ZSH Setup

A shell environment setup guide based on ZSH + Oh My Zsh. Includes autocompletion, syntax highlighting, and ROS2 alias configuration.

This guide replaces Bash with Zsh. If you are new to the terminal, start with Terminal Setup: Basics. The lz alias below needs Lazygit from Terminal Setup: Advanced.

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1. Zsh with Oh My Zsh Setup

Quick Installation

# Install prerequisites
sudo apt install wget curl git fonts-powerline zsh
 
# Change default shell
chsh -s $(which zsh)
 
# Install Oh My Zsh
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
 
# Install essential plugins
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

Configuration

Edit ~/.zshrc:

# Theme
ZSH_THEME="af-magic"
 
# Plugins
plugins=(git zsh-syntax-highlighting zsh-autosuggestions)
 
# ROS2 aliases
alias cbr="colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release"
alias cbrs="cbr --packages-skip"
alias cbp="colcon build --packages-select"
alias sor="source install/setup.zsh"
alias rlt="ros2 topic list"
alias rle="ros2 topic echo"
alias rli="ros2 topic info"
alias ril="ros2 interface list"
alias rill="ros2 interface list | grep"
alias rils="ros2 interface show"
alias rpe="ros2 pkg executables"
 
# System aliases
alias sr="source ~/.zshrc"
alias lz="lazygit"

Apply changes: source ~/.zshrc

Little tips for ROS2

# ROS2 environment setup
echo "source /opt/ros/humble/setup.zsh" >> ~/.zshrc

ROS2 autocomplete

pip3 install argcomplete

# ROS2 terminal autocomplete activate
echo "source /opt/ros/humble/share/ros2cli/environment/ros2-argcomplete.zsh" >> ~/.zshrc