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Many shells are available on the Computer Science Department's
UNIX systems, most of them derive from either the Bourne shell
(sh) or the C shell (csh). Each of these shells has
spawned other shells that have improved features. The Bourne Shell has
spawned the Korn Shell (ksh). The C shell has spawned
tcsh. The Born Again Shell (bash) is an alternative
replacement for sh which implements features of ksh and
csh plus others.
The books listed in
section Books and the man pages explained in section Man Command
explain these shells in detail. Documentation for bash is
available in See section `Top' in Bash Manual.
When using UNIX systems around PSU, you are typically using one of the following UNIX varieties:
Each of these versions of UNIX evolved from the original UNIX developed by AT&T in the mid-seventies.
After creating the original UNIX, AT&T developed two notable experimental varieties in the late seventies: Version 6 in 1975, and Version 7 in 1978. From these experimental varieties, two major stems developed in the early eighties: Berkeley and System III.
The publications listed in Section See section Books provide more information on UNIX varieties and their history.
You need to know is which UNIX variety is on the computer you're using. With this knowledge, you can tell which UNIX utilities are available to you and which are not.
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