How to change the default shell in iTerm?

Question

I'm having some difficulties in changing the value of $SHELL in OSX's iTerm app. iTerm is starting in /bin/zsh, but the value of $SHELL doesn't seem to change.

What I've done:

1. Changed "command" as /bin/zsh in iTerm's configuration window.
2. Executed chsh to change the shell to /bin/zsh.
3. Confirmed iTerm is started in /bin/zsh

NOTE #1: In OSX's stock terminal app, "Terminal.app":

echo $SHELL
/bin/zsh

NOTE #2: In OSX's popular terminal app, "iTerm.app":

$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash

$ echo $USER
$ melvkim

$ chsh -s /bin/zsh
Changing shell for melvkim.
Password for melvkim:
chsh: no changes made

Answer 1

The problem was the "iTerm" app's conflicting settings with the shell. To resolve, I've reset "login shell" command in iTerm preference window:

iTerm.app -> Preferences -> Profiles -> General -> Command -> Click on "Login shell"

Then, I executed chsh to modify it as /bin/zsh.

To reproduce the problem (having $SHELL set as /bin/bash/, even though the login shell is /bin/zsh), I just had to change "iTerm" setting back to "Command: /bin/zsh/".

Answer 2

I had a similar issue but I resolved it by executing the command chsh -s /bin/zsh in the terminal,then navigated to

Terminal -> Preferences -> General window

and changed the Shells open with: option to Default login shell while the command (complete path) set to /bin/zsh.This should solve your problem.

Answer 3

Look here for the excellent explanation and solution posted by @mklement0 [in relation to a bash upgrade problem.

I had a similar problem in doing the opposite on my system (OS X 10.10.1): making bash the default login shell again after I had installed oh-my-zsh, which made zsh the default, and then upgrading bash from 3.2.53 to 4.3.30 using Homebrew (why is Apple shipping Yosemite with an old bash version?).

I think the SHELL environment variable reflects but does not control the actual default login shell for the user. For example, if, say, bash was your default and you open a new bash shell window from terminal then $ export SHELL="/bin/zsh"; echo "$SHELL" would show /bin/zsh but no actual change will occur because if you open a new shell window from terminal and do $ echo $0 then you would see -bash ($0 contains the name and path of the command that started the shell window, in this case bash, and the - next to it indicates that it is a login shell).

As @mklement0 pointed out the actual default login shell for the user is controlled by the UserShell property in the user's record in the system's internal database - this can be queried and updated using the command line utility dscl. This information will passed to your terminal app when you open a shell window.

What chsh -s /bin/zsh does is change this UserShell property to set it to zsh - you can check this by doing dscl . -read /Users/$USER/ UserShell immediately afterwards, and you will see UserShell: /bin/zsh. But the change is not effected in the current window, until you do something like exec su - $USER as suggested by @mklement0, or until you close and open a shell window.

Answer 4

Try executing the command: chsh -s /bin/zsh from the default Mac terminal.

Answer 5

The -s flag for chsh only attempts to change the shell, and probably fails due to Open Directory: The usual UNIX system 'chsh' would modify the /etc/passwd entry. However, I was able to run chsh with no arguments, which gave me an editor, and the following information:

# Changing user information for nevin.
# Use "passwd" to change the password.
##
# Open Directory: /Local/Default
##
Shell: /bin/tcsh
Full Name: Nevin Williams
Office Location:
Office Phone:
Home Phone:

I was able to edit the "Shell:" entry to /bin/zsh, and subsequent Terminal windows opened with a Z-shell prompt.

Answer 6

I had a similar issue. The Terminal would open into bash. csh -s /bin/zsh would fail with an error. Examining the default shell in System Preferences->Users by control-clicking on my user showed /bin/zsh was set. dscl showed /bin/zsh was set. I tried resetting Terminal->Preferences to /bin/zsh. That also failed.

Ultimately, it turned out there was a lockfile. Going to ~/Library/Preferences, I deleted com.apple.Terminal.plist.lockfile and com.apple.Terminal.plist. That fixed the problem. On the next startup, zsh loaded correctly in the terminal.