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Apple Switches tcsh for bash
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.
also does "ogg vorbis" i predict still more complaining....
I for one welcome our new bourne again overlords.
I was a big fan of tcsh until I started doing serious shell scripting in
a heterogeneous environment. Since tcsh wasn't available on all machines, all
shell scripts were written for the bourne shell. After several months of
using bourne shell syntax for scripts but using tcsh shell syntax on the
command line, I finally decided that in order to preserve my sanity, I'd try
bash on the command line. Turns out that after a day or so to get used to
things, bash had everything I used tcsh for plus a couple of features that
I'd never known would be so useful.
I don't like running scripts under bash because it's so big, but as an
environment, it's pretty decent.
*sigh* back to work...
yes you can. Some people just like to complain. It makes them feel better or something...
just install whatever shell they wanted to use anyway? Im sure anyone that has shell scripting in mind also knows how to install their own shell the correctly right?
Chaos is Divine *
from shell (or just find the double clickable icon):
/Applications/Utilities/NetInfo\ Manager.app
open
now navigate to users->$userWhosShellYouWantToChange
find the key named....(this is a tough one) "shell" and then just put the shell you want...bash....whatever...
"The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
For a moment there, I thought the headline read: Apple Switches THC for hash...
But I like working in tcsh!
This is a wonderful feature, especially when working on a case-preserving-yet-insensitive filesystem like HFS+.
This one doesn't always save me -- one of my common typos is to repeat the 'd' when changing directory, thus:
But it's enough of a win that I wouldn't want to go back to an interactive shell that doesn't have such a feature.
Whenever I'm trying to do anything complex, I tend to drop into a bash subshell, but for 90% of interactive work I find that tcsh can do about everything bash can, and has a lot of interesting enhancements that AFAIK bash doesn't. Please feel free to correct me if that's not true, and bash can now do such things.
(Also, another nice thing about being comfortable in an alternative shell, aside from being able to work productively when dropped on a machine that maybe doesn't have a wide variety of shells, is the built in security factor. It has been long observed that using an unusual keyboard or pointing device is an excellent (if mild) way to discourage people from messing around with your computer when you're away from your desk. Using an unusual command shell can have the same mild deterrance effect: it may not keep your Linux-loving neighbor from messing around in a login session you forgot to close, but it might annoy him enough to get it to get bored & go away pretty quickly :-)
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
I imagine it will go something along the lines of...
user@mac:~$ tcsh
mac:~>