D. Hugh Redelmeier via Talk said on Sat, 18 Apr 2026 16:45:53 -0400
BASH is really really fat:
$ size /usr/bin/bash /usr/bin/dash /usr/bin/rc text data bss dec hex filename 1426035 49208 47072 1522315 173a8b /usr/bin/bash 109024 5016 11408 125448 1ea08 /usr/bin/dash 90580 3368 6344 100292 187c4 /usr/bin/rc
I use bash only as an interactive shell. For programming (scripting) I use ksh, which is almost completely identical to bash on a scripting basis. You can tell shellcheck to check a shellscript as a ksh file, and if your shellscript has a ksh shebang, this is automatic. [slitt@mydesk ~]$ size /usr/bin/bash /usr/bin/ksh /usr/bin/dash /usr/bin/rc text data bss dec hex filename 1462032 58629 47624 1568285 17ee1d /usr/bin/bash 272429 7039 34704 314172 4cb3c /usr/bin/ksh 113861 4848 11568 130277 1fce5 /usr/bin/dash size: '/usr/bin/rc': No such file [slitt@mydesk ~]$ Ksh isn't as svelte as dash, but it sure makes a nice shellscript language. And it's not as fat as bash. SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com