Apple Switches tcsh for bash

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by pudge on Tuesday August 26, 2003 @02:45AM from the one-less-thing-to-change-for-new-accounts dept.

gklinger writes "AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has switched from tcsh to bash in the the latest developer build (7B44) of Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther). There is speculation that the switch was made to appeal to Linux users. Experienced users get pretty religious about their shells so what remains to be seen is how diehard tcsh users will react." I don't know about appealing to Linux users in particular, but I just don't know many people who prefers tcsh these days, on any platform. It seems like everyone is using bash or zsh.

14 of 265 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:*CSH IS DYING by jmelloy · 2003-08-26 02:51 · Score: 3, Informative

You can get all the software updates from the command line, at least the ones that come through Software Update. The command is "softwareupdate", and needs to be run as root.
Re:Default shell can be changed, I think by profet · 2003-08-26 03:06 · Score: 5, Informative

from shell (or just find the double clickable icon):

open /Applications/Utilities/NetInfo\ Manager.app

now navigate to users->$userWhosShellYouWantToChange

find the key named....(this is a tough one) "shell" and then just put the shell you want...bash....whatever...
Re:zsh and BASH? Not me... by Neon+Spiral+Injector · 2003-08-26 03:08 · Score: 3, Informative

I think what he was saying is:

ls /some/big/long/complicated/dir/name[enter]
[up arrow]
[backspace]x5
[down arrow]
[up arrow]

The "/name" is still missing. This history has been edited. There is no way to get it back. I like it for when I accidently type my password on the command line, I can go back up and delete it, and it will be gone. I don't like it, when I remove a complicated command and then discover I need it again.
Re:Let's get rid of sendmail too by mithras+the+prophet · 2003-08-26 03:18 · Score: 3, Informative

Last login: Tue Aug 26 11:16:41 on ttyp3 Welcome to Darwin! [hostname:~] mithras% whereis emacs /usr/bin/emacs
settles that.

--
four nine eighteen twenty-7 thirty-nine forty-7 fiftyeight sixty-nine seventy-9 eighty-8 one-hundred-and-nine one-twenty
Re:*CSH IS DYING by ZackSchil · 2003-08-26 03:20 · Score: 3, Informative

File Edit Options Buffers Tools Help Welcome to GNU Emacs Get help C-h (Hold down CTRL and press h) Undo changes C-x u Exit Emacs C-x C-c Get a tutorial C-h t Use Info to read docs C-h i Ordering manuals C-h RET Activate menubar F10 or ESC ` or M-` (`C-' means use the CTRL key. `M-' means use the Meta (or Alt) key. If you have no Meta key, you may instead type ESC followed by the character.) GNU Emacs 21.1.1 (powerpc-apple-darwin6.0) of 2002-07-27 on law Copyright (C) 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc. GNU Emacs comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; type C-h C-w for full details. Emacs is Free Software--Free as in Freedom--so you can redistribute copies of Emacs and modify it; type C-h C-c to see the conditions. Type C-h C-d for information on getting the latest version.
I know little to nothing about traditional *nix tools, I still crack open BBEdit because that's the way I've done things, well, forever now, but when I type in emacs into the OS X command line I get this. It appears to be GNU Emacs, though a slightly outdated version. I never installed this. I'm the only user of this machine. It think it's included in OS X.
Re:Let's get rid of sendmail too by Anonymous Coward · 2003-08-26 03:21 · Score: 4, Informative

"I'm glad they don't install emacs. I'd be even happier if they removed sendmail as well."
This will not happen. sendmail is written by Kirk McKusick's partner, Eric Allman, and Apple are still trying very very VERY hard to recruit Kirk to help with speed and more robust POSIX compliance. Pitching Kirk's life partner's work would not be a convincing way of showing Kirk much they want him on board.
Re:zsh and BASH? Not me... by hymie3 · 2003-08-26 03:27 · Score: 3, Informative

So you have a situation like this?:

mkdir /usr/local/gugalwumpus-3.2
cp /home/you/froombor.tar.gz ___________

I'd do this: /usr/local/gugalwumpus-3.2
cp /home/you/froombor.tar.gz !$

The !$ means "the last part of the last command".
Other cool "bang" commands are:
!! - repeat the last command
!-n - repeat the nth previous command
!* - all of the arguments to the last command

So, if you've ever typed "vm stuff /newdir"
You *could* up arrow, control-A, control-D, control-F v
or you could type "mv !*"

Lots of nifty shortcuts. Of course, I use tcsh, so what do I know?
Re:*CSH IS DYING by babbage · 2003-08-26 03:38 · Score: 4, Informative

get emacs in the default install

Come again?

% ls -1 /usr/bin/*emacs* /usr/bin/emacs /usr/bin/emacs-21.1 /usr/bin/emacsclient

Funny troll, but emacs is part of the default install.
Caveat: it's possible that emacs is part of the developer's tools rather than a base OSX installation. I don't think that matters though: if you're looking for a "real Unix", then you're going to want a C compiler and all the rest anyway, so you're going to check off the button for "install BSD subsystem" at system install time and you're going to install the developer's tools immediately after you first log in to the system. So whether Emacs was available 0 minutes or 2 minutes after the first login, I still would call that part of a complete operating system, and saying that it's not available is just trolling.

--
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
Re:How diehard tcsh users will respond: by gabe · 2003-08-26 04:14 · Score: 4, Informative

gabe@jupiter:~$ chsh /bin/tcsh
chsh: unknown user: /bin/tcsh

Well, even if you do just 'chsh' and edit the Shell line, it still doesn't make any changes to netinfo...

Perhaps you'll want to do this instead:

niutil -createprop . /users/myusername shell /bin/tcsh

--
Gabriel Ricard
Re:Let's get rid of sendmail too by allgood2 · 2003-08-26 04:27 · Score: 4, Informative

Came with the system. I'm in process of setting up a brand new laptop with OS X 10.2.6, and emacs is there. I haven't even installed Developer Tools as of yet, which is where it was before. So sometime, probably in some update from 10.2.3 to 10.2.6 emacs was added to the basic OS.
Re:But tcsh is nice! by profet · 2003-08-26 04:55 · Score: 3, Informative

I have my bash environment set up to do case-insensitive tab-completion

to do this in OS X:

pico ~/.inputrc

add the following line:

set completion-ignore-case on

ctrl-o (CTRL!!!! not command!!!!)

now restart bash....
Re:Now, about "ps" by smack.addict · 2003-08-26 05:06 · Score: 3, Informative

This is a BSD/Sys V difference and a pain that everyone who made the transition from Sunos 4.x to Solaris had to deal with.
Re:But tcsh is nice! by babbage · 2003-08-26 05:10 · Score: 4, Informative

Or skip the "here's how to use a text editor" steps entirely:
% echo "set completion-ignore-case on" >> ~/.inputrc

The file redirection operators are your friend, no matter what shell dialect you prefer. :)

--
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
Just choose tcsh or bash yourself by Offwhite98 · 2003-08-26 09:17 · Score: 3, Informative

You can just update your account to use whatever shell you want anyway. I see both bash and tcsh on my MacOS X 10.2 install, so there should be no trouble for someone who cares enough to change shells.

It is a moot point.

--
Brennan Stehling - http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/