No "Advanced Options" any more on zsh

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Level 1

4 points

No "Advanced Options" any more on zsh

This is on a new (Dec 2022) MiniMac with the Apple chip. I'm trying to change the shell in the terminal app to bash, it seems to use the old bourne shell now.

When the terminal starts up, it says that zsh is the new default but it's waking up in sh. It says to use chsh, but that doesn't work either, it simply says nothing done. I suspect chsh is out of date and there is some new utility to do with Open Directory, but I don't know how that works or how to change the login/terminal shell under this new system. Perhaps there *is* no login shell? Weird.

The HT208050 support page, mentioned in that same message, does not work because the "advanced options" button doesn't seem to exist, only a password change, but I don't want to change the password, I want to change the shell.

Passwd shows /bin/bash, but Terminal wakes up in sh. I set /bin/bash in the Terminal preferences, but that doesn't take; it still wakes up in sh. I know, I can just run bash on the command line, and that's what I've been doing, but it's an annoyance that a sophisticated computer can't do something dumb like change my shell to something I like. Blast it, I have *scripts* that I don't want to change.

Then to top it all, when I click that the support page isn't helpful, it brings up a window where I can explain but that window doesn't accept input. So I can't offer any feedback on the support page, or I presume on *any* support page. Not encouraging.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Dec 16, 2022 6:38 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,392 points

Dec 20, 2022 11:20 AM in response to dwknapp

Use:

sudo /usr/bin/chsh -s /bin/zsh

You admin password will not echo at the password prompt. Zsh will not read any prior Bash dot files and would only use the default System PATH settings. If you haven't already, configure your $HOME/.zshrc file for PATH and PS1 prompt, plus any other needed settings. A newly launched Terminal will use Zsh and read that ~/.zshrc file.

Bash is up to v5.2.15 on Linux, and because it is a GPL3 license, Apple stays at Bash v3.2.57 from the 2007 timeframe. The sh shell is just Bash v3.2.57 by another name. Although Zsh v5.9 has been out since May 2022, and despite Apple's commitment to Zsh, they have not updated it beyond v5.8.1 on Ventura 13.1.

For more on Zsh, see the Zsh site, or in Terminal, see the appropriate man pages:

man zsh
man zshall

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Answer 2

dwknapp Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 20, 2022 1:17 PM in response to nbotros

Works. But really it was a case of short circuit between the headphones, I misread "control-click on user" for "click on user" and so did not see the advanced panel. And because of another mistake I wasn't seeing $BASH or any of its relatives.

Color me deeply embarrassed. D'oh!

Thanks to all for your helpful replies.

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Answer 3

HWTech

Level 9

69,194 points

Dec 20, 2022 11:23 AM in response to dwknapp

dwknapp wrote:

I know, I can just run bash on the command line, and that's what I've been doing, but it's an annoyance that a sophisticated computer can't do something dumb like change my shell to something I like. Blast it, I have *scripts* that I don't want to change.

If you can access bash, then you should not have to worry about your scripts as long as you correctly indicated which shell to use for the script within the script with the first line being "#!/bin/bash" (there are options for each shell, plus there are other variations for bash depending on your needs...I'm not that familiar with other variations).

It may help if you posted a screenshot of using the "chsh" command to change to bash so we can see the command you are using and the exact output of the error messages. You can also run "chsh" without any arguments which should launch an interactive session where you specify which shell to use as the default.

You may also want to try changing the shell while booted into Safe Mode in case you have some third party apps installed which are interfering with the normal operation of macOS. You may also want log into another macOS user account to try changing the default shell of that account to see if it is an issue specific to your main user or to the whole system.

Have you used Homebrew at all?

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Answer 4

nbotros

Community Specialist

Dec 19, 2022 5:32 PM in response to dwknapp

Hello dwknapp,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. Which macOS version is installed on your Mac? You can find this information under: Apple > About This Mac.

To get started, please back up your Mac, and install any pending updates by following these steps:

Update macOS on Mac

If your Mac is up-to-date on software, please contact Apple Support to investigate this issue further. You can reach out to them using this link: Get Support

We hope this information is useful. Kind regards.

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No "Advanced Options" any more on zsh

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