Ever wondered about Zsh and its perks? Zsh, or the Z shell, is a Unix shell offering extensive improvements over its predecessors like Bash and ksh. It features advanced functionalities such as the z-comm and for quick directory navigation, auto-completion, auto-correction, and customizable color highlighting. In this tutorial, we’ll explore the process of setting up Zsh with Powerline on Solus, enabling you to elevate your command line experience.
Zsh’s Features Explained
- The z-command: With the z command, you can navigate to a frequently/recently visited directory just by typing z , followed by the directory name.
- Auto-completion: You can just type the command, followed by -, then hit tab. This action will then immediately display all of the available options for that command.
- Auto-correction: In the Z shell, if you make an innocent typo while writing a file location, for example, spell correction is built-in and will automatically detect the typo.
- Color customization: Zsh add color highlighting to directories. Additionally, the font-weight will be slightly bolder. This is extremely helpful to see what’s a file and what’s a directory.
Setting Up Zsh
- Install Zsh:
sudo eopkg it zsh- Change Shell:
sudo chsh -s /bin/zsh $(whoami)- Log out and back in to apply changes.
Upon launching the terminal, a configuration dialog will guide you through customizing Zsh to your preferences.
Setting Up Powerline
- Install Powerline:
sudo eopkg it powerline powerline-fonts- Configure Zshrc:
echo "powerline-daemon -q" >> ~/.zshrc
echo "source /usr/lib/python3.7/site-packages/powerline/bindings/zsh/powerline.zsh" >> ~/.zshrc- Close and relaunch the terminal to enjoy the enhanced features of Zsh and Powerline.
Setting Up Powerline for Bash on Solus
Congratulations! You’ve now set up Zsh and Powerline on your Solus system, empowering yourself with a more efficient and visually appealing command line interface.
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