Question

Why do all script files start with

#!/bin/sh

or with

#!/bin/csh

Is that required? What’s the purpose of this? And what’s the difference between the two?

Answer 1

This is known as a Shebang:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebang_(Unix)

#!interpreter [optional-arg]

A shebang is only relevant when a script has the execute permission (e.g. chmod u+x script.sh).

When a shell executes the script it will use the specified interpreter.

Example:

#!/bin/bash
# file: foo.sh
echo 1

$ chmod u+x foo.sh
$ ./foo.sh
  1