Switching to Zsh + Oh My Zsh Setup

Install and configure Zsh with Oh My Zsh, autosuggestions, zsh-completions, syntax highlighting, and fzf-tab.

1. Install System Packages

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y zsh git curl fzf

2. Change Default Shell

chsh -s $(which zsh)

Note: Log out and back in for this to take permanent effect. We will do this at the very end.

3. Install Oh My Zsh

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://install.ohmyz.sh)" "" --unattended

4. Install Plugins

Autosuggestions:

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

ZSH Completions:

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

Syntax Highlighting:

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

fzf-tab:

git clone https://github.com/Aloxaf/fzf-tab ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/fzf-tab

5. Configure .zshrc

Open your configuration file using a text editor like Nano:

nano ~/.zshrc

Update Plugins

Find the existing plugins=(git) line in the file. Replace it entirely with the block below.

⚠️ Order matters: You must add fpath above the plugins array, and fzf-tab must load before zsh-syntax-highlighting to avoid tab-completion conflicts.

fpath=(${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-completions/src $fpath)

plugins=(
  git
  zsh-completions
  fzf-tab
  zsh-autosuggestions
  zsh-syntax-highlighting
)

Set Theme (Optional)

Find the line ZSH_THEME="robbyrussell" and change it to your preferred theme. You can browse choices on the Oh My Zsh themes wiki.

ZSH_THEME="alanpeabody"

(Save and close the file by pressing Ctrl+O, Enter, then Ctrl+X)

6. Finish

You must launch your new Zsh environment manually to initialize everything.

1. Launch Zsh:

   zsh

2. Reload configuration (if needed in the future):

   source ~/.zshrc

3. Log Out: Close your terminal completely or log out of your system session and back in to finalize Zsh as your permanent default shell.