My Personal Zsh Setup with iTerm2

This repository shows the setup of my terminal and some other tools/aliases. All theme and scheme files are provided in an other repository, have a look!

Tool Stack

• macOS
• iTerm2
• Zsh
• oh-my-zsh

iTerm2

What is iTerm2?
iTerm2 is a replacement for Terminal and the successor to iTerm. It works on Macs with macOS 10.10 or newer. iTerm2 brings the terminal into the modern age with features you never knew you always wanted.

(Source: https://www.iterm2.com)

I extensively use the Split Panes, Mouseless Copy and of course the 256 Colors + Configurability. There are lot more for example the Inline Images. Take a look.

Zsh

Zsh is like a superset of the standard BASH. It adds the following advantages:

• better autocompletion (case insensitive..)
• path expansion (cd /v/w [tab] == cd /var/www)
• syntax highlighting
• spelling correction
• ... much more useful plugins
• oh-my-zsh

oh-my-zsh

Oh My Zsh is an open source, community-driven framework for managing your zsh configuration.

(Source: https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh)

It also comes with a lot of themes and plugins.

1. Install Required Tools

To activate changes you can restart iTerm2, if you did some changes on them, or reload the zsh config file: source ~/.zshrc

Zsh - Deprecated

Zsh is the default shell since macOS 10.15.

For older versions:

The easiest way to install Zsh is using brew.
Therefore run: brew install zsh

oh-my-zsh

As you can see on: http://ohmyz.sh - use the following command to install oh-my-zsh.
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

iTerm2

Download and install iTerm2. Click
Or use brew: brew cask install iterm2

2. Setup iTerm2

Change iTerm2 Colors

I changed colors of iTerm2 and provide the changes in an itermcolors file.

1. Download the itermcolors file. You can use the following command to automatically store it in your oh-my-zsh installation path, subdir custom, or use a custom one.
   • curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/se-jaeger/hunter-zsh-scheme/master/hunter.itermcolors > ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/hunter.itermcolors
   • https://github.com/se-jaeger/hunter-zsh-scheme/blob/master/hunter.itermcolors
2. Import hunter.itermcolors (or whatever you named it) into iTerm2
   • iTerm2 -> Preferences -> tab "Profiles" -> select -> tab "Colors" -> Color Presets... -> Import... -> choose the hunter.itermcolors file
3. Select the scheme hunter (or whatever you named it)
   • iTerm2 -> Preferences -> tab "Profiles" -> select -> tab "Colors" -> Color Presets... -> hunter

Enable Word Jumps and Delete Whole Words in iTerm2

• iTerm2 -> Preferences -> tab "Profiles" -> select -> tab "Keys" -> Load Presets... -> select "Natural Text Editing"

(Source: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/293988)

Change iTerm2 Scheme

• iTerm2 -> Preferences -> tab "Profiles" -> tab "Appearance" -> Theme -> slect "Dark"

Increase Scroll Buffer

• iTerm2 -> Preferences -> tab "Terminal" -> tick "Unlimited scrollback"

3. Install Zsh Plugins

Install Zsh Plugin: zsh-autoactivate-environment

Switches the virtual environment (conda and virtualenv) as you move between directories.

(Soruce: https://github.com/se-jaeger/zsh-autoactivate-environment)

1. Run git clone https://github.com/se-jaeger/zsh-autoactivate-environment ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autoactivate-environment
2. Change your ~/.zshrc file and add zsh-autoactivate-environment to the plugins like:

plugins(
  # other plugins
  zsh-autoactivate-environment
)

(Source: https://github.com/se-jaeger/zsh-autoactivate-environment#installation-and-prerequisites)

Install Zsh Plugin: zsh-autosuggestions

It suggests commands as you type, based on command history.

(Source: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions#zsh-autosuggestions)

1. Run git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions
2. Change your ~/.zshrc file and add zsh-autosuggestions to the plugins like:

plugins(
  # other plugins
  zsh-autosuggestions
)

(Source: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions#oh-my-zsh)

Install Zsh Plugin: zsh-syntax-highlighting

It enables highlighing of commands whilst they are typed at a zsh prompt into an interactive terminal. This helps in reviewing commands before running them, particularly in catching syntax errors.

(Source: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting#zsh-syntax-highlighting-)

1. Run git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting
2. Change your ~/.zshrc file and add zsh-syntax-highlighting to the the plugins like:

plugins(
  # other plugins
  zsh-syntax-highlighting
)

(Source: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting/blob/master/INSTALL.md#oh-my-zsh)

Install Zsh Plugin: zsh-history-substring-search

This is a clean-room implementation of the Fish shell's history search feature, where you can type in any part of any command from history and then press chosen keys, such as the UP and DOWN arrows, to cycle through matches.

(Source: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-history-substring-search#zsh-history-substring-search)

1. Run git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-history-substring-search ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-history-substring-search
2. Change your ~/.zshrc file and add zsh-history-substring-search at the end of the plugins like. Just to make sure it is loaded after zsh-syntax-highlighting:

plugins(
  # other plugins

  # should be last plugin loaded
  history-substring-search
)

(Source: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-history-substring-search#install)

4. Setup oh-my-zsh Theme

I created a zsh-theme file, which provide different features and change appearance, see Click.

1. Download the zsh-theme file. You can use the following command to automatically store it in the themes dir of your installation directory, or download it yourself.
   • curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/se-jaeger/hunter-zsh-scheme/master/hunter.zsh-theme > ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/hunter.zsh-theme
   • https://github.com/se-jaeger/hunter-zsh-scheme/blob/master/hunter.zsh-theme
2. Activate the theme in ~/.zshrc file: ZSH_THEME="hunter" (or whatever you named it)

Screenshots

Further Tooling

Useful Command Line Tools

A collection of different tools I'm using.

trash

Moves file and folders to Trash, like the Move to Trash option in context menu.
Easy install via brew: brew install trash

tree

Tree is a recursive directory listing command that produces a depth indented listing of files.

(Source: http://mama.indstate.edu/users/ice/tree/)

Easy install via brew: brew install tree

tldr

Simplified and community-driven man pages.

(Source: http://tldr.sh)

Easy install via brew: brew install tldr

lsd

The next gen ls command

(Source: https://github.com/Peltoche/lsd)

Easy install via brew: brew install lsd

bat

A cat(1) clone with syntax highlighting and Git integration.

(Source: https://github.com/sharkdp/bat)

Easy install via brew: brew install bat

I'm using always bat instead of cat. Simply add the following to your ~/.zshrc: alias cat="bat"

To use bat for man pages additionally add the following:

# use bat for man pages
export MANPAGER="sh -c 'col -bx | bat -l man -p'"
export BAT_PAGER="less -R"

fd

fd is a simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to find.

(Source: https://github.com/sharkdp/fd)

Easy install via brew: brew install fd

fzf

fzf is a general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder.

(Source: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf)

Easy install via brew:

brew install fzf

# To install useful key bindings and fuzzy completion:
$(brew --prefix)/opt/fzf/install

In combination with bat and fd, fzf gets extraordinary useful. For this add the following to ~/.zshrc:

# settings for fzf
export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND="fd --type f --type l --hidden --follow"
export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS="--layout=reverse --inline-info"
export FZF_ALT_C_OPTS=" --preview 'bat --color=always {}'"
export FZF_CTRL_T_OPTS=" --preview 'bat --color=always {}'"
export FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND="fd --type d --type l --hidden --follow"

Using fd instead of find is much faster, see fd's benchmark and bat instead of cat for previews is much nicer because of it's syntax highlighting:

Hints

See the following for a font workaround: lsd-rs/lsd#199 (comment)

Use the following in your ~/.zshrc to always show the directory's content when stepping into it.

cd() {
    builtin cd "$@"
    l
}

Useful Aliases

A collection of aliases I'm using.

Add them to your ~/.zshrc

• alias del="trash"
• alias ..="cd .."
• alias ls="lsd"
• alias search="l | grep"
• alias cat="bat"

A lot of aliases which are provided by oh-my-zsh

• gst='git status'
• ga='git add'
• gaa='git add --all'
• gcmsg='git commit -m'
• gp='git push'

For a list of all aliases type alias