Change default shell: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 09:52, 22 October 2024

Alpine Linux uses the BusyBox variant of the ash shell. This page explains various ways to change the default shell in Alpine Linux to other popular shells like bash, zsh, fish etc.. You can revert back to ash shell at anytime with the same steps.

Note: You need to log out and login again for these changes to take effect.

By hand

Edit /etc/passwd manually. An example line for a user named user is:

Contents of /etc/passwd

...
user:x:1000:1000:user:/home/user:/bin/ash
...

Change /bin/ash to point to the path of a shell from /etc/shells. Take care to not delete/mangle the line, as it would make you unable to log in again. The user should be the user you are changing the default login shell for.

Using shadow

Download the required package:

# apk add shadow

And use chsh:

# chsh username

Now enter the path for the shell you want to use (e.g /bin/bash) and press Enter to confirm this change. The shell should exist in /etc/shells.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{Note|By default Alpine Linux uses the busybox variant of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almquist_shell ash] shell, but many users may prefer {{Pkg|bash}}, {{Pkg|zsh}}, {{Pkg|fish}}, or another shell.}}
+Alpine Linux uses the [[BusyBox]] variant of the [[BusyBox#Ash_shell|ash]] shell. This page explains various ways to change the default shell in Alpine Linux to other popular shells like {{Pkg|bash}}, {{Pkg|zsh}}, {{Pkg|fish}} etc.. You can revert back to '''ash shell''' at anytime with the same steps.
+{{Note|You need to log out and login again for these changes to take effect.}}
 == By hand ==
-Edit /etc/passwd manually. An example line is:
+Edit {{Path|/etc/passwd}} manually. An example line for a user named <code>user</code> is:
-<code>user:x:1000:1000:user,,,:/home/user:/bin/ash</code>
+{{Cat|/etc/passwd|...
+user:x:1000:1000:user:/home/user:/bin/ash
+...
+}}
-Change <code>/bin/ash</code> to point to the path of a shell from <code>/etc/shells</code>.
+Change {{Path|/bin/ash}} to point to the path of a shell from {{Path|/etc/shells}}. Take care to not delete/mangle the line, as it would make you unable to log in again. The <code>user</code> should be the user you are changing the default login shell for.
 == Using shadow ==
@@ Line 14: / Line 20: @@
 {{Cmd|# chsh username}}
-Now enter the path for the shell you want to use (e.g <code>/bin/bash</code>)
+Now enter the path for the shell you want to use (e.g {{Path|/bin/bash}})
-and press enter to confirm this change. The shell should exist in <code>/etc/shells</code>.
+and press {{Key|Enter}} to confirm this change. The shell should exist in {{Path|/etc/shells}}.
-{{Note|You may need to log out or reboot for this change to take effect, '''ash''' is part of busybox so you can revert back to '''ash''' (/bin/ash) at anytime with the same steps.}}
+[[Category:Shell]]
+[[Category:System Administration]]