.CSH File Extension
C Shell Script
| Developer | Bill Joy |
| Popularity |
3.4 | 7 Votes |
| Category | Executable Files |
| Format | Text |
What is a CSH file?
A CSH file is a script that can be run with the Unix C shell (or a C shell variant like tcsh). It contains instructions written in a command language similar to the C/C++ programming language. Users can execute the commands a CSH file contains by calling the file with the C shell (csh).
In the late 1970s, developer Bill Joy created csh. This Unix shell, which is included in many Unix distributions and also available in macOS, allows users to write and execute commands structured similarly to C statements.
Users who want to quickly execute multiple C shell commands in succession can save those commands as a C shell script. These scripts are plain text files, saved with the .csh extension, that users can create and edit in any text editor. Users can then call their CSH file with the C shell to execute the script it contains.
On rare occasions, C shell scripts may instead be saved with the .SH extension. One way to recognize a C shell script is to look for the string #!/bin/csh in the script's first line. Most C shell scripts include this string, which tells the shell the script should be executed using the C shell interpreter.
How to open a CSH file
You can open a CSH file and view or edit the script it contains in Microsoft Notepad (Windows), Apple TextEdit (Mac), Vim (Linux), or any other text editor.
To execute the script a CSH file contains, open the C shell, navigate to the directory that contains your file, and enter csh YourFileName.csh.