Why is Git Bash called bash? [closed]

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22387061

  •  14-06-2023
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Question

Why is Git Bash called "bash"? Is there really that much connection between the git shell and the unix shell? For instance, when Git Bash is being used on Windows I don't believe many Unix commands are understood. Wouldn't it be better named "Git Shell" and not "Git Bash"? Bash should remain a specific reference to the Unix "Bourne-again shell". Can someone explain what I might be missing?

Update: A year ago, the version of Git I was using incorporated something called Git Bash. Nowadays, if I download "github for windows" from Github, I get an icon for a GUI to talk directly with Github and an icon called "Git Shell", not "Git Bash", as you see in the image below. So I just realized that someone might have felt the same way as me before I felt that way.

enter image description here

Was it helpful?

Solution

Git Bash is the GNU bash shell. Try typing echo $BASH_VERSION at the prompt.

Like any shell, it has some built-in commands (all of which should be available); other commands are executables you can invoke from the shell. If some of those commands happen to be missing, that's not an attribute of the shell; those commands just don't happen to be installed on your system.

What you're missing is that most of the command you invoke at a shell prompt are not part of the shell.

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