Arch Linux: Z Shell (ZSH)

Posted on March 5, 2013

A brief Z shell (zsh) howto...

Introduction

Why zsh instead of the old bash? Some of the things zsh can do:

Tab completion & spelling correction, but more advanced than bash.
Lots of builtin functions. zsh has built in functions such as preexec() and chpwd().
Sharing of command history among all running shells.
Various compatibility modes, e.g. zsh can pretend to be a Bourne shell when run as /bin/sh.
Right sided prompt. Using the RPROMPT environment variable, you can have a prompt on the right hand side too, but it can auto-hide when typing a long command
Adaptable messages for spelling, watch, time as well as prompt (now including conditional expressions)
Extended file globbing allows file specification without needing to run an external program such as find
Path expansion (=foo -> /usr/bin/foo).
Maturity. zsh has been going since 1990, and is still actively developed.
and many others...

Installation and Fine-tuning Generally

$ pacman -S zsh

as well as for FreeBSD:

$ pkg install zsh

Highlighting can be installed from GitHub (git needs to be installed of course, skipping that part):

$ mkdir -p /usr/share/zsh/plugins/
$ cd /usr/share/zsh/plugins/
$ git clone git://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git

or in FreeBSD:

$ mkdir -p /usr/local/share/zsh/plugins/
$ cd /usr/local/share/zsh/plugins/
$ git clone git://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git

ZSH configuration file needs to be created in each user's home directory (~/.zshrc):

# this file is: ~/.zshrc
HISTFILE=~/.histfile
HISTSIZE=2000
SAVEHIST=2000
# To prevent history from recording duplicated entries
setopt hist_ignore_all_dups
# A useful trick to prevent particular entries from being recorded into a history by preceding them with at least one space.
setopt hist_ignore_space

bindkey -e
bindkey ";5C" emacs-forward-word
bindkey ";5D" emacs-backward-word

# End of lines configured by zsh-newuser-install
# The following lines were added by compinstall
zstyle :compinstall filename '~/.zshrc'

# Default completion style is quite plain and ugly. If you want to improve its appearance, enter the following commands: 
zstyle ':completion:*' list-colors ${(s.:.)LS_COLORS}
zstyle ':completion:*' completer _expand _complete _expand_alias
zstyle ':completion:*' menu select=1
zstyle ':completion:*' original true
zstyle ':completion:*' remote-access false
zstyle ':completion:*' use-perl true
zstyle ':completion:*' verbose true
zstyle ':completion:*' select-prompt %SScrolling active: current selection at %p%s
zstyle ':completion:*' squeeze-slashes true
autoload -Uz compinit
compinit -D
zmodload zsh/complist

# Available prompts are listed by running the command:
# prompt -l
# To preview all available themes, use this command: 
# prompt -p
autoload -Uz promptinit
promptinit
prompt redhat

# It is also a good idea to enable the auto-correction of the commands typed: 
setopt correctall

# create a zkbd compatible hash;
# to add other keys to this hash, see: man 5 terminfo
typeset -A key

key[Home]=${terminfo[khome]}
key[End]=${terminfo[kend]}
key[Insert]=${terminfo[kich1]}
key[Delete]=${terminfo[kdch1]}
key[Up]=${terminfo[kcuu1]}
key[Down]=${terminfo[kcud1]}
key[Left]=${terminfo[kcub1]}
key[Right]=${terminfo[kcuf1]}
key[PageUp]=${terminfo[kpp]}
key[PageDown]=${terminfo[knp]}

# setup key accordingly
[[ -n "${key[Home]}"     ]]  && bindkey  "${key[Home]}"     beginning-of-line
[[ -n "${key[End]}"      ]]  && bindkey  "${key[End]}"      end-of-line
[[ -n "${key[Insert]}"   ]]  && bindkey  "${key[Insert]}"   overwrite-mode
[[ -n "${key[Delete]}"   ]]  && bindkey  "${key[Delete]}"   delete-char
[[ -n "${key[Up]}"       ]]  && bindkey  "${key[Up]}"       up-line-or-history
[[ -n "${key[Down]}"     ]]  && bindkey  "${key[Down]}"     down-line-or-history
[[ -n "${key[Left]}"     ]]  && bindkey  "${key[Left]}"     backward-char
[[ -n "${key[Right]}"    ]]  && bindkey  "${key[Right]}"    forward-char
[[ -n "${key[PageUp]}"   ]]  && bindkey  "${key[PageUp]}"   beginning-of-buffer-or-history
[[ -n "${key[PageDown]}" ]]  && bindkey  "${key[PageDown]}" end-of-buffer-or-history

# Finally, make sure the terminal is in application mode, when zle is
# active. Only then are the values from $terminfo valid.
if (( ${+terminfo[smkx]} )) && (( ${+terminfo[rmkx]} )); then
    function zle-line-init () {
        printf '%s' "${terminfo[smkx]}"
    }
    function zle-line-finish () {
        printf '%s' "${terminfo[rmkx]}"
    }
    zle -N zle-line-init
    zle -N zle-line-finish
fi

#Archlinux
source /usr/share/zsh/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
#FreeBSD/OpenBSD
#source /usr/local/share/zsh/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh

autoload -U colors && colors

[[ $- != *i* ]] && return

#Archlinux
alias ls='ls --color=auto'
#FreeBSD
#alias ls='ls -G'
#OpenBSD
#alias ls='/usr/local/bin/colorls -G'

#user@ArchLinux
PROMPT="%{$fg[white]%}[%{$fg[green]%}%n%{$fg[white]%}@%{$fg[white]%}%m %{$fg[white]%}%1~]$ "
#root@ArchLinux
#PROMPT="%{$fg[white]%}[%{$fg[red]%}%n%{$fg[white]%}@%{$fg[white]%}%m %{$fg[white]%}%1~]$ "
#user@FreeBSD/OpenBSD
#PROMPT="%{$fg[white]%}%{$fg[green]%}%n%{$fg[white]%}@%{$fg[white]%}%m:%{$fg[white]%}%1~ %% "
#root@FreeBSD/OpenBSD
#PROMPT="%{$fg[white]%}%{$fg[red]%}%n%{$fg[white]%}@%{$fg[white]%}%m:%{$fg[white]%}%1~ %# "

# metasploit
# where the quiet option will #Disable the ASCII banner on startup, and the -x command runs the given command right after startup. 
alias msfconsole="msfconsole --quiet -x \"db_connect ${USER}@msf\""

# End of lines added by compinstall

Usage

The setup can be tested right from bash by running:

$ zsh

Or changing it directly in /etc/passwd file (Linux) or by running (FreeBSD):

$ chsh -s /usr/local/bin/zsh

Installation in Gentoo Linux

First of all, update the USE flag in /etc/portage/make.conf with zsh-completion.

Second, install the zsh and zsh-completion packages:

$ emerge -av app-shells/zsh app-shells/zsh-completion

Follow, the following instructions (which appeared after the previous installation on screen as well).

 * If you want to enable Portage completions and Gentoo prompt,
 * emerge app-shells/zsh-completion and add
 * 	autoload -U compinit promptinit
 * 	compinit
 * 	promptinit; prompt gentoo
 * to your ~/.zshrc
 * 
 * Also, if you want to enable cache for the completions, add
 * 	zstyle ':completion::complete:*' use-cache 1
 * to your ~/.zshrc

Or, you can just edit the configuration file ~/.zshrc:

export HISTSIZE=1000
export SAVEHIST=1000
export HISTFILE=~/.zhistory
export EDITOR="vim"
setopt inc_append_history
setopt correctall #autocorrect misspelled commands
setopt hist_ignore_all_dups #ignore dups in history
setopt autocd # % /etc = cd /etc

bindkey "e[H" beginning-of-line #home (xorg)
bindkey "e[1~" beginning-of-line #home (console)
bindkey "e[F" end-of-line #end (xorg)
bindkey "e[4~" end-of-line #end(console)
bindkey "e[3~" delete-char #delete key

setopt PROMPT_SUBST
#fpath=($fpath ~/.zsh/functions)
#autoload -U ~/.zsh/functions/*(:t)

#Used for git stuff
typeset -ga preexec_functions
typeset -ga precmd_functions
typeset -ga chpwd_functions

# Append git functions needed for prompt.
preexec_functions+='preexec_update_git_vars'
precmd_functions+='precmd_update_git_vars'
chpwd_functions+='chpwd_update_git_vars'

#use LS_COLORS
alias ls='ls --color=auto'

#Load zsh tab completion
autoload -U compinit
compinit

autoload -U colors
colors

#Use the Gentoo prompt style
autoload -U promptinit
promptinit
prompt gentoo
#PROMPT=$'%B%F{green}%n@%m%k %B%F{blue}%1~ $(prompt_git_info)%B%F{blue}%# %b%f%k'

source

Tags: #Arch Linux #Gentoo Linux #zsh #shell #FreeBSD #OpenBSD