Switching from zsh to bash on OS X, and back again? - bash

Question

I'm learning to develop in Rails, and have discovered the power of zsh. However, for some of my other tasks, I wish to use normal bash.
Although they are the same, I just feel comfortable with the layout of bash in some situations.
How do I switch back and forth, or turn zsh on and off?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

you can try chsh -s /bin/bash to set the bash as the default,
or chsh -s /bin/zsh to set the zsh as the default.
Terminal will need a restart to take effect.

Answer 3

I switch between zsh and bash somewhat frequently. For a while, I used to have to source my bash_profile every switch. Then I found out you can (typically) do
exec bash --login
or just
exec bash -l

Answer 4

if it is just a temporary switch
you can use exec as mentioned above, but for more of a permanent solution.
you can use chsh -s /bin/bash (to switch to bash) and chsh -s /bin/zsh (to switch to zsh)

Answer 5

For Bash, try
chsh -s $(which bash)
For zsh, try
chsh -s $(which zsh)

Answer 6

In Mac OS Catalina default interactive shell is zsh.
To change shell to zsh from bash:
chsh -s /bin/zsh
Then you need to enter your Mac password. Quit the terminal and reopen it. To check whether it's changed successfully to ssh, issue the following command.
echo $SHELL
If the result is /bin/zsh, your task is completed.
To change it back to bash, issue the following command on terminal.
chsh -s /bin/bash
Verify it again using echo $SHELL. Then result should be /bin/bash.

Answer 7

zsh has a builtin command emulate which can emulate different shells by setting the appropriate options, although csh will never be fully emulated.
emulate bash
perform commands
emulate -R zsh
The -R flag restores all the options to their default values for that shell.
See: zsh manual

Answer 8

you can just type bash or if you always want to use bash:
on "iTerm2"
Go to preferences > Profiles > Command
Select "Command" from the dropdown
Type bash
Test by closing iTerm and open it again

Answer 9

You should be able just to type bash into the terminal to switch to bash, and then type zsh to switch to zsh. Works for me at least.

Answer 10

Follow the below steps !
chsh -s /bin/bash
Restart terminal
check which shell is in use by echo $SHELL
source .profile
You are back with Bash !!

Answer 11

For me, the solution was this:
Edit:
sudo vi /etc/passwd
Find your user, for me it was for example:
ubuntu:x:1000:1001::/home/ubuntu:/bin/sh
For you it might be:
ubuntu:x:1000:1001::/home/ubuntu:/bin/zsh
And change it to:
ubuntu:x:1000:1001::/home/ubuntu:/bin/bash
If you want bash to be defaul, or the line above if you want it to be zsh by default.

Answer 12

You can easily switch back to bash by using command "bye"