Building Bash with Network Redirections

I rebuilt Bash from source. These notes cover downloading the source, compiling it and switching to the new shell.

# Check the installed shell and Bash version

First check the login shell configured for the account:

echo "$SHELL"

$SHELL normally contains the login shell path. My guest used zsh by default, but also had Bash installed. Check its version separately:

bash --version

My installed version was Bash 5.1.16:

# Download and install Bash

I wanted to select a build option explicitly, so I built from source. You’ll need a C compiler and make. On Kali, sudo apt install build-essential installs the build tools.

# Download

Find the 5.1.16 source archive in the GNU Bash download directory and download it with wget:

wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bash/bash-5.1.16.tar.gz

# Extract the source

tar -zxvf bash-5.1.16.tar.gz

This creates a bash-5.1.16 directory in the working directory:

Change into it:

cd bash-5.1.16

# Configure the build

Select a separate installation prefix and explicitly enable network redirections:

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/bash --enable-net-redirections

The --prefix option puts the installation under /usr/local/bash , leaving the system’s existing Bash binary in place.

# Compile and install

Build the configured source:

make

After the build succeeds, install it under the selected prefix:

sudo make install

I was running as root in the screenshot, so the command there is simply make install .

# Use the new shell

You can launch it directly without changing the account’s login shell:

/usr/local/bash/bin/bash

To make it your login shell, check whether /etc/shells already lists /usr/local/bash/bin/bash . If it’s absent, append it:

echo '/usr/local/bash/bin/bash' | sudo tee -a /etc/shells

Set the current account’s login shell:

chsh -s /usr/local/bash/bin/bash

Log out and back in for the change to take effect. A full reboot isn’t necessary. Run echo "$SHELL" after logging back in to check the configured path.