shells(5)

🐚 shells — the vibes of shells(5) 💅

okay so bestie, we're in File Formats Manual territory today and this one is short, sweet, and lowkey iconic ✨

✨ NAME ✨

shells — pathnames of valid login shells 🫶

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

/etc/shells is a text file. That's it. That's the whole thing. A text file. And inside it? The full pathnames of valid login shells. Full pathnames, bestie, not cute lil nicknames, not bash-with-a-dream, the whole entire path. 💖

This file gets consulted by chsh(1), and it's also available to be queried by other programs. So like, it's not just doing one job, it's a whole multitasker, main character energy fr fr 👑

🚨 okay so here's the part where you sit up straight 🚨 There are programs out there that consult this file to figure out if a user is a normal user. For example, FTP daemons traditionally disallow access to users with shells not included in this file. So if your shell isn't in here, some services are gonna look at you like "who are you?? 🙈" Not even being dramatic, that's just literally what it says.

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🎀 FILES 🎀

• /etc/shells — the file itself, the whole moment, no cap 💅

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

/etc/shells may contain the following paths:

/bin/sh
/bin/bash
/bin/csh

three lil entries, all cozy in one file, living their best lives 🦋

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• chsh(1)
• getusershell(3)
• pam_shells(8)

go read those too, iykyk 🔥

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and that's the whole page!! this lil cutie came from Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2025-05-17, and honestly? short king. periodt 💜⭐