Customizing a Terminal With Zsh

Table of Contents

• 1. Zsh

• 2. Oh My Zsh

  • Plugins

• 3. Change theme or use Spaceship (optional)

  • Setup

1. Zsh

Zsh is an alternative to Bash. Many of the useful features of Bash were incorporated into Zsh, but also many original features were added.

• Installing Zsh

2. Oh My Zsh

Oh My Zsh is a framework for managing your Zsh configuration.

• Installing Oh My Zsh

Plugins

To use plugins with Oh My Zsh, you'll need to clone and enable them in your ~/.zshrc file.

• zdharma/fast-syntax-highlighting: It adds syntax highlighting while you type commands, allowing you to quickly check if they are correct.

• zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions: It suggests commands using your history while you type (like a fuzzy finder).

plugins=(
  git
  zsh-autosuggestions
  fast-syntax-highlighting
)

3. Change theme or use Spaceship (optional)

You can choose between themes from Oh My Zsh by replacing ZSH_THEME="robbyrussell" in ~/.zshrc or set up your own using Spaceship.

Spaceship is a minimalistic, powerful and extremely customizable Zsh prompt.

• Installing Spaceship

Setup

In ~/.zshrc, replace ZSH_THEME="robbyrussell" with ZSH_THEME="spaceship".

Below this line, place this example of customization:

SPACESHIP_PROMPT_ORDER=(
  user      # Username section
  dir       # Current directory section
  git       # Git section (git_branch + git_status)
  exec_time # Execution time
  char      # Prompt character
)
SPACESHIP_USER_SHOW=always
SPACESHIP_PROMPT_SEPARATE_LINE=false