Moving from Bash to Zsh on macOS

This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Bash to Zsh

During their 2019 World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC 2019) Apple announced that the default command shell for their next OS release (macOS Catalina) from the Bourne Again Shell (Bash) to the Z Shell (Zsh). Not only will Apple be switching the default in Catalina, they will be removing Bash completely in an as-yet unspecified future update. Apple’s advice is clear — make the switch now so you’re ready!

Never being one to try hold back the tide, I dove right in and made the switch within 5 minutes of reading about the announcement. This series will document my experience of making the change.

Changing Your Login Shell to Zsh on macOS Mojave

To change your login shell from Bash to Zsh on versions of macOS before the yet-to-be-released macOS Catalina you’ll need to do the following:

Open System Preferences.

Select Users & Groups.

Make sure the lock on the bottom of the Users & Groups preference pane is unlocked.

Right-click on your account in the left side-bar and select Advanced Options…

In the Advanced Options sheet change the Login Shell dropdown from /bin/bash to /bin/zsh.

Click OK to dismiss the Advanced Options sheet.