Bash

Command lineShell & scriptingFree & open source

Bash is what you talk to when you use a computer without a mouse. You type an instruction at a prompt, it answers, and you type the next one. Every Linux machine and every Mac has it built in, and Windows can run it too, so the same handful of commands works nearly everywhere. Bash is also a language in its own right: put those commands in a file and the computer will run them for you, which is how most of the internet quietly gets its jobs done.

First released

1989

Created by

Brian Fox, for the GNU Project

Fun fact

The name is a pun: it stands for "Bourne Again SHell", after the older shell it replaced

Where you'll see it

Everyday work on Linux & MacServers and the cloudAutomating boring, repetitive jobsEvery programmer's toolbox

Courses

Beginner

Intro to Bash

Move around, make files, search inside them and join commands with pipes. 24 levels at a live terminal prompt: you type the commands, the machine answers.

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Intermediate

Your First Script

Save your commands in a file and let the computer run them: variables, arguments, ifs, loops and functions. 8 lessons that build on Intro to Bash.

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