Prezto on CentOS 7

Prezto is a configuration framework for zsh; it enriches the command line interface environment with sane defaults, aliases, functions, auto-completion, and prompt themes.

Zsh is a shell for Linux that offers many features not available (or simply more complicated to use/achieve) in the default shell, bash.

In short, Prezto+Zsh will make your life at the command line much easier and hopefully more fun to boot!

Installing git

To be able to use Prezto you need to have git installed on your system. If you don't already, just use this command to get it (git it?):

sudo yum install git

Installing Zsh

Before we can use Prezto, we need to get zsh installed. If you already have zsh installed you can skip this step. If not, read on.

Installing zsh is as simple as this:

sudo yum install zsh

Once that's done, you've got zsh!

Installing Prezto

Now that you have zsh we can get Prezto going as well. So for starters, launch zsh:

zsh

You'll be greeted by a prompt asking how you'd like to configure zsh since this is your first time running it. We're actually going to skip the creation of a config right now, as Prezto will take care of that for us later. So, simply enter q to move on.

Now, let's clone the Prezto repository:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/sorin-ionescu/prezto.git "${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zprezto"

Next, we'll create a new zsh configuration by copying those provided by Prezto:

setopt EXTENDED_GLOB
for rcfile in "${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}"/.zprezto/runcoms/^README.md(.N); do
  ln -s "$rcfile" "${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.${rcfile:t}"
done

Note: If you already have any of the given configuration files, ln will cause an error. In simple cases you can load prezto by adding the line source "${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zprezto/init.zsh" to the bottom of your .zshrc and keep the rest of your zsh configuration intact. For more complicated setups, it is recommended that you back up your original configs and replace them with the provided prezto runcoms.

Lastly, set zsh as your default shell:

chsh -s /bin/zsh

Now, either open a new terminal (if in a GUI environment) or log out and log back in (if connected via ssh or console).

If everything worked correctly you should be greeted by a nice shiny new shell! Welcome to the big leagues!