Customising TMUX for Efficiency and Aesthetics: Part 2

Configuring zsh

First, we will change the default shell of the terminal to zsh. ZSH is a highly configurable and powerful shell. It is the default shell on kali Linux after 2020.4, but it can be downloaded and set to default in almost every OS.

Installing zsh

Check if zsh is installed in your system.

cat /etc/shells

If not, install using the following commands:

• Debian

sudo apt install zsh

• Mac

brew install zsh 

• Arch & Manjaro

pacman -S zsh

• Fedora

dnf install zsh

Once installed, set zsh as the default shell.

chsh -s $(which zsh)

Log out and check if your current shell is zsh.

echo $SHELL

Installing oh-my-zsh

Install oh-my-zsh with the following script:

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

Configure Theme

By default, oh-my-zsh uses a theme called "robbyrussell". You can simply change the theme to your liking by editing the .zshrc config file. Simply replace the value of the ZSH_THEME variable to your liking. You can get the list of themes from here.

In this tutorial, we will go with a popular theme called powerlevel10k.

First, install the required fonts from here. You just need to double-click the downloaded fonts to install them. Once installed, change the font of the terminal to MesloLGS NF.

Now clone the repository of powerlevel10k inside the themes folder.

cd ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/themes

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git

Update the ZSH_THEME variable inside the ~/.zshrc to following

ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k"

Now, you can simply run source ~/.zshrc and go through the configuration wizard to set up the style you prefer.

You can reconfigure it anytime by running p10k configure.

Installing tmux Themes

We will need to install some plugins before we are done setting up tmux. We will need tpm to handle those plugins.

git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm

Edit the tmux configuration file (~/.tmux.conf) we created previously, and add the following line at the bottom of the file.

# List of plugins
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tpm'
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-sensible'

# Initialize TMUX plugin manager (keep this line at the very bottom of tmux.conf)
run '~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/tpm'

Press Prefix + r to apply changes to the current session without closing tmux (check Part 1 if you have not configured this portion).

Now you can install themes using tpm. Just add the following lines on .tmux.conf

## For Dracula Theme
set -g @plugin 'dracula/tmux'

## For Nord theme
set -g @plugin "arcticicestudio/nord-tmux"

## For tmux-power
set -g @plugin 'wfxr/tmux-power'

Once you are done adding any one of the themes above, press Prefix + I to install it. Then press Prefix + r to apply the changes to the current session.

This is what my tmux looks like currently. I am using the Dracula theme.

Installing Plugins

You can also install many plugins (for zsh and tmux) to help maximize your productivity. Some of them are:

Zsh Autosuggestions

Suggests commands as you type based on history in a faded grey colour

Installation

Clone the repo with:

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

Then add the plugin to the list of plugins on ~/.zshrc

Zsh Syntax Highlighting

Highlights commands while they are being typed. Helps to catch syntax errors.

Installation

Clone the repo with:

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

Then activate the plugin in ~/.zshrc

Tmux Resurrect

Restore the tmux environment after system restart

Installation

set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect'

Tmux Logging

Logs all the output in the current pane. Has a screen capture feature that saves all the visible text in the current pane to a text file.

Installation

set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-logging'

There are tons of plugins available according to your needs, and new plugins are released constantly as there is a huge dedicated community, so feel free to explore and find the one you like the most.

Thank you for reading, see you in the next one!