Oh My Zsh’ing the Terminal — 2021

Including powerlevel10k

I’ve written this short guide on how to make the terminal a little bit sexier and easy to read for a novice like myself. Part of me is writing this for other to read and learn. The other part of me is writing this so that every time I forget how to do it, I know to come here. So follow this guide to make your terminal look like this:

Ubuntu 20.04 terminal with oh-my-zsh running the powerlevel10k theme.

1. Install ZSH

The first step is to install zsh. Apple now defaults it’s shell to zsh so there might not be a need to install it for a Mac user. However currently ubuntu requires an apt installation.

$ sudo apt install zsh

You will then be asked if you wish to continue so just hit y.

$ y

2. Install Oh-My-Zsh

Oh My Zsh is a delightful, open source, community-driven framework for managing your Zsh configuration.

To install oh-my-zsh I tend to install it using wget.

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

Running this command will prompt you to change your default shell to zsh. Again just enter y

$ y

Your terminal prompt should now start to look more friendly. Like the image below.

Ubuntu 20.04 terminal after install zsh and oh-my-zsh

3. Install Powerlevel10k

Powerlevel10k is a theme for Zsh. It emphasizes speed, flexibility and out-of-the-box experience.

First clone down the powerlevel10k theme.

$ git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k

Now change the zsh theme configuration in .zshrc from robbyrussel to powerlevel10k.

$ nano ~/.zshrc
- Z̶S̶H̶_̶T̶H̶E̶M̶E̶=̶"̶r̶o̶b̶b̶y̶r̶u̶s̶s̶e̶l̶l̶"̶
+ ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k"

Once you have set this variable you can source the zshrc file to load the changes.

$ source ~/.zshrc

Once you have sourced the file you will prompt with the Powerlevel10k configuration wizard. Follow the steps outlined in the terminal and your configuration is complete! Happy Zsh’ing!