In computing, a command-line interpreter, or command language interpreter, is a blanket term for a certain class of programs designed to read lines of text entered by a user, thus implementing a command-line interface.

Operating system shells

Unix-like systems

There are many variants of Unix shell:

• Bourne shell sh
  • Almquist shell (ash)
    • Debian Almquist shell (dash)
  • Bash (Unix shell) bash
  • Korn shell ksh
    • Z shell zsh
• C shell csh
  • TENEX C shell tcsh
• Ch shell ch
• Emacs shell eshell
• friendly interactive shell fish
• rc shell rc, a shell for Plan 9 from Bell Labs and Unix
• scsh (Scheme Shell)
• Stand-alone Shell sash
• BeanShell
• Remote shell rsh, can also mean Restricted shell on some systems

Microsoft Windows

Note that most OS shells in Microsoft Windows are not command-line interpreters.

Native

• CMD.EXE, the default command-line interpreter of the Windows NT-family
• Windows PowerShell, a command processor based on .NET Framework
• Hamilton C shell, a clone of the Unix C shell but with additional features by Hamilton Laboratories
• 4NT, a clone of CMD.EXE but with additional features by JP Software
• Take Command, a newer incarnation of 4NT
• Recovery Console

Unix-styled and POSIX emulators

• Windows Services for UNIX
  • MKS Toolkit
  • Interix

DOS

• COMMAND.COM, the default command-line interpreter
• 4DOS, a compatible, but more advanced shell by JP Software
• NDOS, provided with some versions of the Norton Utilities
• GW-BASIC
• QBasic

OS/2

• CMD.EXE, the default command-line interpreter
• 4OS/2, a compatible, but more advanced shell by JP Software

IBM OS/400

• AS/400 Control Language
• iSeries QSHELL

Apple computers

• Terminal.app
• Apple DOS/Apple ProDOS

Mobile devices

• DROS, Java ME platform based DOS-like shell for smartphones

Network routers

• Cisco IOS^[1]
• Junos Command Line Interface (Juniper Networks)^[2]

Other

• Amiga CLI/Amiga Shell, see AmigaOS
• Basic-Plus (RSTS/E)
• CANDE MCS – command-line shell and text editor on the MCP operating system
• Conversational Monitor System (VM/CMS)
• Console Command Processor (CCP) for CP/M
• DOS Wedge (an extension to the Commodore 64's BASIC 2.0)
• DIGITAL Command Language (OpenVMS)
• Extensible Firmware Interface shell
• Microsoft BASIC (qualifies both for a programming language and OS)
• Singularity (operating system)
• SymShell, see SymbOS
• Time Sharing Option (MVS, z/OS)
• Atari TOS shell
• YouOS shell
• EFI-SHELL – an open source Extensible Firmware Interface command shell

Programming

Language systems

• APL (programming language)
• BASIC – actually, many dialects and varieties of a programming language may have commands like kill, system, files, and others which allow operating system access from the interactive and often from programme mode
• BeanShell, a shell for Java
• F Sharp (programming language), F#
• J (programming language)
• GMLCMD
• Haskell (programming language)
• Lisp
  • Common Lisp Interface Manager
• Macintosh Programmer's Workshop, an old command-line environment used for software development on the classic Mac OS
• Prolog
• Smalltalk
• Scala (programming language)
• Standard ML

Debuggers

• DEBUG
• gdb
• DDT, a PDP-10 debugger from DEC used as a command shell for the MIT Incompatible Timesharing System
• Firebug/Chromebug, a JavaScript shell and debugging environment as a Firefox plugin

Scientific and engineering software

• MATLAB
• ROOT

Programming languages

• JavaScript shell – several programs by this name allow interactive JavaScript^[3]
• BeanShell – shell for Java
• Jython
• REXX
• Perl
• PHPsh – shell for PHP
• Python
  • IPython
• Ruby
  • Interactive Ruby Shell
• Tcl
  • Tclsh
  • Wish (Windowing Shell)
• tkcon shell and IDE for Tcl/Tk
• Windows Script Host

Database queries

• sqsh, a shell available with some SQL implementations for database queries and other tasks.
• Google Shell, a browser-based front-end for Google Search

References

See also

• read–eval–print loop
• Interpreter directive
• Text-based user interface