Change Profiles Shell preferences in Terminal on Mac

Use Shell preferences in Terminal to change the startup or exit behavior of the shell for a Terminal window profile.

To change these preferences in the Terminal app on your Mac, choose Terminal > Preferences, click Profiles, select a profile, then click Shell.

Note: The options you choose in this preference pane apply only to the profile you select. They don’t apply to the Terminal app in general.

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Option	Description
Startup	To run a command when the shell starts up, select “Run command,” then enter the path to the command. To have the command run inside the shell, select “Run inside shell.”
When the shell exits	To change the way the window behaves when the shell exits, click the pop-up menu, then choose an option: Close the window: The Terminal window closes upon exit. Close if the shell exited cleanly: The Terminal window stays open if there was an error upon exit; otherwise, it closes. Don’t close the window: The Terminal window stays open upon exit.
Ask before closing	You can receive an alert before processes are terminated. To display an alert before any process is terminated, click the Always button. To terminate the process without an alert, click the Never button. To terminate the listed process without an alert, but to provide an alert before terminating any process that’s not in the list, click the “Only if there are processes other than the login shell and:” button. To add a process to the list of processes that can be terminated without an alert, click the Add button , then select the process. To remove a process from the list of processes that can be terminated without an alert, select the process, then click the Remove button .

Option

Description

Startup

To run a command when the shell starts up, select “Run command,” then enter the path to the command.

To have the command run inside the shell, select “Run inside shell.”

When the shell exits

To change the way the window behaves when the shell exits, click the pop-up menu, then choose an option:

Close the window: The Terminal window closes upon exit.
Close if the shell exited cleanly: The Terminal window stays open if there was an error upon exit; otherwise, it closes.
Don’t close the window: The Terminal window stays open upon exit.

Ask before closing

You can receive an alert before processes are terminated.

To display an alert before any process is terminated, click the Always button.

To terminate the process without an alert, click the Never button.

To terminate the listed process without an alert, but to provide an alert before terminating any process that’s not in the list, click the “Only if there are processes other than the login shell and:” button.

To add a process to the list of processes that can be terminated without an alert, click the Add button , then select the process.

To remove a process from the list of processes that can be terminated without an alert, select the process, then click the Remove button .

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Terminal User Guide

Change Profiles Shell preferences in Terminal on Mac