Change default shell

Note: By default Alpine Linux uses the busybox variant of the ash shell, but many users may prefer bash, zsh, fish, or another shell.

By hand

Edit /etc/passwd manually. An example line for a user named user is:

user:x:1000:1000:user,,,:/home/user:/bin/ash

Change /bin/ash to point to the path of a shell from /etc/shells. Take care to not delete/mangle the line, as it would make you unable to log in again. The user should be the user you are changing the default login shell for.

Using shadow

Download the required package:

# apk add shadow

And use chsh:

# chsh username

Now enter the path for the shell you want to use (e.g /bin/bash) and press enter to confirm this change. The shell should exist in /etc/shells.

Note: You may need to log out or reboot for this change to take effect, ash is part of busybox so you can revert back to ash (/bin/ash) at anytime with the same steps.

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