Difference between sh and bash

Question

When writing shell programs, we often use /bin/sh and /bin/bash. I usually use bash, but I don't know what's the difference between them.

What's main difference between bash and sh?

What do we need to be aware of when programming in bash and sh?

Answer 1

sh: http://man.cx/sh
bash: http://man.cx/bash

TL;DR: bash is a superset of sh with a more elegant syntax and more functionality. It is safe to use a bash shebang line in almost all cases as it's quite ubiquitous on modern platforms.

NB: in some environments, sh is bash. Check sh --version.

Answer 2

This question has frequently been nominated as a canonical for people who try to use sh and are surprised that it's not behaving the same as bash. Here's a quick rundown of common misunderstandings and pitfalls.

First off, you should understand what to expect.

• If you run your script with sh scriptname, or run it with scriptname and have #!/bin/sh in the shebang line, you should expect POSIX sh behavior.
• If you run your script with bash scriptname, or run it with scriptname and have #!/bin/bash (or the local equivalent) in the shebang line, you should expect Bash behavior.

Having a correct shebang and running the script by typing just the script name (possibly with a relative or full path) is generally the preferred solution. In addition to a correct shebang, this requires the script file to have execute permission (chmod a+x scriptname).

So, how do they actually differ?

The Bash Reference manual has a section which attempts to enumerate the differences but some common sources of confusion include

• [[ is not available in sh (only [ which is more clunky and limited).
• sh does not have arrays.
• Some Bash keywords like local, function, and select are not portable to sh.
• Bash has many C-style syntax extensions like $'string\nwith\tC\aescapes' and the three-argument for((i=0;i<=3;i++)) loop, += increment assignment, etc.
• Bash supports <<<'here strings'.
• Bash has *.{png,jpg} and {0..9} brace expansion.
• ~ refers to $HOME only in Bash (and more generally ~username to the home directory of username).This is in POSIX, but may be mising from some pre-POSIX /bin/sh implementations.
• Bash has process substitution with <(cmd) and >(cmd).
• Bash supports coprocesses with <> redirection.
• Bash has significantly extended facilities for shell arithmetic (though still no floating-point support) and variable substring manipulation with ${substring:1:2}, ${variable/pattern/replacement}, case conversion, etc.
• Many, many Bash-only extensions to enable or disable optional behavior and expose internal state of the shell.
• Many, many convenience features for interactive use which however do not affect script behavior.

Remember, this is an abridged listing. Refer to the reference manual for the full scoop, and http://mywiki.wooledge.org/Bashism for many good workarounds; and/or try http://shellcheck.net/ which warns for many Bash-only features.

A common error is to have a #!/bin/bash shebang line, but then nevertheless using sh scriptname to actually run the script. This basically disables any Bash-only functionality, so you get syntax errors e.g. for trying to use arrays.

Unfortunately, Bash will not warn when you try to use these constructs when it is invoked as sh. It doesn't completely disable all Bash-only functionality, either, so running Bash by invoking it as sh is not a good way to check if your script is properly portable to ash/dash/POSIX sh or variants like Heirloom sh

Answer 3

Shell is an interface between a user and OS to access to an operating system's services. It can be either GUI or CLI (Command Line interface).

sh (Bourne shell) is a shell command-line interpreter, for Unix/Unix-like operating systems. It provides some built-in commands. In scripting language we denote interpreter as #!/bin/sh. It was one most widely supported by other shells like bash (free/open), kash (not free).

Bash (Bourne again shell) is a shell replacement for the Bourne shell. Bash is superset of sh. Bash supports sh. POSIX is a set of standards defining how POSIX-compliant systems should work. Bash is not actually a POSIX compliant shell. In a scripting language we denote the interpreter as #!/bin/bash.

Analogy:

• Shell is like an interface or specifications or API.
• sh is a class which implements the Shell interface.
• Bash is a subclass of the sh.

Answer 4

TERMINAL

• program(s) that put a window up
• xterm, rxvt, konsole, kvt, gnome-terminal, nxterm, and eterm.

SHELL

• Is a program that runs in the terminal
• Shell is both a command interpreter and a programming language
• Shell is simply a macro processor that executes commands.
• Macro processor means functionality where text and symbols are expanded to create larger expressions.

SH Vs. BASH

SH

• (SHell)
• Is a specific shell
• a command interpreter and a programming language
• Predecessor of BASH

BASH

• (Bourne-Again SHell)
• Is a specific shell
• a command interpreter and a programming language
• Has sh functionality and more
• Successor of SH
• BASH is the default SHELL

REFERENCE MATERIAL:

SHELL gnu.org:

At its base, a shell is simply a macro processor that executes commands. The term macro processor means functionality where text and symbols are expanded to create larger expressions.

A Unix shell is both a command interpreter and a programming language. As a command interpreter, the shell provides the user interface to the rich set of GNU utilities. The programming language features allow these utilities to be combined. Files containing commands can be created, and become commands themselves. These new commands have the same status as system commands in directories such as /bin, allowing users or groups to establish custom environments to automate their common tasks.

Shells may be used interactively or non-interactively. In interactive mode, they accept input typed from the keyboard. When executing non-interactively, shells execute commands read from a file.

A shell allows execution of GNU commands, both synchronously and asynchronously. The shell waits for synchronous commands to complete before accepting more input; asynchronous commands continue to execute in parallel with the shell while it reads and executes additional commands. The redirection constructs permit fine-grained control of the input and output of those commands. Moreover, the shell allows control over the contents of commands’ environments.

Shells also provide a small set of built-in commands (builtins) implementing functionality impossible or inconvenient to obtain via separate utilities. For example, cd, break, continue, and exec cannot be implemented outside of the shell because they directly manipulate the shell itself. The history, getopts, kill, or pwd builtins, among others, could be implemented in separate utilities, but they are more convenient to use as builtin commands. All of the shell builtins are described in subsequent sections.

While executing commands is essential, most of the power (and complexity) of shells is due to their embedded programming languages. Like any high-level language, the shell provides variables, flow control constructs, quoting, and functions.

Shells offer features geared specifically for interactive use rather than to augment the programming language. These interactive features include job control, command line editing, command history and aliases. Each of these features is described in this manual.

BASH gnu.org:

Bash is the shell, or command language interpreter, for the GNU operating system. The name is an acronym for the ‘Bourne-Again SHell’, a pun on Stephen Bourne, the author of the direct ancestor of the current Unix shell sh, which appeared in the Seventh Edition Bell Labs Research version of Unix.

Bash is largely compatible with sh and incorporates useful features from the Korn shell ksh and the C shell csh. It is intended to be a conformant implementation of the IEEE POSIX Shell and Tools portion of the IEEE POSIX specification (IEEE Standard 1003.1). It offers functional improvements over sh for both interactive and programming use.

While the GNU operating system provides other shells, including a version of csh, Bash is the default shell. Like other GNU software, Bash is quite portable. It currently runs on nearly every version of Unix and a few other operating systems - independently-supported ports exist for MS-DOS, OS/2, and Windows platforms.

Answer 5

Post from UNIX.COM

Shell features

This table below lists most features that I think would make you choose one shell over another. It is not intended to be a definitive list and does not include every single possible feature for every single possible shell. A feature is only considered to be in a shell if in the version that comes with the operating system, or if it is available as compiled directly from the standard distribution. In particular the C shell specified below is that available on SUNOS 4.*, a considerable number of vendors now ship either tcsh or their own enhanced C shell instead (they don't always make it obvious that they are shipping tcsh.

Code:

                                     sh   csh  ksh  bash tcsh zsh  rc   es
Job control                          N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    N    N
Aliases                              N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    N    N
Shell functions                      Y(1) N    Y    Y    N    Y    Y    Y
"Sensible" Input/Output redirection  Y    N    Y    Y    N    Y    Y    Y
Directory stack                      N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    F    F
Command history                      N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Command line editing                 N    N    Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Vi Command line editing              N    N    Y    Y    Y(3) Y    L    L
Emacs Command line editing           N    N    Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Rebindable Command line editing      N    N    N    Y    Y    Y    L    L
User name look up                    N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Login/Logout watching                N    N    N    N    Y    Y    F    F
Filename completion                  N    Y(1) Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Username completion                  N    Y(2) Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Hostname completion                  N    Y(2) Y    Y    Y    Y    L    L
History completion                   N    N    N    Y    Y    Y    L    L
Fully programmable Completion        N    N    N    N    Y    Y    N    N
Mh Mailbox completion                N    N    N    N(4) N(6) N(6) N    N
Co Processes                         N    N    Y    N    N    Y    N    N
Builtin artithmetic evaluation       N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    N    N
Can follow symbolic links invisibly  N    N    Y    Y    Y    Y    N    N
Periodic command execution           N    N    N    N    Y    Y    N    N
Custom Prompt (easily)               N    N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y
Sun Keyboard Hack                    N    N    N    N    N    Y    N    N
Spelling Correction                  N    N    N    N    Y    Y    N    N
Process Substitution                 N    N    N    Y(2) N    Y    Y    Y
Underlying Syntax                    sh   csh  sh   sh   csh  sh   rc   rc
Freely Available                     N    N    N(5) Y    Y    Y    Y    Y
Checks Mailbox                       N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    F    F
Tty Sanity Checking                  N    N    N    N    Y    Y    N    N
Can cope with large argument lists   Y    N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y
Has non-interactive startup file     N    Y    Y(7) Y(7) Y    Y    N    N
Has non-login startup file           N    Y    Y(7) Y    Y    Y    N    N
Can avoid user startup files         N    Y    N    Y    N    Y    Y    Y
Can specify startup file             N    N    Y    Y    N    N    N    N
Low level command redefinition       N    N    N    N    N    N    N    Y
Has anonymous functions              N    N    N    N    N    N    Y    Y
List Variables                       N    Y    Y    N    Y    Y    Y    Y
Full signal trap handling            Y    N    Y    Y    N    Y    Y    Y
File no clobber ability              N    Y    Y    Y    Y    Y    N    F
Local variables                      N    N    Y    Y    N    Y    Y    Y
Lexically scoped variables           N    N    N    N    N    N    N    Y
Exceptions                           N    N    N    N    N    N    N    Y

Key to the table above.

Y Feature can be done using this shell.

N Feature is not present in the shell.

F Feature can only be done by using the shells function mechanism.

L The readline library must be linked into the shell to enable this Feature.

Notes to the table above

1. This feature was not in the original version, but has since become
   almost standard.
2. This feature is fairly new and so is often not found on many
   versions of the shell, it is gradually making its way into
   standard distribution.
3. The Vi emulation of this shell is thought by many to be
   incomplete.
4. This feature is not standard but unofficial patches exist to
   perform this.
5. A version called 'pdksh' is freely available, but does not have
   the full functionality of the AT&T version.
6. This can be done via the shells programmable completion mechanism.
7. Only by specifying a file via the ENV environment variable.

Answer 6

/bin/sh may or may not invoke the same program as /bin/bash.

sh supports at least the features required by POSIX (assuming a correct implementation). It may support extensions as well.

bash, the "Bourne Again Shell", implements the features required for sh plus bash-specific extensions. The full set of extensions is too long to describe here, and it varies with new releases. The differences are documented in the bash manual. Type info bash and read the "Bash Features" section (section 6 in the current version), or read the current documentation online.