KornShell (ksh) is a Unix shell and scripting language developed by David Korn at Bell Labs in the early 1980s, designed to be backward compatible with the older Bourne shell while adding interactive features from the C shell, such as command history and line editing, along with new scripting constructs including associative arrays and improved arithmetic expressions. KornShell became the default shell on several commercial Unix systems and strongly influenced the POSIX shell standard, which later versions of Bash and other shells also aim to implement.
Facts
First Released SignificanceKornShell's significance is that its original functionality, ksh88, was adopted as the basis for the POSIX.2 Shell and Utilities Command Interpreter standard, shaping how later Unix shells were expected to behave. 2 Classification
LicenseEclipse Public License 1.0 1 Connections
In Field
Source KornShell, Wikipedia
Influenced
"Some other ideas were borrowed from the C shell, its successor tcsh, and the Korn Shell." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bash_(Unix_shell)
Source Wikidata: PowerShell
"It combines features from both ksh and tcsh (and rc to a lesser extent)...the aim was to be a cross between ksh and tcsh." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_shell
Invented By
Source Wikidata: KornShell
Licensed Under
Entity-backed identity for the license enum value this item already carries, resolved to a software license concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The license fact itself stays on the item unchanged.
Sources
1. Wikidata: KornShell
- Wikidata Q204222, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
- Wikidata Q204222 P571 (inception)
- Wikidata P275 license claim
- Wikidata Q204222 P275 (license) claim -> Q55633170 (epl-1-0); checked 2026-09-28
- Wikidata Q204222 P275 (license) claim -> Q55633170 (Eclipse Public License 1.0); checked 2026-09-28
- Invented By: David Korn, Wikidata Q204222 P178 (developer) claim -> Q1445353 (David Korn); computing atlas pioneer entity 301806, checked 2026-09-28
View the Source2. KornShell, Wikipedia
History section
The functionality of the original KornShell, ksh88, was used as a basis for the standard POSIX.2, Shell and Utilities, Command Interpreter (IEEE Std 1003.2-1992).
- In Field: Operating Systems, Lead paragraph
View the SourceUnix shell (Wikipedia)
In Group: Unix Shell Languages, lead describes KornShell (ksh) as an enhanced version of the Bourne shell, written by David KornView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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