What is a shell?

R_55a wrote:

Well, no, OsiriX did not activate Terminal. OsiriX provided the command ran chsh -s /bin/zsh that I then ran in Terminal.

That wasn't OsiriX Lite providing that chsh command, nor the link to the support note.

That chsh command chatter is part of the usual output from macOS, when a user that has bash configured logs into a release that prefers zsh.

The following image is what I see on various of my logins, as I haven't bothered to suppress the message, or switch the shell to zsh:

This chatter is generic on newer macOS versions, and—again—this output is not related to OsiriX Lite.

The only part of the output that might be OsiriX Lite output—or might be some completely unrelated output from some existing tool or app unrelated to OsiriX Lite—is the previously-sited line of output. This is the file involved:

/Users/John Doe/Home/JD ---XR ---

As for the OsiriX Lite app build date shown in another reply, that vendor doesn't seem to directly post their current versions, but given the build date shown, that version is very likely current, or near enough to current not to matter.

Contact OsiriX support, using the previously-provided information for contacting this third-party provider.

Whether this shell script or this executable is some one-time setup procedure used by the app? As nobody around here has access to OsiriX Lite source code to review and confirm that, that's a guess. What might be derailing the (presumed) setup script, or executable ? I don't know. (f that JD-XR filename is the actual name of the file involved and if it's still around, maybe use Finder and Get Info and check the details of that.) It's also entirely possible that file is entirely unrelated to OsiriX Lite, and is output from some other issue with this Mac login and its shell environment configuration.

But this is all getting pretty deep into supporting and debugging a third-party app. Again, contact OsiriX support.

The shell stuff is a command interface for macOS and most other similar operating systems, and the chatter shown is normal for an older login in the current era; in the era as Apple is migrating folks from bash shell to zsh shell. You can ignore it. None of which is particularly relevant here.

What is relevant here is whatever caused this one line:

/Users/John Doe/Home/JD ---XR ---: cannot execute binary file

Again, the rest is irrelevant. OsiriX Lite should be contending just fine with either bash or zsh selected.

Whatever that command is, is failing.

I’m kinda surprised that’s even referencing something in “/Users/John Doe/Rest/Of/Path”, as I’d expect the app to only be referencing and using components stored in Applications.

This can be due to an error in OsiriX Lite, or maybe your particular Mac is set to do something odd with a particular file type and that is getting you into a command shell.

First, ensure you have the most current version of the OsiriX Lite app. Re-download it, if you’re not sure. This is the most important step, as a not-current app might fail on a newer macOS, and vendors routinely find and fix other errors and ship those updates. OsiriX doesn’t use the Mac app store, so updates will be handled through the app, or by re-downloading.

If that update fails to resolve this, use Finder, and Get Info on the OsiriX Lite app in Applications folder, and post a screenshot of that information.

If that Get Info isn’t set to do something very weird with this particular OsiriX Lite app, and it’s the current version, and is still failing, report this error to the app vendor. Here is how this vendor requests bug reports: https://www.osirix-viewer.com/pdf/ReportingAProblem.pdf

All this command is supposed to do is change the default shell. If you don’t use the Terminal you have absolutely no need for it, anyway.

OsiriX does not require the use of the Terminal.

Can you tell us where you found that instruction to run that chsh command?

I can't solve your technical problem, but I can try to answer your original question, "What is a shell?"

In old-school computer lingo, a "shell" is the manner with which a user communicates with a computer.

In the old days, the "shell" was a command-line interface, such as with Unix or MS-DOS.

Then with the advent of Mac and Windows, the "shell" became a Graphical User Interface, which which we're all familiar.

I've noticed that high-level programmer-people will nowadays use the term "shell" to refer to the act of reverting to a command-line interface within the GUI -- in this case, using Terminal to input Unix commands to the computer, rather than relying on the more distant outer shell of the GUI itself. Thus, in Macs, the underlying "shell" is Unix.

So, in these terms, a "shell command" is a text-based Unix command typed in to Terminal, telling your computer what to do.

As the previous commenters have noted, there are now different versions of text-based shell commands ("bash and "zsh") -- understanding the difference between them is above my pay grade.

I hope I've explained it clearly -- other folks might explain "shell" in different ways, but that's my understanding of it.

If you think changing your shell to zsh is the cause of your problems, then change it back to bash

chsh -s /bin/bash

Quit the Terminal.

Relaunch the Terminal.

If it works again, then you know it was the switch to zsh. If it is still failing, then it had nothing to do with zsh.

R_55a wrote:

As I said, the instruction to run the command came from a dialog box that OsiriX Lite opened.

Open Terminal.app yourself (with a login set to use bash), and you’ll get much of the same text shown.

If this were an issue with zsh, the macOS login sessions will only show the switch-to-zsh message output when the default shell is the older bash shell. Which means this login was bash and not zsh when this app failed to launch. Which means this wasn’t specifically a zsh issue.

Other option is some forgotten rubbish in the login that’s getting in the way. Enable viewing hidden files in Finder (command-shift-period toggles this) and move to your home directory and look for and rename .bash_profile and .bashrc and restart and see if the problem persists.

As for why the app isn’t launching, and what it’s doing with (and what it is failing with) this shell session, contact the app vendor support folks.

FWIW, I tried OsiriX Lite and it launches and does NOT cause the Terminal to activate...