Does anyone actually like the Korn shell?

[Chaotic42]

My new job in a NOC requires me to use lots of Solaris systems with ksh as the default shell. I've been trying to figure out why the hell this thing is still around. What does it do that bash doesn't do, other than have absolutely weird keyboard shortcuts like ^k and j and l to navigate around?

What's wrong with up and down, left and right? Why? Why?


<Kirk>
KOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNN!!!
</Kirk>

 

[cleverhandle]

I've only used OpenBSD's ksh, but I haven't had any problems with keyboard navigation. Sounds like something specific to the Solaris's default shell config. As for why you would want ksh, I know OpenBSD recently switched to it because it does almost everything people expect from bash (completion, history, aliases, functions, etc.) but takes up far less system resources. Someone on misc@ claimed that a statically-linked ksh takes up less memory than a dynamically linked bash. That's pretty significant.

 

[drag]

Install all the GNU Stuff.

GNU: Making Solaris more usable since 1994

(Or the BSD stuff, of course. 😉 )

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: cleverhandle
I've only used OpenBSD's ksh, but I haven't had any problems with keyboard navigation. Sounds like something specific to the Solaris's default shell config. As for why you would want ksh, I know OpenBSD recently switched to it because it does almost everything people expect from bash (completion, history, aliases, functions, etc.) but takes up far less system resources. Someone on misc@ claimed that a statically-linked ksh takes up less memory than a dynamically linked bash. That's pretty significant.

Our systems have up to 72GB of memory and up to 12 1.2GHz processors. I think the sysadmins are just up to no good.

 

[Vadatajs]

Try using the bourne shell sometime and then get back to us about how great ksh is.

 

[n0cmonkey]

OpenBSD's ksh rocks. 🙂

I resort to bash on our Solaris systems... It makes me sad, but I'll get around to trying to compile OpenBSD's ksh on solaris eventually. It already works on Linux and makes me feel better about being on a Linux system.

 

[thesix]

ksh on (Open)Solaris is a story of its own 🙂

David Korn and others have been working on ksh93 integration:
http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/ksh93-integration-discuss/

What does it do that bash doesn't do, other than have absolutely weird keyboard shortcuts like ^k and j and l to navigate around?

If your muscle is trained in vi, they are absolutely natural.
That's why even bash offers vi mode as an option, I think.

What's wrong with up and down, left and right? Why? Why?

For me, it's much easier to reach ESC key than the up-arrow, because ESC is always at the up-left corner on any keyboard, while up-arrow is at different position and distance on different keyboard ( think laptop v.s. regular).

 

[Cooler]

I use Bash.

 

[Dravic]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
My new job in a NOC requires me to use lots of Solaris systems with ksh as the default shell. I've been trying to figure out why the hell this thing is still around. What does it do that bash doesn't do, other than have absolutely weird keyboard shortcuts like ^k and j and l to navigate around?

What's wrong with up and down, left and right? Why? Why?


<Kirk>
KOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNN!!!
</Kirk>

little reasoning for it. Heavy duty unix admins are used to using vi and ksh, the arrow keys for navigation while handy have always been secondary. although i admit to using the arrow keys a great deal in vi now.

when on a linux box i use bash, and its features are cool, but ksh has auto complete, history, and many of the same useful feature, your just not used to using it. If you gonna be in a *nix enviroment remember everything is customizable. if yo dont like it use something you do. Think of it the other way around.. what does bash do that ksh doesnt. Those unix admins have been around longer then the bash group.

Why is it still around? Why take it out and piss off every solaris admin who has been using ksh and scripts developed under ksh for over a decade now...

 

[Chaotic42]

Well, this post is a bit of a joke, I don't really want to destroy ksh.

I just don't like it. 😀