Changing default shell in Linux [closed]

Question

How is it possible to change the default shell? The env command currently says:

SHELL=/bin/tcsh

and I want to change that to Bash.

Answer 1

Try linux command chsh.

The detailed command is chsh -s /bin/bash. It will prompt you to enter your password. Your default login shell is /bin/bash now. You must log out and log back in to see this change.

The following is quoted from man page:

The chsh command 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 her own account, the superuser may change the login shell for any account

This command will change the default login shell permanently.

Note: If your user account is remote such as on Kerberos authentication (e.g. Enterprise RHEL) then you will not be able to use chsh.

Answer 2

You can change the passwd file directly for the particular user or use the below command

chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash username

Then log out and log in

Answer 3

You should have a 'skeleton' somewhere in /etc, probably /etc/skeleton, or check the default settings, probably /etc/default or something. Those are scripts that define standard environment variables getting set during a login.

If it is just for your own account: check the (hidden) file ~/.profile and ~/.login. Or generate them, if they don't exist. These are also evaluated by the login process.