jobs.<job_id>.steps[*].shell

Use jobs.<job_id>.steps[*].shell to override the default shell settings in the runner’s operating system. You can use built-in shell keywords, or else define a custom set of shell options. The shell command that is run internally executes a temporary file that contains the commands specified in the run keyword.

Supported platform

shell parameter

Description

Command run internally

Linux

unspecified

Default shell on Linux platforms. Note this runs a different command versus when bash is explicitly specified. If bash is not found in the path, this is interpreted as sh.

bash -e {0}

All

bash

The default shell on non-Windows platforms. Falls back to sh.

bash --noprofile --norc -eo pipefail {0}

All

python

Runs the python command.

python {0}

Linux

sh

Fallback for Linux platforms if no shell is provided and bash is not found in the path.

sh -e {0}

Overriding the default shell on MacOS or Windows is not currently supported. Only Linux platforms are currently supported.

Example usage

In the following example, each step displays the path.

The first step runs using Bash.
The second step runs using the Python command.

steps:
  - name: Run using Bash
    uses: docker://bash:5
    shell: bash
    run: echo $PATH
  - name: Run an inline Python script
    uses: docker://python:3
    shell: python
    run: |
      import os
      print(os.environ['PATH'])▼

In the following example, both echo commands run in the same shell.

 my-job:
    steps:
      - uses: docker://alpine:3.18
        shell: bash
        run: |
          echo 'Hello'
          echo 'world'▼

Exit codes and error action preference

bash/sh is a default executed by CloudBees platform-hosted runners and is provided for built-in shell keywords.

CloudBees recommends that you adhere to the following usage guidelines for the bash/sh default:

Fail-fast behavior is enforced using set -e for both sh and bash by default.
sh-like shells exit with the exit code of the last command executed in a script, which is also the default behavior for actions. The runner reports the status of the step as fail/succeed based on this exit code.