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set and shopt are both shell builtins that control various options. I often forget which options are set by which command, and occasionally which option sets/unsets (set +o/-o, shopt -s/-u). Why are there two different commands that seemingly do the same thing (and have different arguments to do so)? Is there any easy way/mnemonic to remember which options go with which command?

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Try looking at the second line of help set and help shopt to verify that even their authors think they do the same thing. – l0b0 Feb 22 '12 at 16:28
"Change the value of shell attributes" vs "Change the setting of each shell option". – Kevin Feb 22 '12 at 16:30
In Bash 4.1.5(1)-release it says "Set or unset values of shell options and positional parameters." and "Set and unset shell options.", respectively. – l0b0 Feb 22 '12 at 16:33

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As far as I know, the set -o options are the ones that are inherited from other Bourne-style shells (mostly ksh), and the shopt options are the ones that are specific to bash. There's no logic that I know of.

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It looks like "set" options are inherited by subshells and shopts are not.

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Nice catch. I wonder whether this is an intentional choice or a side-effect. – Kevin Jan 5 at 19:09
@user29778 At least under bash 4.1.5(1) the options set with set are not inherited by subshells.Both set and shopt options are not inherited by subshells. – Martin May 7 at 22:13

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