Default shell in Yosemite terminal app?

Discussion in 'Mac Basics and Help' started by MacMan988, Jan 25, 2015.

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  1. MacMan988, Jan 25, 2015
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2015

    MacMan988 macrumors 6502a

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2012
    #1
    Hi,

    What is the default shell being used in the Yosemite's terminal app? Is it possible to setup bash as the default shell and use my linux's .bashrc for my mac as well?

    Edit: Sorry for the silly question as I just noticed that bash is mentioned in the title bar of the terminal app. However if I type bash in the terminal app, it changes the prompt "bash-3.2$" and I'm still confused why the bash prompt changes if it was already running bash?
     
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  2. maflynn, Jan 25, 2015

    maflynn Moderator

    maflynn

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    Joined:
    May 3, 2009
    Location:
    Boston
    #2
    Bash is Apple's default shell.

    I believe the title you see is the app that is running, so your terminal app is running so it shows it. you then run another instance of bash and it shows up as a title change. To be honest, I'm not really sure why it does that, but then I don't start bash shells by typing bash after starting a terminal session.
     
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  3. chown33, Jan 25, 2015

    chown33 macrumors 604

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2009
    #3
    The difference in prompts is because when you type the command "bash", it doesn't run as a login shell. When a Terminal window opens, that window runs bash as a login shell. This changes several things about what bash does when it starts.

    Read the bash man page and look for the words "login" and "profile". Also look at the '-l' option.

    If it contains commands that exist on OS X, and work the same way, then yes. If it contains Linux-only commands, or uses options that aren't on OS X, then no.
     
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