# Shell

On UNIX(r), the shell is the main interaction tool between the
user-level and the system. That doesn\'t necessarily mean the user
always sits infront of a shell, but it\'s integral part of the system,
not only an \"optional commandline interpreter\".

The main job of a shell is to execute commands as a user requests them.
This behaviour alone doesn\'t help much. A shell knits some intelligence
and flow control around the possibility to execute commands - it\'s a
complete commandline-oriented user-interface (UI).

FIXME

## See also

## See also (external)

-   Wikipedia: [UNIX shell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_shell)