Variable: ediff-shell

ediff-shell is a customizable variable defined in ediff-diff.el.gz.

Value

"sh"

Documentation

The shell used to run diff and patch.

If user's .profile or .cshrc files are set up correctly, any shell will do. However, some people set $prompt or other things incorrectly, which leads to undesirable output messages. These may cause Ediff to fail. In such a case, set ediff-shell to a shell that you are not using or, better, fix your shell's startup file.

Source Code

;; Defined in /usr/src/emacs/lisp/vc/ediff-diff.el.gz
(defcustom ediff-shell
  (cond ((memq system-type '(ms-dos windows-nt))
	 shell-file-name) ; no standard name on MS-DOS
	(t  "sh")) ; UNIX
  "The shell used to run diff and patch.
If user's .profile or .cshrc files are set up correctly, any shell
will do.  However, some people set $prompt or other things
incorrectly, which leads to undesirable output messages.  These may
cause Ediff to fail.  In such a case, set `ediff-shell' to a shell that
you are not using or, better, fix your shell's startup file."
  :type 'string)