What the shell is

The shell is a program that acts as the interface between programs you want to run and you.

When you're typing at the command line, you're using the shell. As the shell is one of the programs you'll be using the most, it's very useful to pick up a few tips and tricks. All of these tips are for the GNU bash shell, the one you use by default on our server (it's also the most commonly used shell worldwide - and with good reason).

There are lots of different shells and choosing one is a matter of personal preference. Most linux distributions offer the bash (Bourne Again SHell) as default but you can see also the csh (C-SHell), tcsh (exTended C-SHell), the ksh (Korn SHell), etc.

Note: all shell commands are prefixed with a $. This is a generally meant to mean, "type this at the command line". Keystrokes in brackets like <this> are not typed, but pressed. Now lets have a look at tab completion.

In this section

• What the shell is
• Tab Completion
• Scrolling
• Useful Keystrokes