Setting BASH as your shell

The bash shell can (and should!) be your default shell for when you connect with an SSH session. SSH connections are recommended for open source tools. This will not affect the shell in use by non-SSH shell environments, such as CALL QP2TERM or STRQSH

First, install open source environment and yum. Make sure the bash package is installed (it should be, by default). After doing so, you can set bash to be your default shell via one of the following techniques:

Technique #1: chsh

  1. Use yum to install the chsh package (for instamce, yum install chsh)

  2. From a shell, use the chsh command to set your shell (for instance, /QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/chsh -s /QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/bash). You can set the shell for another user via the -u option (for instance, /QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/chsh -s /QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/bash -u otherusr).

Technique #2: sql

You can set bash to be your default shell by running the following command from anywhere you have an SQL context, such as the Run SQL Scripts tool:

CALL QSYS2.SET_PASE_SHELL_INFO('*CURRENT', '/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/bash')

You can also set bash to be the default shell for all users, by running:

CALL QSYS2.SET_PASE_SHELL_INFO('*DEFAULT', '/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/bash')

Or, for a specific user:

CALL QSYS2.SET_PASE_SHELL_INFO('OTHRUSR', '/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/bash')

More information on this IBM i service can be found on developerWorks

Also, the default shell setting can be queried out with QSYS2.USER_INFO

See also

You will also want to make sure your PATH is set up correctly, if you have not yet done so. See these docs.