The table below lists most features that I think would make you choose one shell over another. It is not intended to be a definitive list and does not include every single possible feature for every single possible shell. A feature is only considered to be in a shell if in the version that comes with the operating system, or if it is available as compiled directly from the standard distribution. In particular, the C shell specified below is available on SunOS X.*, a considerable number of vendors now ship either tcsh or their own enhanced C shell instead (they don’t always make it obvious that they are shipping tcsh.
| Features | sh | csh | ksh | bash | tcsh | zsh | rc | es |
| Job control | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| Aliases | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| Shell functions | Y(1) | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y |
| “Sensible” Input/Output redirection | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y |
| Directory stack | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | F | F |
| Command history | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | L | L |
| Command line editing | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | L | L |
| Vi Command line editing | N | N | Y | Y | Y(3) | Y | L | L |
| Emacs Command line editing | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | L | L |
| Rebindable Command line editing | N | N | N | Y | Y | Y | L | L |
| User name lookup | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | L | L |
| Login/Logout watching | N | N | N | N | Y | Y | F | F |
| Filename completion | N | Y(1) | Y | Y | Y | Y | L | L |
| Username completion | N | Y(2) | Y | Y | Y | Y | L | L |
| Hostname completion | N | Y(2) | Y | Y | Y | Y | L | L |
| History completion | N | N | N | Y | Y | Y | L | L |
| Fully programmable Completion | N | N | N | N | Y | Y | N | N |
| Mh Mailbox completion | N | N | N | N(4) | N(6) | N(6) | N | N |
| Co Processes | N | N | Y | N | N | Y | N | N |
| Builtin arithmetic evaluation | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| Can follow symbolic links invisibly | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| Periodic command execution | N | N | N | N | Y | Y | N | N |
| Custom Prompt (easily) | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Sun Keyboard Hack | N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N |
| Spelling Correction | N | N | N | N | Y | Y | N | N |
| Process Substitution | N | N | N | Y(2) | N | Y | Y | Y |
| Underlying Syntax | sh | csh | sh | sh | csh | sh | rc | rc |
| Freely Available | N | N | N(5) | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Checks Mailbox | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | F | F |
| Tty Sanity Checking | N | N | N | N | Y | Y | N | N |
| Can cope with large argument lists | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Has a non-interactive startup file | N | Y | Y(7) | Y(7) | Y | Y | N | N |
| Has non-login startup file | N | Y | Y(7) | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| Can avoid user startup files | N | Y | N | Y | N | Y | Y | Y |
| Can specify startup file | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Low-level command redefinition | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | Y |
| Has anonymous functions | N | N | N | N | N | N | Y | Y |
| List Variables | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Full signal trap handling | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y |
| File no clobber ability | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | F |
| Local variables | N | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y |
| Lexically scoped variables | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | Y |
| Exceptions | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | Y |
Key to the table above.
Y Feature can be done using this shell.
N Feature is not present in the shell.
F Feature can only be done by using the shells function mechanism.
L The Readline library must be linked into the shell to enable this Feature.
Notes to the table above
1. This feature was not in the original version but has since become almost standard.
2. This feature is fairly new and so is often not found on many versions of the shell, it is gradually making its way into standard distribution.
3. The Vi emulation of this shell is thought by many to be incomplete.
4. This feature is not standard but unofficial patches exist to perform this.
5. A version called ‘pdksh’ is freely available, but does not have the full functionality of the AT&T version.
6. This can be done via the shells programmable completion mechanism.
7. Only by specifying a file via the ENV environment variable.