Making ZSH default Shell in MacOSX

Question

I installed zsh on my Mac. and now i want to make it the default shell instead of Bash. But I seem to be running into the following error:

$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash
$ chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh
Changing shell for harshamv.
Password for harshamv:
chsh: /usr/bin/zsh: non-standard shell

Answer 1

The correct answer should've addressed your problem:

chsh: /usr/bin/zsh: non-standard shell

The reason this is the case is because chsh will only accept shells that are defined in the file /etc/shells, as you can see by reading the manual for chsh:

chsh will accept the full pathname of any executable file on the system. However, it will issue a warning if the shell is not listed in the /etc/shells file.

To solve this problem and make zsh the default shell, you should thus:

$ sudo echo "$(which zsh)" >> /etc/shells
$ chsh -s $(which zsh)

Obviously, I assume that zsh is in your path here. This solution will also work if you, for example, choose to install the latest zsh with brew install zsh.

EDIT (thanks for ThisIsFlorianK for the comment)