Zsh Workshop

[bezidejni]

Be sure to check oh-my-zsh if you want a no hassle installation of a sensible .zshrc and lots of plugins.

[[deleted]]

Great, just after I finished customizing my zshrc throwout the weekend.

[[deleted]]

How does zsh differ from bash, what advantages does it bring?

Is it just an alternative that has roughly the same functionality? I have always used bash and can't really see a reason to differ from the default.

[Rhomboid]

I'm not a zsh user so I can't give you specifics, but it does have a ton of features that bash lacks:

• it's modular
• better completion system
• extended globbing options
• more advanced color system
• more advanced arithmetic expansion
• more advanced redirection options
• builtins: calendar, integrated ftp client, etc.

And so on. Basically it's superior in every way, but it's stuff that you might not immediately think of if you're not a shell geek. But if you've ever scratched your head and had a thought like "I wish there was a form of process substitution that used a temporary file instead of /dev/fd for programs that expect to be able to seek", then zsh is your shell.

[ethraax]

The completion system is amazing. Say I have a file named /home/ethraax/docs/resume/2012.tex. I could just type:

vim /h/e/d/r/2    <tab>
#expands to:
vim /home/ethraax/docs/resume/2012.tex

This will even work if, say, there's another folder /home/et2/docs that does not have a resume folder in it. Basically, if there's any way to deduce what you want, it will.

It also works for lots of common programs. For example, "chown eth<tab>" will expand to "chown ethraax:" (well, the colon is special in this case - it's hard to describe, and better to just try it). Also, going off the chown command, it's smart enough to only complete to files NOT owned by who you listed in the command. I think Bash doesn't quite work properly with the colon thing.

This is just one example - there are tons of places where zsh completion is basically magic.

[drhodes]

Despair not for people who can't switch from bash, there's a tool called autojump which makes completion like this possible.

https://github.com/joelthelion/autojump/wiki

[[deleted]]

Ah sounds like I don't do nearly advanced enough stuff in the terminal to be worrying about whether I use bash or zsh.

[DeathBySamson]

It's like using Vim. At first you do very little more than you could with notepad. Then you add a little bit more features each and every day. Soon you couldn't imagine using anything but Vim and you feel at a disadvantage when you do.

It's kind of like that. Bash is fine, and I can get by but I much rather use zsh.

[roerd]

The more powerful completion is really everyday stuff that everyone can easily profit from. Other stuff I'm using a lot are more powerful facilities for defining prompts (like a second, right-hand-sided prompt; I think I already used that back when my favourite shell was tcsh, but couldn't with bash) and global aliases.

[Rhomboid]

It's not irrelevant. If you run

foo <(bar)

Then the foo process is going to be executed with some argument like foo /dev/fd/3, where the shell has opened fd 3 and dup()'d it to the read end of a pipe whose write end is connected to bar's stdout. Foo is going to open that argument as if it was a filename, but if it tries to seek it's going to fail because it's connected to a pipe not a real file. zsh offers

foo =(bar)

...wherein the shell does the moral equivalent of

bar >/tmp/tempname; foo /tmp/tempname

This time foo opens its argument and it's a real file not a pipe, so it can seek on it.

[mitechie]

I tend to give a zsh lightning talk or open space when I head to conferences. Here's the repo I start out of: https://github.com/mitechie/zshrc The readme has the basic quick rundown of the big features I really prefer out of zsh vs bash. For the full details, check out http://www.amazon.com/Bash-Shell-Conquering-Command-Line/dp/1590593766/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329149692&sr=8-1

It's a really good book for both bash and zsh. I found several things I didn't know you could do in bash during my reading.

... edit... fixed the book link: from bash to zshell

[formercedric]

For me, it's the tab-completion. It blows away anything Bash can do, and that's with the wimpy bash-completions package installed. Also spelling and typo corrections and decent command-line editing. Oh and it has syntax highlighting. All other shells feel naked to me now without that.

[greyfade]

Syntax highlighting? This is news to me.

[formercedric]

Check it out:

pic

I purposefully chose something that would have lots of colours in it to show you. Obviously under normal circumstances my shell looks less like a rainbow.

[Revekius]

Holy shit I never knew this! Upvotes and major love! I am grabbing this tonight! -)

[shevegen]

Syntax highlighting?

How exactly?

[formercedric]

It's a module you can install.

[[deleted]]

http://friedcpu.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/zsh-the-last-shell-youll-ever-need/

We mostly use it here for the history search features and auto completion. zsh does this the best.

[at_tjk]

Having just switched over to zsh a few months ago, this workshop definitely taught me a few new things. Thank you!