alpine-wiki

alpine shell and terminal

Note: You must have alpine already installed alpine-newbie-install.md

Short answer:

• terminal = text input/output environment, your computer is at same time a terminal
• console = physical terminal, anything you use as terminal but that does not means a complete computer
• shell = command line interpreter, is the software displayed inside a console terminal

In alpine the default terminal always will give you ash throught busybox pretty limited but functional enought.

Default console shell

The operation system do not have a oficial interface, could be a console one or graphical one.

Shell name	package(s) name	since	main program(S)
bash	bash bash-doc	3.0	/bin/bash, /usr/lib/bash/
dash	dash dash-doc	3.17	/bin/dash
csh	tcsh tcsh-doc	3.4	/bin/csh, /bin/tcsh, /etc/tcsh.cshrc
zsh	zsh zsh-vcs zsh-zftp zsh-doc	3.4	/bin/zsh, /usr/lib/zsh/
fish	fish fish-tools fish-dev fish-doc	3.10	/usr/bin/fish, /etc/fish/config.fish, /usr/share/fish/
nushell	nushell nushell-plugins nushell-doc	edge	/usr/bin/nushell

change manually the default console shell

Note: no shell id installed by default, only busybox for ash

• Install the dessired shell
• Check dessired shell is system valid
• seds file definition to Change default shell of user general to bash

apk add bash bash-doc sed

grep bash /etc/shells

sed -e '/general/ s#\:[^\:]*$#\:/bin/bash#g' /etc/passwd

Warning: if the thirth step does not show something, you cannot use such shell (in this example bash)

This can be executed in one command as apk add bash sed && sed -e '/general/ s#\:[^\:]*$#\:"$(grep bash /etc/shells)"#g' /etc/passwd

Change managed the default shell with libuser

Note: libuser is only since alpine v3.14

• Install the dessired shell
• Install the manager shell program
• Create need files
• Check dessired shell is system valid
• Change default shell of user general to bash

apk add bash bash-doc

apk add libuser libuser-doc

touch /etc/login.defs
mkdir /etc/default/ && touch /etc/default/useradd

grep bash /etc/shells

lchsh general

Warning: if the thirth step does not show something, you cannot use such shell (in this example bash)

This program is interactive, will ask for the full path to the executable shell, and can be executed in one command as apk add bash grep libuser && lchsh general

Change managed the default shell with shadow

Note: shadow in not installed by default, only busybox

• Install the dessired shell
• Install the manager shell program
• Create need files
• Check dessired shell is system valid
• Change default shell of user general to bash

apk add bash bash-doc

apk add shadow shadow-doc

touch /etc/login.defs
mkdir /etc/default/ && touch /etc/default/useradd

grep bash /etc/shells

chsh -s /bin/bash general

Warning: if the thirth step does not show something, you cannot use such shell (in this example bash)

This can be executed in one command as apk add bash grep shadow && chsh -s $(grep bash /etc/shells) general

error of not valid shel or the shell program does not exist

This was a big bug in alpine versions: https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/issues/11164

In each of the options of this document whe put a stepp that said: “Check dessired shell is system valid”, well each shell must be present in the file /etc/shells before apply.

Note: If the shell is compiled manually and is not packaged, you can add into the file!

how to add a more recent version

This depends, check various examples:

• if you are using Alpine 3.8 and wants a more recent shell like fish, you can!
• if you are using Alpine 3.8 and wants a more recent shell like nushell: you cannot cos is so far away from 3.8
• if you are using Alpine 3.12 and wants a more recent shell like fish: you can!
• if you are using Alpine 3.17 or 3.18 and wants a more recent shell like nushell: you can!

This means you will:

• update current version repositories
• install required dependencies (check the pacakge name in pkgs.alpinelinux.org
• add the inmediate next version repository
• install the new version more up to date
• check for the required files
• change the shell for the desired user
• remove the inmediate extra repository, by setting the normal ones again
• test if work, if not you will need to upgrade to next alpine or use apk static files to repair world db

By example this show you how to install nushell into alpine 3.17 or 3.18 that is close to edge (as 2023):

cat > /etc/apk/repositories << EOF; $(echo)
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/main
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/community
EOF

apk update && apk add shadow shadow-doc grep busybox-binsh libcrypto3 libgcc libssl3 sqlite-libs

cat > /etc/apk/repositories << EOF; $(echo)
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/main
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/community
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community
EOF

apk update && apk add nushell nushell-plugins nushell-doc

touch /etc/login.defs && mkdir /etc/default/ && touch /etc/default/useradd

chsh -s $(grep nushell /etc/shells) general

cat > /etc/apk/repositories << EOF; $(echo)
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/main
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/community
EOF

apk update

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