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A Bourne shell (sh) is a UNIX shell or command processor that is used for scripting. It was developed in 1977 by Stephen Bourne of AT&T and introduced in UNIX Version 7, replacing the Mashey shell (sh).
The Bourne shell is also known by its executable program name, "sh" and the dollar symbol, "$," which is used with command prompts.
Techopedia Explains Bourne Shell
A Bourne shell interprets and executes user defined commands and provides command based programming abilities. A Bourne shell enables the writing and executing of shell scripts, which provide basic program control flow, control over input/output (I/O) file descriptors and all key features required to create scripts or structured programs for shell.
A Bourne shell also executes commands and functions that are predefined or integrated; files that search or follow a command path, as well as text file commands.
The Bourne shell’s architectural code was implemented in subsequent versions of UNIX shell, including Bourne Again shell (Bash), Korn shell and Zsh shell.
