Newbie Alert! Can Kubuntu's shell be changed?

[annephil]

I am new to Unix/Linux/Kubuntu . I am taking a class in Unix and had an old, unused laptop (DELL Inspiron 3800, 360M RAM, 5G HD) that I installed Kubuntu onto. The website said that it was something called "Gutsy", but the About page says it is KDE-Release 3.5.8. I have not put this on the Web for updates, as I must get a new keyboard (on the way).

The class I am taking is going to be using the Bourne shell. Have I installed the wrong thing, and, if so, what should I install? Any help that you gurus could give, I would surely appreciate .

Annette

[dibl]

Re: Newbie Alert! Can Kubuntu's shell be changed?

I think you're in luck. Kubuntu comes with bash. Here's the beginning output from

dibl@cville:~$ man bash

BASH(1) BASH(1)

NAME
bash - GNU Bourne-Again SHell

SYNOPSIS
bash [options] [file]

COPYRIGHT
Bash is Copyright (C) 1989-2005 by the Free Software Foundation, Inc.

DESCRIPTION
Bash is an sh-compatible command language interpreter that executes commands read from
the standard input or from a file. Bash also incorporates useful features from the Korn
and C shells (ksh and csh).

Bash is intended to be a conformant implementation of the Shell and Utilities portion of
the IEEE POSIX specification (IEEE Standard 1003.1). Bash can be configured to be POSIX-
conformant by default.

It also has the default "dash" shell. Here's the output from

dibl@cville:~$ man dash

SH(1) BSD General Commands Manual SH(1)

NAME
sh - command interpreter (shell)

SYNOPSIS
sh [-aCefnuvxIimqVEb] [+aCefnuvxIimqVEb] [-o option_name] [+o option_name]
[command_file [argument ...]]
sh -c [-aCefnuvxIimqVEb] [+aCefnuvxIimqVEb] [-o option_name] [+o option_name]
command_string [command_name [argument ...]]
sh -s [-aCefnuvxIimqVEb] [+aCefnuvxIimqVEb] [-o option_name] [+o option_name]
[argument ...]

DESCRIPTION
sh is the standard command interpreter for the system. The current version of sh is in the
process of being changed to conform with the POSIX 1003.2 and 1003.2a specifications for
the shell. This version has many features which make it appear similar in some respects to
the Korn shell, but it is not a Korn shell clone (see ksh(1)). Only features designated by
POSIX, plus a few Berkeley extensions, are being incorporated into this shell. We expect
POSIX conformance by the time 4.4 BSD is released. This man page is not intended to be a
tutorial or a complete specification of the shell.

Overview
The shell is a command that reads lines from either a file or the terminal, interprets
them, and generally executes other commands. It is the program that is running when a user
logs into the system (although a user can select a different shell with the chsh(1) com‐
mand). The shell implements a language that has flow control constructs, a macro facility
that provides a variety of features in addition to data storage, along with built in his‐
tory and line editing capabilities. It incorporates many features to aid interactive use
and has the advantage that the interpretative language is common to both interactive and
non-interactive use (shell scripts). That is, commands can be typed directly to the run‐
ning shell or can be put into a file and the file can be executed directly by the shell.

[annephil]

Re: Newbie Alert! Can Kubuntu's shell be changed?

Thank you so very much! I really cannot wait til my keyboard arrives to check out this new "toy". I am looking forward to learning about the system, not only in the classroom, but at home, too. You may see me around again (most likely *will* see me around). Thanks again for the response .
Annette

[marshallbanana]

Re: Newbie Alert! Can Kubuntu's shell be changed?

Gutsy (or more fully Gutsy Gibbon 7.10) is the version of Kubuntu (the on release in 2007 in the tenth month, hence 7.10).
3.5.8 is the version of KDE (the desktop environment) that is included in Kubuntu 7.10
Hence the two different version numbers.

[ghillan]

Re: Newbie Alert! Can Kubuntu's shell be changed?

as far i know the Bourne Shell is the classical "sh", and every linux distro have it by default. That told all linux distro prefer bash isteadof sh because it's more recent and "user friendly".

when you do a shell script its quite easy chose what shell use as interpreter in the fist line of the file.

if you write for example a file including :
___________________
#!/bin/sh

echo "hello world"
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

you will use the "sh" interpreter despite what shell you see when you opened the console. to use bash, csh, or ksh u change the first line into:

#!/bin/bash
#!/bin/csh
#!/bin/ksh


Another thing: if u want to "use" this shell interactivelly ( not shell scripting ) u can change shell simply running his command. For example if as default you have bash but you will use sh ( or ksh) simply write sh ( ksh) and press enter. at this point you will use the sh ( ksh) shell till you write exit ( then you return to the previuous shell).


you can also change the "default" shell changing user preferences, but imho it's better leave it as it is.

last thing , just in case your class will use none of the shell previuos mentioned... dont worry, personally im confident that you can install all shells u wish if they are not already installd, so for sure you have not to change distro just because of a shell interpreter. ;-)
hope it helped.

[Rog131]

Re: Newbie Alert! Can Kubuntu's shell be changed?

Dash vs Bash

DashAsBinSh

Dash as /bin/sh

In Ubuntu 6.10, the default system shell, /bin/sh, was changed to dash (the Debian Almquist Shell); previously it had been bash (the GNU Bourne-Again Shell)...

Why was this change made?
The major reason to switch the default shell was efficiency. bash is an excellent full-featured shell appropriate for interactive use; indeed, it is still the default login shell. However, it is rather large and slow to start up and operate by comparison with dash...

My production system has broken and I just want to get it back up!
If you are unlucky enough to have been negatively affected by this change, and only one or two shell scripts are affected, then the quickest way to fix this is to edit these scripts and change the first line to use the correct interpreter...

I am a developer. How can I avoid this problem in future?
We recommend that developers of shell scripts adhere to the POSIX standard, omitting those items flagged as XSI extensions...

[annephil]

Re: Newbie Alert! Can Kubuntu's shell be changed?

Thanks to all that answered. Am awaiting keyboard to try out the different operations.
Annette