Open Terminal Faster by Specifying a Shell

Whenever a new Terminal window is launched, a variety of system logs are read to provide information on the last login. One way to speed up launching a new terminal window is to delete those .asl log files, but you can achieve a substantial speed boost by simply setting Terminal to open a shell rather than /usr/bin/login. This is achieved through the same means of changing the shell and is just a few quick steps within Terminal settings.

Launch Terminal.app Faster in Mac OS X by Specifying Shell to Use

This applies to all versions of OS X:

1. Open Preferences from within the Terminal pulldown menu
2. Click the “Startup” tab
3. Look for “Shells open with:” and check the box next to “Command (complete path):”

The default shell is /bin/bash but you’re free to choose another.

Once this setting has been adjusted, launch a new Terminal window and you should immediately notice the difference. This works because the many .asl log files are bypassed, but as a side effect you will lose the “Last login” MOTD message at login unless specified otherwise.

Thanks for the tip Darren & Yorkster