Bashscripts.org

Question: How do I know which shell I am running ?

The Answer is :


you should get back a result that looks like:



...... on a side note..... make sure you CAPITALIZE the the word SHELL in the above command. Otherwise it will probably just return a blank line

yeah..... i did that ! Like 6 times in a row...........

Not completly true.



This is a better way:



This code is works for FreeBSD, Solaris, OSX and Linux and is tested with zsh/bash.

well, from the prompt, the better way is to ask:that will prompt the running program (i.e. the shell you're in)

...from a script, it's not been told to me, so I can't help, I'm still looking forward for forth...

hmmmmmmm ok, this thread is pretty ancient, but echo $SHELL does indeed return the default shell, (NOT the version of bash, but your default shell, be it zsh,csh,bash,dash,sh, etc). your return of /bin/zsh is because you have zsh set to be your default shell in your .profile or .bashrc config file. echo $0 returns the running script name..... if the shell isn't running anthing else .. then it returns itself. Your better way, is what I'd call "overkill" ..... but to each his own

default shell is 'assigned' in /etc/passwd, isn't it?

If you take a closer look, it assigns many shells

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/bin/sh
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/bin/sh
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/bin/sh
mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/bin/sh
news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/bin/sh
uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/bin/sh
proxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/bin/sh
www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/bin/sh
backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/bin/sh
list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/bin/sh
irc:x:39:39:ircd:/var/run/ircd:/bin/sh
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/bin/sh
nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/bin/sh
libuuid:x:100:101::/var/lib/libuuid:/bin/sh
syslog:x:101:103::/home/syslog:/bin/false
messagebus:x:102:105::/var/run/dbus:/bin/false
avahi-autoipd:x:103:108:Avahi autoip daemon,,,:/var/lib/avahi-autoipd:/bin/false
avahi:x:104:109:Avahi mDNS daemon,,,:/var/run/avahi-daemon:/bin/false
usbmux:x:105:46:usbmux daemon,,,:/home/usbmux:/bin/false
gdm:x:106:114:Gnome Display Manager:/var/lib/gdm:/bin/false
speech-dispatcher:x:107:29:Speech Dispatcher,,,:/var/run/speech-dispatcher:/bin/sh
kernoops:x:108:65534:Kernel Oops Tracking Daemon,,,:/:/bin/false
pulse:x:109:116:PulseAudio daemon,,,:/var/run/pulse:/bin/false
rtkit:x:110:119:RealtimeKit,,,:/proc:/bin/false
hplip:x:111:7:HPLIP system user,,,:/var/run/hplip:/bin/false
saned:x:112:121::/home/saned:/bin/false
denton:x:1000:1000:denton,,,:/home/denton:/bin/bash

However close I look, I see just one shell per user.

That's what I meant, not that it assigns more than one shell to a user, just many shells to many users.