | Java | ? | 2005 | Yes | ? | ? | LGPL | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes (bsh.jar) |
| Python shell | Python | python, ipython | 1991 | Yes | ? | ? | Python | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes on Windows via py2exe |
| Ruby shell | Ruby | irb | 1995 | Yes | ? | ? | Ruby, BSD | 1.9: Yes 1.8: limited |
Yes | ? | No | Yes with rubyscript2exe.rb |
| VMS DCL[16] | OpenVMS | ? | 1977 ? | No | VMS | VMS | ? | No | Yes (sys$input, sys$output assignment) | No | No | No |
[edit] Interactive features
| Completion | Directory stack (pushd/popd) | Directory History Window (popup) | Implicit Directory Change - If command is dir name changes to it | Command history | History completion | Spell checking | Default user prompt[17] | Custom command prompt | Aliases | Binary prefix notation | Job control | Startup scripts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bourne shell | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | $ | Yes (variable: $PS1) | No | No | No | Yes |
| POSIX shell | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | $ | Yes (variable: $PS1) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| bash (v4.0) | Yes (extendable) | Yes | No | Yes (optional) |
Yes | Yes | No | bash-<version number>$ | Yes (variable: $PS1) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| csh | Yes (via the ESC key) | Yes | No | Yes (optional) |
Yes | Yes | No | % | Yes (variable: $prompt | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| tcsh | Yes (extendable) | Yes | No | Yes (optional) |
Yes | Yes | experimental | > | Yes (variable: $prompt | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Scsh | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | > | No | Yes (macro and procedure definitions) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ksh (ksh93t+) | Yes (extendable) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | $ | Yes (variable: $PS1, and more) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| pdksh | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | ? | No | $ | Yes (variable: $PS1) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| zsh | Yes (extendable) | Yes | No | Yes (optional) |
Yes | Yes | Yes | <hostname>% | Yes (variable: $PS1, and more) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| ash | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | $ | Yes (variable: $PS1) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Windows cmd.exe |
Yes (partial) | Yes | No | No | Yes (F7) | Yes (F8) | No | <path>> | Yes (environment variable: %PROMPT%) | Yes ("macros", via doskey) | No | No | Yes |
| TCC (formerly 4NT) | Yes (partial) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | [<path>] | Yes (environment variable: %PROMPT) | Yes | ? | No | Yes (4start) |
| Windows PowerShell | Yes (extendable) | Yes (all location types)[18] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (F8) | No | PS <path>> | Yes (function: prompt) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| COMMAND.COM | No | No | No | No | No[19][20] | No[19][20] | No | <path or drive name>> | Yes (environment variable: %PROMPT%) | Yes (using SET or registry) | No | No | No[21] |
| 4DOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | <path>> | Yes (environment variable: %PROMPT) | Yes | ? | No | Yes (4start) |
| OS/2 cmd.exe |
Yes | ? | No | No | Yes | ? | No | [<path>] | Yes (environment variable: %PROMPT%) | No | No | No | No |
| rc | Yes[22] | ? | No | No | Yes[22] | Yes[22] | No | term%, ; | Yes (function: prompt, or variable: $prompt) | Yes (functions) | No | Handled by rio | Yes |
| BeanShell | Yes | ? | No | No | Yes | ? | No | bsh % | Yes (variable: bsh.prompt, or method: getBshPrompt()) | ? | ? | ? | Yes (.bshrc) |
| Python shell | Yes (provided by the rlcompleter module or IPython) | Yes (provided by IPython) | No | No | Yes | Yes (provided by IPython) | No | >>> | Yes (variable: sys.ps1) | Yes (functions) | ? | Yes | Yes ($PYTHONSTARTUP or ipythonrc) |
| Ruby shell | Yes | Yes (pass a block to Dir.chdir() method) | No | No | Yes | Yes (with UtilityBelt gem) | No | irb(main):001:0> | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes (.irbrc) |
| VMS DCL | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | $ | Yes (SET PROMPT command) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (login.com) |
[edit] Programming features
| Functions | Exception handling | Search and replace on variables | Parallel assignment | Variadic functions | Default arguments | Named parameters | Lambda functions | eval function | Pseudorandom number generation | Bytecode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bourne shell | No | Yes (via trap) | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| POSIX shell | Yes | Yes (via trap) | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| bash (v4.0) | Yes | Yes (via trap) | Yes (via ${//} syntax) | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes ($RANDOM) | No |
| csh | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| tcsh | No | No | Yes (via ${:s//} syntax | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Scsh | Yes | ? | Yes (via string functions and regular expressions) | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes (random-integer, random-real) | Yes (compiler is Scheme48 virtual machine, "scshvm") |
| ksh (ksh93t+) | Yes | Yes (via trap) | Yes (via ${//} syntax and builtin commands) | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes (for user-defined "types") | No | Yes | Yes ($RANDOM) | Yes (compiler is called "shcomp") |
| pdksh | Yes | Yes (via trap) | No | ? | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes ($RANDOM) | No |
| zsh | Yes | Yes | Yes (via ${:s//} and ${//} syntax) | ? | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes ($RANDOM) | Yes (built-in command "zcompile") |
| ash | Yes | Yes (via trap) | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Windows cmd.exe |
Yes (via "call :label") | No | Yes (via set %varname:expression syntax) | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes (%random%) | No |
| TCC (formerly 4NT) | Yes | No | Yes (via %@replace[ ] function) | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes (%@random[ ] function) | No |
| Windows PowerShell | Yes | Yes | Yes (-replace operator) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, automatic |
| COMMAND.COM | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| 4DOS | Yes | No | Yes (via %@replace[ ] function) | No | ? | No | ? | No | Yes | Yes (%@random[ ] function) | No |
| OS/2 cmd.exe |
No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| rc | Yes | Yes | No | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | No | No |
| BeanShell | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Python shell | Yes | Yes | Yes (via string methods and regular expressions) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (standard CPython, IronPython or Jython) |
| Ruby shell | Yes | Yes | Yes (via string functions and regular expressions) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (NetRuby, JRuby, version 1.9/YARV) |
| VMS DCL | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
[edit] String and filename matching
| Pattern Matching (regular expressions built-in) | Pattern Matching (globbing) | Globbing qualifiers (filename generation based on file attributes) | Recursive globbing (generating files from any level of subdirectories) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bourne shell | No | Yes (*, ?, [...]) | No | No |
| POSIX shell | No | Yes (*, ?, [...]) | No | No |
| bash (v4.0) | Yes | Yes (*, ?, [...], {...}) | No | Yes (**/...) |
| csh | No | Yes | No | No |
| tcsh | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Scsh | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| ksh (ksh93t+) | Yes | Yes (*, ?, [...]) | No | Yes (with set -G, no following of symlinks) |
| pdksh | No | Yes | No | No |
| zsh | Yes | Yes (*, ?, [...], ext'd globbing[23]) |
Yes | Yes (**/... or ***/... to follow symlinks) |
| ash | No | Yes | No | No |
| Windows cmd.exe |
Yes (via the findstr /r command) | Yes (*, ?) | ? | No |
| TCC (formerly 4NT) | Limited support | Yes (*, ?, [...]) | ? | Yes (via FOR /R) |
| Windows PowerShell | Yes (full regex support)[24] | Yes (*, ?, [...]) | ? | ? |
| COMMAND.COM | No | Yes (*, ?) | ? | No |
| 4DOS | No | Yes (*, ?, [...]) | ? | Yes (via FOR /R) |
| OS/2 cmd.exe |
No | Yes (*, ?) | ? | ? |
| rc | No | Yes | No | No |
| BeanShell | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Python shell | Yes | Yes | Yes (via glob module) | Yes (via glob module) |
| Ruby shell | Yes | Yes (via Dir.glob() method) | ? | Yes (via Dir.glob() method) |
| VMS DCL | No | Yes | No | Yes (via [SUBDIR...] ) |
[edit] Inter-process communication
| Pipes | Command substitution | Process substitution | Subshells | TCP/UDP connections as streams | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bourne shell | bytes concurrent |
Yes | No | Yes | No |
| POSIX shell | bytes concurrent |
Yes | No | Yes | No |
| bash (v4.0) | bytes concurrent |
Yes | Yes (if system supports /dev/fd/<n> or named pipes | Yes | Yes (client only) |
| csh | bytes concurrent |
Yes | No | Yes | No |
| tcsh | bytes concurrent |
Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Scsh | text | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| ksh (ksh93t+) | bytes (may contain serialized objects if print -C is used) concurrent |
Yes ($(...) and ${<space>...;}) | Yes (if system supports /dev/fd/<n> | Yes | Yes (and SCTP support, client only) |
| pdksh | bytes concurrent |
Yes | No | Yes | No |
| zsh | bytes concurrent |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (client and server but only TCP) |
| ash | bytes concurrent |
Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Windows cmd.exe |
text concurrent |
Yes (via FOR /F command) | No | Yes (Backtick: ` in for /f usebackq) | No |
| TCC (formerly 4NT) | text | Yes (via FOR /F command) | ? | Limited, via %@execstr[ ] and %@exec[ ] | No |
| Windows PowerShell | objects concurrent |
Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| COMMAND.COM | text sequential temporary files |
No | No | No | No |
| 4DOS | text sequential temporary files |
Yes (via FOR /F command) | ? | Limited, via %@execstr[ ] and %@exec[ ] | No |
| OS/2 cmd.exe |
text concurrent |
No | No | ? | No |
| rc | text concurrent |
Yes | Yes (via: <{cmd} if system supports /dev/fd/<n>) | Yes | No |
| BeanShell | not supported | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| Python shell | objects (when using IPython+IPipe) | Yes | Yes (via subprocess module) | Yes | Yes |
| Ruby shell | not supported | Yes | Yes | Yes (Backtick: `) | Yes |
| VMS DCL | text (via PIPE command) |
No | No | Yes (spawn) | Yes (server TCP only) |
[edit] References
- ^ Now available under a BSD-style license through the Unix Heritage Society and others.
- ^ IEEE (6 December 2001). 1003.1™ Standard for Information Technology — Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX®): Shell and Utilities, Issue 6.
- ^ As part of IEEE Std.1003.2-1992 (POSIX.2); integrated into IEEE Std.1003.1 with the 2001 revision.
- ^ Brian Fox (forwarded by Leonard H. Tower Jr.) (Jun 7 1989). "Bash is in beta release!". gnu.announce. (Web link). Retrieved Oct 28 2010.
- ^ Ken Greer (Oct 3 1983). "C shell with command and filename recognition/completion". net.sources. (Web link). Retrieved Dec 29 2010.
- ^ Ron Gomes (Jun 9 1983). "Toronto USENIX Conference Schedule (tentative)". net.usenix. (Web link). Retrieved Dec 29 2010.
- ^ Guy Harris (Oct 10 1983). "csh question". net.flame. (Web link). Retrieved Dec 29 2010.
- ^ a b Default shell in OpenBSD is ksh (pdksh).
- ^ Command extensions enabled, or "cmd /x".
- ^ a b Windows component — covered by a valid license for Microsoft Windows
- ^ PASH, a third-party remake, is in development and almost half-finished. Activity seems to have stagnated early 2009.
- ^ Windows PowerShell is installed with Windows 7, however, it is an optional download for users of Windows Vista or Windows XP.
- ^ Third-party re-implementations, such as DosBox, Wine, and FreeDOS are available.
- ^ MS-DOS and Windows component — covered by a valid license for MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows
- ^ OS/2 component — covered by a valid license for OS/2
- ^ "HP OpenVMS DCL Dictionary". http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/732final/9996/9996pro_contents.html. Retrieved 2009-03-23.
- ^ Many shells in *nix environments change the root user's prompt to '#'.
- ^ PowerShell exposes more than just the file system as a navigable system: Windows Registry, functions, aliases, variables, certificate store, credential store etc. The location types are extensible through a provider architecture. Common commands will work with any compliant provider
- ^ a b Added by TSR programs such as DOSKey
- ^ a b Available in DR-DOS via the "history" command in config.sys; see this link
- ^ Limited support via AUTOEXEC.BAT.
- ^ a b c Handled by rio, GNU readline, editline or vrl
- ^ Zsh offers an almost overwhelming variety of globbing options.
- ^ PowerShell leverages the full .NET regular expression engine which features named captures, zero-width lookahead/-behind, greedy/non-greedy, character classes, level counting etc.
