Difference Between CMD vs PowerShell vs Bash

If you are a tech guy or have any kind of relation with IT, you must have come across the comparisons between CMD, PowerShell, Bash, and Windows vs Linux/Unix.

There is usually a debate going on about which tool is better for performing different administration and server automation tasks. Moreover, many people still couldn’t get over the difference between PowerShell, CMD, and Bash.

A lot of comparisons are carried out each day about their functionality and features, but still, it’s a hot topic.

This article will introduce all three tools and draw a clear line about how they are different from each other.

Comparison Table of CMD vs PowerShell vs Bash

What is CMD?

CMD stands for Windows Command Prompt. When Microsoft DOS operating system was launched initially, CMD was used as a shell in it and the first version of CMD was released in 1987, 34 years from today. The command prompt is the default command-line interpreter for Microsoft Windows and few other operating systems.

CMD is usually used for carrying out different routine administration tasks and is also used to perform automation. All such tasks are performed using scripts and batch files in the command prompt. Command prompt has pre-built commands that are usually used to perform different operations such as CD, copy, paste, ping, etc.

Example Commands:

• dir (list directory contents)
• copy (copy files)
• del (delete files)

What is PowerShell?

Microsoft Windows was never considered to be very good at task automation compared to Linux. It was because of the limited functionality of the command prompt. In 2002 Microsoft started working on a new command-line tool and it was called Monad. In 2006, the first version was released with the name PowerShell.

PowerShell is an automated command-line shell and also has all the features & functionalities of CMD. The major update or difference in PowerShell is that it is object-oriented. Its functionality is based on objects, very similar to object-oriented programming based on objects, functions, and methods. One great addition to the list of features in PowerShell is command lets, usually called Cmdlets.

Example Commands:

• Get-Process (list running processes)
• Get-Content file.txt | ForEach-Object { $_.ToUpper() } (process file contents)
• Set-Service -Name "spooler" -StartupType Automatic (manage services)

What is Bash?

As PowerShell is popular in windows operating systems, Bash is one of the most popular command-line interfaces in UNIX. Moreover, Bash is the default Shell these days in most Unix/Linux-based systems. In 1977 Stephen Bourne released his shell, at that time no shell was freely available.

Stephen Bourne released another open-source shell named (Bash) Bourne Again Shell in 1988 for the GNU project to get over this limitation. Since then, Bash is extremely popular among developers specially for deploying their code base or applications. Some of the key features of Bash are system stability, command-line editing, key-binding, command history, open-source, etc. All these features make it one of the most used scripting environments among IT professionals.

Example Commands:

• ls -l (list directory contents)
• cat file.txt | grep "error" (filter lines containing “error”)
• for file in *.txt; do echo $file; done (iterate over files)

Final Words

To put it in a nutshell, each of the tools has its own benefits and usage according to the specific circumstances. PowerShell is the advanced version of CMD with a lot of added functionalities and features. Moreover, it has a better graphical interface and better support for server automation tasks. Comparing PowerShell and Bash is like comparing apples and oranges, they are used for different operating systems with different functionalities all over.

Post Written by Uzair Ghalib

Uzair Ghalib is a writer who shares his insights on topics such as SysOps, DevOps, and server automation. With a talent for simplifying complex concepts, Uzair makes technology accessible to readers of all levels.