Command Shell: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 08:21, 6 April 2024

A shell is a program that translates text commands (like ls, vim, reboot etc) into instructions for your computer. The default shell on NixOS is bash, but it can be easily changed.

Note: Zsh is used here as an example. You can use other shells, e.g. fish or nushell.

Enable

When adding a new shell, always enable the shell system-wide, even if it's already enabled in your Home Manager configuration, otherwise it won't source the necessary files.

For example, for Zsh:

/etc/nixos/configuration.nix

programs.zsh.enable = true;

Changing the default shell

For all users

To set a command shell as the default for all users, use the defaultUserShell option.

For example, to set Zsh as the default user shell for all users:

/etc/nixos/configuration.nix

users.defaultUserShell = pkgs.zsh;

For a specific user

To set a command shell as the default for a particular user, use the <name>.shell option.

For example, to set user "myuser"'s shell to fish:

/etc/nixos/configuration.nix

users.users.myuser.shell = pkgs.fish;

You can also choose whether or not a user should use the default shell:

/etc/nixos/configuration.nix

users.users.myuser.useDefaultShell = true;

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 {{note|[[Zsh]] is used here as an example. You can use other shells, e.g. {{ic|fish}} or {{ic|nushell}}.}}
 == Enable ==
-Always enable the shell system-wide, even if it's already enabled in your [[Home Manager]] configuration, otherwise it won't source the necessary files.
+When adding a new shell, always enable the shell system-wide, even if it's already enabled in your [[Home Manager]] configuration, otherwise it won't source the necessary files.
+For example, for [[Zsh]]:
 {{file|/etc/nixos/configuration.nix|nix|<nowiki>
 programs.zsh.enable = true;
@@ Line 10: / Line 12: @@
 == Changing the default shell ==
-[https://search.nixos.org/options?query=defaultUserShell <code>defaultUserShell</code> in the options search]
+=== For all users ===
+To set a command shell as the default for all users, use the [https://search.nixos.org/options?query=defaultUserShell <code>defaultUserShell</code>] option.
+For example, to set Zsh as the default user shell for all users:
-[https://search.nixos.org/options?query=useDefaultShell <code>useDefaultShell</code> in the options search]
+{{file|/etc/nixos/configuration.nix|nix|<nowiki>
+users.defaultUserShell = pkgs.zsh;
+</nowiki>}}
-To only change the default shell for one of the users, see
+=== For a specific user ===
-[https://search.nixos.org/options?query=<name>.shell <code><name>.shell</code> in the options search]
+To set a command shell as the default for a particular user, use the [https://search.nixos.org/options?query=%3Cname%3E.shell <code><nowiki><name></nowiki>.shell</code>] option.
-== Changing /bin/sh ==
+For example, to set user "myuser"'s shell to [[fish]]:
-{{Warning|Please note that NixOS assumes all over the place that the shell is bash, so override the default setting only if you know what you're doing.}}
-{{ic|/bin/sh}} is a symlink to your default POSIX-compliant shell. It's used when writing shell scripts, so that the script works on all machines independently of which shell the user is using. /bin/sh doesn't have to be the same as your interactive shell (i.e. the one you use in your terminal). For example, some people set their interactive shells to [[zsh]]/[[fish]] but set /bin/sh to dash, because it's fast and scripts don't need any of those fancy zsh/fish features.
-To change your default POSIX shell on NixOS, use
+{{file|/etc/nixos/configuration.nix|nix|<nowiki>
-<syntaxhighlight lang="nix">
+users.users.myuser.shell = pkgs.fish;
-# Dash is just an example, you can use whatever you want
+</nowiki>}}
-environment.binsh = "${pkgs.dash}/bin/dash";
-</syntaxhighlight>
+You can also choose whether or not a user should use the default shell:
+{{file|/etc/nixos/configuration.nix|nix|<nowiki>
+users.users.myuser.useDefaultShell = true;
+</nowiki>}}
 == See also ==
@@ Line 35: / Line 45: @@
 [[Category:Configuration]]
 [[Category:Software]]
+[[Category:Shell]]