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UNIX
Glossary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #

A
absolute pathname
A pathname that identifies a file by starting at the root, irrespective of which directory the user is in
at the time. See also relative pathname.
alias
A name assigned to a command statement so that the whole statement can be invoked by typing
the name.
array
A variable that contains multiple values and that you can reference using a subscript.
associative array
A set of values stored by awk that you can reference using a string or an index number.
attribute
A setting that controls the way the shell processes or displays a variable.
awk
A utility to extract parts of a large body of text to format text, or to extract information for other
programs.
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B
background process
A process that runs non-interactively without accepting user input or displaying results.
Bash shell
A UNIX shell based on the Bourne shell but including additional interactive features. See also
Korn shell.
Berkley Software Distribution
See BSD.
bitwise operators
Arithmetical operators that perform Boolean logic operations on binary values, one bit at a time.
Bourne shell
The shell on which most other UNIX shells are based, found on all UNIX systems. See also Korn
shell.
BSD
An abbreviation for Berkley Software Distribution, a version of UNIX that was developed by the
Berkeley Institute.
built-in command
A command that is part of a shell program, rather than a general UNIX command.
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C
C
A programming language that allows software to be independent of the hardware it runs on.
C shell
A UNIX shell that uses similar syntax to that of the C programming language.
CDE
An abbreviation for Common Desktop Environment, the standard desktop environment established
by the Open Group. It's the default desktop for most of the commercial flavors of UNIX, including
Solaris, SCO UNIX, and HP-UX.
CLI
See command-line interface.
command grouping
The creation of a code block by grouping commands in brackets. A group of commands returns a
single exit status value, rather than a value for each command in the block.
command substitution
A technique that allows you to pass the output of one command as an argument to another
command.
command-line interface
Abbreviated to CLI, an interface that processes text input one line at a time and displays text output
on a monitor.
command-line processing
The procedure that the shell follows when it executes a command line.
command-line shell
See shell.
Common Desktop Environment
See CDE.
comparative operators
Arithmetical operators that compare the values of two expressions.
composite command
A combination of two or more commands where the output of a command is redirected to a file, a
device, or another command.
conditional execution
The execution of two commands so that the second command executes only if the first command
either executes successfully or fails to execute successfully.
conditional statement
A statement that controls the flow of command execution in a program.
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D
daemon
A server program thats run in user space, rather than in the kernel, for use by UNIX users.
data type
The type of data stored in a variable (for example string, integer, or floating-point decimal).
device file
A file that represents a hardware device, such as a disk, within the UNIX filesystem. These files
may be character-special files or block-special files, depending on how the data is written to it.
diskless client
A terminal that has no storage media of its own and boots from a boot server on a network.

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E
environment variable
A system variable that determines some aspect of a user's interface environment, such as the
home directory or system prompt.
executable file
A file containing precompiled binary code that can be executed. See also regular file and special
file.
exit status
A numeric value that most UNIX commands return to indicate the success or failure of a command.
Successful completion is represented by 0.
extended filesystem
Usually abbreviated to extfs. The Linux implementation of the UNIX File System, with added
functionality such as support for extremely large hard drives.
extfs
See extended filesystem.
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F
FHS
See Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.
file descriptors
Placeholder files that point to standard input/output (I/O) objects, such as standard input (0),
standard output (1), and standard error (2). By referring to file descriptors, processes avoid the
need to interact mechanically with the objects or devices that the file descriptors represent.
filename substitution
A technique that allows you to use a wildcard to specify groups of filenames to use as arguments
for commands.
filesystem
A schema that provides rules for how data is stored, read, and written on a medium. The term is
used ambiguously in UNIX to refer to directories, physical partitions, or any mountable data
structure.
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
Abbreviated to FHS, a standard that defines how the root filesystem should be laid out on a
compliant system. The standard helps raise compatibility between versions of UNIX.
foreground process
A process that runs interactively, prompting the user for input and displaying results.
function
A subroutine of code that is loaded into memory and can be called many times within a program.
Functions may accept arguments and can return values.
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G
global variables

Variables set by root in /etc/profile that are accessible to an entire program.

Gnome
An open source desktop environment that's become popular with users of open source UNIX
flavors such as Linux and FreeBSD.
graphic user interface
See GUI.
grep
A command to search the contents of files. It searches through text input one line at a time and
returns all the lines containing a specified group of characters.
group permissions
A UNIX file security measure, usually set by a file's owner, that controls how members of a user
group may access that file. See also user permissions and other permissions.
GUI
An abbreviation for graphical user interface, a program interface that uses the computer's graphic
features to display information.
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H
hard link
A direct link to a file's inode that may only exist within the same filesystem as the inode. Viewing a
hard link in a listing will provide you with information about the file's size and permissions.
here documents
Documents that pass batch input to a command.
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I
I/O control
A kernel subsystem that manages the data input and output operations of a computer system.
inode
A data structure that contains information about a file, such as its size and physical location.
integrated desktop environments
Preconfigured sessions of a window manager, providing default widgets, icons, and backgrounds.
Three popular desktop environments are the CDE, Gnome, and the KDE.
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J
K
KDE
An abbreviation for Kool Desktop Environment, a popular desktop environment with users of open
source UNIX flavors like Linux and FreeBSD.
kernel
The core of the UNIX operating system. It provides an interface between the user and the computer
hardware.

Kool Desktop Environment

See KDE.
Korn shell
A UNIX shell based on the Bourne shell but with additional scripting features derived from the C
shell. See also Bash shell.
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L
line printer daemon
See lpd.
Linux
1. A UNIX variant open source operating system. <br /> 2. A kernel created by Linus Torvalds,
which was further developed by the open source community into an operating system.
local variables
Variables set by individual users in their $HOME/.profile files that affect their shells only.
logical operators
Arithmetical operators that perform Boolean logic operations on complete expressions.
loop
A set of statements in code that executes repeatedly until a specific condition is met.
lpd
1. A printing system that is commonly used in older UNIX systems. <br /> 2. A printer protocol that
is used to monitor and manage the printing process.
lpr
A command that prints files in unformatted ASCII text.
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M
man pages
Also known as the UNIX online manual, an electronic collection of information about UNIX
commands and utilities.
memory management
A task that is performed by the UNIX kernel subsystem to allocate and control the computer
memory that processes use. It allows address spaces larger than physical memory (RAM) by
swapping memory pages to the hard disk and back again as needed.
mount point
A directory within the root filesystem where a separate filesystem is mounted.
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N
named pipe
A pipe or socket that allows one process to communicate with another process.
Network File System
Abbreviated as NFS, a filesystem that allows you to mount remote network data as part of a user's
local filesystem. Users can then access network content as easily as local files.

NFS
See Network File System.
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O
Open Group
An organization that currently owns the rights to the UNIX brand name.
open source
Any program that contains source code that is freely available to the public for use or modification.
operating system
Software that provides an interface between a computer's hardware and the user. It's the platform
on which application programs run.
other permissions
A UNIX file security measure, usually set by a file's owner, that controls how ordinary system users
may access that file. See also user permissions and group permissions.
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P
parameter
A reserved system variable, such as a special parameter, positional parameter, or environment
variable.
piping
A method of passing the output from one program to the input of another.
Portable Operating System Interface
See POSIX.
positional parameter
A parameter that refers to an argument entered with a script or function.
POSIX
An abbreviation for Portable Operating System Interface, a standard aimed at ensuring
compatibility between UNIX operating systems.
PostScript
A page description language, developed by Adobe Systems, that defines the format and
appearance of a document independently of the printer used to print it.
process
An executable image of a program held in system memory.
process scheduling
A kernel subsystem that schedules and synchronizes processes that are running concurrently and
implements interprocess communication. It also handles signals that terminate process execution.
prototyping
The creation of a piece of executable code to allow testing and modification to a program during the
first stage in project development.
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quoting
The enclosure of special characters in quote marks to prevent shells from resolving these
characters in command arguments. Instead, the shell passes the characters intact to commands.
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R
redirection
A method of passing input data to a program from a file or sending its output data to a file.
redirection
The act of changing the input source or output destination of a command. A common example of
redirection is redirecting the output of a command to a file on disk.
regular file
A standard text or binary file. See also special file and executable file.
relative pathname
A pathname that identifies a file by starting at the current working directory, rather than the root.
See also absolute pathname.
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S
sed
A command that searches text files for specified patterns and returns all lines that match the
patterns. It can also perform transformations based upon pattern matches.
shell
Also called command-line shell, a program that provides a command-line interface, interpreting
user commands and relaying them to the kernel to be executed.
shell script
A sequence of commands in an executable text file.
special file
A file used to interface with hardware, or that contains special system calls. See also regular file
and executable file.
standard error file
A file used by all shell commands that determines where a process sends any error messages it
may generate. Error messages display on the terminal's monitor by default. See also standard
input file and standard output file.
standard input file
A file used by all shell commands that determines the source of data going to a process. The
default source of input is the terminal's keyboard. See also standard error file and standard
output file.
standard output file
A file used by all shell commands that determines where a process sends its output. By default,
output goes to the terminal's monitor. See also standard input file and standard error file.
subshell
A clone of the current shell that is created to run a specific command or script. Subshells have their
own environment variables, so any changes made to a subshell don't affect the originating shell.
See also shell.
symbolic link

A shortcut that links to a hard link in any filesystem. Symbolic links can be used to access files, but
don't provide accurate information about those files. Also known as a soft link.
system call
A low-level instruction that works together with other system calls to execute a command. For
example, a command that copies text into a new file needs to issue system calls to copy the text,
create the new file, open the file, write the text into the file, and close the file.
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T
U
UFS
See UNIX File System.
UNIX
A powerful operating system that was the first to be portable, largely because it was written in C. It
was initially developed by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie in 1969.
UNIX File System
The original UNIX filesystem created to interact with hard disks. It introduced the concept of inodes.
See also inode.
user permissions
A UNIX file security measure, usually set by a file's owner, that controls how the file's owner may
access that file. See also group permissions and other permissions.
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V
value
The data contained in a variable.
variable
A named space for storing a value such as a letter, a number, or a Boolean value.
variable expansion
The process of evaluating all or part of a variable's value.
vi
A common text editor that is installed on every UNIX computer.
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W
widget
An element of a GUI, such as a button, checkbox, or drop-down list.
Window managers
Programs that run on an X server and determine the appearance and behavior of windows in the
GUI environment
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X
X
A short form of X Windows System, a UNIX system component that controls the interaction
between the GUI display and the programs and applications that use it.
X Display Manager
See XDM.
X terminal
A terminal computer that runs the X server process to display information in a GUI.
X Window system
See X.
XDM
An abbreviation for X Display Manager, a program that manages login sessions for the X Window
System.
XFree86
The most widespread version of the X Window System.
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Y
Z
#

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #
Copyright 2003 SkillSoft PLC. All rights reserved.
SkillSoft and the SkillSoft logo are trademarks or registered trademarks
of SkillSoft PLC in the United States and certain other countries.
All other logos or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

UNIX Shell Scripting Basics

References
Books

Learning the Bash Shell, Second Edition

1998, Cameron Newham and Bill Rosenblatt, O'Reilly, 1-56592-347-2

The Korn Shell, Third Edition

2001, Anatole Olczak, Addison Wesley, 0-201-67523-4
Copyright 2003 SkillSoft PLC. All rights reserved.
SkillSoft and the SkillSoft logo are trademarks or registered trademarks
of SkillSoft PLC in the United States and certain other countries.
All other logos or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.