Ubuntu Unleashed 2019 Edition: Covering 18.04, 18.10, 19.04

line editing. As an example, the bash shell is so powerful that it is possible
to write a minimal web server entirely in bash’s language using 114 lines of
script. (See the link for the bash home page at the end of this chapter.)

Although there are many shells to choose from, most people stick with the
default, bash. This is because bash does everything most people need to do
—and more. Only change your shell if you really need to.

Table 14.1 lists and describes the various shells and their locations in your
Ubuntu file system. Most of these are not installed by default, and if you want
or need a shell other than bash, you can install it from the Ubuntu
repositories.

Table 14.1 Shells with Ubuntu

Shell Description Location

bash Bourne Again   Shell /bin/bash

ksh KornShell /bin/ksh,

/usr/bin/ksh

pdkshA  symbolic    link    to  ksh /usr/bin/pdksh

rsh The restricted  shell   (for    network

operation)

/usr/bin/rsh

sh A    symbolic    link    to  bash /bin/sh

tcsh A  csh-compatible  shell /bin/tcsh

zsh A   shell   compatible  with    csh,    ksh,    and

sh

/bin/zsh

LEARNING MORE ABOUT YOUR SHELL

All the shells  listed  in  Table   14.1    have    accompanying    man pages,  along

with    other   documentation   under   the /usr/share/doc  directory.  Some

of  the documentation   can be  quite   lengthy,    but it  is  generally   much    better  to

have    too much    documentation   than    too little. The bash    shell   includes

more    than    100 pages   in  its manual, and the zsh shell   documentation   is  so

extensive   that    it  includes    the zshall  meta-man    page    (which  you can read

by  using   man zshall).