In this project, you learn how to determine what shell you are using while in the Linux...

In this project, you learn how to determine what shell you are using while in the Linux operating system. The shell serves as an interface between the user and the operating system, such as for instructing the operating system to execute a program or command.

To determine the shell that you are using:

1. Access the command prompt, such as by opening a terminal window in the Linux GNOME interface. To open a terminal window, click the Applications menu, point to System Tools, and click Terminal.

2. Start by looking at the command prompt. The $ prompt means that you are in either the Bourne, Bourne Again, or Korn shell.

3. At the command prompt, type echo $SHELL, making sure that the word “SHELL” is all capital letters. Press Enter. What response do you see (see Figure 2-31)? A response of /bin/bash means you are using the Bourne Again shell. If /bin/sh appears, you are in the Bourne shell. And /bin/ksh signifies the Korn shell.

4. If you get an error message in Step 3, enter echo $shell (making sure that the word “shell” is all lowercase letters). Now you should see the response /bin/csh, which means that you are in the C shell.

5. At the command prompt, type man bash and press Enter to read the online manual information about the Bourne Again shell, which is the default shell used in Fedora and Red Hat Linux distributions.

6. Press the spacebar one or two times to continue reading the introductory information about the Bourne Again shell. When you are finished reading the first few pages, press q to exit the documentation.

7. Close the terminal window, but stay logged into Linux for the next project.