Bash Script – Difference between Bash Script and Shell Script

In computer programming, a script is defined as a sequence of instructions that is executed by another program. A shell is a command-line interpreter of Linux which provides an interface between the user and the kernel system and executes a sequence of instructions called commands. A shell is capable of running a script. A script that is passed to a shell is known as a shell script.

Bash script:

A Bash Script is just like a simple text file, consisting of a number of commands that we usually write in a command line. In Linux file systems, they are used for doing repetitive tasks. A Bash Script may contain a number of commands, or it might contain elements like loops, functions, conditional constructs, etc. In simple words, a Bash script is a computer program that is written in the Bash programming language.

Some of the features of Bash are given below:

• Bash can be invoked by single-character command-line options as well as multi-character command-line options. For example, (-a, -b) is a single-character command-line, and –debugger is a multi-character command-line option.
• Bash consists of Key bindings.
• Bash provides one-dimensional arrays with the help of which we can easily manipulate the lists of data.
• Bash provides control structures. For example, construct structure, etc.

Example:

#!/bin/bash  

myString="GeeksforGeeks"
echo "myString: $myString"

Output:

Bash script

Shell script:

Shell is considered as a special user program that provides a platform or interface to users so that they can use operating system services. Users can provide human-readable commands to a shell and then shell convert them into kernel understandable form. A shell is considered a command language interpreter that can execute commands which can be read from input devices like a keyboard.

Some of the features of a Shell are given below:

• Wildcard substitution in file names (pattern-matching): To carry out commands on a bunch of files by mentioning a pattern to match rather than mentioning an actual file name.
• Background processing: To make lengthy tasks run in the background in order to free the terminal for concurrent interactive processing.
• Piping: To combine any number of commands together in order to form a complex program. The output of one program becomes the input of another command.
• Shell variable substitution: It stores the data in user-defined variables and predefined shell variables.

Now a shell can accept a number of commands through a file, known as a shell script. A shell script contains a number of commands that are executed by a shell.  For example, 

Example:

#!/bin/sh

myString="GeeksforGeeks"
echo "myString: $myString"

Output:

Shell script

Table of difference between bash script and shell script

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