I am having difficulty with some shell commands and think that it is due to a failure of my shell being set to BASH.
The following commands solve my problem:
bash --login
Or simply by typing
bash
Therefore it seems that I need to reconfigure my shell to bash which should be simple. My default $SHELL variable is /bin/bash
I think it is due to the following setting under my terminal preferences:
run a custom command instead of my shell
/bin/tcsh/
Why should my shell preferences be set to this, what is the advantage/use of tcsh over bash?
Also, how should I overcome this issue while still retaining use of any of the features which may rely upon this default terminal preference (/bin/tcsh)
Here is some of my system information:
Ubuntu 14.02
$SHELL
/bin/bash
$BASH_VERSION
undefined variable
I have previously used the following command to change from DASH to BASH:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure dash
I have also previously used the following command:
sudo apt-get install csh
I suspect that you have /bin/bash already set, but to help you change it if not:
The default shell for an user is set inside /etc/passwd (usually).
You could see which is set for you by doing:
grep "user" /etc/passwd
Where user is your username in the system. The last value (after the last ":") is the value of shell set for you to use. You could change it in two ways, either by editing the file, or easier, by executing "chsh" (which means: "change login shell"):
$ chsh
It will ask for your password and then will ask for the shell you want to use, just write "/bin/bash".
Done. To make the changes apply to all the programs, just log-out and log-in again.
A second level of configuration belongs to the window that contain the console. I suspect that you are using gnome-terminal (the usual for Ubuntu). If not, then it may be konsole (for a KDE desktop). In any one of those, check that the configuration is not set to call "tcsh". Say which console/terminal you are using to give tips if you need them.