Zsh not running as login shell

[awebeer256]

By default, logging in will run bash in login mode (context: Bash Startup Files). However, when I installed zsh and set it as my login shell, I found that it is not run in login mode (equivalent context: Zsh Files).

Is there any way to have Zsh run in login mode when it’s run as your login shell?

I tested this by adding a line each to /etc/profile and /etc/zprofile, to export unique environment variables. Then, I logged out and back in and tried to echo those variables. (When logging in to a graphical session, I would open QTerminal and run the echo command there.) It doesn’t matter whether I’m in a graphical session or a text-only one (accessed by hitting Ctrl-Alt-F2): in both cases, if my login shell is Bash then it’s run in login mode, but if it’s Zsh then it’s not.

Lubuntu version: 22.04

Proposed additional tags: bash, zsh, shell

[apt-ghetto]

I am using ZSH with the configs from Grml since years with all of my used distributions, including Lubuntu.

To answer your question: Yes, it is possible.

I just needed to add

emulate sh -c 'source /etc/profile'

for the snap stuff to my .zprofile.

As long as you don’t tell us what you did to get the shell “run in login mode” it is impossible to help you.

• How did you change the login shell? Describe all steps.
• What is the output of

grep $USER /etc/passwd
# Or if you want to obfuscate your username
grep $USER /etc/passwd | sed "s/$USER/MYUSER/g"

[awebeer256]

I just needed to add

emulate sh -c 'source /etc/profile'

for the snap stuff to my .zprofile.

I noticed the problem in the first place when I created /etc/zprofile, containing just emulate sh -c '. /etc/profile', and it didn’t work.

How did you change the login shell? Describe all steps.

Like this:

$ chsh
Password: <typed it>
Changing the login shell for <username>
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
        Login Shell [/usr/bin/bash]: /usr/bin/zsh
$

What is the output of grep $USER /etc/passwd

After doing the above, it’s <username>:x:1000:1000:<full name>:/home/<username>:/usr/bin/zsh

Okay, after reading your post again, I’ve discovered that while /etc/zprofile isn’t read, ~/.zprofile is! This makes absolutely no sense at first, given the documentation I linked above:

If the shell is a login shell, commands are read from /etc/zprofile and then $ZDOTDIR/.zprofile. … If ZDOTDIR is unset, HOME is used instead.

However, there is also this sentence, which I didn’t notice until now:

Files listed above as being in /etc may be in another directory, depending on the installation.

So I guess the Ubuntu zsh package is configured to use a different directory for the /etc files?

[awebeer256]

Okay, I’ve got it. My last point was correct. Running man zsh on my Lubuntu machine reveals that it looks in /etc/zsh instead of /etc for its machine-wide startup files (it contains pretty much a copy-paste of the paragraph that I’ve been quoting from in this topic, but with all of the mentions of paths under /etc changed to /etc/zsh). Sure enough, when I move my /etc/zprofile to /etc/zsh/zprofile, it gets read upon login.

Moral of the story: Zsh is properly run in login mode; I was just using a flawed method of testing that.