This post will present a detailed comparison of PowerShell and Bash Scripting with the below-listed learning outcomes:
- What is Windows PowerShell?
- Advantages of PowerShell
- What is Bash Scripting?
- Advantages of Bash/shell Scripting
- Comparison Based on Differences
- Comparison Based on Commands
So, let’s begin!
What is Windows PowerShell?
It is a cross-platform tool/scripting language based on .Net framework and developed by Microsoft. It is composed of a CLI and a scripting language. It is an object-oriented task automation engine and scripting language that assists the administrative to automate and configure the administrative tasks. It is available on the Windows operating systems natively and can be installed on the other operating systems like Linux and macOS.
Advantages of PowerShell
Windows PowerShell provides numerous key advantages and some of them are listed below:
- Open Source.
- Cross-platform.
- Task automation.
- Time-saving.
- Rich command line-based interface.
- Easier and flexible.
- Secure scripting engine.
- Easy debugging and testing.
What is Bash?
It is a command line interface for Linux/Unix and a command language used to manipulate the files and directories efficiently. If we talk about the bash/shell script, it is a plain text file that includes a wide range of commands that enable us to perform different functionalities such as running more than one command simultaneously, automating the tasks, and customizing administrative tasks, etc.
Advantages of Bash/shell Scripting
Bash scripting offers many advantages, some of them are highlighted below:
- Quick start.
- Simple commands and syntax.
- Avoids repetitive work.
- Easy and interactive Code debugging.
- Easy program/file selection.
- Writing a bash/shell script is much faster as compared to other programming languages.
Comparison Based on Differences
Till this point we have learned what is windows PowerShell, Bash Scripting and their advantages. Now, let’s consider the below-given table to understand what are the key differences between Windows PowerShell and Shell Scripting:
| Windows PowerShell | Bash/shell Scripting |
| PowerShell is Native on Windows and can be used on macOS and Linux operating systems. | Bash is Native on Linux and can be used on other platforms like Windows, Unix, BSD, and macOS. |
| It is a scripting language for most of the Windows operating systems. | It is a scripting language for most of the Linux operating systems. |
| Introduced in 2006. | Introduced in 1989. |
| By default available on Windows 2007 and above. | By default, it is installed on Linux. |
| Used to automate the tasks and configuration management for Windows. | Used to automate tasks on Linux. |
| It has an interactive graphical CLI. | It has a plain text-based user interface(UI). |
| It treats everything(like input, and output) as objects. | It treats everything (such as input, and output) as plain text. |
| It is well-suited for Microsoft environments. | It is well-suited for Linux environments and servers. |
Here, we explained some major differences, and from the table given above, we can conclude that both PowerShell and bash have their own advantages and usage. Windows PowerShell as well as Bash shell provide an intelligent CLI using their own configuration manager tool.
Comparison Based on Commands
The table given below will present a Commands-based comparative analysis of Windows PowerShell and Bash Scripting:
| Tasks | Bash Command | PowerShell Command |
| How to list the files or directories? | ls | Get-ChildItem or ls |
| How to create a .txt file? | touch <fileName.txt> | New-Item<fileName.txt> |
| How to copy a file? | cp | Copy-item |
| How to move a file? | mv | Move-item |
| How to delete a file? | rm | Remove-Item, rm, del, |
| How to delete a directory? | rm -r | Remove-Item, rmdir |
| How to change directory? | cd | Set-ChildItem |
| How to show the current directory? | pwd | Get-location |
| How to clear the Screen? | clear, ctrl+l | Cls, clear, ctrl+l |
| How to print a String? | echo “string” | echo “string”, write-host |
| How to create a Variable? | var | $var |
| How to write a comment | #comment | #comment |
| How to search a Path? | $Path | $env:Path |
| How to use boolean values? | true, false | $true, $false |
There are many more Powershell and Bash commands, here, we discussed the most frequently used commands.
Conclusion
PowerShell is Native on Windows and can be used on macOS and Linux operating Systems while Bash is Native on Linux and can be used on other platforms like Windows, Unix, BSD, and macOS. Windows PowerShell, as well as Bash shell, provide an intelligent CLI using their own configuration manager tool. This write-up presented a detailed comparison of PowerShell and bash scripting.
