Update bash on OS X using homebrew

Default bash on MAC OS X sucks, that's why we have to get a better one. The easiest way is using homebrew.

First step is to install homebrew

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

then install bash

brew install bash

after that, you can go to see if new bash is install correctly

ls -al /usr/local/bin | grep bash

The result should show the symlink (->) like this

lrwxr-xr-x   (some useless info here)  bash -> ../Cellar/bash/4.3.18/bin/bash

The version might not be exactly 4.3.18, but everything above that is okay.


Now it's time to update your bash by create symlink to /usr/bin/bash.
But, before we can create symlink, just in case something go wrong, we have to backup the existing bash first.

sudo mv -r /usr/bin/bash /usr/bin/bash_old

then crete symlink from /usr/local/bin/bash to /usr/bin/bash

sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/bash /usr/bin/bash 

After you restart terminal, everything should be ready

If you're still not convince, you can try

bash --version