CS303 UNIX, SHELL PROGRAMMING AND ADMINISTRATION

Shell Interpretive Cycle

1. Shell issues the prompt and waits for you (user) to enter a command

2. After a command is entered, the shell scans command line for meta-characters and expands abbreviations to recreate simplified commands. 

3. It then passes on the command line to kernel for execution

4. The shell waits for the command to complete and normally  can't do anything while the command is running. 

5. After the command gets executed the prompt reappear and the whole cycle is repeated again.

(simplify the meta-characters)