Customize Your macOS Terminal with iTerm2 and Oh My Zsh

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Before We Begin 🔗

We'll turn the default macOS terminal setup into a more capable development environment. We'll install

iTerm2

, use

Oh My Zsh

to add features, and then choose a theme and font.

Install iTerm2 🔗

iTerm2

offers useful features for developers, including split panes, autocomplete, and search. It is a popular alternative to the built-in macOS Terminal.

The

Homebrew

package manager makes installation simple.

Install Homebrew↗

Open Terminal and run this command.

brew install --cask iterm2

Once it finishes, open iTerm2 and use it for the rest of the guide.

Set zsh as the Default Shell 🔗

To customize the terminal, start with the shell, the program that interprets your commands for the operating system. Recent macOS versions use

zsh

by default, but an older Mac may still use Bash. Check which shell is configured.

echo $SHELL

If the result isn't /bin/zsh, run the following command to set zsh as your default shell.

chsh -s /bin/zsh

zsh offers more features and extension options than the Bash setup it replaces here, making it a good starting point for customization.

Install Oh My Zsh 🔗

Oh My Zsh

is a framework that makes zsh configuration easier to manage. It provides a large collection of themes and plugins that are easy to install and enable.

Copy and paste the following command into your terminal.

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Oh My Zsh

After installation, close and reopen the terminal. The prompt at the start of the command line will look a little different. From now on, manage your shell settings in ~/.zshrc. Open it in your editor and you'll see that it already contains several settings.

Install Productivity Plugins 🔗

Plugins let you add features to your shell. We'll install two popular ones.

1. Syntax Highlighting with zsh-syntax-highlighting 🔗

This plugin colors the commands you type. Valid commands appear in green, and commands that aren't recognized appear in red, which helps you spot typos immediately. Install the plugin with the command below.

brew install zsh-syntax-highlighting

Then configure Oh My Zsh to load it. Open ~/.zshrc with this command.

vi ~/.zshrc

Add the following line at the end of the file.

source /opt/homebrew/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh

Save the file, then run the following command or restart your terminal.

source ~/.zshrc

After enabling zsh-syntax-highlighting

Try typing an unrecognized command such as lss. It should appear in red.

2. Command Suggestions with zsh-autosuggestions 🔗

This plugin suggests commands in gray as you type, using your command history. If the suggestion is what you want, press Right Arrow or End to accept it. This saves you from retyping long or complicated commands. The installation is similar to the previous plugin.

brew install zsh-autosuggestions

Open ~/.zshrc again and add the line below.

source /opt/homebrew/share/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh

Run source ~/.zshrc or restart the terminal to load the plugins.

Press the Right Arrow key to accept the suggestion

Apply a Theme and Font 🔗

Now that the features are in place, you can change how the terminal looks.

1. Change the Theme 🔗

Oh My Zsh includes many themes. We'll try

agnoster

, one of the popular choices. Open ~/.zshrc, find ZSH_THEME, and change it as follows.

ZSH_THEME="agnoster"

Save and restart the terminal. Your prompt now uses several colors and symbols. Some symbols may appear as missing or broken characters because ordinary fonts don't include the glyphs the theme uses.

Missing special glyphs in the prompt

2. Install a Font with the Missing Glyphs 🔗

Install a

Powerline font

Nerd Font

to display the missing symbols. We'll use Homebrew to install

Fira Code Nerd Font

, a popular coding font. D2Coding↗ is another font you can consider.

brew tap homebrew/cask-fonts
brew install --cask font-fira-code-nerd-font

After installing it, select it in iTerm2.

Open iTerm2 and press Command + , to open Settings.
Open
Profiles
and select your current profile on the left.
Select the
Text
tab on the right.
Under
Font
, choose FiraCode Nerd Font.

Selecting the font in iTerm2

Check the terminal again. The missing characters should now appear as icons.

Conclusion 🔗

We set up iTerm2 and customized the macOS shell with Oh My Zsh. There are many other themes and plugins to explore, so try the ones that suit how you work.

References 🔗

Customize Your macOS Terminal with iTerm2 and Oh My Zsh | PromleeBlog