"Non-login shell" ?

[Badfrog66]

I was reading one of the how-to's over at Linux.org and it mentioned a "login shell" as opposed to a "non-login shell"

I know what a shell is, what's the distinction between these two?

[Tyr-7BE]

Here's what I think...educated guess: Shell = things like bash and dos...includes a prompt and some commands. This is non-login because it has nothing to do with logging in. I believe that the login prompt is a separate shell entirely, and once a valid entry is entered, the login shell will shut down and the bash (ksh, csh, whatever) will start up.