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I've been using ZSH ever since macOS moved to using it as the default shell. I honestly can't say I've noticed any differences. What are some features I should

I've been using ZSH ever since macOS moved to using it as the default shell. I honestly can't say I've noticed any differences. What are some features I should be using to get the most out of ZSH?

jw1224 4y ago
Have you seen https://ohmyz.sh/ https://ohmyz.sh/ ? It’s indispensable, can’t imagine zsh without it now…
- _joel 4y ago
  exactly this, I love it.
- fernandotakai 4y ago
  i prefer zpresto https://github.com/sorin-ionescu/prezto https://github.com/sorin-ionescu/prezto
  - SemanticStrengh 4y ago
    what makes you prefer it?
konart 4y ago
Look into https://ohmyz.sh/ https://ohmyz.sh/ or https://github.com/zdharma-continuum/zinit https://github.com/zdharma-continuum/zinit (or any other plugin managers) and some nice plugins.
vbezhenar 4y ago
I really like right prompt. My config is: PS1="%# " RPS1="%40<...<%~" This way I have current directory information without eating precious space. Other than that, I don't really use much zsh-specific functionality.
- codewiz 4y ago
  If you use the right prompt, make it automatically disappear so it doesn't get copied along when you select text in the terminal: setopt transient_rprompt
  - I_complete_me 4y ago
    I use a 2 line prompt which obviates the need for that but nice tip all the same.
  - vbezhenar 4y ago
    Thanks, that's very useful!
- bombcar 4y ago
  What does right prompt do, and what happens if the text you're typing runs into it?
  - vbezhenar 4y ago
    > What does right prompt do It displays configured text at right side of your terminal. My example displays current directory truncated to 40 characters. > and what happens if the text you're typing runs into it? It disappears.
arccy 4y ago
the fact that you can tab/navigate through autocomplete instead of having it fill up your screen every time you move
pletnes 4y ago
Tab completion and zmv are neat, nothing new to learn, no complicated configs.
pxeger1 4y ago
Some of my favourite features which are built in to the shell, not part of third-party plugin systems, include: The "command1 =(command2)" syntax, which runs "command2", pipes its output to a new temporary file, runs "command1" with that file's name as an argument, and then removes the temporary file, all in one operation. It's like "<(command2)", which is in Bash and Zsh, but allows "command1" to perform a seek on the file because it's not a pipe. Redirections like ">file" where there's no command implicitly use cat, so ">file" just pipes STDIN to the file. Same for "<file", which pipes file to STDOUT. "command &>/dev/null" is shorthand for "command >/dev/null 1>&2". Floating-point arithmetic built-in (Bash has integer arithmetic only), including C math functions like sin, log, floor. Implicit insertion of "tee" where you obviously want it; for example, "command >file1 >file2" is the same as "command | tee file1 > file2" You don't need to quote variable expansions like $1 (except arrays). You still have to do so for command expansions $(command More expressive pattern syntax, including backreferences, approximate matching (using Damerau-Levenshtein distance), and flags/qualifiers to limit searching to specific kinds of file. E.g. "ls *(-@)" lists all broken symbolic links. The string =foo is expanded to the path to the "foo" command in $PATH, which allows you to do, for example, "vim =myscript" without needing to remember where "myscript" is exactly. Lots of parameter expansion flags for various string operators (search/replace, sorting, case translation, splitting and joining, ...). POSIX extended regex and optional PCRE support for pattern matching. zle, which does a similar job to readline in bash, but with an enormous number of useful features built-in. Generalised tilde expansion: ~ is the current user's $HOME, but ~john is the user john's home directory. You can make up your own using "hash -d foo=/path/too/foo"; now "~foo" refers to "/path/to/foo". Dynamic version of the above: ~[string] uses the function zsh_directory_name to expand "string" into any path; see the manual "zshexpn(1) § Filename Generation § Dynamic named directories". Easily create more explicit pipes using file descriptors: # open exec {fd}>file command1 >&$fd command2 >&$fd #... # close exec {fd}>&- Additional concise and useful syntax for loops, function definitions, etc.: while (( x < 5 )) { echo $x; let x++ } # more obvious than " repeat 5 echo hi # does what it says on the tin myfunc() echo hi # declares a function for ((x = 0; x++; x < 5)) { echo $i } # C-style for-loop The equivalent of "try-finally" in some programming languages: { # do some stuff which might error } always { # do some important cleanup } This construct also enables special support for another feature: actual exceptions with throw/catch. Very flexible prompt expansion: conditionals using %(condition.true.false). Optionally, command expansion "$()" can be enabled in prompts. All kinds of extra optional modules which can be loaded using "zmodload", for manipulating xattrs, POSIX Capabilities, TCP sockets, an FTP client!?; also, built-in plugin functions which can be loaded with "autoload": a full calendar application, an interactive calculator, colours, regex replace, tetris! > Zsh was once accused of not being as complete as Emacs, because it lacked a Tetris game. This function was written to refute this vicious slander. autoload -U tetriscurses tetriscurses Ability to set the value of argv[0] received by a command, rather than just the name it was invoked by, e.g. "ARGV0=ls busybox" Options to emulate the behaviour of other shells: pure POSIX sh, ksh, etc.? Sorry, that was perhaps a bit more than "some of my favourites". It really does have a lot of stuff.

I've been using ZSH ever since macOS moved to using it as the default shell. I honestly can't say I've noticed any differences. What are some features I should be using to get the most out of ZSH?

jw1224 4y ago

Have you seen https://ohmyz.sh/ https://ohmyz.sh/ ? It’s indispensable, can’t imagine zsh without it now…

_joel 4y ago
exactly this, I love it.
fernandotakai 4y ago
i prefer zpresto https://github.com/sorin-ionescu/prezto https://github.com/sorin-ionescu/prezto
- SemanticStrengh 4y ago
  what makes you prefer it?

konart 4y ago

Look into https://ohmyz.sh/ https://ohmyz.sh/ or https://github.com/zdharma-continuum/zinit https://github.com/zdharma-continuum/zinit (or any other plugin managers) and some nice plugins.

vbezhenar 4y ago

I really like right prompt. My config is: PS1="%# " RPS1="%40<...<%~" This way I have current directory information without eating precious space. Other than that, I don't really use much zsh-specific functionality.

codewiz 4y ago
If you use the right prompt, make it automatically disappear so it doesn't get copied along when you select text in the terminal: setopt transient_rprompt
- I_complete_me 4y ago
  I use a 2 line prompt which obviates the need for that but nice tip all the same.
- vbezhenar 4y ago
  Thanks, that's very useful!
bombcar 4y ago
What does right prompt do, and what happens if the text you're typing runs into it?
- vbezhenar 4y ago
  > What does right prompt do It displays configured text at right side of your terminal. My example displays current directory truncated to 40 characters. > and what happens if the text you're typing runs into it? It disappears.

arccy 4y ago

the fact that you can tab/navigate through autocomplete instead of having it fill up your screen every time you move

pletnes 4y ago

Tab completion and zmv are neat, nothing new to learn, no complicated configs.

pxeger1 4y ago

Some of my favourite features which are built in to the shell, not part of third-party plugin systems, include: The "command1 =(command2)" syntax, which runs "command2", pipes its output to a new temporary file, runs "command1" with that file's name as an argument, and then removes the temporary file, all in one operation. It's like "<(command2)", which is in Bash and Zsh, but allows "command1" to perform a seek on the file because it's not a pipe. Redirections like ">file" where there's no command implicitly use cat, so ">file" just pipes STDIN to the file. Same for "<file", which pipes file to STDOUT. "command &>/dev/null" is shorthand for "command >/dev/null 1>&2". Floating-point arithmetic built-in (Bash has integer arithmetic only), including C math functions like sin, log, floor. Implicit insertion of "tee" where you obviously want it; for example, "command >file1 >file2" is the same as "command | tee file1 > file2" You don't need to quote variable expansions like $1 (except arrays). You still have to do so for command expansions $(command More expressive pattern syntax, including backreferences, approximate matching (using Damerau-Levenshtein distance), and flags/qualifiers to limit searching to specific kinds of file. E.g. "ls *(-@)" lists all broken symbolic links. The string =foo is expanded to the path to the "foo" command in $PATH, which allows you to do, for example, "vim =myscript" without needing to remember where "myscript" is exactly. Lots of parameter expansion flags for various string operators (search/replace, sorting, case translation, splitting and joining, ...). POSIX extended regex and optional PCRE support for pattern matching. zle, which does a similar job to readline in bash, but with an enormous number of useful features built-in. Generalised tilde expansion: ~ is the current user's $HOME, but ~john is the user john's home directory. You can make up your own using "hash -d foo=/path/too/foo"; now "~foo" refers to "/path/to/foo". Dynamic version of the above: ~[string] uses the function zsh_directory_name to expand "string" into any path; see the manual "zshexpn(1) § Filename Generation § Dynamic named directories". Easily create more explicit pipes using file descriptors: # open exec {fd}>file command1 >&$fd command2 >&$fd #... # close exec {fd}>&- Additional concise and useful syntax for loops, function definitions, etc.: while (( x < 5 )) { echo $x; let x++ } # more obvious than " repeat 5 echo hi # does what it says on the tin myfunc() echo hi # declares a function for ((x = 0; x++; x < 5)) { echo $i } # C-style for-loop The equivalent of "try-finally" in some programming languages: { # do some stuff which might error } always { # do some important cleanup } This construct also enables special support for another feature: actual exceptions with throw/catch. Very flexible prompt expansion: conditionals using %(condition.true.false). Optionally, command expansion "$()" can be enabled in prompts. All kinds of extra optional modules which can be loaded using "zmodload", for manipulating xattrs, POSIX Capabilities, TCP sockets, an FTP client!?; also, built-in plugin functions which can be loaded with "autoload": a full calendar application, an interactive calculator, colours, regex replace, tetris! > Zsh was once accused of not being as complete as Emacs, because it lacked a Tetris game. This function was written to refute this vicious slander. autoload -U tetriscurses tetriscurses Ability to set the value of argv[0] received by a command, rather than just the name it was invoked by, e.g. "ARGV0=ls busybox" Options to emulate the behaviour of other shells: pure POSIX sh, ksh, etc.? Sorry, that was perhaps a bit more than "some of my favourites". It really does have a lot of stuff.