Shell management

2026-05-02T00:26:51Z

1something: /* Available shells */

The default shell used by Alpine Linux is the [[BusyBox]] variant of the [[BusyBox#Ash_shell|ash]] shell. This page explains how to use the default shell and various ways to change the default shell in Alpine Linux.

== Ash shell ==

Alpine Linux uses [[Busybox]] Ash shell for its default shell. It is a standard POSIX shell derived from Debian Ash variant.

One's ~/.bashrc file (or, alternatively, a different shell alias file) could be considered as a basis, say, for an {{Path|~/.ashrc}} file, reviewing it carefully for syntax/cli variants against that of Ash shell. For non-login, interactive shells refer to [[#Setting alias|Setting alias]] section.

{{Tip|Use {{pkg|checkbashisms}} script to perform basic checks for the presence of bashisms in scripts and help remove them.}}

=== Setting alias ===

For non-login shells, Busybox Ash and other POSIX shells do NOT automatically read a startup file like {{Path|~/.ashrc}}. To ensure that both login and non-login shells work consistently, use '''ENV''' environment variable in {{Path|~/.profile}} to refer {{Path|~/.ashrc}} file.

# Edit the {{Path|~/.profile}} as follows: {{Cat|~/.profile|<nowiki>...
export ENV="$HOME/.ashrc" </nowiki>}}
# Now aliases can be added in the startup file {{Path|~/.ashrc}} as follows: {{Cat|~/.ashrc|<nowiki># ~/.ashrc: interactive shell configuration for BusyBox Ash

# Custom Aliases
alias ls='ls --color=auto'
alias grep='grep --color=auto'

# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.ash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.

if [ -f ~/.ash_aliases ]; then
. ~/.ash_aliases
fi</nowiki>}}

== Available shells ==

Most of the popular shells are available in Alpine Linux repositories as can be seen from the below list.
{| class="wikitable" align="center" style="width:100%; border:1px #0771a6 solid; background:#f9f9f9; text-align:left; border-collapse:collapse;"
|-style="background:#333333; color:#ffffff; font-size: 1.2em; text-align:center;"
|width="10%" | Name
|width="36%" | URL
|Remarks
|-
|{{Pkg|bash}}|| https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/bash.html||The GNU Bourne Again shell
|-
|{{pkg|dash}} ||http://gondor.apana.org.au/~herbert/dash/||Small and fast POSIX-compliant shell
|-
|{{pkg|elvish}} ||https://elv.sh||Friendly and expressive Unix shell
|-
|{{Pkg|fish}} ||https://fishshell.com/||Modern interactive commandline shell
|-
|{{pkg|loksh}} ||https://github.com/dimkr/loksh||A Linux port of OpenBSD's ksh
|-
|{{pkg|mksh}} ||http://www.mirbsd.org/mksh.htm||MirBSD's fork of ksh
|-
|{{pkg|murex}} ||https://murex.rocks/||Intuitive, typed and content aware shell
|-
|{{pkg|nsh}} ||https://github.com/nuta/nsh||A command-line shell like fish, but POSIX compatible
|-
|{{pkg|nushell}} ||https://www.nushell.sh||A new type of shell
|-
|{{pkg|oksh}} ||https://github.com/ibara/oksh||Portable OpenBSD ksh, based on pdksh
|-
|{{pkg|tcsh}} ||https://github.com/tcsh-org/tcsh||extended C-shell
|-
|{{pkg|yash}} ||https://magicant.github.io/yash||Yet another shell
|-
|{{Pkg|zsh}} || https://www.zsh.org/||Very advanced and programmable command interpreter
|}

To install any of the above shells, say for eg: {{pkg|bash}} shell: {{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|bash}} {{pkg|bash-completion}}}}

== Change default shell ==

There are various ways to change the default user shell in Alpine Linux. You can revert back to [[#ash|ash]] shell at anytime with the same steps.

{{Note|You need to log out and login again for these changes to take effect.}}

=== Using chsh command ===

To use {{ic|chsh}} command, install the {{pkg|shadow}} package: {{Cmd|# apk add shadow}}
And use chsh: {{Cmd|# chsh username}}
Now enter the path for the shell you want to use (e.g {{Path|/bin/zsh}})
and press {{Key|Enter}} to confirm this change. The shell should exist in {{Path|/etc/shells}}.

=== By hand ===

{{Warning|Take care not to delete/mangle the line, as it would make you unable to log in again.}}

Edit {{Path|/etc/passwd}} manually using an editor of your choice. An example line for a user named <code>user</code> is: {{Cat|/etc/passwd|...
user:x:1000:1000:user:/home/user:/bin/ash
...
}}

Change {{Path|/bin/ash}} to point to the path of a shell from {{Path|/etc/shells}}. The <code>user</code> should be the user you are changing the default login shell for.

== /bin/sh ==

Most applications expect a POSIX-compliant shell to be present in a standard location, {{Path|/bin/sh}}. In Alpine Linux, {{Path|/bin/sh}} is linked to [[#Ash shell|Busybox ash]] by default, but you can change this by installing an alternate {{pkg|*-binsh}} package. Changing {{Path|/bin/sh}} may lead to a difference in script execution speed.

To use {{pkg|dash}} shell as {{Path|/bin/sh}}:{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|dash-binsh}}}}

== See also ==

* [https://linux.die.net/man/1/dash dash Manual]
* [https://git.busybox.net/busybox/tree/shell/README Ash README]
* [https://git.busybox.net/busybox/tree/shell Ash source code]
* [https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/ POSIX standard]
* [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38024160/how-to-get-etc-profile-to-run-automatically-in-alpine-docker/38025686#38025686 stackoverflow on ash shell]

[[Category:Shell]]
[[Category:System Administration]]

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Shell management