Changing Shell
List of shells
By default, Maths users are set up to use the bash shell.
Other shells which are available to you are listed in the file /etc/shells:
/bin/sh /bin/dash /bin/bash /bin/rbash /bin/zsh /usr/bin/zsh /bin/tcsh /usr/bin/tcsh /usr/bin/screen /usr/bin/tmux
Note: There is no distinction between /bin/bash and /usr/local/bin/bash, we just have the local link for historical reasons. The same applies to /bin/tcsh and /usr/local/bin/tcsh.
Changing your shell
You can try out another shell by typing in its name. If you decide you want to keep that shell permanently then you will need to tell the system this. Do this by running the command ypchsh.
This command will first ask you for your password and then ask you which shell you would like to change to. Make sure that you type in the full name of the shell, or chsh will not recognise it and will refuse to change your shell. E.g. /bin/bash not just bash.
The CO team are most familiar with bash and to a lesser extent with tcsh. If you change to using a different shell we may not be able to give you much help. Also we do not have any customised shell startup files for other shells.