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Working in the Bash shell

An introduction

Robert Brunner (rb@ncsa.uiuc.edu), NCSA Research Scientist, Assistant Professor of Astronomy, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Robert J. Brunner
Robert J. Brunner is a Research Scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has published several books and a number of articles and tutorials on a range of topics. You can reach him at rb@ncsa.uiuc.edu.

Summary:  Get an introduction to the Bash shell, which you can use on nearly any UNIX®-based operating system. Bash is a mature, powerful, yet easy-to-use shell that is freely available. This tutorial provides a brief history of Bash, which indicates how the Bash shell is different than some of the other popular UNIX shells, and also provides an overview of the major features available within Bash. Next, you'll learn more about the UNIX file system, how to work with both directories and files, and several methods for customizing the appearance and behavior of Bash. Finally, the tutorial concludes with a discussion of the job control functionality of Bash.

Date:  30 May 2006
Level:  Intermediate
PDF:  A4 and Letter (70 KB | 18 pages)Get Adobe® Reader®

Activity:  23939 views
Comments:  

Resources

Learn

  • The Creation of the UNIX Operating System: Read about the creation of UNIX.

  • Bash Reference Manual: Check out the official manual for definitive answers to all things Bash.

  • "Bash by example" (developerWorks, March 2000): Read the series for a look at using Bash for advanced system development work.

  • "Tip: Prompt magic" (developerWorks, September 2000): Check out this tip for a complete discussion on how to change the default prompt and colors of your terminal under Bash.

  • Want more? The developerWorks AIX and UNIX zone hosts hundreds of informative articles and introductory, intermediate, and advanced tutorials.

Get products and technologies

  • Bash: Download and learn about Bash on the home page hosted by the Free Software Foundation.

  • Build your next development project with IBM trial software, available for download directly from developerWorks.

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