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A shell is not a terminal emulator. It's a program that does text I/O (perhaps with a terminal, perhaps not) and implements basic system functionality like exec
by fluoridation 1y ago
A shell is not a terminal emulator. It's a program that does text I/O (perhaps with a terminal, perhaps not) and implements basic system functionality like executing programs and often scripting.
- MangoToupe 1y agoMost people interact with a shell through a terminal emulator, though. The alternative is something like emacs's eshell. Or an actual "terminal" which hasn't been even available for purchase for many decades.
- fluoridation 1y agoNot always. The shell may be facing a serial interface, or it could be spawned by a program and have no user interface at all.
- MangoToupe 1y agoI probably wouldn't describe either as a human interacting with a shell, but nevertheless point taken.
- fluoridation 1y agoI wouldn't either, which I why I didn't include that interaction in the definition I gave. A shell just implements basic system functionality, it doesn't necessarily function as a UI.