bash: Please add notes for changing login shell

[mmynsted]

Please add notes to let people know that if the user's login shell is bash, it will not get upgraded when this bash port is installed. One must do the following.

• Check current bash shell version with

echo $BASH_VERSION

• Add /opt/local/bin/bash to /etc/shells
• change default login shell

chsh -s /opt/local/bin/bash

• Open a new shell and check $BASH_VERSION again

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

I assume this ticket is about the bash port.

[raimue (Rainer Müller)]

You are right, you need to configure your environment to use a different shell. You should be able to change that by editing your terminal settings. For example instructions see the bash-completion HOWTO. The advantage is that you usually do not need to edit system files in /etc/shells, which are not guaranteed to be preserved across system updates.

[raimue (Rainer Müller)]

I will not advise users to edit /etc/shells or change the login shell. In the worst case, Terminal will no longer open new windows when the shell does not launch (e.g. due to library version mismatch, such as an ncurses update). In this situation, it is quite complicated to get back to a shell. Advanced users might change their login shell, but for others it is better to just set it in the Terminal preferences.