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3.2 KiB
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22 lines
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>shell</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../S.html" title="S"/><link rel="previous" href="shelfware.html" title="shelfware"/><link rel="next" href="shell-out.html" title="shell out"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">shell</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="shelfware.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">S</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="shell-out.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="shell"/><dt xmlns="" id="shell"><b>shell</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [orig. <a href="../M/Multics.html"><i class="glossterm">Multics</i></a> techspeak, widely propagated
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via Unix] </p></dd><dd><p> 1. [techspeak] The command interpreter used to pass commands to an
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operating system; so called because it is the part of the operating system
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that interfaces with the outside world.</p></dd><dd><p> 2. More generally, any interface program that mediates access to a
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special resource or <a href="server.html"><i class="glossterm">server</i></a> for convenience,
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efficiency, or security reasons; for this meaning, the usage is usually
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<span class="firstterm">a shell around</span> whatever. This sort
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of program is also called a <span class="firstterm">wrapper</span>.
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</p></dd><dd><p> 3. A skeleton program, created by hand or by another program (like,
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say, a parser generator), which provides the necessary
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<a href="../I/incantation.html"><i class="glossterm">incantation</i></a>s to set up some task and the control
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flow to drive it (the term <a href="../D/driver.html"><i class="glossterm">driver</i></a> is sometimes used
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synonymously). The user is meant to fill in whatever code is needed to get
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real work done. This usage is common in the AI and Microsoft Windows
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worlds, and confuses Unix hackers.</p></dd><dd><p>Historical note: Apparently, the original Multics shell (sense 1) was
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so called because it was a shell (sense 3); it ran user programs not by
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starting up separate processes, but by dynamically linking the programs
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into its own code, calling them as subroutines, and then dynamically
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de-linking them on return. The VMS command interpreter still does
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something very like this.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="shelfware.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../S.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="shell-out.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">shelfware<EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>shell out</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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