I note that the article from debugpoint.com about
the new features of FreeBSD 14 says it has
"elevated the root user's default shell to sh".

So what has it been until now?
When I am in a fsck situation in 13,
as with previous versions,the single user
mode prompt tells me to enter a shell or
RETURN for sh indicating sh is already
the default.

I thought only the Thompson and Mashey shells
predated sh,with csh,bash,etc. being more advanced?
What's the "unelevated" level?

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws> writes:
> I note that the article from debugpoint.com about
> the new features of FreeBSD 14 says it has
> "elevated the root user's default shell to sh".

Maybe the author prefers sh to csh? :)

> I thought only the Thompson and Mashey shells
> predated sh,with csh,bash,etc. being more advanced?

Development of sh didn't stop, and today's sh has many
improvements compared with the 1980's sh.

In the end, does the installation default matter?
If you prefer csh, use chsh to change it back.
-WBE

Winston <wbe@ubeblock.psr.com.invalid> wrote:
> Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws> writes:
>> I note that the article from debugpoint.com about
>> the new features of FreeBSD 14 says it has
>> "elevated the root user's default shell to sh".
>
> Maybe the author prefers sh to csh? :)
>
>> I thought only the Thompson and Mashey shells
>> predated sh,with csh,bash,etc. being more advanced?
>
> Development of sh didn't stop, and today's sh has many
> improvements compared with the 1980's sh.
>
> In the end, does the installation default matter?
> If you prefer csh, use chsh to change it back.
> -WBE

Apparently per Wikipedia's comparison-of-shells page
FreeBSD has been using tcsh as the root default but
again,I thought that was way more advanced than sh,
as an improvement on csh.

I've been mainly a bash user for over 25 years.

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

On 2023-12-23, Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws> wrote:

> I note that the article from debugpoint.com about
> the new features of FreeBSD 14 says it has
> "elevated the root user's default shell to sh".
>
> So what has it been until now?

/bin/csh, which is actually tcsh on FreeBSD.

> When I am in a fsck situation in 13,
> as with previous versions,the single user
> mode prompt tells me to enter a shell or
> RETURN for sh indicating sh is already
> the default.

Single user shell != root user's shell

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

On 2023-12-23, Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws> wrote:

> I've been mainly a bash user for over 25 years.

So was I, on FreeBSD, but I recently switched to sh(1), which has
now grown sufficient features for my interactive use, without all
of bash's additional clutter that I simply don't use.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

On Sat, 23 Dec 2023 13:52:49 +0000, Christian Weisgerber wrote:

> On 2023-12-23, Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws> wrote:
>
>> I've been mainly a bash user for over 25 years.
>
> So was I, on FreeBSD, but I recently switched to sh(1), which has now
> grown sufficient features for my interactive use, without all of bash's
> additional clutter that I simply don't use.

I have always used sh for scripting (when I don't use REXX), but csh/tcsh
for an interactive shell. And that has been the case since csh first
appeared in the late 1970s.

--
Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...

Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:
> On 2023-12-23, Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws> wrote:
>
>> I note that the article from debugpoint.com about
>> the new features of FreeBSD 14 says it has
>> "elevated the root user's default shell to sh".
>>
>> So what has it been until now?
>
> /bin/csh, which is actually tcsh on FreeBSD.
>
>> When I am in a fsck situation in 13,
>> as with previous versions,the single user
>> mode prompt tells me to enter a shell or
>> RETURN for sh indicating sh is already
>> the default.
>
> Single user shell != root user's shell
>

When one is single user does one not have root privileges?

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

On 2023-12-23, Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws> wrote:
>>> I note that the article from debugpoint.com about
>>> the new features of FreeBSD 14 says it has
>>> "elevated the root user's default shell to sh".
>>>
>>> So what has it been until now?

Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> replied:
>> /bin/csh, which is actually tcsh on FreeBSD.

>>> When I am in a fsck situation in 13,
>>> as with previous versions,the single user
>>> mode prompt tells me to enter a shell or
>>> RETURN for sh indicating sh is already
>>> the default.

>> Single user shell != root user's shell

Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws> then asked:
> When one is single user does one not have root privileges?

Sure, but single user mode doesn't do all the multiuser login
stuff like looking at /etc/passwd to see what shell user X
should have. Instead, it just asks you which shell you want,
and the default is the traditional /bin/sh.
-WBE

Winston <wbe@UBEBLOCK.psr.com.invalid> wrote:
> Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws> writes:
>> I note that the article from debugpoint.com about
>> the new features of FreeBSD 14 says it has
>> "elevated the root user's default shell to sh".
>
> Maybe the author prefers sh to csh? :)

I suspect the author was a large language model rather than a human.

>> I thought only the Thompson and Mashey shells
>> predated sh,with csh,bash,etc. being more advanced?
>
> Development of sh didn't stop, and today's sh has many
> improvements compared with the 1980's sh.

Indeed. And FreeBSD's /bin/sh today has plenty of interactive features
for day to day systems administration use.

> In the end, does the installation default matter?
> If you prefer csh, use chsh to change it back.

I prefer to keep the system defaults on installations where I'm not the
only admin. For my user account, I've been using zsh for over twenty
years.

Philip

--
Philip Paeps
Senior Reality Engineer
Alternative Enterprises