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JohnMerlino
Asked: 2013-12-04 15:36:19 +0800 CST

Possible side effects of changing shell from zsh to bash

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My web server was tampered by someone who was using zsh shell. I feel more comfortable using bash shell, as that's the defaults that come with Ubuntu and OS X (the two main operating systems I use). But this questions is focused on Ubuntu server.

I have 4 websites running on this web server, I use byobu, I use tmux, I use ruby/ruby on rails, node.js, Apache, a few daemons. If I switch the current root shell from zsh to bash, could there be any negative side effects that might result from this switch? For example, will processes be killed because their parent process (the shell) has been switched?

command-line

4 Answers

  1. Answer from the Stack Overflow (switching from zsh to bash):

    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.

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  2. Best Answer

    Changing your shell, via sudo chsh --shell=/bin/bash $USER will change the shell field in /etc/passwd. This value is only consulted at login time, when the system has no idea of which shell to use for you.

    Running processes, whether started by zsh, bash apache or evil_overlord's_program won't be affected

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  3. Open your terminal and use the following command:

    chsh -s $(which bash)
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  4. On Mac OS Catalina

    1. Change to zsh:

      chsh -s /bin/zsh

    2. Change to bash:

      chsh -s /bin/bash
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