


Question from ltdortch:

“What is the purpose of the command interpreter and why is it usually separate from the kernel?”

Answer from GoodOlMike:

“That’s kind of a tough question. A command interpreter is a program that performs certain lower level functions based on a command line or commands in a file. in the Windows OS or the various shells in unix do the job.

Why is it seperate? I guess because its functions at are a higher level than those of the kernel…”

Answer from Halo_Four:

“If you’re in a Windows NT environment cmd.exe is really the choice command interpretter. It is a real 32-bit console application. COMMAND.COM is a 16-bit DOS application that executes with the DOS virtual machine (NTVDM.) The speed differences are incredibly obvious, not to mention functionality.

You can also get other shells for Windows, including bash, Korn, Bourne and CShell.”

Answer from RogerDucky:

“Kernel is the “core” of the OS. Command Interpreter is the user interface. Just like XWindows on Linux and Windows GUI on Windows, the command interpreter, which supports a CLI (command line interface) wouldn’t make sense as part of the kernel, usually.”
