Ghost in the Shell – ZSH Setup

I think this article simultaneously describes everything I love and hate about zsh. The config for comfort is huge, but boy will it be comfortable when you've finished shaving that yak¹.

A few hopefully useful comments on the actual meat from a fellow traveller…

Much of the per-terminal key customising can be neatly handled with `zkbd`[zshcontrib(1)], which will also guide you with a wizard when you fire up zsh on a terminal type you haven't used before.

zsh also comes with builtin float support, so a whole heap of `bc` things can be replaced with arithmetic expressions such as `$(( x * 2.54 ))`. You can even up your game when you want more with the `zsh/mathfunc` module[zshmodules(1)], which basically just exposes math.h to the shell user.

One of my favourite options which isn't mentioned in TFA is warn_create_global, which very visibly warns you when you've forgot to scope a variable correctly. It would flag $CUT and $VULNS in `ports-check` for example.

¹ At least that is what a guy with a pink-haired pet tiger wandering a forest once promised me in a fever dream.

The post is from 2018. I always like seeing discussion of other people's shell setups.