Bash is a Unix shell and command language written by Brian Fox for the GNU Project as a free software replacement for the Bourne shell . [12] [13] First released in 1989, [14] it has been used as the default login shell for most Linux distributions. [15] Bash was one of the first programs Linus Torvalds ported to Linux, alongside GCC . [16] A version is also available for Windows 10 and Windows 11 via the Windows Subsystem for Linux . [17] [18] It is also the default user shell in Solaris 11. [19] Bash was
Bash is a command processor that typically runs in a text window where the user types commands that cause actions. Bash can also read and execute commands from a file, called a shell script . Like most Unix shells, it supports filename globbing (wildcard matching), piping , here documents , command substitution , variables , and control structures for condition-testing and iteration . The keywords , syntax , dynamically scoped variables and other basic features of the language are all copied from sh . Other
The shell's name is an acronym for Bourne Again Shell , a pun on the name of the Bourne shell that it replaces [21] and the notion of being " born again ". [22] [23]