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I'm having some difficulties in changing the value of $SHELL in OSX's iTerm app. iTerm is starting in /bin/zsh, but the value of $SHELL doesn't seem to change.

What I've done:

  1. Changed "command" as /bin/zsh in iTerm's configuration window.
  2. Executed chsh to change the shell to /bin/zsh.
  3. Confirmed iTerm is started in /bin/zsh

NOTE #1: In OSX's stock terminal app, "Terminal.app":

echo $SHELL
/bin/zsh

NOTE #2: In OSX's popular terminal app, "iTerm.app":

$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash

$ echo $USER
$ melvkim

$ chsh -s /bin/zsh
Changing shell for melvkim.
Password for melvkim:
chsh: no changes made
dan
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melvynkim
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    Have you looked in /etc/shells ? The manual states that if the shell you specify is not in that file, it isn't considered a standard shell. – Bob Dalgleish May 27 '14 at 02:05
  • You real problem isn’t to change the $SHELL, but your real default shell in iTerm. The variable is built at login shell from the default shell used by iTerm. – dan Aug 07 '21 at 09:08
  • could you mark your answer as correct to mark the question as answered? You can mark your own answer as a solution. Thanks! – anonymousaga Jul 06 '22 at 22:55

6 Answers6

10

The problem was the "iTerm" app's conflicting settings with the shell. To resolve, I've reset "login shell" command in iTerm preference window:

iTerm.app -> Preferences -> Profiles -> General -> Command -> Click on "Login shell"

Then, I executed chsh to modify it as /bin/zsh.

To reproduce the problem (having $SHELL set as /bin/bash/, even though the login shell is /bin/zsh), I just had to change "iTerm" setting back to "Command: /bin/zsh/".

mmmmmm
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melvynkim
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  • Buddy of mine had the same issue w/ intelliJ. – slm Sep 22 '20 at 15:03
  • re: "iTerm.app -> Preferences". I'm a long time Linux user (hence why I'm here) but new to iOs. I just can't find this instruction. More guidance would be appreciated. I really want bash in IOs! – Stephen Hosking Mar 21 '21 at 11:22
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    @StephenHosking with iTerm active, do CMD + , to reach Preferences – sidcha May 12 '21 at 21:43
  • Remove the / at the end of your iTerm preferences shell path, because it might cause errors in shell scripts. – dan Aug 07 '21 at 09:11
5

I had a similar issue but I resolved it by executing the command chsh -s /bin/zsh in the terminal,then navigated to

Terminal -> Preferences -> General window

and changed the Shells open with: option to Default login shell while the command (complete path) set to /bin/zsh.This should solve your problem.

Gwamaka Charles
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2

Look here for the excellent explanation and solution posted by @mklement0 [in relation to a bash upgrade problem.

I had a similar problem in doing the opposite on my system (OS X 10.10.1): making bash the default login shell again after I had installed oh-my-zsh, which made zsh the default, and then upgrading bash from 3.2.53 to 4.3.30 using Homebrew (why is Apple shipping Yosemite with an old bash version?).

I think the SHELL environment variable reflects but does not control the actual default login shell for the user. For example, if, say, bash was your default and you open a new bash shell window from terminal then $ export SHELL="/bin/zsh"; echo "$SHELL" would show /bin/zsh but no actual change will occur because if you open a new shell window from terminal and do $ echo $0 then you would see -bash ($0 contains the name and path of the command that started the shell window, in this case bash, and the - next to it indicates that it is a login shell).

As @mklement0 pointed out the actual default login shell for the user is controlled by the UserShell property in the user's record in the system's internal database - this can be queried and updated using the command line utility dscl. This information will passed to your terminal app when you open a shell window.

What chsh -s /bin/zsh does is change this UserShell property to set it to zsh - you can check this by doing dscl . -read /Users/$USER/ UserShell immediately afterwards, and you will see UserShell: /bin/zsh. But the change is not effected in the current window, until you do something like exec su - $USER as suggested by @mklement0, or until you close and open a shell window.

Community
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ramius
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2

Try executing the command: chsh -s /bin/zsh from the default Mac terminal.

mohitmayank
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    What does this do differently from the OP? – JMY1000 Feb 07 '17 at 16:12
  • @JMY1000 If you try to execute that command from iTerm, the changes aren't reflected. You should be able to get it working by executing it from Mac's default terminal. – mohitmayank Feb 10 '17 at 02:37
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The -s flag for chsh only attempts to change the shell, and probably fails due to Open Directory: The usual UNIX system 'chsh' would modify the /etc/passwd entry. However, I was able to run chsh with no arguments, which gave me an editor, and the following information:

# Changing user information for nevin.
# Use "passwd" to change the password.
##
# Open Directory: /Local/Default
##
Shell: /bin/tcsh
Full Name: Nevin Williams
Office Location:
Office Phone:
Home Phone:

I was able to edit the "Shell:" entry to /bin/zsh, and subsequent Terminal windows opened with a Z-shell prompt.

Nevin Williams
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  • I tried chsh with no args. Still no luck. The variable doesn't change. In fact, when the editor was loaded, it showed /bin/zsh. – melvynkim May 25 '14 at 02:54
  • Try changing the shell with the editor. I made a screen capture of me changing from /bin/tcsh to /bin/zsh and back. http://bonmot.ca/~nevin/chsh.mov – Nevin Williams May 25 '14 at 04:09
  • Thank you very much for taking your time recording posting your screencast! Your solution is supposed to be working on other terminal emulators, but I wasn't abel to change $SHELL on iTerm. Please refer to my answer for details.. Thanks! – melvynkim May 26 '14 at 18:40
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I had a similar issue. The Terminal would open into bash. csh -s /bin/zsh would fail with an error. Examining the default shell in System Preferences->Users by control-clicking on my user showed /bin/zsh was set. dscl showed /bin/zsh was set. I tried resetting Terminal->Preferences to /bin/zsh. That also failed.

Ultimately, it turned out there was a lockfile. Going to ~/Library/Preferences, I deleted com.apple.Terminal.plist.lockfile and com.apple.Terminal.plist. That fixed the problem. On the next startup, zsh loaded correctly in the terminal.

mmmmmm
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frankblack
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