Install the tcsh shell on Ubuntu Linux easily with this simple guide
The tcsh shell for Linux is a free but enhanced version of the old Berkeley UNIX C shell (csh). This is a very good alternative to the standard bash shell that most Linux machines come with.
Download the tarball of the most recent version here: ftp://ftp.astron.com/pub/tcsh/tcsh-6.20.00.tar.gz.
Download it with wget.
jason@jason-virtual-machine ~ $ wget ftp://ftp.astron.com/pub/tcsh/tcsh-6.20.00.tar.gz --2017-05-01 12:28:58-- ftp://ftp.astron.com/pub/tcsh/tcsh-6.20.00.tar.gz => 'tcsh-6.20.00.tar.gz’ Resolving ftp.astron.com (ftp.astron.com)... 38.117.134.18 Connecting to ftp.astron.com (ftp.astron.com)|38.117.134.18|:21... connected. Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in! ==> SYST ... done. ==> PWD ... done. ==> TYPE I ... done. ==> CWD (1) /pub/tcsh ... done. ==> SIZE tcsh-6.20.00.tar.gz ... 1001696 ==> PASV ... done. ==> RETR tcsh-6.20.00.tar.gz ... done. Length: 1001696 (978K) (unauthoritative) tcsh-6.20.00.tar.gz 100%[==============================================>] 978.22K 412KB/s in 2.4s 2017-05-01 12:29:04 (412 KB/s) - 'tcsh-6.20.00.tar.gz’ saved [1001696] |
Then unpack the tarball ready to begin compilation.
jason@jason-virtual-machine ~ $ tar -xvf tcsh-6.20.00.tar.gz |
Cd into the directory.
jason@jason-virtual-machine ~/tcsh-6.20.00 $ cd tcsh-6.20.00/ |
I needed to install this dependency on my system before ./configure would complete.
jason@jason-virtual-machine ~/tcsh-6.20.00 $ sudo apt install ncurses-dev |
Then I could run configure to setup the makefile.
jason@jason-virtual-machine ~/tcsh-6.20.00 $ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local |
And then run make to compile the source code.
jason@jason-virtual-machine ~/tcsh-6.20.00 $ make |
Then run make install as root to install the freshly compiled binaries.
jason@jason-virtual-machine ~/tcsh-6.20.00 $ sudo make install |
Then edit the /etc/shells file and add the path to the freshly installed tcsh binary at the bottom.
# /etc/shells: valid login shells /bin/sh /bin/dash /bin/bash /bin/rbash /usr/local/bin/tcs |
This is all you need to do to get this shell installed from source code. The user`s entry in /etc/passwd may be edited to change the user`s shell to the newly installed shell. This will work very well indeed.
There is a tcsh shell here that will set you up with a proper prompt and easier to use shell.
FTP is a good option only when there is someone to manage it well. Binfer is a more secure alternative. See http://www.binfer.com/solutions/tasks/ftp-alternative-or-replacement