You don’t have to edit /etc/passwd file to change your shell. You need to use the chsh command. It changes the user login shell. This determines the name of the users’ initial login command. A normal user may only change the login shell for his/her own account, the super user i.e. root user may change the login shell for any account.
chsh command syntax
Following is syntax for chsh command:
chsh -s {shell-name} {user-name}
Where,
- -s {shell-name} : Specify your login shell name. You can obtained list of avialble shell from /etc/shells file.
- User-name : It is optional, useful if you are a root user.
First, find out available shell list:
$ less /etc/shells
Sample Outputs:
/bin/ash /bin/csh /bin/sh /usr/bin/es /bin/ksh /bin/tcsh /bin/sash /bin/zsh /bin/dash /usr/bin/screen /bin/bash /bin/rbash
Example: Changing default shell in Linux to /bin/tcsh
To change your shell name to /bin/tcsh:
$ chsh -s /bin/tcsh
Sample outputs:
Password:
When promoted for password, type your own password. You must log out and log back in to see this change. If you just type chsh command, it will prompt for shell name interactively:
$ chsh
Sample outputs:
Password:
Changing the login shell for tv
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
Login Shell [/bin/bash]:
This command will change the default login shell to /bin/tcsh permanently. In this example, first find out path for bash shell, enter:
$ type -s bash
$ which bash
Sample outputs:
bash is /usr/local/bin/bash
Now use the below command to set shell to bash for a user named vivek:
$ chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash vivek
OR if you know sysadmin root passoword:
$ sudo chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash vivek
6 comment
I need to change my root password on daily basis. But the new password should be create from shell script. The input for the new password should be current date. Which means
let we say
the current date is x1, then the password should be x2. (but user should be able to calculate the new password)
is it possible to do it?
yes, try the cron deamon (crontab)
Hi.
Followed, but still see csh welcome in new tab of Terminal in xfce on FreeBSD.
/etc/passwd shows bash. What I’ve missed?
please i try to change my shell from bash to csh then i get this steps ,what have i write then:
[wrf@wrf-host ~]$ chsh
Changing shell for wrf.
Password:
New shell [/bin/csh]:
You should then just press [enter] to have csh as a default shell.
chsh not working for centos