zsh setup

Portable bundle of my zsh prompt config.

Usage

Once installed and you've opened a new shell:

• cd <Tab> — opens a fuzzy directory menu (also works for git checkout, brew install, kill, and every other command)
• ↑ / ↓ to navigate the menu — start typing to filter
• Enter to select — Esc (or Ctrl+C) to cancel and go back
• Ctrl+R — fuzzy search through shell history
• Ctrl+T — fuzzy file picker (inserts the chosen path into your current command)
• Alt+C — fuzzy cd into a subdirectory
• **<Tab> — alternate trigger for fuzzy picker mid-command (e.g. vim **<Tab>)
• → (right arrow) — accept the grey ghost-text suggestion from zsh-autosuggestions

Contents

• install.sh — bootstraps everything on a fresh macOS, Ubuntu/Debian, or Arch/CachyOS
• uninstall.sh — reverts the machine (removes oh-my-zsh, theme, .zshrc, fzf, font)
• mytheme.zsh-theme — the custom oh-my-zsh theme (powerline-style segments: 📂 path, ⎇ branch, 👾 venv, ⚡ time)
• zshrc — drop-in ~/.zshrc with theme, fzf keybindings, custom plugins (fzf-tab, autosuggestions, fast-syntax-highlighting), and tab-completion settings

Install (fresh machine)

chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

The script auto-detects the OS (macOS, Ubuntu/Debian, or Arch/CachyOS) and uses the right package manager:

1. OS detection — exits early on anything other than macOS, Ubuntu/Debian, or Arch/CachyOS
2. Package manager — installs Homebrew on macOS; runs apt-get update and installs curl git unzip fontconfig on Ubuntu; runs pacman -Sy on Arch/CachyOS
3. zsh — brew install zsh (macOS), apt-get install zsh (Ubuntu), or pacman -S --needed zsh (Arch/CachyOS)
4. Meslo Nerd Font
   • macOS: brew install --cask font-meslo-lg-nerd-font
   • Ubuntu: downloads Meslo.zip from the nerd-fonts v3.4.0 release into ~/.local/share/fonts/Meslo/, then runs fc-cache
   • Arch/CachyOS: installs the official ttf-meslo-nerd package from the Arch repositories, then refreshes the font cache
5. fzf — brew install fzf, apt-get install fzf, or pacman -S --needed fzf; keybindings wired up by ~/.zshrc
6. oh-my-zsh — installed via the official unattended installer (skipped if already present)
7. Custom plugins — cloned into ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/:
   • fzf-tab — fuzzy <Tab> completion for every command
   • zsh-autosuggestions — ghost-text history suggestions (accept with →)
   • fast-syntax-highlighting — colors commands as you type
8. Theme + ~/.zshrc — theme copied into ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/themes/, existing ~/.zshrc backed up with a timestamp suffix
9. Default shell — tries chsh -s "$(command -v zsh)" first, then falls back to sudo chsh -s "$(command -v zsh)" "$USER" if needed

After it finishes, set your terminal font to MesloLGM Nerd Font (or any Meslo Nerd Font variant) — that step has to be done in the terminal app's preferences:

• macOS Terminal.app / iTerm2 — Settings → Profiles → Text → Font
• GNOME Terminal — Preferences → your profile → Text → Custom font
• Konsole — Settings → Edit Current Profile → Appearance → Font

Arch/CachyOS notes

On Arch and CachyOS, the installer uses pacman for the system packages. It refreshes the package database with pacman -Sy, installs zsh and fzf with --needed, and uses the repository package ttf-meslo-nerd instead of downloading the font zip manually.

Activating the new shell

chsh only changes the default login shell — your current terminal session is still running the old one. To see the new prompt + plugins:

• Right now, in the same terminal: run exec zsh. It replaces the running shell in-place and you'll see the new prompt, autosuggestions, and fuzzy tab immediately.
• For every new terminal you open from now on: log out of your desktop session and log back in (on Ubuntu/Linux) or quit and reopen Terminal.app (on macOS). New terminal windows will then start in zsh by default — no exec zsh needed.

If after logging back in your terminals still open in bash on Ubuntu, check getent passwd $USER | cut -d: -f7 — it should print /usr/bin/zsh. If it doesn't, run sudo chsh -s "$(command -v zsh)" "$USER". If it does but GNOME Terminal still launches bash, look in Preferences → your profile → Command tab and make sure "Run command as a login shell" / "Custom command" is unchecked.

Uninstall

chmod +x uninstall.sh
./uninstall.sh

Asks for confirmation, then removes the theme, oh-my-zsh, .zshrc (+ backups), fzf, and the Meslo Nerd Font. On Ubuntu the font is removed from ~/.local/share/fonts/Meslo and the font cache is refreshed. Leaves zsh itself and the system package manager in place.