What is the difference between a shell and a terminal?

beginner

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A terminal is a program that provides a text-based interface to interact with the system, while a shell is the command-line interpreter that processes and executes commands entered in the terminal.

The terminal handles input/output display, while the shell interprets commands, manages environment variables, handles job control, and executes programs. Common shells include Bash, Zsh, Fish, and Dash.

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