I received a book on Shell Programming for the holidays. The book only covers Bourne-type shells.

So I am trying to switch shells, using a primer on UNIX commands for guidance.
When I type cat /etc/shells, the list includes bash. I infer that means that bash shell is on the computer.

However, i am not able to swtich shells. When I use the chsh commands, somehow I find myself in the vi text editor ???!! Also, the preferences menu item from the terminal menubar does not allow me to change to /bin/bash.

So, I'd appreciate any comments. Are there REALLY different shells contained in Mac OS X PB? Or do I need to install one? Is a Bourne shell available somewhere for the Mac?

Thank you! Joel

Don't u just type 'sh' to change to bourne shell?? Root during startup uses bourne... see /etc/rc.common

[Angus_D]

Well there's sh and zsh which are closer to bourne shells than tcsh and csh (the c shells). bash is available as a precompiled binary, go look for it =P

It's at: http://www.osxfaq.com/downloads/mirr...ash2.04.tar.gz
and probably on stepwise's softrak too.
Or you could compile your own copy if you d/led the devtools.

Thank you. Yes, the command sh works. Also, I'll get get the bash download.

You guys are great.

Joel