---
title: "How to identify which shell you are using?"  
description: "How to identify which shell you are using?"  
author: "Mukul Goenka"  
published: 2022-04-15  
canonical: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/96841/how-to-identify-which-shell-you-are-using  
category: "troubleshooting"  
tags: ["troubleshooting", "linux"]  
reading_time: 1 minute  

---

# How to identify which shell you are using?

How to [identify](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/84167/tips-for-students-on-how-to-identify-fake-news) which [shell](https://www.mindstick.com/interview/22998/why-erlang-shell-always-prints-ok-at-the-end-of-the-output) you are using?

## Answers

### Answer by Hitesh Vohra

- Both **[Linux](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/49865/do-mac-games-run-on-linux) and Unix** come with a **variety of shells** pre-installed. By default, bash (Bourne Again shell), ksh (Korn shell), csh/tcsh (TC shell), sh (Bourne shell), and other shells are installed.
- It should work with the echo or printf commands below:
- echo '$SHELL'
- Please note that $SHELL is the current user's shell, not necessarily the shell that is now running.\
- Here's another useful Unix tip. Use the ps command with the -p pid parameter. The command below picks all processes with process ID numbers in pid. To figure out which shell you're in, run the following command:
- ps -p $$

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**Read More: [How to see the list of mounted devices on Linux?](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/96835/how-to-see-the-list-of-mounted-devices-on-linux)**


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Original Source: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/96841/how-to-identify-which-shell-you-are-using

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