Processing a command

Different processes interpret the commands you type at the command line.

When you type a command, several different processes interpret it in turn:

  1. The driver for your character device interprets such keys as Backspace and CtrlC.
  2. The command interpreter or shell breaks the command line into tokens, interprets them, and then invokes any utilities.
  3. The utilities parse the command line that the shell passes to them, and then they perform the appropriate actions.