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 1: / Line 1: @@
 A shell is a program that translates text commands (like {{ic|ls}}, {{ic|vim}}, {{ic|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, eg {{ic|fish}} {{ic|nushell}}.}}
+{{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 <code>home.nix</code>. Otherwise it wont 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;
 </nowiki>}}
-== Changing default shell ==
+== Changing the default shell ==
-Shells can be changed system-wide and per-user. To change the shell system-wide, add the following line to your config:
+=== 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:
 {{file|/etc/nixos/configuration.nix|nix|<nowiki>
 users.defaultUserShell = pkgs.zsh;
 </nowiki>}}
-then run {{ic|nixos-rebuild switch}} and reboot your system.
-To only change the default shell for one of the users, add
+=== For a specific user ===
+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.
+For example, to set user "myuser"'s shell to [[fish]]:
 {{file|/etc/nixos/configuration.nix|nix|<nowiki>
-users.users.yourname.shell = pkgs.zsh;
+users.users.myuser.shell = pkgs.fish;
 </nowiki>}}
-Many programs look at /etc/shells to determine if a user is a "normal" user and not a "system" user. Therefore it is recommended to add the user shells to this list. To add a shell to /etc/shells use the following line in your config:
+You can also choose whether or not a user should use the default shell:
 {{file|/etc/nixos/configuration.nix|nix|<nowiki>
-environment.shells = with pkgs; [ zsh ];
+users.users.myuser.useDefaultShell = true;
 </nowiki>}}
-== Changing /bin/sh ==
-{{Warning|Please note that NixOS assumes all over the place that shell is Bash, so override the default setting only if you know exactly 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 what shell the user is using. /bin/sh doesn't have to be the same as your interactive shell (e.g. the one you use in your terminal). In fact, a lot of 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
-<syntaxhighlight lang="nix">
-# Dash is just an example, you can use whatever you want
-environment.binsh = "${pkgs.dash}/bin/dash";
-</syntaxhighlight>
 == See also ==
-* [[Zsh]]
 * [[Fish]]
 * [[Nushell]]
+* [[Zsh]]
 [[Category:Configuration]]
 [[Category:Software]]
+[[Category:Shell]]