Please fix the setup script for macOS

[anton-bedrock]

On macOS there setup script mentioned bash completions, but it should be zsh completions instead. An easy fix, but it will save hours for many macOS users. Please fix it.

After running the following command to install NVM.

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.2/install.sh | bash

my .zshrc file had the following added.

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"  # This loads nvm
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"  # This loads nvm bash_completion

After restarting the terminal, it appeared.

zsh compinit: insecure directories, run compaudit for list.
Ignore insecure directories and continue [y] or abort compinit [n]?

After changing bash_completion to zsh_completion, the error disappeared.

Originally posted by @amlzq in #2361

[ljharb]

Not all Mac OS users use zsh, so it definitely shouldn’t do it by platform.

[anton-bedrock]

@ljharb said:

Not all Mac OS users use zsh, so it definitely shouldn’t do it by platform.

I think last 2-3 years macOS ships with zsh. So you always can check if zsh is available and use one output, with a fallback to bash. Seems an easy check

[ljharb]

Yes, that's true, but if you've continuously migrated your Mac environment from prior to that, then you'll stay on bash, as I have.

zsh is always available now, that can't be used to make a choice.

I have a .bashrc, .bash_profile, and .zshrc present, but bash is my default. What logic would you suggest that can select "bash" for me but "zsh" for you?

[sdavids]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102360

zsh (Z shell) is the default shell for all newly created user accounts, starting with macOS Catalina.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS_Catalina

macOS Catalina [was] released to the public on October 7, 2019

https://endoflife.date/macos

macOS 10.15 (Catalina) support ended 12 Sep 2022

[sdavids]

if you've continuously migrated your Mac environment from prior to that

Not everybody is as old as we are 😉

[anton-bedrock]

I have a .bashrc, .bash_profile, and .zshrc present, but bash is my default. What logic would you suggest that can select "bash" for me but "zsh" for you?

You always can see in which shell you run the installation script (bash, zsh, etc), right? Depending on it you can write to terminal the correct instructions. I think you can see how other projects achieve this. Or if no luck with detection, write few possible lines - each for each supported shell.

[sdavids]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3327013/how-to-determine-the-current-interactive-shell-that-im-in-command-line

Unfortunately, the output of ps -p $$ is not standardized and some terminals report it incorrectly.

$BASH or $ZSH_NAME usually indicate the shell used but it is not reliable either.

But I think a 90% solution is better then doing nothing:

If $ZSH_NAME or ps -p $$ contains the string zsh do the zsh installation otherwise do the bash installation.

[ljharb]

I'd be happy to review a PR that did that - noting that the install script must always run in bash.

[sdavids]

I experimented a little:

$ sw_vers
ProductName:	macOS
ProductVersion:	12.7.6
BuildVersion:	21H1320
$ ps -p $$
  PID TTY           TIME CMD
77576 ttys002    0:00.20 -zsh
$ echo $SHELL
/bin/zsh
$ echo $ZSH_NAME
zsh

$ mkdir /tmp/test && cd "$_"
$ printf '#!/usr/bin/env bash\necho $(ps -p $$)\necho $SHELL\necho $BASH\necho $ZSH_NAME\n' >install.sh
$ chmod u+x install.sh

$ curl -so- file:///tmp/test/install.sh | zsh
PID TTY TIME CMD 78615 ttys001 0:00.01 zsh
/bin/zsh

zsh
$ curl -so- file:///tmp/test/install.sh | bash
PID TTY TIME CMD 78651 ttys001 0:00.01 bash
/bin/zsh
/usr/local/bin/bash

$ zsh -c 'curl -so- curl -so- file:///tmp/test/install.sh | zsh'
PID TTY TIME CMD 78691 ttys001 0:00.01 zsh
/bin/zsh

zsh
$ zsh -c 'curl -so- curl -so- file:///tmp/test/install.sh | bash'
PID TTY TIME CMD 78702 ttys001 0:00.01 bash
/bin/zsh
/usr/local/bin/bash

$  bash -c 'curl -so- curl -so- file:///tmp/test/install.sh | zsh'
PID TTY TIME CMD 78767 ttys001 0:00.01 zsh
/bin/zsh

zsh
$ bash -c 'curl -so- curl -so- file:///tmp/test/install.sh | bash'
PID TTY TIME CMD 78755 ttys001 0:00.01 bash
/bin/zsh
/usr/local/bin/bash

$ docker run -it --rm -v /tmp/test:/tmp/test ubuntu:noble-20250404 bash
# apt-get -y update && apt-get -y install curl
# curl -so- file:///tmp/test/install.sh | bash
PID TTY TIME CMD 2927 pts/0 00:00:00 bash
/bin/bash
/usr/bin/bash

# exit
$ docker run -it --rm -v /tmp/test:/tmp/test ubuntu:noble-20250404 bash
# apt-get -y update && apt-get -y install curl zsh
# zsh
# ps -p $$
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
 3025 pts/0    00:00:00 zsh
# curl -so- file:///tmp/test/install.sh | bash
PID TTY TIME CMD 3047 pts/0 00:00:00 bash
/bin/bash
/usr/bin/bash

# curl -so- file:///tmp/test/install.sh | zsh
PID TTY TIME CMD 3050 pts/0 00:00:00 zsh


zsh
# exit
# zsh -c 'curl -so- curl -so- file:///tmp/test/install.sh | bash'
PID TTY TIME CMD 3056 pts/0 00:00:00 bash
/bin/bash
/usr/bin/bash

# zsh -c 'curl -so- curl -so- file:///tmp/test/install.sh | zsh'
PID TTY TIME CMD 3061 pts/0 00:00:00 zsh


zsh

As expected, a mess 🫣

[sdavids]

There are three options:

1. do nothing
2. if one of ps -p $$, $SHELL, or $ZSH_NAME contains zsh then install zsh completions instead of bash completions
3. same as 2. but also mention curl .../install.sh | zsh in docs

2. and 3. could either install zsh completions immediately or ask something along the lines "It seems that you are you using zsh; do you want to install zsh completions instead of bash completions?"