Make Terminal Powerfull Using Oh-My-Posh

Programmers use a command-line interface (CLI) to issue text-commands to the Operating System (OS), instead of clicking on a Graphical User Interface (GUI). This is because command-line inerface is much more powerful and flexible than the graphical user interface.

The Terminal application is a command-line Interface (or shell). By default, the Terminal in Ubuntu and macOS runs the so-called bash shell, which supports a set of commands and utilities; and has its own programming language for writing shell scripts.

Oh My Posh

• Colors: Oh My Posh enables you to use the full color set of your terminal by using colors to define and render the prompt.
• Customizable: Easily adjust existing themes or create your own. From standard segments all the way to custom implementations.
• Portable: No matter which shell you’re using, or even how many, you can carry the configuration from one shell and/or machine to another for the same prompt everywhere you work.

Installation

Windows

Need have powershell 7, download at Microsoft Store or install on official website.

Install oh-my-posh from winget.

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winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh -s winget

or Manual installation

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Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; Invoke-Expression ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://ohmyposh.dev/install.ps1'))

This installs a couple of things:

• oh-my-posh.exe - Windows executable
• themes - The latest Oh My Posh themes

Linux

Recommend using zsh shell instead of bash. Install oh-my-posh by manual download.

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curl -s https://ohmyposh.dev/install.sh | bash -s

or using Homebrew

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brew install jandedobbeleer/oh-my-posh/oh-my-posh

Font Installation

Install nerd fonts from official website. And set nerd fonts on terminal profile.

Configuration

Windows

Create powershell user profile $PROFILE.

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echo $PROFILE

We will be got an output C:\Users\user\Documents\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1. This is our $PROFILE location to be edited.

Create new file on C:\Users\user\Documents\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1. For my device i like use 1_shell theme.

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# Prompt Init
oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH/1_shell.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression

Linux

Add this below line on .zshrc file to load oh-my-posh theme engine. Because i use WSL i can directly load from powershell at /mnt/c/Users/Maverick/AppData/Local/Programs/oh-my-posh/themes directory. If not have themes yet can download first from GitHub here.

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export TERM=x-term-256color
export PATH=$HOME/bin:/usr/local/bin:/snap/bin:$PATH

# Plugins
eval "$(oh-my-posh init zsh --config /mnt/c/Users/Maverick/AppData/Local/Programs/oh-my-posh/themes/1_shell.omp.json)"

Usually i don’t like use transient prompt so i need to remove this line.

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{
  ...
  "transient_prompt": {
    "background": "transparent",
    "foreground": "#FEF5ED",
    "template": "\ue285 "
  },
  ...
}

Then execute source .zshrc or just close and reopen terminal. Oh My Posh already installed if looks like

Powerful Plugin

Windows

Install Terminal-Icons Module to show if directory or files

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Install-Module -Name Terminal-Icons -Repository PSGallery -Force

Install z module, it can be used directly jump in some folder.

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Install-Module -Name z -Force

Install PSReadLine to auto suggestion or auto completion from history command line.

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Install-Module -Name PSReadLine -AllowPrerelease -Scope CurrentUser -Force -SkipPublisherCheck

Update powershell profile C:\Users\user\Documents\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1. I added function which like on Linux command line to find where the program directory.

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# Aliases
Set-Alias ll ls
Set-Alias j z

# Prompt Init
oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH/1_shell.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression

# Import Module & Configuration
Import-Module Terminal-Icons
Set-PSReadLineOption -PredictionSource History
Set-PSReadLineOption -PredictionViewStyle ListView

# Function
function which($command) {
  Get-Command -Name $command -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
  Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}

Linux

Clone zsh-autosuggestions and zsh-syntax-highlightings

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mkdir .zsh
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions.git .zsh/zsh-autosuggestions
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git .zsh/zsh-syntax-highlightings

Install jump shell from snap, on my case I use Ubuntu-20.04. Jump integrates with your shell and learns about your navigational habits by keeping track of the directories you visit. It gives you the most visited directory for the shortest search term you type.

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sudo snap install jump

Install ruby gem and colorls to beautify list directory.

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sudo apt install ruby-full
sudo gem install colorls

Finally, update .zshrc profile to load configuration.

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# Set up the prompt
export TERM=xterm-256colorexport
PATH=$HOME/bin:/usr/local/bin:/snap/bin:$PATH

# Keep 1000 lines of history within the shell and save it to ~/.zsh_history:
HISTSIZE=1000
SAVEHIST=1000
HISTFILE=~/.zsh_history

# Aliases command line
alias ls='colorls -l --sort-dirs'
alias la='colorls -A --sort-dirs'
alias ll='colorls -lA --sort-dirs'
alias tree='colorls --tree --sort-dirs'
alias gs='colorls --git-status --tree --sort-dirs'
alias vim='nvim'

# Plugins
eval "$(jump shell)"
eval "$(oh-my-posh init zsh --config /mnt/c/Users/maverick/AppData/Local/Programs/oh-my-posh/themes/1_shell.omp.json)"
source ~/.zsh/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh
source ~/.zsh/zsh-syntax-highlightings/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh

Reference

• OhMyPosh Docs
• ASMR Set Up PowerShell with Oh-My-Posh on Windows 11 + Neovim Setup + Terminal Icons - No Talking
• jump
• Color LS