Emacs: Default binary to run with M-x ansi-term

Question

Is there a way to have Emacs to prompt by default for a binary of my choice when running M-x ansi-term. It always asks me for /bin/zsh but I have a new installation of zsh in a different path.

Alternatively, it would be great to have Emacs to just run the binary I want when I type M-x my-ansi-term

Answer 1

There are a number of ways to specify the default shell:

• Set the variable explicit-shell-file-name. For example, in your .emacs: (setq explicit-shell-file-name "/bin/zsh")
• Set the environment variable ESHELL
• Set the environment variable SHELL

Answer 2

Alternatively, it would be great to have Emacs to just run the binary I want when I type M-x my-ansi-term

See Remote ssh connection from within Emacs.