At the beginning of the computer age, independent devices, or so-called hardcopy terminals (printer or screen plus keyboard), were used. In addition, each shell has its own programming language which makes it possible to write shell scripts – for example, to link program calls and facilitate administrative tasks.Įach shell runs in a terminal. It includes a command line interpreter that accepts user input via the keyboard, evaluates them, starts programs (if necessary), and returns the output in the form of a text entry to the user. Shell is a program that functions as an interface between system and user. All of the settings that you set via the graphical user interface (GUI) can also be made in the form of command line directives via the so-called shell. Like most modern operating systems, Linux has two available interfaces for user input.