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New to the command line
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Minneapolis, MN U.S.A.
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As the subject line suggests I'm a command line noob.
I'm curious, what shell do the seasoned vets prefer? I've been dabbling with bash and tcsh but, with my limited knowledge, I notice little difference.
Thanks.
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Senior User
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Mahwah, NJ USA
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Most people prefer, as with so many things, the shell they are most familiar with.
I prefer bash.
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-DU-...etc...
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Professional Poster
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I suspected that would be the answer.
Thanks.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Seattle
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For basic 'type a line into the terminal' stuff you won't see much difference at all.
some shells have ways to get around and edit a line easily. jump to the end, delete the previous word, etc. You really won't use this unless you really get into it hard core.
the main differences I've found are in writing scripts: setting and showing vars and syntax for looping, ifs, etc. Some are more c like and some remind me of pascal (if I remember right)
try writing the same script in 2 or three shells and go with whatever seems more intuitive to you. If you are not writing scripts then it doesn't matter which one you use.
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Last edited by Gavin; Jan 12, 2005 at 08:54 AM.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Minneapolis, MN U.S.A.
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Thanks for the reply, Gavin.
In the short term I won't be writing any scripts. I'm feeling my way through things and getting accustomed to and comfortable with the environment(s) and commands. Eventually I would like to begin scripting.
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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Originally posted by art_director:
In the short term I won't be writing any scripts. I'm feeling my way through things and getting accustomed to and comfortable with the environment(s) and commands. Eventually I would like to begin scripting.
given that OS X now uses bash instead of tcsh, you may as well just roll with bash. any 10.3 books on the subject will be using bash, so it makes sense.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: San Jose, Ca
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I like the defaults on the zsh shell a bit better (it keep tends to be setup the same no matter the platform... there are big differences in the default bash UI setup between linux MacOS X, and FreeBSD). But I wind up doing most of my shell programming in bash (it is nearly everywhere with a fairly stable shell environment).
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Senior User
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Mahwah, NJ USA
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-DU-...etc...
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Minneapolis, MN U.S.A.
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Thanks for the reply Phil.
To date I've been sticking with bash for that very reason.
The book that's helping me get my feet wet is 'Mac OS X Panther Unleashed'. It seems to be written for command line noobs like myself and does a smart job of walking you through the system.
Have any other suggestions?
My father is a programmer and is well-versed in Unix. He suggested I get 'Unix in a Nutshell'. He says it's a good bible to have at hand but it will be over my head for a spell.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Mar 2002
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Thanks for your input, Larkost.
Sounds like I should concentrate on bash for the moment but I'm going to have a look at zsh when the time comes. Good to know what folks like and why.
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Professional Poster
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Thanks for the reply and the links, utidjian. Looks lie a treasure trove of helpful tutorials. My, I have my work cut out for me, eh?
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Mar 2003
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If you get into bash, I suggest you learn the emacs style edit bindings. Comes in handy when you want to jump over to learning emacs (THE unix texteditor).
Cesar
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