Comments on: How do I find out what shell I’m using?

By: Victor

Victor — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:09:58 +0000

LOL, just what I was thinking. ^^

By: ujjal

ujjal — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:29:33 +0000

you can also use
ps | grep $$

By: CRP

CRP — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:51:41 +0000

This is not 100% accurate.

echo $SHELL and other similar methods print the name the current shell is called in the current environment.
sh --version, on the other hand, prints the version of the default shell
If you combine them, you can spawn another process, running the same shell as the parent, and ask it what is its version.

Example (note how my shell is given the name "csh", but it is really a tcsh):

[me@localhost ~]$ echo $SHELL
/bin/csh
[me@localhost ~]$ sh --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.25(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
[me@localhost ~]$ $SHELL --version
tcsh 6.14.00 (Astron) 2005-03-25 (x86_64-unknown-linux) options wide,nls,dl,al,kan,sm,rh,color,filec

By: Giuseppe Bertone

Giuseppe Bertone — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 11:01:28 +0000

Hi John,

ps -p $$

and

echo $0

always return the current shell, even from a sub-shell because they print the current process. The /etc/passwd file is simply a file and then it does not store the current user shell but the login shell. In your example, you are using the Change login shell (chsh) to actually change the shell automatically launched at your login, and this is why the change is immediately visible in the /etc/passwd file.

By: cindy

cindy — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 00:48:52 +0000

pwd.

By: Tim Jowers

Tim Jowers — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:37:35 +0000

$ bash
in
[a148503@wuvra99a0219 logs]$ uname -a
Linux wuvra99a0219 2.6.18-194.8.1.el5 #1 SMP Wed Jun 23 10:52:51 EDT 2010 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$SHELL is the only thing remaining as ksh:

[a148503@wuvra99a0219 logs]$ ps -$$
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
18336 pts/13 S 0:00 bash
[a148503@wuvra99a0219 logs]$ echo $SHELL
/usr/bin/ksh
[a148503@wuvra99a0219 logs]$ echo $0
bash

By: san

san — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:53:19 +0000

you can also use

ps -u

By: john fuller

john fuller — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:33:30 +0000

I noticed that, command such as; ps -$$, echo $SHELL, echo $0, printenv will print the current shell, but In case you have temperoraly changed your shell, these commands will not show the changes, unless you log out and log In. Whereas, cat /etc/passwd file will show the change mmediately without loging out.

For ex: At the current shell (ex-/bin/bash), if you type ‘chsh’ and then enter /bin/tcsh, it will change the shell to ‘tcsh’, but the cmds mentioned above will still be reporting the old shell that is /bin/bash, unless you logout. But, /et/passwd file will show the changes immediately.

By: akshay

akshay — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:37:17 +0000

ps -p $$
and
echo $0

thanks a lot!

By: gitterrost4

gitterrost4 — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 07:42:01 +0000

Thanks for this.
But the last sentence…

“Or better try out following if you have a bash shell:
MYSHELL=$(ps -hp $$|awk ‘{echo $5}’)
”

If you have a bash shell, couldn’t you just do
MYSHELL=”bash”
?

By: Suneelm

Suneelm — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:16:09 +0000

Thanks ..

By: lee murray

lee murray — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:58:57 +0000

exactly what i was looking for. thanks

By: ashwin

ashwin — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:22:16 +0000

You can also find this out from et/passwd file :

Command to run:
# cat /etc/passwd

By: maki

maki — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:22:29 +0000

-hp might not work. Also, echo?

ps h -p $$ | awk ‘{print $5}’

By: Paul Harper

Paul Harper — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:49:48 +0000

you can also use
echo $0

By: Akram

Akram — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:51:03 +0000

thanks this is what i looking for