z shell setup

Install §

Use whatever method your OS supports to install z shell. Then set it as your default login shell.

Examples §

NetBSD

pkgin install zsh
which zsh
chsh  # change shell for your user

Log out and back in. Z shell will ask you to set some preferences. Set them and continue.

Customize prompt §

There are various ways to set your prompt, including third party tools such as Oh My Zsh (which does a lot more than just prompt customization). Below, we give an example of a simple colorful prompt which can be customized as needed.

~/.zshrc

 
export PROMPT='%F{cyan}%n%f%F{white}@%f%U%F{magenta}%B%m%b%f%u %F{070}%B%%%b%f '
export RPROMPT='%B%F{214}%~%f%b'

Explanation §

There are two variables used here: PROMPT and RPROMPT, used for setting the left and right sides of the prompt respectively.

The %F{color}...%f instruction tells Z shell to set the color of the text. Similarly %U...%u and %B...%b tell it to make the text underlined or bold. Colors can be black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan or white. Or, alternatively, you can use a number from the [[Xterm_256color_chart.svg|xterm-256color chart|]].

The %% instruction gives a literal %. The %~ instruction gives the current working directory. Other instructions are available as well. See the Z shell manual for more information.

Auto completion §

This should be set when you first run z shell, but to be sure, this should be in your ~/.zshrc:

autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

To enable arrow key navigation in the tab completion menu, add this

zstyle ':completion:*' menu select

More .zshrc configuration §

Modifying PATH §

# append
path+=('/home/david/pear/bin')
# or prepend
path=('/home/david/pear/bin' $path)
# export to sub-processes (make it inherited by child processes)
export PATH

Resources §

• Arch Linux wiki entry on z shell