PWB/UNIX (for Programmer s Workbench) was an early version of the Unix operating system.

Prior to 1976 Unix development at AT&T was done by a small group of researchers. But as word of the usefulness of Unix spread throughout the system the decision was made to develop a version of Unix tailored to support programmers doing production work, not research. The Programmer s Workbench was intended to provide tools for teams of programmers to manage their source code, and collaborate on projects with other team members. While they managed their source on Unix systems their programs were often written to run on other legacy operating systems. For this reason, PWB included software for Batch processing to IBM System/370 and UNIVAC computers.

There were two major releases of Programmer s Workbench UNIX. PWB/UNIX 1.0, released July 1, 1977 was based on Version 6 Unix; PWB/UNIX 2.0 was based on Version 7 Unix. Most of PWB/UNIX was later incorporated in the commercial System III and System V releases.

The Source Code Control System, a notable early revision control system, was included with PWB/UNIX.

John Mashey wrote the PWB shell, which preceded Stephen Bourne s Bourne shell.

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