Switching from Bash to ZSH (Oh-my-zsh)

For years I have used the default terminal shell that comes with Linux, Bash. Having looked at several dotfile projects on GitHub and also watching Wes Bos’ Command Line Power User free course, I thought it was time to look around at the other options available.

The Wes Bos course is a great watch if you have not already done so, and his teaching style is awesome. He also has tonnes of other courses.

Installing ZSH

sudo apt-get install zsh -y
wget https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/raw/master/tools/install.sh -O - | zsh

Changing the shell

chsh -s `which zsh`

The above will require a logout or system restart.

Fixing Jekyll server

I had to do the following to ensure Jekyll was able to serve files locally (found here):

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshenv
echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.zshenv
echo 'source $HOME/.zshenv' >> ~/.zshrc
exec $SHELL

1. Set the theme

• Edit the ~/.zshrc file vim ~/.zshrc and set:

ZSH_THEME="agnoster"

2. Choose the plugins

• vim ~/.zshrc

plugins=(git command-not-found node sudo vagrant)

Don’t forget to then source ~/.zshrc

3. Using z for jumping to recent folders

1. cd ~/
2. Download: wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rupa/z/master/z.sh
3. Make z available with ZSH:

   printf "\n\n#initialize Z (https://github.com/rupa/z) \n. ~/z.sh \n\n" >> .zshrc
   

4. Reload shell: source ~/.zshrc

Helpful link for this can be found here

Features

Folder search

Example (found on Google):

Advanced History

If you know the command, i.e git but can’t remember the parameters you can type git and then cycle through your previous Git commands pressing the up key.