Terminal GuideTerminal Guide

Unix Shells

Explore the world of Unix shells. From the ubiquitous Bash to modern alternatives like Zsh and Fish, find the perfect shell for your workflow and scripting needs.

Find Your Perfect Shell

Explore shells by ease of use and scripting capability

Hard & Powerful
Easy & Powerful
Hard & Simple
Easy & Simple
Ease of Use →
Scripting Power →
POSIX
Modern
Specialized

Shell Rankings

Popularity Ranking
$ top --shells --sort=popularity
Recommendation Ranking
$ top --shells --sort=recommended

Shell Comparison

ShellEase of UseScriptingPerformancePOSIXCategory
BashGNU Bourne-Again Shell
●●●●●●●○○○●●●●●●●●●○●●●●●●○○○○POSIXPOSIX
ZshZ Shell
●●●●●●●●○○●●●●●●●●●○●●●●●●○○○○POSIXModern
FishFriendly Interactive Shell
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●○○○○○●●●●●●●○○○Non-POSIXModern
shBourne Shell / POSIX Shell
●●●●○○○○○○●●●●●●●○○○●●●●●●●●○○POSIXPOSIX
PowerShellMicrosoft PowerShell
●●●●●●○○○○●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●○○○○○Non-POSIXSpecialized
DashDebian Almquist Shell
●●●○○○○○○○●●●●●●○○○○●●●●●●●●●●POSIXPOSIX
KshKorn Shell
●●●●●○○○○○●●●●●●●●●○●●●●●●●○○○POSIXSpecialized
TcshTENEX C Shell
●●●●●○○○○○●●●●●●○○○○●●●●●●○○○○Non-POSIXSpecialized

* Dot indicators show relative scores from 1-10. Higher scores indicate stronger attributes.

POSIX Compliant Shells

These shells follow the POSIX standard, ensuring script compatibility across different Unix-like systems. Ideal for portable shell scripting.

Bash

GNU Bourne-Again Shell
POSIX

Most popular shell, standard on Linux systems with rich scripting capabilities

Config: .bashrc / .bash_profile

sh

Bourne Shell / POSIX Shell
POSIX

The original Unix shell, foundation for POSIX standard

Config: .profile

Dash

Debian Almquist Shell
POSIX

Lightweight POSIX-compliant shell, fast and minimal

Config: .profile (via /bin/sh)

Modern Shells

Modern shells offer enhanced user experience with features like syntax highlighting, autosuggestions, and powerful plugin ecosystems.

Zsh

Z Shell
POSIX

Feature-rich shell with excellent tab completion and plugin ecosystem

Config: .zshrc

Fish

Friendly Interactive Shell
Non-POSIX

User-friendly shell with syntax highlighting and autosuggestions out of the box

Config: config.fish

Specialized Shells

These shells serve specific use cases or platforms, from enterprise environments to cross-platform scripting.

Ksh

Korn Shell
POSIX

Powerful shell combining features of sh and csh, popular in enterprise

Config: .kshrc

Tcsh

TENEX C Shell
Non-POSIX

Enhanced C shell with command-line editing and programmable completion

Config: .tcshrc / .cshrc

PowerShell

Microsoft PowerShell
Non-POSIX

Object-oriented shell with .NET integration, cross-platform

Config: $PROFILE (Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1)

How to Choose a Shell?

For beginners: Start with Bash - it is installed everywhere and has the most learning resources. Fish is also excellent for beginners due to its user-friendly defaults.

For power users: Zsh offers the best balance of POSIX compliance and modern features. Combined with Oh My Zsh, it provides an incredibly productive environment.

For scripting: Bash remains the standard for portable scripts. For complex automation, consider PowerShell which offers object-oriented pipeline processing.

For performance: Dash is extremely fast and lightweight, making it ideal for system scripts and containers where startup time matters.

For enterprise: Ksh (Korn Shell) is widely used in enterprise Unix environments like AIX and HP-UX.