How to check what is the default shell

Question

Is there a config file that stores the default shell (bash, zsh, etc) for the current user ?

Terminals don't have shells, users do. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jul 30 '18 at 17:41 — Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams, Jul 30 '18 at 17:41
@IgnacioVazquez-Abrams Thanks, edited – faressoft Jul 30 '18 at 17:43 — faressoft, Jul 30 '18 at 17:43

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 30 '18 at 17:42

5

The default shell used by a user is contained in the seventh field of /etc/passwd or its equivalent.

$ getent passwd xxxxxx | awk -F: '{ print $7 }'
/bin/bash

answered Jul 30 '18 at 17:42

Is there another way that doesn't require access to such file like passwd – faressoft Jul 30 '18 at 17:44
The *only* reliable place this information can be found is `passwd`. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jul 30 '18 at 17:45
When I install zsh how doesn't mark itself as the login shell – faressoft Jul 30 '18 at 17:46
1

Did you use `chsh` to tell the system to use it? – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jul 30 '18 at 17:47
Oh maybe it does that, that's why it asks me for permissions – faressoft Jul 30 '18 at 17:48
So chsh changes the passwd file – faressoft Jul 30 '18 at 17:48
1

@faressoft: You can check that with `strace`, for example `strace chsh -s $(command -v bash) |& grep open` – Arkadiusz Drabczyk Jul 30 '18 at 18:31
@faressoft Please note you should always have access to `/etc/passwd`. It is where you user ID and username are mapped, and your home directory, and default shell, and it has to be accessible by a lot of things. You are maybe thinking of `/etc/shadow` (which is where passwords are stored) and that is usually not world-readable. – BenjiWiebe Jul 30 '18 at 19:24
@faressoft In fact, when you log in, the shell you get actually *is* read from your `/etc/passwd`, via the same mechanism getent uses. – BenjiWiebe Jul 30 '18 at 19:26

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