run tcsh but bash started instead

Question

I tried to start a tcsh on my Fedora 7 (default shell is bash)

[ss@ssvm ~]$ tcsh
[ss@ssvm ~]$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash

As you see, another bash shell started.

I looked at the tcsh file:

[ss@ssvm ~]$ ll /bin/tcsh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 345348 2007-02-26 23:58 /bin/tcsh
[ss@ssvm ~]$ ll /bin/csh
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 2010-03-07 13:13 /bin/csh -> tcsh

It is not a link (but csh is). I don't understand why this is happening. Please let me know if you have ideas or you require further information. Thanks!

XM

Answer 1

Short answer: the SHELL environment variable represents the default shell for your user profile, not the shell you are currently talking to. It is used by programs that spawn subshells.

Alternately, check your .cshrc for an exec bash command. I used to do that at a site where users were not allowed to change their default shell from csh.

Answer 2

tcsh sets a lower-case variable named shell:

prompt> echo $shell
/usr/bin/tcsh

Answer 3

try executing echo $0 which will give your current shell name. refer this for more information on changing shells