shell

adj : having a shell or or containing shell; "shell marl"

n 1: cylindrical metal casing containing an explosive charge and

a projectile; fired from a large gun

2: the material that forms the hard outer covering of many

animals

3: hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as

arthropods and turtles [syn: {carapace}]

4: the hard usually fibrous outer layer of some fruits

especially nuts

5: a rigid covering that envelops an object; "the satellite is

covered with a smooth shell of ice"

6: the exterior covering of a bird's egg [syn: {eggshell}]

7: a very light narrow racing boat [syn: {racing shell}]

8: the outer covering or housing of something; "the clock has a

walnut case" [syn: {case}, {casing}]

9: a metal sheathing of uniform thickness (such as the shield

attached to an artillery piece to protect the gunners)

[syn: {plate}, {scale}]

10: the hard largely calcareous covering of a mollusc

v 1: use explosives on; "The enemy has been shelling us all day"

[syn: {blast}, {strafe}]

2: take something out of its shell or pod, such as peas or

beans [syn: {pod}]

C shell

(csh) The {Unix} {command line interpreter}

{shell} and {script language} by {William Joy}, originating

from {Berkeley} {Unix}.

{Unix} systems up to around {Unix Version 7} only had one

shell - the {Bourne shell}, sh. Csh had better {interactive}

features, notably command input {history}, allowing earlier

commands to be recalled and edited (though it was still not as

good as the {VMS} equivalent of the time).

Presumably, csh's {C}-like {syntax} was intended to endear it

to programmers but sadly it lacks some {sh} features which are

useful for writing {shell scripts} so you need to know two

different syntaxes for every shell construct.

A plethora of different shells followed csh, e.g. {tcsh},

{ksh}, {bash}, {rc}, but sh and csh are the only ones which

are provided with most versions of Unix.

(1998-04-04)