Setup Zsh + Oh my Zsh + Powerlevel10k + Dracula theme with auto-suggestions and syntax-higlighting
Zsh (The Z shell) is an Unix shell that can be used as an interactive login shell and as a command interpreter for shell scripting. Zsh is an extended Bourne shell with many improvements, including some features from Bash, ksh, and tcsh.
I use two laptops. My personal laptop and the laptop that I use for work. The laptop that I use for work is provided by the company, with Windows 10 enterprise installed and Ubuntu 20.04 distro ran in WSL. WSL + zsh + dracula theme + oh my zsh + Integrated terminal in VS Code works like a charm. Because of that, I will use zsh in my personal laptop with Ubuntu 20.04 installed. And here’s how :
- Install zsh in Ubuntu using an apt package manager
sudo apt install zsh2. The package manager will install the latest release of Zsh which is 5.8
zsh --version
zsh 5.8 (x86_64-ubuntu-linux-gnu)3. We can also check with cat /etc/shells , to see if Zsh in available on the valid login shells. If Zsh has been setup, /usr/bin/zsh will exist in the list of valid login shells.
4. Set Zsh as default shell
chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh5. Log out and then login again to your terminal to use the new Zsh shell.
echo $SHELL
/usr/bin/zsh6. Install oh my zsh using curl
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
7. Use agnoster zsh theme
Edit the ~/.zshrc file, edit this following line
ZSH_THEME="robbyrussell"Into
ZSH_THEME="agnoster" # (this is one of the fancy ones)
# see https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/wiki/Themes#agnosterSave the file, and then open a new terminal to see the changes that we did
The powerline may looks broken as the screenshoot above. But don’t worry. What we need to do is install the powerline font. Run this command in the terminal :
sudo apt-get install fonts-powerlineNow open a new terminal
That’s better 😈
8. Install powerlevel10k for Oh my zsh
Run this following command :
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10kNow, edit the ZSH_THEME in ~/.zshrc file into :
ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k"Open a new terminal, and you should see the powerlevel10k theme has applied. If the p10k configuration wizard does not start automatically, you can run the configuration wizard the powerlevel10k theme with this command :
p10k configureAfter you run the command above, p10k will prompt some questions, and you can choose the answer based on your personal preferences. Here’s the final look of my zsh :
9. Install Dracula theme for GNOME terminal
Install dconf-cli with following command :
sudo apt-get install dconf-cliClone the repository
git clone https://github.com/dracula/gnome-terminal
cd gnome-terminalRight click in the terminal, then choose preferences. In preferences, choose add profiles (the + button on the right), fill the new profile name i.e. dracula.
In the Colors tab, uncheck the ‘Use colors from system theme’ in Text and Background Color. Then, close the preferences.
Now run the installation script :
./install.shThen follow the instructions, when the prompt ask you to choose a profile, choose the profile that we have been created before.
Now back to preferences setting, set dracula as default profile.
Now, start a new terminal session, and see the dracula theme has been applied in the GNOME terminal
Install plugins (zsh-autosuggestions and zsh-syntax-highlighting)
Download zsh-autosuggestions :
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions.git $ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions Download zsh-syntax-higlighting :
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git $ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlightingEdit ~/.zshrc file, find plugins=(git) replace plugins=(git) with :
plugins=(git zsh-autosuggestions zsh-syntax-highlighting)Reopen your terminal, now you should be able to use the auto suggestions and syntax highlighting.
Have fun with your terminal ! 🎉
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