What is the relations between shell and kernel in unix operating system?

Answer 1

The kernel manages system resources: memory, cpu, devices etc.

The shell is a command interpreter. it translates the commands entered by the user into actions, acting as the interface for the user.

Answer 2

There's no direct relationship. The kernel is a set of programs that takes commands and interacts with the underlying hardware.

However, for most tasks, programming with the kernel is too tedious unless you are into serious C programming. Hence, UNIX designers wrote a layer of programs that does most of the work that a normal user would want and makes the kernel do it.

This layer was called the "shell" and the name stuck. So, a shell would be a program (or a set of programs) that interacts with the user and does the hard work of translating user requests into kernel-level calls that result in the output that the user wants.

In most UNIX systems, the user can bypass the shell and write C programs that make kernel calls to do the same thing - this is usually called low-level or kernel-level programming. With this you could build your own commands that do fancy things. In fact, you could write your own shell using this technique.

Answer 3

The shell acts as an interface between the user and the kernel. The kernel of UNIX is the hub of the operating system: it allocates time and memory to programs and handles the filestore and communications in response to system calls.

Answer 4

For this I would like to show a simple figure.The number signifies the level.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4.User Applications like your Music Players, Editors.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.Shell
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Operating System Kernel(UNIX)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Hardware(Your Computer:CPU,printer,hard disk)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Now The shell is just an interface by which you interact with the
operating systems (or its kernel).


Think Shell like a robot sensors. You are saying to your robot 'RUN'. the sensor will hear your command and do it. The thing which decides varuious decisions to be taken to initiate running, to move arms and legs is the kernel.

here RUN is a command(user application)
Robot Sensors-Shell
The control mechanism in the robot taking necessary actions like adjusting legs. -Operating System Kernel
The parts of robot like arms-Hardware