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I'm trying to update bash shell on my Mac OS Mavericks.

$ brew install bash
$ which -a bash
/bin/bash
/usr/local/bin/bash

$ which bash
/bin/bash

$ chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash
$ which bash
/bin/bash

In Terminal's preference: Shells open with -> Command (complete path) : /usr/local/bin/bash.

But still, I cannot switch to brew-installed bash shell. What can I do?

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    After the chsh was executed and you re-login, what makes you think you're not using the new shell (the one from /usr/local/bin)? You can check the currently running shell's version with echo $BASH_VERSION. – Celada Feb 3 '15 at 4:02
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    The output of which bash isn't going to change until the PATH does. Also, you show the chsh and which commands back-to-back, implying that you haven't logged out in between; chsh doesn't take effect until the next login. What does echo $SHELL say? – Warren Young Feb 3 '15 at 4:34
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    On Linux systems, chsh will only approve shells listed in /etc/shells. I would look for an equivalent in OSX. (Also, what Warren says about the PATH.) – muru Feb 3 '15 at 4:37
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    bash --version is running the first bash in the PATH, which remains /bin/bash. Your choice of shell doesn't change this. As a result of this, I wonder if your answer to the first comment is actually answering the question posed: did you check the version with the environment variable as asked, or did you do this bogus bash --version test? – Warren Young Feb 3 '15 at 5:22
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    @chepukha That would be export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH. PATH is a list of directories. – muru Feb 3 '15 at 5:28
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From chsh manual:

When altering a login shell, and not the super-user, the user may not change from a non-standard shell or to a non-standard shell. Non-standard is defined as a shell not found in /etc/shells.

So you need either to run chsh as root (sudo chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash user), either to add /usr/local/bin/bash to /etc/shells (sudo echo /usr/local/bin/bash >>/etc/shells).

But note that the fact which bash still points to /bin/bash does not mean your shell has not been changed, it just means /bin is before /usr/local/bin in your PATH.

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  • the answer has been found in the comments above already. Thanks – chepukha Apr 14 '15 at 2:33

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