Default Shell
Setting Nu as default shell on your terminal
| Terminal | Platform | Instructions |
|---|---|---|
| GNOME Terminal | Linux & BSDs | Open Edit > Preferences. In the right-hand panel, select the Command tab, tick Run a custom command instead of my shell, and set Custom command to the path to Nu. |
| GNOME Console | Linux & BSDs | Type the command gsettings set org.gnome.Console shell "['/usr/bin/nu']" (replace /usr/bin/nu with the path to Nu). Equivalently, use dconf Editor to edit the /org/gnome/Console/shell key. |
| Kitty | Linux & BSDs | Press Ctrl+Shift+F2 to open kitty.conf. Go to shell variable, uncomment the line and replace the . with the path to Nu. |
| Konsole | Linux & BSDs | Open Settings > Edit Current Profile. Set Command to the path to Nu. |
| XFCE Terminal | Linux & BSDs | Open Edit > Preferences. Check Run a custom command instead of my shell, and set Custom command to the path to Nu. |
| Terminal.app | macOS | Open Terminal > Preferences. Ensure you are on the Profiles tab, which should be the default tab. In the right-hand panel, select the Shell tab. Tick Run command, put the path to Nu in the textbox, and untick Run inside shell. |
| iTerm2 | macOS | Open iTerm > Preferences. Select the Profiles tab. In the right-hand panel under Command, change the dropdown from Login Shell to Custom Shell, and put the path to Nu in the textbox. |
| Windows Terminal | Windows | Press Ctrl+, to open Settings. Go to Add a new profile > New empty profile. Fill in the 'Name' and enter path to Nu in the 'Command line' textbox. Go to Startup option and select Nu as the 'Default profile'. Hit Save. |
Setting Nu as login shell (Linux, BSD & macOS)
Warning
Nu is not intended to be POSIX compliant. Be aware that some programs on your system (or their documentation) might assume that your login shell is POSIX compatible. Breaking that assumption can lead to unexpected issues. See Configuration - Login Shell for more details.
To set the login shell you can use the chsh command. Some Linux distributions have a list of valid shells located in /etc/shells and will disallow changing the shell until Nu is in the whitelist. You may see an error similar to the one below if you haven't updated the shells file:
chsh: /home/username/.cargo/bin/nu is an invalid shellYou can add Nu to the list of allowed shells by appending your Nu binary to the shells file. The path to add can be found with the command which nu, usually it is $HOME/.cargo/bin/nu.