Here is the video version, if you prefer it:
To start a shell session, find Terminal on your Linux distribution (via the graphical user interface) and click on it. That should start a shell session, which means you can type in commands!
We will be writing some commands in the very next article, so stay tuned!
Here is the video version, if you prefer it:
The shell, the shell… We all heard that. We know you can type some command in the shell in a Linux environment and get some output. But what does the shell actually mean?
“A shell is a program that runs commands”, says (Ward, 2014). That is basically it. You type some commands in, the shell executes them, then you get some output. Shell scripts, another popular term, are essentially just commands typed in a file called a shell script; so the shell has the same job – execute commands.
There are multiple kinds of shells. You can find more information here: (“5 Most Frequently Used Open Source Shells for Linux,” n.d.)
Before I end, it is important to note that programs like Terminal are not actually shells – they are graphical user interfaces running shell on your behalf. (Barrett, 2016) Figure 1 depicts this. This program with a graphical user interface, called a terminal emulator, interacts with the shell. (Shotts, 2019)
Hope you learned something new!
References
5 Most Frequently Used Open Source Shells for Linux. (n.d.). Retrieved December 22, 2019, from https://www.tecmint.com/different-types-of-linux-shells/
Barrett, D. J. (2016). Linux pocket guide (3rd ed.). O’Reilly Media. Page 15
Shotts, W. (2019). The Linux Command Line, Fifth Internet Edition. Retrieved from http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php. Page 26
Ward, B. (2014). How Linux Works: What Every Superuser Should Know (2nd ed.). No Starch Press. Page 12