Terminal & Shell Setup for macOS

A well-configured terminal environment can significantly improve your productivity as a developer. This guide covers setting up and customizing your macOS terminal and shell.

Recommended Terminal Emulator

While macOS comes with a default Terminal app, we recommend using iTerm2 for its additional features:

brew install --cask iterm2

Shell Options

macOS comes with several shells, but these are the most popular:

Zsh (Default since macOS Catalina)

Zsh is now the default shell in macOS. To enhance it, install Oh My Zsh:

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

Fish Shell

Fish offers great features out of the box:

brew install fish
# To make fish your default shell
echo $(which fish) | sudo tee -a /etc/shells
chsh -s $(which fish)

Shell Frameworks & Plugins

For Zsh

Oh My Zsh Plugins

Edit your ~/.zshrc file to enable plugins:

plugins=(git docker npm macos brew)

Powerlevel10k Theme

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k

Then set ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k" in your ~/.zshrc.

Zsh Syntax Highlighting

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

Add zsh-syntax-highlighting to your plugins list in ~/.zshrc.

Zsh Autosuggestions

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

Add zsh-autosuggestions to your plugins list in ~/.zshrc.

Essential Terminal Utilities

# A modern alternative to 'ls'
brew install exa
 
# A modern alternative to 'cat'
brew install bat
 
# Fuzzy finder
brew install fzf
$(brew --prefix)/opt/fzf/install
 
# Directory navigation
brew install autojump

Configuring Your Shell

Add these to your ~/.zshrc or equivalent:

# Aliases
alias ls="exa --icons --group-directories-first"
alias ll="exa -l -g --icons --group-directories-first"
alias la="exa -la --icons --group-directories-first"
alias cat="bat"
alias grep="grep --color=auto"
 
# Environment Variables
export EDITOR="code -w"
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Font Installation

Programming fonts with ligatures can improve your coding experience:

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

Then configure iTerm2 to use your preferred font.

iTerm2 Customization

Color Schemes: Import themes like Dracula (opens in a new tab) or Solarized (opens in a new tab)
Key Mappings: Configure Option+Left/Right to jump between words
Split Panes: Use Cmd+D for vertical split and Cmd+Shift+D for horizontal split

Terminal Multiplexers

For managing multiple terminal sessions, consider using:

# Install tmux
brew install tmux
 
# Create a basic config
cat << EOF > ~/.tmux.conf
# Improve colors
set -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
 
# Set scrollback buffer to 10000
set -g history-limit 10000
 
# Enable mouse mode
set -g mouse on
 
# Don't rename windows automatically
set-option -g allow-rename off
EOF

Basic tmux Commands

Command	Description
`tmux new -s name`	Create a new session named "name"
`tmux attach -t name`	Attach to session "name"
`tmux ls`	List sessions
`Ctrl+b d`	Detach from current session
`Ctrl+b c`	Create a new window
`Ctrl+b ,`	Rename the current window
`Ctrl+b n`	Move to the next window
`Ctrl+b p`	Move to the previous window
`Ctrl+b %`	Split pane vertically
`Ctrl+b "`	Split pane horizontally

Remember to reload your shell configuration after making changes:

source ~/.zshrc  # For Zsh

System Preferences