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Bash is the GNU Project's Bourne Again SHell, a complete implementation of the IEEE POSIX and Open Group shell specification with interactive command line editing, job control on architectures that support it, csh-like features such as history substitution and brace expansion, and a slew of other features. Here is a short list of some of the features available in bash.
For more information on the features of Bash that are new to this type of shell, see the reference manual. There is also a large Unix-style man page. The man page is the definitive description of the shell's features.
Bash is free software, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2.
A number of frequently-asked questions are answered in the FAQ.
The current version of bash is bash-3.2. (GPG signature).
See the README file for more information.
The NEWS file tersely lists the new features in bash-3.2.
The current version of bash is available from ftp.cwru.edu. This distribution file does not include formatted copies of the documentation; those are available separately.
These files are signed with my GPG key.
There are a number of files available for FTP from ftp.cwru.edu.
Bash is always available from the master GNU ftp site and its many mirrors.
Any patches for the current version are available here.
Previous Bash versions are available at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bash.
Bash is the standard shell on GNU/Linux systems. It's included as part of the FreeBSD ports collection, the OpenBSD ports collection, and the NetBSD packages collection.
The OpenPKG project makes source and binary RPMs of bash-3.1 available for a variety of Unix and Linux systems as part of their latest current and stable releases.
Current versions of Mac OS X (dating from Jaguar/Mac OS X 10.2) ship with bash as /bin/sh. There are also precompiled OS X packages of bash-3.1 available from many web sites. One such package is at HMUG. Bash for Darwin (the base for MacOS X) is available from Fink (old versions) or DarwinPorts.
Solaris 2.x, Solaris 7, and Solaris 8 users can get a precompiled version of bash-3.0 from the Sunfreeware site. Sun ships bash-2.03 with Solaris 8 distributions, ships bash-2.05 as a supported part of Solaris 9, and ships bash-3.0 as a supported part of Solaris 10 (directly on the Solaris 10 CD). AIX users can get precompiled versions of older releases of bash for various versions of AIX from Groupe Bull, and sources and binaries of current releases for various AIX releases from UCLA. IBM makes bash-3.0 available for AIX 5L as part of the AIX toolbox for [GNU/]Linux applications. They use RPM format; you can get RPM for AIX from there, too. SGI users can get an installable version of bash-2.05b from the SGI Freeware page. HP-UX users can get bash-3.1 binaries and source code from the Software Porting and Archive Center for HP-UX. (The current version as of this date is bash-3.1.17). I have been told that Tru64 Unix users can get sources and binaries for bash-2.05b from the HP/Compaq Tru64 Unix Open Source Software Collection.
A list of Frequently-Asked-Questions with answers.
The discussion list bug-bash@gnu.org often contains information about new ports of Bash, or discussions of new features or behavior changes that people would like. The mailing list is where bugs in bash are reported and fixes are posted. This mailing list is also available as a Usenet newsgroup, gnu.bash.bug.
Archives of bug-bash dating from December, 1999 are available from mail.gnu.org. Google Groups has an archive of gnu.bash.bug.
Some files from the current distribution may also be helpful.
Here are a couple of the papers I've written on bash.
Bug reports for bash should be sent to bug-bash@gnu.org using the bashbug program that is built and installed at the same time as bash.
The discussion list bug-bash@gnu.org often contains information about new ports of Bash, or discussions of new features or behavior changes that people would like. This mailing list is also available as a usenet newsgroup, gnu.bash.bug. You may subscribe to the mailing list at lists.gnu.org.
When you send a bug report, please use the bashbug program that is built at the same time as bash. If bash fails to build, try building bashbug directly with make bashbug. If you cannot build bashbug, please send mail to bug-bash@gnu.org with the following information:
The bashbug program includes much of this automatically.
If you would like to contact the Bash maintainers directly, send mail to bash-maintainers@gnu.org.
I am the current Bash maintainer, and may be reached as bash-maintainers@gnu.org. Please send additions and corrections to this page to chet.ramey@case.edu.