Different processes interpret the commands you type at the command line.
When you type a command, several different processes interpret it in turn:
- The driver for your character device interprets such keys as Backspace
and CtrlC.
- The command interpreter or shell breaks the command line into tokens,
interprets them, and then invokes any utilities.
- The utilities parse the command line that the shell passes to them, and then they
perform the appropriate actions.