The KornShell (ksh) is a Unix shell which was developed by David Korn at Bell Labs in the early 1980s. It is backward-compatible with the Bourne shell (sh) and includes many features of the C shell (csh). ksh is known for its scripting capabilities and interactive use, making it a powerful tool for system administrators and developers.
ksh offers several advanced features such as associative arrays, floating-point arithmetic, and built-in support for regular expressions. It also provides a robust scripting environment with features like command aliasing, job control, and a history mechanism. These features make ksh a versatile and efficient shell for both scripting and interactive use.
| Feature | ksh | Bash |
|---|---|---|
| Compatibility | Compatible with sh | Compatible with sh |
| Scripting Capabilities | Advanced | Advanced |
| Associative Arrays | Yes | Yes |
| Floating-Point Arithmetic | Yes | Yes |
| Regular Expressions | Built-in support | Requires external tools |
| Command Aliasing | Yes | Yes |
| Job Control | Yes | Yes |
| History Mechanism | Yes | Yes |
| Interactive Use | Efficient | Efficient |
| Default Shell | No | Yes (on many systems) |
In summary, while both ksh and Bash offer robust features for scripting and interactive use, ksh includes some unique capabilities such as built-in support for regular expressions and floating-point arithmetic. These features can be particularly useful for complex scripting tasks and make ksh a powerful tool for Unix system administrators and developers.