Shell

A shell is a Article description::command-line interpreter that offers a text-based interface to users. It can be used as a command-line interface in a virtual console (or in a terminal emulator, over a serial connection, etc.), as a remote shell (over SSH, for example), or as a script interpreter (running prewritten commands).

Typically, the shell is the first program started after a user logs in at a terminal. The file contains information defining the login shell for each user on the system. After login, a user can launch other shells from a terminal, change their login shell, or specify a shell to use under certain terminal emulators.

In Gentoo, the file is a symlink to the default system shell, and as such can link to one of several different POSIX shells. After following the Handbook, the default shell will be.

See the terminal emulator article for some general usage pointers.

Available software
For more shell options, see the output of the following command (eix required):

Changing the default system shell
System administrators can change the default system shell using the utility. This utility changes the system shell by replacing with a symlink to a different POSIX compatible shell.

If it is not already installed, emerge the package:

To list possible shell options use:

To set, for example, as the default system shell:

Changing a user's shell
A user's default shell (aka login shell) can be changed on an individual basis using the command. To change the login shell for the current user, type and enter a correct path to the new shell. In the example below, a user named is changing his login shell from  to :

can be used by the super user account to change the login shell for any user.

Garbled display
The output of a shell can, in some conditions, become corrupt. See the terminal emulator article for instructions to help fix this.