Unix & Linux: Which shell should I use - tcsh vs bash? (6 Solutions!!)

Unix & Linux: Which shell should I use - tcsh vs bash?


The Question: I have been using tcsh for a long time now. But whenever I am searching for
something, I often find that the methods specified are bash specific. Even the
syntax for the shell scripts is different for the two.
From what I have experienced searching and learning on the internet, bash seems
to be the more common shell used. Even the number of questions on this site
tagged bash are way more (five times more currently) than the number of
questions tagged tcsh.
So, I am wondering whether I should switch to bash. What do you think?
Why should I stick to tcsh OR why should I move over to bash?

Solutions: Please watch the whole video to see all solutions, in order of how many people found them helpful

== This solution helped 25 people ==
Actually, you should move over to zsh! It's essentially backward-compatible and
it's got all the utility of bash with a big huge helping of http://
friedcpu.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/zsh-the-last-shell-youll-ever-need/. There's
even a book (although I haven't gotten around to reading it).
I will admit to https://serverfault.com/questions/933...
use-bash-over-zsh reason to not use zsh over bash but unless you're constantly
working at multiple new installations it doesn't really apply. Especially if
you know about the most significant differences. This however is really akin to
the differences between vim and vi; you don't want to be naive but practically
it's no big deal. Even hardcore vim users can find their way around emacs and
vice-versa.

== This solution helped 7 people ==
The compatibility obsessed are missing the point, I think. If you try to make
everything compatible by putting #!/bin/sh at the top and using .sh extensions,
but never test on anything but bash, you haven't guaranteed a compatible
script! Better to just use #!/bin/bash and .bash so that users actually know
the real requirement.
If you know zsh, tcsh, or something else better than bash, and have a good
reference manual for it, don't hold back. Just like people expect to install
perl or python to be able to run some scripts, they can handle installing your
obscure shell, too! :D

zsh probably has a few more similarities to tcsh than bash does.
See: http://zsh.sourceforge.net/FAQ/zshfaq...
People often claim that zsh can do things bash can't, but I have not found that
to be the case. What I have seen is that for zsh it is easier, built in or
turned on by default, while in bash it is an addon script, has to be turned on,
or is more difficult.
(disclaimer: I am a bash user that has sometimes considered switching to zsh)

== This solution helped 23 people ==
After learning bash I find that tcsh is a bit of a step backwards. For instance
what I could easily do in bash I'm finding it difficult to do in tcsh. https://
unix.stackexchange.com/questions/5111/operate-on-command-output-in-tcsh. The
Internet support and documentation is also much better for bash and very
limited for tcsh. The number of O'Reilly books on bash are great but I have
found nothing similar for tcsh.

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