3 ms·
For those wondering about the advantages of ZSH over, say, bash: ZSH was first to add programmable completions (and still comes with a huge library of these), m
by pilif 16y ago
For those wondering about the advantages of ZSH over, say, bash: ZSH was first to add programmable completions (and still comes with a huge library of these), many more configuration options, history merging and much more.
It also has a huge library of built-ins (even an FTP client).
People could call it bloated, but I see no difference in performance from Bash, so for me personally, that argument is moot.
What really made ZSH gain a spot in my heart though, is the user-friendly user's guide at
http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Guide/ http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Guide/
This is how I learned to use the Unix shell back in 2000. It's not just a brilliant introduction into ZSH itself, it also contains a lot of information about the Unix shell in general and all written in a way that a non-Unix user can easily understand it and very quickly learn all that's needed to be productive on the command line.
Using that guide and ZSH, I learned the Unix shell, so I never bothered to go back to Bash.
Besides, being able to do
scp fi<tab> servern<tab>:/so<tab>
to have it completed to
scp file servername.example.com:/somepath
is just brilliant.
Same goes for contents of tar.(g|b)z(ip|2) archives. Or git commands. Or svn commands.
It's wonderful.
Sorry. Being a fanboy here.
- chousuke 16y agoI have to agree, zsh is a great shell. My only gripe with it is that compiling it on OS X is a pain in the arse because it depends on a weird documentation language called "yodl" which I haven't so far managed to install. It has some weird custom build system that doesn't seem to work. It's a shame since I'd like the up-to-date git completions, but because I can't compile zsh I'm stuck with release versions :(
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- ptomato 16y agoHave you checked out homebrew? Similar to macports/fink except much, much better, available here: http://github.com/mxcl/homebrew http://github.com/mxcl/homebrew In particular, their recipe for zsh compilation might help you even if you don't want to install brew itself: http://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/blob/master/Library/Formula/zsh.rb http://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/blob/master/Library/Formula/...
- pilif 16y agoI'm very happy with the MacPorts package myself: pilif@celes ~ % which zsh /opt/local/bin/zsh pilif@celes ~ % echo $ZSH_VERSION 4.3.10 pilif@celes ~ % building the port went flawlessly
- akkartik 16y agoFor me the really compelling reason to use zsh is that it's "like bash, but without the gotchas." For example, $* just works, even if the args have spaces. You don't have to think about "$@" which still doesn't work sometimes.
- zokier 16y agoTo be fair, now days even bash manages to tab complete lots of stuff like ssh/scp, git and aptitude. And yes, it's wonderful :)
- j_baker 16y agoAm I the only one who gets the impression people are saying "Take a shower, hippie" under their breath every time I mention to others that I'm using zsh?
- pilif 16y agoYeah. I kind of get the same feeling. But I stopped worrying about the various religious wars and I just use the tools I like. ZSH is the shell I learned Unix with. ZSH is the shell I know best and thus can do the most awesome stuff with. Hence I'm using ZSH. Others might have the same feelings towards bash. I totally accept that und usually don't try to "convert" people. But I'm also immune against their efforts in converting me.