LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Internal And External Commands..

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Internal And External Commands..

Hi to all...
Someone asked me that what are the Internal and External Commands in Linux....I have googled but couldnt find the answer...can anyone tell me any link in which Internal and External commands explained....I also wana know 1 line defination of Source and Binaries.. I have searched that on google too but didnt find anything like this which I wana know...

Thanks

SMAJ

What do you mean by "internal" and "external" commands?

An excerpt from the Table of Contents of the Advanced Bash Scripting Guide:

Code:

Part 4. Commands

    14. Internal Commands and Builtins

    15. External Filters, Programs and Commands

Regarding source and binaries, this is a source:

Code:

$ cat hello.c

/* hello.c: display a message on the screen */



#include <stdio.h>



main()

{

        printf("hello, world\n");

}

you compile it:

Code:

$ gcc -o hello hello.c

$

then execute the binary:

Code:

$ ./hello

hello, world

$

After your previous thread, I'm not sure what your motives are----i.e. why are you asking this question? You may need to consult with the person who asked you.....

Is it possible that you are talking about commands built-in to BASH, vs. the standalone utilities?

One-line definition of source and binaries:
Source: the starting point
Binary: the final product

Here too, what is the context? What problem are you trying to solve?

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany (Post 3622772)

I have just started to learn linux and I m having many problems that's why I use to ask here....first I try to search on Google and then if I couldnt find the desired results then I come here and write....I didnt get exact answer about Internal and External commands in Linux yet...

Quote:

I didnt get exact answer about Internal and External commands in Linux yet...

Perhaps you are coming from an MS-DOS context, in which there are internal and external commands - from a filesystem perspective, internal commands are understood directly by the shell - command.com - and in the case of linux, BASH/ksh/csh/your favorite shell. Internal commands are, for example, cd, dir/ls, copy, rename, del. External commands would be contained in their own executable - for DOS, external commands like more (a pager), xcopy (to copy hidden and system files), etc. which are all fairly standard but nonetheless external to the shell. In linux, there are several commandline utilities that are likewise considered standard but which are not part of the shell - grep, awk, and sed for text processing, for example, as well as editors like vim and emacs.

Unless you are building an embedded system and care about what files to delete to make your own small-disk-footprint linux, this sounds like a textbook question and answer to me, but I, too appreciate the theoretical explanation, so I offer you mine.