Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac

Starting with macOS Catalina, your Mac uses zsh as the default login shell and interactive shell. You can make zsh the default in earlier versions of macOS as well.

By default, your Mac uses either zsh or bash as the command-line interpreter for the login shell and interactive shell:

• zsh (Z shell) is the default shell for all newly created user accounts, starting with macOS Catalina.

• bash is the default shell in macOS Mojave and earlier.

zsh is highly compatible with the Bourne shell (sh) and mostly compatible with bash, with some differences. For more about zsh and its comprehensive command-line completion system, enter man zsh in Terminal.

How to change your default shell

Whether your user account is configured to use zsh (recommended), bash or another shell, you can change the default shell from the command line or Users & Groups settings.

From the command line

In Terminal, enter $ chsh -s path, where path is one of the shell paths listed in /etc/shells, such as /bin/zsh, /bin/bash, /bin/csh, /bin/dash, /bin/ksh, /bin/sh or /bin/tcsh.

From Users & Groups settings

In macOS Ventura or later:

1. Choose Apple menu  > System Settings, then click Users & Groups in the sidebar.

2. Control-click your username or user picture in the list of users on the right, then choose Advanced Options.

3. Enter your username and password when prompted.

4. Choose a shell from the "Login shell" menu, then click OK to save the changes.

In earlier versions of macOS:

1. Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Users & Groups.

2. Click the lock, then enter your user name and password.

3. Control-click your username in the list of users on the left, then choose Advanced Options.

4. Choose a shell from the "Login shell" menu, then click OK to save the changes.

How to use a different shell without changing the default

If you don't want Terminal to use the default login shell in new Terminal windows and tabs:

1. Open Terminal, then choose Terminal > Settings (or Preferences).

2. From the General pane, select "Command (complete path)".

3. In the adjacent field, enter one of the shell paths listed in /etc/shells, such as /bin/zsh, /bin/bash, /bin/csh, /bin/dash, /bin/ksh, /bin/sh or /bin/tcsh.

If you invoke the bash shell while macOS is configured to use a different shell, you'll see a message that the default interactive shell is now zsh. To silence this warning, you can add this command to ~/.bash_profile or ~/.profile:

export BASH_SILENCE_DEPRECATION_WARNING=1

How to switch to a zsh profile and prompt

If you're using a bash profile, such as to set environment variables, aliases or path variables, you should switch to using a zsh equivalent. For example:

• .zprofile is equivalent to .bash_profile and runs at login, including over SSH

• .zshrc is equivalent to .bashrc and runs for each new Terminal session

If you’re using .profile (a POSIX-compliant profile), you can make zsh automatically read its settings by adding this command to .zprofile:

[[ -e ~/.profile ]] && emulate sh -c 'source ~/.profile'

You can also move some settings from a bash profile to a zsh profile without modification. For example, to set environment variables: export MY_SETTING=1.

zsh recognises a different set of prompt specifiers than bash and has a cleaner syntax for specifying colourised output, eliminating the need to use complex ANSI escape sequences. For example, here's the syntax for a default bash prompt from .bash_profile:

export PS1="\[\e[92;40m\]\h\[\e[m\]:\[\e[93m\]\W\[\e[m\] \\$ "

To convert that bash prompt to a zsh prompt when using .zprofile or .zshrc:

export PS1="%10F%m%f:%11F%1~%f \$ "

See the zsh man page for more details.

How to test your shell scripts

To test script compatibility with Bourne-compatible shells in macOS Catalina or later, you can change /var/select/sh to /bin/bash, /bin/dash or /bin/zsh. If you change /var/select/sh to a shell other than bash, be aware that scripts that make use of bashisms may not work correctly.

zsh can be made to emulate sh by executing the command zsh --emulate sh.