In this article, we are going to learn about how to install ZSH on Kali Linux. And how to change the default shell to ZSH on Kali Linux. ZSH (Z Shell) is a better alternative to the Bash shell, in ZSH we can modify the terminal and make our terminal as colorful as we like.
What is ZSH
ZSH also known as Z shell, is a Unix shell that is an extended version of the Bourne Shell (sh), with many new features and supports many plugins and themes. It is the best alternative to Bash with a cool and stylish shell interface including some features of Bash, KSH, and tcsh.
Why ZSH?
ZSH is an awesome shell that just makes everything a bit simpler with its plugins like auto-suggestions, syntax-completing tasks, etc. ZSH has many features like autosuggestion, spelling correction, auto jump, syntax highlighting, and many more plugins and theme support.
Before installing Zsh: Dependencies
Packages that are supportive to Zsh you need to install:
- Install the git, wget, curl packages.
- ZSH– ZSH shell.
- Oh My Zsh – it is an open-source, community-driven framework for managing your zsh configuration
- zsh-syntax-highlighting – This package provides syntax highlighting for the shell Zsh.
- zsh-autosuggestions – It suggests commands as you type based on history and completions.
Update the Kali Linux
First of all, we have to update our Kali Linux using the following command:
sudo apt update
How To Install ZSH on Kali Linux
We have to install the ZSH using this command:
sudo apt install zsh
Complete Switch from BASH to ZSH
Now we have to completely switch Bash to Zsh so you have to type the following command:
sudo chsh -s /bin/zsh <username>And after that, you have to log out from the current user and log in again. Your ZSH is installed. You can check by this:
sudo cat /etc/passwd | grep <username>Here you can check your user at the end from /bin/bash to /bin/zsh. So now your user shell completely changed Bash to Zsh.
Change the ZSH Themes
Install oh-my-zsh
oh-my-zsh Vai Curl
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"Installing oh-my-zsh Vai wget
sh -c "$(wget https://raw.github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh -O -)"Install zsh-autosuggestions
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestionsInstall zsh-syntax-highlighting
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting
Change the Zsh Themes
Now you have installed all the dependencies which are required, so now we will change the ZSH theme you have to edit the .zshrc file to change the themes.
sudo nano /home/username/.zshrc
Selecting a Theme
Oh-My-Zsh is the main plugin framework for ZSH, and it comes with many pre-built plugins and themes, you have to just change the name of the theme ZSH_THEME=”robbyrussell” and your Zsh theme will be changed.
➜ ~ ls /home/linuxips/.oh-my-zsh/themes 3den.zsh-theme kennethreitz.zsh-theme adben.zsh-theme kiwi.zsh-theme af-magic.zsh-theme kolo.zsh-theme afowler.zsh-theme kphoen.zsh-theme agnoster.zsh-theme lambda.zsh-theme alanpeabody.zsh-theme linuxonly.zsh-theme amuse.zsh-theme lukerandall.zsh-theme apple.zsh-theme macovsky-ruby.zsh-theme arrow.zsh-theme macovsky.zsh-theme aussiegeek.zsh-theme maran.zsh-theme avit.zsh-theme mgutz.zsh-theme awesomepanda.zsh-theme mh.zsh-theme bira.zsh-theme michelebologna.zsh-theme blinks.zsh-theme mikeh.zsh-theme bureau.zsh-theme miloshadzic.zsh-theme candy-kingdom.zsh-theme minimal.zsh-theme candy.zsh-theme mira.zsh-theme clean.zsh-theme mlh.zsh-theme cloud.zsh-theme mortalscumbag.zsh-theme crcandy.zsh-theme mrtazz.zsh-theme crunch.zsh-theme murilasso.zsh-theme cypher.zsh-theme muse.zsh-theme dallas.zsh-theme nanotech.zsh-theme darkblood.zsh-theme nebirhos.zsh-theme daveverwer.zsh-theme nicoulaj.zsh-theme dieter.zsh-theme norm.zsh-theme dogenpunk.zsh-theme obraun.zsh-theme dpoggi.zsh-theme peepcode.zsh-theme dstufft.zsh-theme philips.zsh-theme dst.zsh-theme pmcgee.zsh-theme duellj.zsh-theme pygmalion-virtualenv.zsh-theme eastwood.zsh-theme pygmalion.zsh-theme edvardm.zsh-theme random.zsh-theme emotty.zsh-theme re5et.zsh-theme essembeh.zsh-theme refined.zsh-theme evan.zsh-theme rgm.zsh-theme fino-time.zsh-theme risto.zsh-theme fino.zsh-theme rixius.zsh-theme fishy.zsh-theme rkj-repos.zsh-theme flazz.zsh-theme rkj.zsh-theme fletcherm.zsh-theme robbyrussell.zsh-theme fox.zsh-theme sammy.zsh-theme frisk.zsh-theme simonoff.zsh-theme frontcube.zsh-theme simple.zsh-theme funky.zsh-theme skaro.zsh-theme fwalch.zsh-theme smt.zsh-theme gallifrey.zsh-theme Soliah.zsh-theme gallois.zsh-theme sonicradish.zsh-theme garyblessington.zsh-theme sorin.zsh-theme gentoo.zsh-theme sporty_256.zsh-theme geoffgarside.zsh-theme steeef.zsh-theme gianu.zsh-theme strug.zsh-theme gnzh.zsh-theme sunaku.zsh-theme gozilla.zsh-theme sunrise.zsh-theme half-life.zsh-theme superjarin.zsh-theme humza.zsh-theme suvash.zsh-theme imajes.zsh-theme takashiyoshida.zsh-theme intheloop.zsh-theme terminalparty.zsh-theme itchy.zsh-theme theunraveler.zsh-theme jaischeema.zsh-theme tjkirch_mod.zsh-theme jbergantine.zsh-theme tjkirch.zsh-theme jispwoso.zsh-theme tonotdo.zsh-theme jnrowe.zsh-theme trapd00r.zsh-theme jonathan.zsh-theme wedisagree.zsh-theme josh.zsh-theme wezm+.zsh-theme jreese.zsh-theme wezm.zsh-theme jtriley.zsh-theme wuffers.zsh-theme juanghurtado.zsh-theme xiong-chiamiov-plus.zsh-theme junkfood.zsh-theme xiong-chiamiov.zsh-theme kafeitu.zsh-theme ys.zsh-theme kardan.zsh-theme zhann.zsh-theme
Oh-My-Zsh plugins:
Oh, My Zsh comes with a large number of plugins to take advantage of. You can take a look at the plugins directory ls /home/linuxips/.oh-my-zsh/plugins
➜ ~ ls /home/linuxips/.oh-my-zsh/plugins/ adb/ docker-machine/ history-substring-search/ osx/ sudo/ ag/ doctl/ hitchhiker/ otp/ supervisor/ aliases/ dotenv/ hitokoto/ pass/ suse/ alias-finder/ dotnet/ homestead/ paver/ svcat/ ansible/ droplr/ httpie/ pep8/ svn/ ant/ drush/ invoke/ percol/ svn-fast-info/ apache2-macports/ eecms/ ionic/ per-directory-history/ swiftpm/ arcanist/ emacs/ ipfs/ perl/ symfony/ archlinux/ ember-cli/ isodate/ perms/ symfony2/ asdf/ emoji/ iterm2/ phing/ systemadmin/ autoenv/ emoji-clock/ jake-node/ pip/ systemd/ autojump/ emotty/ jenv/ pipenv/ taskwarrior/ autopep8/ encode64/ jfrog/ pj/ terminitor/ aws/ extract/ jhbuild/ please/ term_tab/ battery/ fabric/ jira/ pm2/ terraform/ bazel/ fancy-ctrl-z/ jruby/ pod/ textastic/ bbedit/ fasd/ jsontools/ postgres/ textmate/ bedtools/ fastfile/ jump/ pow/ thefuck/ bgnotify/ fbterm/ kate/ powder/ themes/ boot2docker/ fd/ keychain/ powify/ thor/ bower/ firewalld/ kitchen/ profiles/ tig/ branch/ flutter/ knife/ pyenv/ timer/ brew/ fnm/ knife_ssh/ pylint/ tmux/ bundler/ forklift/ kops/ python/ tmux-cssh/ cabal/ fossil/ kubectl/ rails/ tmuxinator/ cake/ frontend-search/ kubectx/ rake/ torrent/ cakephp3/ fzf/ kube-ps1/ rake-fast/ transfer/ capistrano/ gas/ lando/ rand-quote/ tugboat/ cargo/ gatsby/ laravel/ rbenv/ ubuntu/ cask/ gb/ laravel4/ rbfu/ ufw/ catimg/ gcloud/ laravel5/ react-native/ universalarchive/ celery/ geeknote/ last-working-dir/ rebar/ urltools/ chruby/ gem/ lein/ redis-cli/ vagrant/ chucknorris/ genpass/ lighthouse/ repo/ vagrant-prompt/ cloudfoundry/ gh/ lol/ ripgrep/ vault/ codeclimate/ git/ lxd/ ros/ vim-interaction/ coffee/ git-auto-fetch/ macports/ rsync/ vi-mode/ colemak/ git-escape-magic/ magic-enter/ ruby/ virtualenv/ colored-man-pages/ git-extras/ man/ rust/ virtualenvwrapper/ colorize/ gitfast/ marked2/ rustup/ vscode/ command-not-found/ git-flow/ mercurial/ rvm/ vundle/ common-aliases/ git-flow-avh/ meteor/ safe-paste/ wakeonlan/ compleat/ github/ microk8s/ salt/ wd/ composer/ git-hubflow/ minikube/ samtools/ web-search/ copybuffer/ gitignore/ mix/ sbt/ wp-cli/ copydir/ git-lfs/ mix-fast/ scala/ xcode/ copyfile/ git-prompt/ mongocli/ scd/ yarn/ cp/ glassfish/ mosh/ screen/ yii/ cpanm/ globalias/ mvn/ scw/ yii2/ dash/ gnu-utils/ mysql-macports/ sdk/ yum/ debian/ golang/ n98-magerun/ sfdx/ z/ deno/ gpg-agent/ nanoc/ sfffe/ zbell/ dircycle/ gradle/ ng/ shell-proxy/ zeus/ direnv/ grails/ nmap/ shrink-path/ zoxide/ dirhistory/ grc/ node/ singlechar/ zsh-interactive-cd/ dirpersist/ grunt/ nomad/ spring/ zsh-navigation-tools/ django/ gulp/ npm/ sprunge/ zsh_reload/ dnf/ hanami/ npx/ ssh-agent/ dnote/ helm/ nvm/ stack/ docker/ heroku/ oc/ sublime/ docker-compose/ history/ octozen/ sublime-merge/
Enabling Plugins
Once you select a plugin that you want to use with Oh My Zsh, you have to enable them in the .zshrc file. Open it with your favorite text editor and you have to see a spot to list all the plugins you want to load.
sudo nano /home/username/.zshrc
plugins=( git zsh-syntax-highlighting )
Save the file and use the new shell with a new theme and plugins.
Conclusion
If you want a custom terminal. So now you know how to install ZSH on Kali Linux. If you want to customize according to your need then you have to use ZSH with its themes and plugins. It is very easy to use and has time-saving themes. Many themes are available on the web where you have to simply download and use them without any problem. GOOD LUCK!
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