what is /bin/bash

michshelly · 02-15-2006, 08:02 AM

Hello,

Can someone tell me what /bin is please?

I know (well I think I know) that bash is the shell but I don't understand the /bin.

eg. when I type:
echo My shell is $SHELL

My shell is bin/bash

is displayed.

thanks
Michelle

scuzzman · 02-15-2006, 08:05 AM

That's the full path to the bash program (your shell).

caspervn · 02-15-2006, 08:38 AM

/bin is a directory (same as /usr, /etc, ..)

michshelly · 02-15-2006, 08:39 AM

Hello Scuzzman,

Thanks for your reply. Is \bin short for something? Binary? Rubbish bin???

Thanks
Michelle

tnandy · 02-15-2006, 08:59 AM

bash is a program and stands for Bourne Again SHell. This program takes a text file as input, assumes the text consists of instructions, and tries to process those instructions.

bin is a directory, also sometimes known as a folder.

If you are familiar with a Windows environment, "/bin/bash" in Linux would probably look more like "C:\bin\bash.exe" in Windows.

I've always assumed bin was short for binary, but everyone knows what happens when you assume.

juicymixx · 02-15-2006, 09:18 AM

hey michshelly,

tnandy is correct, /bin/bash is the path to the executable named bash (which is the shell that you are running). The /bin/ directory contains binary files (well, mostly binary files) - consider them as executable utilities that make your Linux experience more useful.

michaelk · 02-15-2006, 09:23 AM

Linux directory structure. Not exactly the same in all distros.
http://www.comptechdoc.org/os/linux/...ilestruct.html