MacOS – Why Doesn’t OSX root user automatically default to the same shell as other users

macosroot

Why doesn't the root user on OSX automatically default to the same shell as other users?

Seems like this would avoid a lot of complications, but I guess there must be complications with the shells being the same for root as others, but I just don't know what they are. I have googled this and searched Stack Exchange, and have not found an explanation for it.

Best Answer

On my system (OS X 10.10 Yosemite), root is configured to use a /bin/sh shell by default (in both /etc/passwd and through OpenDirectory). Other users (aside from daemons) are configured to use /bin/bash by default.

There is no significant difference between the two in everyday usage, although Bash has had some high profile security issues lately (reference: ShellShock and the Apple security patch at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201393). Maybe Apple made the choice to set root's default shell to /bin/sh by default, in light of that?

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MacOS – Is it possible to set the output language of shell commands to anything other than English

If you change LC_MESSAGES, it changes the language of error and help messages shown by bash, but only a part of them are translated for many languages:

$ export LC_MESSAGES=de_DE.UTF-8
$ aa
bash: aa: Kommando nicht gefunden.
$ help alias
alias: alias [-p] [Name[=Wert] ... ]
    Definiert Aliase oder zeigt sie an.

    Ohne Argumente wird die Liste der Aliase (Synonyme) in der Form
    `alias Name=Wert' auf die Standardausgabe gedruckt.

    Sonst wird ein Alias für jeden angegebenen Namen definiert, für den ein
    Wert angegeben wurde.
    A trailing space in VALUE causes the next word to be checked for
    alias substitution when the alias is expanded.

    Options:
      -p    Print all defined aliases in a reusable format

    Rückgabewert:
    Meldet Erfolg, außer wenn NAME nicht existiert.

Terminal and iTerm 2 set LANG (which changes all actual locale variables like LC_MESSAGES) based on the region selected in System Preferences by default.

Some GNU/Linux distributions come with man pages in other languages than English, but OS X doesn't. Some Homebrew packages add localized man pages to /usr/local/share/man/ though:

$ LC_MESSAGES=de_DE.UTF-8 man -w ps2pdf
/usr/local/share/man/de/man1/ps2pdf.1
$ LC_MESSAGES=de_DE.UTF-8 man ps2pdf|head
PS2PDF(1)                         Ghostscript                        PS2PDF(1)



NAME
       ps2pdf - konvertiert PostScript nach PDF mittels ghostscript
       ps2pdf12 - konvertiert PostScript nach PDF 1.2 (kompatibel zu Acrobat 3
       und spAxter) mittels ghostscript
       ps2pdf13 - konvertiert PostScript nach PDF 1.3 (kompatibel zu Acrobat 4
       und spAxter) mittels ghostscript

You could for example copy /usr/share/man/de/ from a Ubuntu VM to OS X, but only a small part of the man pages are translated:

ubuntu:~$ find /usr/share/man/de -type f|wc -l
113
ubuntu:~$ find /usr/share/man/man* -type f|wc -l
2857

MacOS – How to make Chrome the default browser in the OSX Guest Account

The crucial point to realize with the Guest account is that the User homefolder it creates, with preferences set in its /Library/Preferences folder, are wiped upon logout.

To effect changes, you need to make the changes (add the specific preference files) in the /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj folder. This folder contains the generic template User Homefolder structure used when creating a new user or the Guest User.

This page has details about how it is done in Snow Leopard, but it is applicable to Mavericks.

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Related Solutions

MacOS – Is it possible to set the output language of shell commands to anything other than English

MacOS – How to make Chrome the default browser in the OSX Guest Account

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