C shell - Definition and Overview

The C shell (csh) is a Unix shell developed by Bill Joy for the BSD Unix system. It was originally derived from the 6th Edition Unix /bin/sh, the predecessor of the Bourne shell. Its syntax is modeled after the C programming language. The C shell added many feature improvements over the Bourne shell, such as aliases and command history. Today, the C shell is not in wide use; it has been superseded by other shells such as the Tenex C shell (tcsh), the Korn shell (ksh), and the GNU Bourne-Again shell (bash).

Whilst the C shell introduced many innovative features in interactive mode, the C shell's scripting capabilities have come under criticism by some. In any case, since the standard Bourne shell is guaranteed to be present on all Single UNIX Specification-compliant systems, most recommend the use of sh for scripting purposes.

External links

• Csh Programming Considered Harmful by Tom Christiansen (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/unix-faq/shell/csh-whynot/)
• Top Ten Reasons not to use the C shell by Bruce Barnett (http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/CshTop10.txt)