Oh-my-zsh

Some advantages over bash {#some-advantages}

General

• There are plenty of plugins and themes to enhance the bash experience (see below)
• Spell correct: type a command like cd myFolder (an existing one) but make a typo like cd myfolder or cd myFoder or anything else. Zsh will detect it and will suggest something like Did you mean cd myFolder?. To make this work, run nano ~/.zshrc and make sure to enable ENABLE_CORRECTION to true (uncomment the line) and write a new line like export SPROMPT="You've typed %R, did you mean %r? [Yes, No, Abort, Edit] " to customize the question as you want. Run source ~/.zshrc to read the new configuration file if you've modified it.
• There is a special utility called zmv that will allow mass actions on files or folders like renaming .tmp files to .bak f.i. zmv -n '(*).tmp' '${1}.bak'.
• Completion is provided with the - (minus sign) and after pressing the tab key. For instance, type git commit - or docker-compose logs - then press
• Chain commands with:
  • ; like in clear ; ls (run the first then the second)
  • || like in rm -rf node_modules/ || rm package-lock.json || yarn install (|| will exec the next command only if the previous one was successful)
  • | to pipe the output like in cat longfile.log | less (similar to the PAUSE DOS command)
• Special search patterns like:
  • ls *(.x) display the list of all executable files in the current folder
  • ls */*(.x) display the list of all executable files in a first-level subfolder
  • ls **/*(.x) display the list of all executable files, whatever the deep in the structure
  • ls -d */**(/) list of all folders and subfolders (not deeper)

Navigating

• The autopushd command helps you do popd after you use cd to go back to your previous directory: type f.i. cd /usr/local/bin to go there then type popd and you're back in your origin folder. - (the minus sign) is an alias of popd
• Run mkdir and cd in only one action: take test/any/sub/folders will create the folder and jump in it (take is a function defined in ~/.oh-my-zsh/lib/functions.zsh; we can create our owns)
• You've a subfolder called vendor? No need to type cd vendor, cd is implicit; just type vendor and press Enter to jump inside
• Inline glob expansion: type f.i. cat */**/settings.json AND PRESS TAB (not enter!), zsh will replace the pattern with all matched filenames. The cat instruction will then be something like cat settings.json vendor/laravel/tinker/settings.json vendor/vlucas/phpdotenv/settings.json (and many more perhaps). Before pressing Enter, you can navigate in the command and suppress a few filenames f.i.
• Prompt completion: type cd followed by enter and you'll get the list of folders; you can select a name by navigating with the tab key
• Type cd ven and press tab, Zsh will complete the folder name
• Type cd /u/lo/b and press tab, the path will be extended to cd /usr/local/bin because there is no doubt on the desired path. This is called the fuzzy match feature
• Thanks to global aliases, type cd ... to go up two levels (the parent folder of the parent folder), cd ..... for three levels up (equivalent of cd ../../..)

History

• Type any command like mkdir followed by a space and press the UP or DOWN key to loop across the history.
• Type cd sto and Zsh will display a command you've already used (like cd storage/app/public/pictures); just press the right arrow key and hop, the command will be completed so you just need to press enter to run it
• Shared history: open more than one Zsh sessions, the history will be shared across all sessions
• ALT-/ to output the full CLI history
• CTRL-R to show the list of commands in the history with navigation feature so we can select a previous command and press Enter to fire it

Not Zsh specific

• Press CTRL-L to clear the screen (note: clear will clear the output history i.e. if we scroll to the first line, we'll not have previous commands while this is untrue with CTRL-L)

Install zsh and oh-my-zsh

1. First, install zsh like this: sudo apt install zsh.
2. Then set zsh as your default shell: chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh
3. This done, install oh-my-zsh: sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Install plugins

https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/tree/master/plugins

Note: each time a plugin has to be activated, you'll need to edit the ~/.zshrc file and add his name to the list of plugins to load.

Edit the file and search for the plugins=( ... ) array. Add the plugin name to the list. Save the file and the plugin will be loaded the next time you'll create a session.

core plugins

With core plugins, no installation are required since they're already there. We just need to activate them by adding their name in the plugins=( ... ) array.

composer

https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/tree/master/plugins/composer

Add aliases for composer. For instance type cu instead of composer update.

docker-compose

https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/tree/master/plugins/docker-compose

Add aliases for docker-compose like f.i. dce instead of docker-compose exec.

git

https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/tree/master/plugins/git

Add aliases for git like f.i. gst instead of git status.

globalias

https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/tree/master/plugins/globalias

This one is a special one: you'll type any alias like dce then press the space bar and that alias will be expanded so you'll see what is behind (here, docker-compose exec). I like this because expanding an alias will allow you to always remember the real command behind, see it and don't have any doubt about "Uh oh, I don't remember well what was the real command".

Example below with la followed by a space and expanded to ls -lAh:

zsh-autosuggestions

https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions/blob/master/INSTALL.md#oh-my-zsh

This plugin will predict your command based on your history (a command you've already typed in) or, for instance, you're typing cd and the plugin will automatically suggest the list of folders in the current directory. You're typing cat and you'll get this time a list of file names.

Absolutely essential.

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

zsh-syntax-highlighting

https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting/blob/master/INSTALL.md

Provide highlighting in the prompt. Practical

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting

fzf - Command-line fuzzy finder

https://github.com/junegunn/fzf

To install fzf:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.git ~/.fzf ; ~/.fzf/install

Much more tips? Take a look to the video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgG5Jhi_Els

CTRL-R and get your command history

Press CTRL-R and get the list of all commands you've already fired. Start to type some letters to filter the list and once you've retrieve the desired command, select that one and press ENTER to select that command.

CTRL-T and get the list of files

Imagine you want to display the content of a file and you don't want to type the full path. CTRL-T is, here, the solution. By pressing these keys, you'll get the list of files in any child-folders. You can start to type and the list will be filtered. Press ENTER and the filename will be selected and displayed in the prompt.

So, how to use it? Imagine you want to display the content of the file. Just start to type cat , press CTRL-T, select your file, press ENTER to select it and press once more ENTER so you'll run your command.

The same result can be obtained with cat $(fzf) or even cat ** followed by TAB. ** is thus a shortcut for $(fzf).

Select one or more files and do an action like opening it

Here is a real world sample, you want to show the content of a file that is under a given folder but you don't know anymore where the file is and is exact name. Type ** followed by TAB in the command below.

cat reponame/**

Better below: fzf -m will allow you to select multiple files (by using TAB) then, once your choice is done, press ENTER. The list of file name will be passed to the next pipe item which is xargs code here. So, Visual Studio code will be opened and each selected files too, each in his own tab.

fzf -m | xargs cat

Note: if you known the file name (you want to open every composer.json file), just use find . -maxdepth 2 -name composer.json | xargs code. The -maxdepth 2 option is to limit to the current folder and his first level child ones.

zsh-you-should-use

https://github.com/MichaelAquilina/zsh-you-should-use

How to learn which alias are already supported on your system? You always type commands like git status, docker-compose exec or any other ones but is there an alias for it?

In fact, the zsh-you-should-use make the opposite of globalias and this is fine! zsh-you-should-use will teach you about existing aliases and globalias will always remember you the real command behind an alias.

Install the powerlevel10k theme

https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k

Installation is made of four steps.

Get the powerlevel10k theme

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k

Set powerlevel10k as default theme

This done, edit the ~/.zshrc file and update the ZSH_THEME like this:

ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k"

Install powerlevel10k fonts

Download the four fonts from https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k#manual-font-installation: download one by one and click on the download file. Windows will open it and you'll get a windows with an Install button.

This done, open the Windows Terminal settings and open the settings.json file. Add the MesloLGS NF font in the defaults section for profiles, like this:

{
  "profiles": {
    "defaults": {
      "fontFace": "MesloLGS NF"
    }
  }
}

Configure powerlevel10k

Once the ~/.zshrc file has been updated and fonts installed, just create a new Linux session. The powerlevel10k configuration script will be started and if everything is going fine, you'll see the correct symbol (if not, fonts were incorrectly installed).

Follow the wizard and make your choice in the different options.

If you want to display the username in the prompt, follow this guide.