Switching from zsh to bash on OS X, and back again?

Question

I'm learning to develop in Rails, and have discovered the power of zsh. However, for some of my other tasks, I wish to use normal bash.

Although they are the same, I just feel comfortable with the layout of bash in some situations.

How do I switch back and forth, or turn zsh on and off?

score 621 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 26 '12 at 20:58

621

You can just use exec to replace your current shell with a new shell:

Switch to bash:

exec bash

Switch to zsh:

exec zsh

This won't affect new terminal windows or anything, but it's convenient.

answered Apr 26 '12 at 20:58

larsks

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Or, just invoke zsh, and when you’re done `exit` to get back to bash. Exec’ing it seems unnecessary and undesirable. – Chris Page May 03 '12 at 07:32
All depends on what you expect your terminal window to do when you exit. I find starting a subshell unnecessary and undesirable, myself. – larsks May 03 '12 at 15:40
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How do you change the default? Also, when I do "exec bash" in zsh, it does not source my bash_profile. – Harshad Kale Jan 11 '14 at 17:59
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There are times when I want to use zsh and other times when it interferes with what I want to do. Setting the default back and forth is a bad idea so this is the perfect solution!!! kudos!! – Bob Roberts Jan 20 '17 at 04:55
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But if you run `echo $SHELL` it keep saying `/bin/zsh`, which have unexpected results like [this problem with MC (bug 3580)](https://midnight-commander.org/ticket/3580). – Pablo Bianchi Apr 28 '18 at 23:32
@kalehv `chsh -s /bin/zsh` will change the default. to source any executable including your .bash_profile do `. {filename}` – barclay Feb 10 '21 at 16:34

score 235 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 01 '21 at 13:16

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you can try chsh -s /bin/bash to set the bash as the default, or chsh -s /bin/zsh to set the zsh as the default.

Terminal will need a restart to take effect.

edited Dec 01 '21 at 13:16

Penny Liu

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answered Mar 22 '14 at 03:40

wanghao

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Not entirely true. One can simply enter command: "bash", or "zsh" to use that shell. – Kevin C Dec 01 '21 at 14:25
I don't think this work anymore in 2022 – user1034912 Aug 01 '22 at 21:59

score 85 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 24 '14 at 21:46

85

I switch between zsh and bash somewhat frequently. For a while, I used to have to source my bash_profile every switch. Then I found out you can (typically) do

exec bash --login

or just

exec bash -l

answered Oct 24 '14 at 21:46

phil-ociraptor

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Thanks phill, I installed thoughtbot/laptop and it mess all my configs. Your tip helps to get my bash environment back. – Seralto Oct 01 '15 at 13:45
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Would be useful hat you wrote what is "--login" for? – Ewoks Jan 09 '18 at 02:35
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`Make bash act as if it had been invoked as a login shell (see INVOCATION below).` [Source](http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/en/man1/bash.1.html) – lony May 18 '20 at 06:43

score 22 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 20 '19 at 20:54

22

if it is just a temporary switch

you can use exec as mentioned above, but for more of a permanent solution.

you can use chsh -s /bin/bash (to switch to bash) and chsh -s /bin/zsh (to switch to zsh)

answered Mar 20 '19 at 20:54

Rahil

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Mine is zsh right now but when I try chsh -s /bin/bash and type my password it show no changes made – Adhikansh Mittal Apr 11 '21 at 05:59

score 20 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 15 '17 at 03:55

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For Bash, try

chsh -s $(which bash)

For zsh, try

chsh -s $(which zsh)

edited Nov 15 '17 at 03:55

Pang

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answered Nov 15 '17 at 03:31

as - if

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score 8 · Answer 6 · answered May 16 '20 at 12:28

In Mac OS Catalina default interactive shell is zsh. To change shell to zsh from bash:

chsh -s /bin/zsh

Then you need to enter your Mac password. Quit the terminal and reopen it. To check whether it's changed successfully to ssh, issue the following command.

echo $SHELL

If the result is /bin/zsh, your task is completed.

To change it back to bash, issue the following command on terminal.

chsh -s /bin/bash

Verify it again using echo $SHELL. Then result should be /bin/bash.

score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 15 '16 at 23:22

6

zsh has a builtin command emulate which can emulate different shells by setting the appropriate options, although csh will never be fully emulated.

emulate bash
perform commands
emulate -R zsh

The -R flag restores all the options to their default values for that shell.

See: zsh manual

answered Jan 15 '16 at 23:22

ljcusack

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Not clear though what version of bash it will emulate, will it emulate bash 4.x? or 5.x? – Aug 15 '19 at 16:14

score 6 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 15 '20 at 19:17

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you can just type bash or if you always want to use bash:

on "iTerm2"

Go to preferences > Profiles > Command
Select "Command" from the dropdown
Type bash

Test by closing iTerm and open it again

answered Jun 15 '20 at 19:17

Sarah A

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score 5 · Answer 9 · edited May 28 '23 at 13:25

5

Follow the below steps:

chsh -s /bin/bash
Restart terminal
Check which shell is in use: echo $SHELL
source .profile

You are back with Bash!

edited May 28 '23 at 13:25

tom

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answered May 11 '21 at 18:45

kushagra deep

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Users need to wait little bit before Restart terminal – yasin89 Nov 23 '22 at 10:00

score 4 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 20 '18 at 02:12

4

You should be able just to type bash into the terminal to switch to bash, and then type zsh to switch to zsh. Works for me at least.

answered Jul 20 '18 at 02:12

Paul Jurczyk

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This is even simpler. – andromeda Feb 24 '19 at 08:37
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This does work, but each time you type `zsh` or `bash` you are going into a sub-shell (subprocess under current shell). You will need to type exit a number of times to return to the top-most shell. – RichVel Jun 15 '19 at 11:23
this is much better. – Prakhar Sharma Oct 03 '22 at 21:19

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Feb 07 '23 at 21:46

For me, the solution was this:

Edit:

sudo vi /etc/passwd

Find your user, for me it was for example:

ubuntu:x:1000:1001::/home/ubuntu:/bin/sh

For you it might be:

ubuntu:x:1000:1001::/home/ubuntu:/bin/zsh

And change it to:

ubuntu:x:1000:1001::/home/ubuntu:/bin/bash

If you want bash to be defaul, or the line above if you want it to be zsh by default.

score -7 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 11 '18 at 16:19

-7

You can easily switch back to bash by using command "bye"

answered Jan 11 '18 at 16:19

Rajani

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bye will exit zsh but not back to bash – Cece Dong - MSFT Jun 08 '18 at 15:11

Switching from zsh to bash on OS X, and back again?

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