How to change default login shell permanently in linux ?

  

In Red hat Linux the default shell you login to is /bin/bash but in case you want to change the default login shell follow the below procedure

To check the currently logged in shell

# echo $SHELL

/bin/bash

To view all the available shells in your machine

# chsh -l

/bin/sh

/bin/bash

/sbin/nologin

/bin/dash

/bin/tcsh

/bin/csh

You can also view the available shell details from the below file

# less /etc/shells

/bin/sh

/bin/bash

/sbin/nologin

/bin/dash

/bin/tcsh

/bin/csh

To change the shell temporarily

To do this just provide the full path of the shell you want to use. But this is just a temporary change as next time you switch terminal you will login to the default shell

[root@linuxforfreshers ~]# /bin/sh

sh-4.1#

As you see above my shell prompt changed from /bin/bash to /bin/sh

To change the shell prompt permanently

# chsh -s /bin/sh

Changing shell for root.

Shell changed.

[root@linuxforfreshers ~]#

But as you notice even though our shell was changed successfully but still we see bash shell prompt.

NOTE: To make the changes affect you need to log out and log back in

Using username "root".

root@192.168.8.130's password:

Last login: Fri Mar 21 10:15:03 2014 from 192.168.8.20

-sh-4.1# echo $SHELL

/bin/sh

-sh-4.1#

So now as I try to login I see my default login shell is changed to /bin/sh

Which file is responsible for assigning shell by default?

What if you want next time you create a user, he/she should get different shell and every time you don't change their shell manually

Check the below file

# cat /etc/default/useradd

# useradd defaults file

GROUP=100

HOME=/home

INACTIVE=-1

EXPIRE=

SHELL=/bin/bash

SKEL=/etc/skel

CREATE_MAIL_SPOOL=yes

As you see the SHELL argument has /bin/bash as default. Just change this value to any shell you want to provide for a new user.