How to Install ZSH and Oh My ZSH on Linux

Introduction

ZSH or Z shell is a shell designed for interactive use, although it is also a powerful scripting language. Many of the useful features of bash, ksh, and tcsh were incorporated into zsh; many original features were added.

Oh My Zsh is an open source, community-driven framework for managing ZSH configuration. It comes bundled with thousands of helpful functions, helpers, plugins, themes, and many more.

In this article, I will show you how to install ZSH and Oh My ZSH on Linux.

Steps

1. Install ZSH

Install with default package manager.

• Debian/Ubuntu

$ sudo apt install zsh

• Fedora/CentOS/RHEL

$ sudo dnf install zsh

• Arch Linux

$ sudo pacman -S zsh

2. Install Oh My ZSH

$ sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

3. Change Default Shell to ZSH

$ sudo chsh -s $(command -v zsh)

4. Install Plugins

• Fast Syntax Highlighting (F-Sy-H)

  Feature rich syntax highlighting for Zsh.

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zdharma-continuum/fast-syntax-highlighting.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/fast-syntax-highlighting

• zsh-autosuggestions

  Fish-like fast/unobtrusive autosuggestions for zsh.

  It suggests commands as you type based on history and completions.

  Requirements: Zsh v4.3.11 or later

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

• zsh-completions

  Additional completion definitions for Zsh.

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-completions.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-completions

5. Configure ZSH and Oh My ZSH

Edit ~/.zshrc file.

$ nano ~/.zshrc

Configure themes and plugins.

• Plugins

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plugins=(
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        git
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        bgnotify
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        zsh-autosuggestions
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        zsh-completions
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        fast-syntax-highlighting
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)

• Themes

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ZSH_THEME="agnoster"

• Other Configurations (Optional)

• Speeds up pasting when using zsh-autosuggestions

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# Speeds up pasting when using zsh-autosuggestions.
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# See "https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions/issues/238".
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paste_init()
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{
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    OLD_SELF_INSERT="${${(s.:.)widgets[self-insert]}[2,3]}"
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    zle -N self-insert url-quote-magic
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}
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paste_done()
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{
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    zle -N self-insert "$OLD_SELF_INSERT"
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}
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zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic paste-init paste_init
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zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic paste-finish paste_done

• Case-insensitive completion

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zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list 'm:{a-z}={A-Z}'

6. Restart ZSH

You can restart ZSH by closing and opening the terminal or by running the following command.

$ exec zsh

References

• ZSH
• Oh My ZSH