Changing the defaults

We are too tired of specifying the default shell every time we create a new user. But luckily, there is a file where you can specify the default shell for any new user created. This amazing file is /etc/default/useradd.

Open up the file /etc/default/useradd and look for the following line:

SHELL=/bin/sh

Change it to:

SHELL=/bin/bash

Awesome! Now, any new user created will have /bin/bash as the default shell. Let's test it by creating a new user named spy:

root@ubuntu-linux:~# useradd -m spy

Now, set the password for user spy:

root@ubuntu-linux:~# passwd spy 
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully

Finally, let's switch to user spy and check the default shell:

root@ubuntu-linux:~# su - spy 
spy@ubuntu-linux:~$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash
spy@ubuntu-linux:~$ exit 
logout
root@ubuntu-linux:~#

Hooray! We can see that bash is the default shell for user spy.

Keep in mind that /bin/sh and /bin/bash are not the only two valid...