changing the default shell to zsh

By default, the shell on a Mac is bash. Changing this should be a simple three step process:

1. Make sure that zsh is installed and is an accepted shell $ cat /etc/shells
2. Change the shell $ chsh -s $(which zsh)
3. Restart your shell

Install zsh and verify that it’s listed among the accepted shells

Apple preinstalls zsh at /bin/zsh, however, if you use homebrew, you will have to take a few extra steps (see below).

$ cat /etc/shells
# List of acceptable shells for chpass(1).
# Ftpd will not allow users to connect who are not using
# one of these shells.

/bin/bash
/bin/csh
/bin/ksh
/bin/sh
/bin/tcsh
/bin/zsh

Change Shells

Using the Change Shell and Which programs, you can change the default with a one line command:$ chsh -s $(which zsh)

The -s flag “Attempt[s] to change the user’s shell to newshell.”

With this done - restart the terminal and you should be in the new shell.

Update To confirm the change was effective, you can check your active shell using the ps utility.

Homebrew specifics

If you use homebrew (like I do) you’ll need to take a few extra steps.

1. Install zsh with homebrew -> brew install zsh.
2. Confirm it is installed with zsh --version.
3. Find where it’s located with which zsh
4. Make sure that this location is listed in the /etc/shells

Step three and four is where things diverge from the default since homebrew installs zsh to /usr/local/bin/zsh not /bin/zsh as is default - so it won’t be listed in /etc/shells by default.

When you try to run $ chsh -s $(which zsh), you’ll likely get the following:

$ chsh -s $(which zsh)
Changing shell for stephen.
Password for stephen:
chsh: /usr/local/bin/zsh: non-standard shell

The last line tells you what the problem is: chsh: /usr/local/bin/zsh: non-standard shell. The location of zsh (/usr/local/bin/zsh) was not among our accepted list of locations in /etc/shells.

Adding Homebrew’s zsh to /etc/shells

To add zsh to /etc/shells start with the simple command: $ echo "$(which zsh)" >> /etc/shells.

You may run into permissions issues (as I did) and need to use a sudo variant: $ sudo sh -c "echo $(which zsh) >> /etc/shells".

I took this from the StackOverflow discussion, however, I believe the sh -c is unnecessary.¹

What the sh -c says is the following: As a super user, use the shell and take commands from the following string. This is why we now include the echo in the string where it was not previously.

None-the-less, it worked. When I restarted my shell, I was now in zsh.

Other Notes: Changing Shells

The first time I installed zsh, I used oh-my-zsh. This got me up and running quickly, but also didn’t give me as much exposure to what I was doing.

I bring that up, because I actually didn’t know how to change back and forth between shells.

Not that there’s a lot of reason to, but knowing how makes me feel more in control.

Now, if I want to use bash, I can do that with $ chsh ($which bash) and then return to zsh with $ chsh ($which zsh).

This is changing the shell for the user — which is probably not the most efficient way, but it works. I’ll keep an eye out for a better way in the future.

Footnotes

• ¹ StackOverflow discussion For more info look at the man pages for how this works. man chsh and man which.