Which Shell Does The Shell Scripting Tutorial Teach?

The Shell Scripting Tutorial at shellscript.sh teaches Bourne-compatible shell scripting — the portable baseline shared across many Unix and Linux environments — rather than focusing on one specific modern shell. It explains the lineage from Steve Bourne's original sh through successors like csh, ksh, zsh, and Bash, and notes that Bash extends the Bourne shell while keeping the core scripting concepts compatible. A separate Shell Scripting Examples section shows Bash functionality that goes beyond the standard Bourne shell.

What "Bourne-compatible" means in practice

The tutorial deliberately restricts its core teaching to the Bourne shell dialect. That is a design choice with a clear payoff: scripts written against this baseline tend to work across many Unix and Linux systems, not just where one particular shell is installed.

• Core lessons: Bourne-compatible syntax and concepts.
• Bash extras: kept in a separate examples section, so you can tell which features are portable and which are Bash-specific.
• Scope: fundamentals of shell scripting, written as a basis for one-on-one or group tutorials and exercises, and as a reference for later use.

If your goal is to write scripts that run in as many environments as possible, learning the Bourne-compatible baseline first is the safer path. If you know you will only ever run scripts under Bash, the examples section is where you pick up the additional functionality.

How the shell family fits together

The tutorial gives a short history to explain why it teaches what it does:

The practical takeaway: Bourne-compatible knowledge transfers to Bash and the other successors, which is why the tutorial uses it as the teaching baseline.

Who this scope suits

The tutorial states that it assumes some prior experience. That makes it a better fit for readers who already know their way around a Unix or Linux command line and want to move from typing commands to writing scripts.

It suits you if:

• You want a portable foundation before specializing in Bash-only features.
• You are learning in a tutorial or group setting and need a shared baseline.
• You want a reference you can return to for standard Bourne-compatible techniques.

It may not suit you if you need a from-zero introduction to the command line, or if you specifically want a Bash-only deep dive from the first lesson.

Practical next step

Start with the tutorial's early sections (a first script, variables, wildcards, escape characters, loops, tests, case statements) to build the Bourne-compatible baseline. Then use the Shell Scripting Examples section when you need Bash-specific functionality. The site notes that the latest version is always available at https://www.shellscript.sh, with version information at the top-right of the page — check that before relying on a saved copy.