Setting up new Terminal for Macbook

Mac default Terminal App

If you spend lots of time on your mac Terminal, maybe it's time to refresh it a bit. Some tools and packages will help you get the most out of your terminal.

iTerm2

iTerm2 - macOS Terminal Replacement

First, we will install iTerm2 to replace our default terminal, simply download it from https://iterm2.com/downloads.html. Extract the zip file, and drag it to the Applications folder.

Homebrew

Next is Homebrew which is a package manager for macOS. Homebrew simplifies the installation and dependency management of many software and packages on macOS.

To install simply run

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

For example, if we want to install htop to monitor CPU, RAM, and Swap usage, we can run brew install htop Homebrew will download and install the package for you.

brew install commands

Some other useful packages

jq

jq command is used extensively for managing JSON data in scripting.

GitHub - stedolan/jq: Command-line JSON processor

brew install jq

wget

Wget - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation

wget command can be used to download files from the internet using various protocols such as HTTP and HTTPS.

brew install wget

Oh-My-Zsh

For Terminal Theme we’ll use Oh-My-Zsh, which has tons of Plugin and Themes for your terminal

To install Oh-My-Zsh run:

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

Themes

You can view and install Themes from the available list here

Themes · ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh Wiki

External themes · ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh Wiki

iTerm2 with starship theme

This is my iTerm2 after applying the Starship theme.

Plugins

Here are some Plugins that I find very useful for your terminal

zsh-syntax-highlighting

GitHub - zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting: Fish shell like syntax highlighting for Zsh.

From its name, this plugin highlight the syntax or command as you type it in the terminal

To install

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git
echo "source ${(q-)PWD}/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh" >> ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zshrc

zsh-autosuggestions

This plugin suggests commands as you typed

GitHub - zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions: Fish-like autosuggestions for zsh

To Install

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

Then add zsh-autosuggestions in your plugin list ( inside ~/.zshrc )

vimrc

As I work with YAML file type all the time, setting the Tab config, Line number, and Syntax highlighting in vim is very helpful

Here is my ~/.vimrc config

set tabstop=2 softtabstop=2 shiftwidth=2
set expandtab
set number ruler
set autoindent smartindent
syntax enable
filetype plugin indent on

iTerm2 Customization

There are many customizations that you can do with iTerm2, Here are a few

Highlight Text

We can customize the iTerm2 profile to highlight text for us. We are using Regular Expression to trigger some Action.

Simply go to iTerm2 -> Preference -> Profiles ( Select your profile ) -> Advanced and Edit Triggers

Add the Regex or Words that you want to trigger and Highlight Text action then select the color.

SSH Profile

Adding a profile for connecting to a remote machine can be very useful. You can create new Profiles and group them using Tags. Update the starting command to ssh username@ip_address to quickly connect to your remote machine on a new Tab whenever you open that profile.

Use ⌘ + Shift + B to quickly brings up all your profile on the side

If you do not use ssh key to connect to your server, you can use Triggers with the word password to trigger the iTerm2 Password manager to autofill your password as well.

Read More

Kubernetes CLI tools I use Everyday

Useful Shell Scripting commands

Originally published at https://guyzsarun.github.io on September 24, 2022.