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Amrin•Feb 19, 2023

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Why Oh My ZSH is so cool?

#productivity

#zsh

#terminal

#tooling

There is a before and after listening to these letters together: ZSH. You may wonder: Why did not I hear about this before? D'oh!

ZSH (Z Shell) it's a real evolution, modernize terminal things with simple solutions. But the thing getting better when you discover Oh My ZSH! a framework for ZSH that boost your productivity and improve your workflow.

So, why?

No more cd (change directory) command. Just use:

Command	Result
`folder/`	write the folder name with `/` at the end
`..`	go back one folder (parent dir)
`...`	go back two folders (parent from parent dir)
`......`	go back five folders
`/`	go to root
`~`	go to home
`-`	jump to previous path

take the 3 in 1 command who create a directory and automatically change the path to it

Command	Result
`take <file>`	Download gzip file (`.gz`, `.bz2`, `.xz`) and uncompress
`take <git_repo>`	Clone git repo from url (`http`, `ssh`)
`take <folder>`	Create a new folder

Jump between last and current path with - (like a TV remote control)
zsh_stats will give you a list of the top 20 commands and how many times they've been run
Tab completion is another great feature. For example, typing ls - and pressing TAB will list all of the command's options, along with a helpful description of what they do
Alias commands. List all with alias or filter it with grep for example alias | grep git
Globbing

Command	Result
`ls *.txt`	list all `txt` files in the current directory
`ls */.txt`	list all `txt` files including subdirectories
`ls */(READ).*`	find for files that start with the word `READ`
`ls */(READ).*`	find for files that end with the word `READ`
`ls */(READ).`	find for files that have the word `READ` anywhere
`ls */(.)`	search for files only
`ls */(/)`	search for folders only

Expanding File Names and Directories

Command	Result
`touch name-{1..4}.txt`	create files `name-1.txt`, `name-2.txt`, `name-3.txt`, `name-4.txt`
`touch name.{css,js,test.js}`	create files with different extension `name.css`, `name.js`, `name.test.js`
`cp folder/name.js{,.bak}`	create a copy of the file ending `.bak`
`diff folder/{new,old}/name.js`	view differences between two files
`mkdir -p {source,build,man,help{/pages,/yelp,/images}}`	create a complete folder structure
`wget http://site.com/folder{1,2}/pic{001,002}.jpg`	download multiple files

Expand environment variables $ENV followed by TAB
Recursive path expansion. /u/lo/b expands to /user/local/bin
Spelling correction and approximate completion, automatic correct when having minor mistake typing a directory name
History substring search writing a command and pressing the up arrow cycles through previous usages
Autocomplete, jump between options with tab, and press return for selection. Works with directories, files, and commands
Run history command with ! followed by the number in history, like !137
Entering !! will bring up the last command. This is handy if a command fails because it needs admin rights. In this case you can type sudo !!

Plugins

There are a lot of plugins to use. It's recommended to explore the options and use what is good for your needs.

My recommendations are:

sudo to easily prefix your current or previous commands with sudo by pressing esc twice
command-not-found to provide suggested packages to be installed if a command cannot be found
git provides many aliases and a few useful functions
history-substring-search 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
web-search adds aliases for searching with Google, Wiki, Bing, YouTube and other popular services
z command that tracks your most visited directories and allows you to access them with very few keystrokes

I've another extra from plugins from external repositories to add more functionalities:

autosuggestions suggests commands as you type based on history and completions.
syntax-highlighting

Themes

There are also a lot of themes, but my favorite is Powerlevel10k because is easy to set up and use

Git

Incredible and complete aliases for Git

ZSH cheatsheet for git plugin

Camilo Martinez ・ Apr 20 '21 ・ 3 min read

#productivity #zsh #git #terminal

Git Status Prompt can contain the following bits:

segment	meaning
`master`	current branch
`#v1`	HEAD is tagged with `v1`; not shown when on a branch
`@5fc6fca4`	current commit; not shown when on a branch or tag
`⇣1`	local branch is behind the remote by 1 commit
`⇡2`	local branch is ahead of the remote by 2 commits
`⇠3`	local branch is behind the push remote by 3 commits
`⇢4`	local branch is ahead of the push remote by 4 commits
`*5`	there are 5 stashes
`merge`	merge is in progress (could be some other action)
`~6`	there are 6 merge conflicts
`+7`	there are 7 staged changes
`!8`	there are 8 unstaged changes
`?9`	there are 9 untracked files

Shortcuts

Edit long command

ctrl+x+e open the command on an editor to easy edit, once save and close the editor it will be updated on the terminal

You can set your favorite editor, for example run export EDITOR="code -w" to use VSCode

Park a command

ctrl+q "parks" the command you're currently typing and takes you back to the prompt, letting you start over and type another command. Once you run that other command, the original command is un-parked and refills the command line so you can continue.

This is good for if you, say, forgot to do a command before a command.

Reveal alias

ctrl+x a will transform the alias to the real command

Path history

ZSH keeps the history of directories you visited so you can quickly switch to any of them.

To see the list, type dirs -v. Switch to any directory in this list by typing ~# where # is the number of the directory in the list.

Hooks

You can personalize actions (before and after a command) with ZSH Hooks