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
First, we will install iTerm2 to replace our default terminal, simply download it from iTerm2 Website. 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
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/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
For example, if we want to install htop to monitor CPU, RAM, and Swap usage, we can run brew install htop Homebrew will download and install the package for you.
Some other useful packages
jq
jq command is used extensively for managing JSON data in scripting.
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brew install jq
wget
wget command can be used to download files from the internet using various protocols such as HTTP and HTTPS.
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brew install wget
Oh-My-Zsh
For Terminal Theme we’ll use Oh-My-Zsh, which has tons of Plugin and Themes for your terminal
To install Oh-My-Zsh run:
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sh -c "$(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
External-Themes
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
From its name, this plugin highlight the syntax or command as you type it in the terminal To install
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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
To Install
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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
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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 some 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.
