Changing Your Shell Files

Changing
Your Shell
      If you discover that you were issued a shell which you do not like and wish to change, you may do this via the chsh command. After logging in to any workstation, simply type chsh . You will be prompted for your password and then you can type in the name of a different shell. The only shells supported on the EWS systems are /bin/csh ( C shell ) , /bin/ksh ( Korn shell ), and /bin/tcsh ( TC shell ).

Modifying
Your Shell
Startup Files
      If you are using C-shell, there are two files that you can modify to customize your working environment. These files are : ~/.cshrc and ~/.login .

****** NOTE : If you modify any of your startup files and wish to have the originals back in place, like you started, you can recover them by typing the command, /usr/local/ews/getskel. You should give it the full path, in case you don't have it in your environment. This will restore your account to the way it was when you received it. ******

Your .cshrc file
Your .login file


Summary of
Customization
Files
C-Shell

~/.cshrc : always executed when shell starts
~/.login : executed only for login shells.

Korn Shell

~/.profile : executed only for login shells.
~/.kshrc : always executed when shell starts ( note: name of this file is user-definable with the ENV variable. )


For related information on UNIX Shells one can look at:
  • Zsh- EWS Online Manual Page for Zsh
  • Tcsh - EWS Online Manual Page for Tcsh
  • Csh - EWS Online Manual Page for Csh
  • Using Korn Shell - EWS Online Manual Page for Using Ksh

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