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sorry if this is a silly question, but are there any differences between Bash and the macOS/Linux shell? (not all Linux distros use the Bash shell right?)

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    What shell is being used is an option for both MacOS and Linux. The DEFAULT shell on most unix like OSs is indeed bash. Also, out of the box bash on MacOS is older than s**t and doesn't have many of the modern things that a current version has. Also, the commands you call from MacOS are based on older versions of BSD commands and many have different parameters and functionality. Not "bashing" MacOS here (see what I did there?) but you should be aware before you jump down the rabbit hole.
    – Señor CMasMas
    May 2, 2022 at 23:06
  • Thank you for your reply @SeñorCMasMas. Are you saying the "out-of-the-box" macOS Bash is an entirely different Bash than the modern Bash? Or just needs to be updated? How do you even update a shell? Is it like any other application?
    – Meester Moo
    May 2, 2022 at 23:10
  • That is exactly what I am saying. See this. It will at least give you a starting point.
    – Señor CMasMas
    May 2, 2022 at 23:12
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    By default, current versions of macOS use zsh instead of bash as the default interactive shell (precisely because they can ship the current version of zsh without violating its license -- unlike bash). But /bin/sh is still bash (v3.2.57), so talking about "the shell" isn't really right -- there are several. BTW, many Linux distros now use dash as /bin/sh, so there also the default interactive shell is often different from the default scripting shell.
    – Gordon Davisson
    May 3, 2022 at 1:46
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    Apple changed the default login shell to zsh in 2019 starting with macOS Catalina
    – fpmurphy
    May 3, 2022 at 2:39

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