How do you change the default shell for ALL USERS to bash?
I want every new user from now on to have bash as their shell by default.
I know that to change your own shell to bash, you would use the command "chsh -s /bin/bash", but how do I automatically set all future users' shell to bash by default?
adduser
The adduser defaults file is /etc/adduser.conf. The default shell defined by the DSHELL variable is /bin/bash by default.
useradd
Most likely you don't need this because useradd is a very low-level utility, and it's hardly ever used directly.
If you use useradd, edit the /etc/default/useradd skeleton file (don't forget to make a backup though).
Set the SHELL variable to /bin/bash instead of /bin/sh.
Now every time you use useradd to add a new user bash is automatically their default shell.
Already existing users
If you want to change the shell of already existing users you have to edit the /etc/passwd file (please make sure to back have a backup of it).
Here is a description of the columns
- login name
- optional encrypted password
- numerical user ID
- numerical group ID
- user name or comment field
- user home directory
- optional user command interpreter
In that order separated by colons (:) like this.
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
For more information about that file consult the man page man 5 passwd.
As Octavian pointed out, the way to change the defaults depends on the way you're creating the user. I tried creating a new user through my Gnome Settings just now, and it seems to follow /etc/default/useradd, so that might be your best bet. For existing users, the safest way to change someone else's login shell is with usermod:
usermod -s /bin/bash $USERNAME
If you're not root, you'll need to sudo that. An alternative is to sudo into the user you want to modify and just run chsh, like this:
sudo -u $USERNAME chsh -s /bin/bash
It's best to avoid editing /etc/passwd by hand, because a mistake in there could break all sorts of things.