I’m writing to introduce two lovely apps to make our terminal more convenient and comfortable.

Here are the leading roles:

• iTerm2 - macOS Terminal Replacement
• Oh My Zsh - a delightful & open source framework for Zsh

Xcode

The iterm2 need to be installed by homebrew, and before that we have to install the Xcode or Xcode command line tools first. For installing Xcode command line tools run:

$ xcode-select --install

Homebrew

Homebrew is a free and open-source software package management system. To know more commands please click another blog post Homebrew of mine.

$ /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

• Homebrew

  // change to ustc
  $ cd "$(brew --repo)" 
  $ git remote set-url origin https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/brew.git
  // reset to origin
  $ cd "$(brew --repo)"
  $ git remote set-url origin https://github.com/Homebrew/brew.git

• Homebrew Bottles

  // bash:
  $ echo 'export HOMEBREW_BOTTLE_DOMAIN=https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/homebrew-bottles' >> ~/.bash_profile
  $ source ~/.bash_profile
  // zsh:
  $ echo 'export HOMEBREW_BOTTLE_DOMAIN=https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/homebrew-bottles' >> ~/.zshrc
  $ source ~/.zshrc

• Homebrew Core

  // change to ustc
  $ cd "$(brew --repo)"/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core
  $ git remote set-url origin https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/homebrew-core.git
  // reset to origin
  $ cd "$(brew --repo)"/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core
  $ git remote set-url origin https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core

• Homebrew Cask

  // change to ustc
  $ cd "$(brew --repo)"/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-cask
  $ git remote set-url origin https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/homebrew-cask.git
  // reset to origin
  $ cd "$(brew --repo)"/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-cask
  $ git remote set-url origin https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask

iTerm2

iTerm2 is an open source replacement for Apple’s Terminal. It’s highly customizable and comes with a lot of useful features.

$ brew cask install iterm2

Zsh & oh-my-zsh

The Z shell (also known as zsh) is a Unix shell that is built on top of bash (the default shell for macOS) with additional features.

// install
$ brew install zsh
// change default terminal from bash to zsh
$ chsh -s /bin/zsh
// install oh-my-zsh
$ sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

• Two practical scripts: syntax highlighting & zsh-autosuggestions

  // syntax highlighting
  $ git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git $ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting
  $ echo "source \$ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh" >> ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zshrc
  // zsh-autosuggestions
  $ git clone git://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions $ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

• Install a theme. For example,

• Find and download the theme agnoster in Github

• Run install script to copy theme to your ~/.oh-my-zsh folder

Set parameter in ~/.zshrc

$ vim ~/.zshrc

// set theme name
ZSH_THEME="agnoster"
// plugins
plugins=(git pip python brew osx zsh-syntax-highlighting zsh-autosuggestions)
// export ./bash_profile to merge together
source ~/.bash_profile

Finally run ~/.zshrc to reactive those changes

$ source ~/.zshrc

The end 😊

Reference

1. 如何给码农👨‍💻‍的Mac开光 (some useful details and some bugs)
2. iTerm 2 && Oh My Zsh【DIY教程——亲身体验过程】 (some decorations)
3. Mac上使用brew update会卡住的问题 (solved some source downloading problem in China)