Zsh vs fish shell The changes they made do make for a cleaner language, but it's a new language nonetheless. Since it's based on the same shell as Bash, ZSH has many of the same features, and switching over is a breeze. The backslash and newline are discarded before the shell tokenizes the string, so long lines can be split anywhere outside of single quotes, even in the middle of command names and variable names. I still find myself frequently dropping into bash everywhere, but I really want fish to succeed. If fish is friendlier than zsh, why do I see more people using zsh instead of fish? And what are the main differences… Terminal Shell Integration Visual Studio Code has the ability to integrate with common shells, allowing the terminal to understand more about what's actually happening inside the shell. Measure your shell startup time between fish and zsh (with comparable features) and you’ll see what I mean. It comes bundled with thousands of helpful functions, helpers, plugins, themes. I’m a Linux beginner and looking to branch out to a better shell. From syntax highlight to abbreviation (my favorite), there are numerous novelties here Nov 17, 2023 · Here are three reasons why I do not want to change to another shell: Fish provides good defaults out of the box. But many shells exist other than these popular ones, with different features and 63 For interactive use, there are two main contenders, Bash and zsh, plus the straggler tcsh and the newcomer fish. Bash: The Important Differences Jun 26, 2023 · Fish (Friendly Interactive SHell) is a Unix shell designed to be user-friendly and interactive. Plus, you'll learn if being POSIX-compliant actually matters Oh My ZSH - A delightful, open source, community-driven framework for managing your Zsh configuration. These suggestions Compare ohmyzsh vs fish-shell and see what are their differences. Are there any long/mid term users here? What do you think it does better than zsh and fish? Are you satisfied with it or planning to go back? When comparing zsh vs fish (Friendly Interactive SHell), the Slant community recommends fish (Friendly Interactive SHell) for most people. With this in mind, I wanted to know how fast can I migrate to Fish shell while converting my current . Learn how to boost productivity using themes, plugins, and cross-platform workflows. But Fish is the most underrated one. The three main ones out there are Bash, Zsh, and Fish. Fish的缺点： 非POSIX兼容: 与 Bash 和 Zsh 不同， Fish 不符合POSIX标准，这意味着为Bash或其他POSIX兼容的shell编写的脚本在Fish中可能无法正确运行，除非进行修改。 兼容性有限：因为 Fish 是一个较新的 Shell，它的社区和资源比 Bash 和 Zsh 少。 fish has everything I needed from OMZ (autosuggestions, completions, syntax highlighting etc) by default as a dynamic shell without all of the bloat. If you want (in my opinion) a more powerful and friendly shell out of the box, FISH is the way to go. The tcsh and zsh shells feature optional spell checking/correction, upon command invocation. With zsh, I am working (with nearly) a superset of bash. Oh my zsh covers several aspects. With features like syntax highlighting, auto-suggestions, tab completions, and a private mode for secure commands, Fish Shell offers an intuitive and powerful alternative Jun 13, 2025 · Terminal Showdown: Bash vs Zsh vs Fish for Power Users The command-line shell is the heart of productivity for Linux power users. Fish Shell - It is a useful utility filled shell which makes command line operations quicker with customized functions, easy to append path variable command, command history and more right out of the box. Fish does the autocorrection upon completion and autosuggestion. I haven’t tweaked my shell config in 7 or 8 months now. The best reason to choose fish over zsh is that everything works so well out of the box that you stop messing with it. Fish: Entdecken Sie im Vergleich die Unterschiede und finden Sie die beste Shell für Ihr Linux-System. Reply reply Masterflitzer • Oct 31, 2022 · Customizing my shell: From bash to zsh to fish Oct 31, 2022 20:00 · 1882 words · 9 minute read When I am coding, I use the terminal a lot. Mar 29, 2025 · Bash vs Zsh vs Fish: Learn the key differences between the top Linux shells in 2025. What is ZSH? ZSH, also called the Z shell, is an extended version of the Bourne Shell (sh), with new features and support for plugins and themes. Ghostty can automatically inject shell integration for bash, zsh, fish, and elvish. But what's the difference, and why are there so many? What Do Shells Do? When you sign in at the command line or launch a terminal window on Linux, the system launches the shell For example, the Zsh syntax to read a file into an array is completely crazy to me (array_of_lines=("${(@f)$(my_command)}")). It features syntax highlighting, autosuggestions Oct 13, 2023 · Fish Shell is a user-friendly command line shell that was developed with a special emphasis on user experience. Supported shells: Linux/macOS: bash, fish, pwsh, zsh Windows: Git Sep 13, 2025 · Find the best shell for your Linux workflow. May 5, 2025 · Master Linux shell customization 2025 with Bash, Zsh, and Fish. Sep 24, 2023 · Here's how to install one popular alternative, ZSH. Oct 18, 2024 · Photo by Lewis Kang'ethe Ngugi on Unsplash Fish shell is an excellent choice for developers who want an out-of-the-box experience with minimal setup. Nov 18, 2022 · Linux - @likre - 我目前在用 arch+gnome ，装了 fish 来当默认的 shell 。看到一些文章和教程都说推荐用 bash 。但是命令好像都是互通的(和 fish ，都是可执行文件，用什么 shel Jul 24, 2023 · Central to this experience are the shells, which act as the bridge between users and the Linux kernel. Z Shell (Zsh): How Do They Compare? By Alex Mitchell Last Update on September 1, 2024 Origins and History Bash Bash traces its roots all the way back to the Bourne shell (sh), created by Stephen Bourne at Bell Labs in 1977. Dec 17, 2023 · On the other hand, shells like Bash, ZSH, and Fish have their own pros and cons. Jul 14, 2025 · Fish (Friendly Interactive Shell) is a modern Unix shell that offers built-in autosuggestions, syntax highlighting, and web-based configuration without requiring complex setup. Jun 18, 2016 · I have spent sometime trying to pick one, on net comparisons are for zsh vs bash and fish vs bash. Learn how to customize your shell with themes, plugins, and Starship for maximum productivity in 2025. I also share some of the many mistakes I made in trying to configure fish to behave a bit like a Nov 26, 2024 · Discover how switching from Zsh to Fish shell can enhance your productivity with faster performance, rich built-in functionality, and an user-friendly configuration experience. As far as Jan 18, 2023 · A Shell provides an interface to Linux and Unix-like systems by interpreting commands and acts as an intermediary between the user and the core workings of the operating system. Nov 27, 2024 · By default, if Fish is already set as the default shell, VS Code detects it and integrates it with the terminal. Starship is the minimal, blazing fast, and extremely customizable prompt for any shell!. . But in my case (VS Code 1. You can still create aliases, write functions, export variables, and run commands. Fish Shell - A command line shell intended mostly for interactive use. Fish provides a range of features that makes it an attractive choice. Functionally (again), there's nothing much different between Fish, Bash, or Zsh. Different shells, such as Bash, Zsh, and Ksh, exist to provide users with various features, functionalities, and conveniences tailored to their needs and preferences. On macOS and Linux, this includes bash, zsh, fish, and PowerShell (pwsh). Final thoughts So after more than 2 years, I finally migrated from ZSH to Fish. Or if you're the kind of person who prefers the "arch" experience of building out your tools yourself, Zsh is also probably better. Today we are announcing an open beta, inviting all users to try out the upcoming 4. Fish provides all of those features natively, is much easier to configure (ever tried writing a completion script for zsh vs fish?), and is significantly faster. But two popular alternatives, ZSH and Fish, offer more advanced features and customization. It’s got lots of new features to make using the command line easier and more Starship is the minimal, blazing fast, and extremely customizable prompt for any shell! Shows the information you need, while staying sleek and minimal. I recently settled on tumbleweed after deciding that I don’t really like Ubuntu derivative distros, I like tumbleweed’s rolling release model, and I don’t want to deal with Arch. After restarting, VS Code still used Zsh as the default shell in the integrated terminal. Whether you’re writing scripts, managing systems, or navigating … There are two approaches to this; the shell can either suggest probable corrections upon command invocation, or this can happen earlier as part of a completion or autosuggestion. 118 votes, 127 comments. For around one year now, I have settled for the fish shell. It's gotten better with time, but VSCode extensions still don't setup conda properly in my fish shell. Many things are similar - they both fundamentally expand commandlines to execute commands, have pipes, redirections Feb 6, 2024 · fish (Friendly Interactive SHell), Zsh (Z shell), and Bash (Bourne-Again SHell) are probably your best bets out of the 17 options considered. Oct 11, 2024 · I Was DEFINITELY Using The Wrong Terminal Shell DevOps Toolbox 53. Bash is the official shell of the GNU project and the default shell on most Linux distributions. Jan 12, 2025 · Discover why Fish Shell. We can verify that by firing up a container with limited CPU and memory, like so: docker run --rm -it --cpus 1 --memory 100m ubuntu bash And then we can install all the shells, as well as hyperfine, and see how they go: Apr 5, 2022 · I changed my prompt configurator from Oh-My-Zsh to Starship. This blog post tells the story of my upgrade and the pitfalls and benefits of moving to Fish Shell. By contrast: NuShell also has new syntax and costs like Fish, but it offers qualitative improvements over a tricked out ZSH. 22 votes, 25 comments. It works for Bash, Zsh and Fish shells. Top 5 open source command shells for Linux Learn about the various open source alternatives to using the standard bash shell in Linux, including ksh, tcsh, zsh, and fish. An unquoted backslash followed by a newline are discarded and cause the shell to wait for more input. Let me go over in this video the difference between Bash, ZSH, and Fish, and finally settle the debate on which one is the BEST. This article explodes some advantages of Fish, such as pre-installed plugins, faster and simpler setup, along with a step-by-step guide to make your migration seamless and efficient. Zsh is no slower than bash, but it will slow down a lot if you load a whole bunch of stuff with it. If you just want a shell with nice features that you don't have to configure much, fish is cool. Discover which shell suits your workflow—scripting, customization, or beginner-friendly use. 8K subscribers Subscribed Feb 11, 2020 · Differences between Terminal vs Shell vs Console vs CLI Clean Architecture: La mejor forma de escalar y mantener tu código Crea tu Primer MCP Server con Python [Curso Completo Desde Cero] May 13, 2020 · Fish Fish (again) is another shell. Fish for bash users ¶ This is to give you a quick overview if you come from bash (or to a lesser extent other shells like zsh or ksh) and want to know how fish differs. POSIX compatibility in the interactive part of your shell is Moving from Zsh to Fish 🐠 I recently began experimenting with Fish after a long time using zsh and oh my zsh. Dec 16, 2024 · Hopefully by outlining the background, pros and cons, feature comparisons, and key differentiators between Bash vs Zsh vs Fish – this guide has helped identify the best shell fit for your particular requirements as a beginner or advancing developer. 0 release. Fish is intentionally not POSIX-compatible and as such some of the things you are used to work differently. In this post, I want to explain how I got there, why I am very happy with fish, and how I have configured it. It's easy to write pipelines, loops, command subs, etc because I'm used to bash already from script-writing. Two of the most popular modern shells — Zsh (Z … Dec 27, 2023 · For experienced Linux users, choosing the right shell is an important decision. If you've ever tried to write completions in Zsh, it's also really painful compared to Fish. On first glance, Fish stands out because it comes with these two features out of the box: Auto suggestions Syntax highlighting Autosuggestions Fish suggests commands as you type. Fish comes with autocompletions and autosuggestions out of the box. rs and with that changed my shell to Fish. Warp supports popular shells across macOS, Windows, and Linux. Over the time, I have tried out different popular shells 1: bash, zsh, and fish. While there are various shell options available, Bash, Zsh, and Fish stand out as the most popular choices, each offering a unique set of features, making it crucial to understand their differences in order to select the right Dive into the debate of fish vs bash. Bash is the reliable, time-tested option that prioritizes portability, while Zsh offers advanced features and customization for users who need a more tailored shell environment. I want to share which one I chose and how I went about setting it up. 命令行 Shell 是与操作系统交互的核心工具，允许用户高效地执行命令、自动化任务以及运行脚本。 虽然市面上有多种 Shell 可供选择，但 Bash、Zsh 和 Fish 是最受欢迎的三大 Shell，它们各自拥有独特的功能特点。因… The history of Unix shells is marked by the evolution from basic shells like sh (the Bourne Shell) to feature-rich environments such as bash (Bourne Again Shell), zsh (Z Shell), fish (Friendly Interactive Shell), csh (C Shell), and ksh (KornShell). In the question “What are the best UNIX shells?” fish (Friendly Interactive SHell) is ranked 1st while zsh is ranked 2nd. Nushell does look interesting and cool. This article will explore three popular Linux shells – Bash, Zsh, and Fish – and delvemore As a user and fan of fish, I hesitate to recommend it to people because support and availability for fish is just not where other POSIX shells are. It’s a plugin system to integrate multiple Zsh scripts. After more than 10 years with zsh I realized that configuration is technical debt. So, I'd do ZSH &/OR NuShell -- but Fish was a savior to me when I first started and wasn't sure how to improve ZSH (and didn't know about nushell) [Fish scripting is slightly better than ZSH scripting. Oct 1, 2024 · Nu is great, and I recommend everyone to check it out. ZSH supports inline wildcard expressions and is much more configurable than Bash. Oct 16, 2025 · Zsh vs Fish: The Ultimate Shell Showdown for 2025 Choosing the right shell can dramatically impact your productivity and command-line experience. Discover the strengths and quirks of each shell to find your perfect command line companion. Thus far it’s been a good experience so thought I’d share why I did it, how I tweaked my setup and my thoughts on Fish so far. May 15, 2020 · Fish Fish, or the “Friendly Interactive Shell,” is the most user-friendly and interactive shell, in my opinion. And we love it. ZSH vs. We compare Bash, Zsh, and Fish, with pros and cons to help you decide which is right for you. By the end, you’ll see why Fish provides […] May 12, 2025 · Bash, Zsh, and Fish each have their own strengths and weaknesses, depending on your needs and level of expertise. Out of curiosity, what is the huge difference between fish and zsh shell and which one would be better to use? Tutorial ¶ Why fish? ¶ Fish is a fully-equipped command line shell (like bash or zsh) that is smart and user-friendly. Initial performance Fish’s performance is a lot better than ZSH’s, and very similar to Bash. May 18, 2025 · The command-line shell is an essential tool for interacting with the operating system, allowing users to execute commands, automate tasks, and run scripts efficiently. Jul 19, 2023 · A quick beginner's intro to popular Linux Shells - Bash, Fish and Zsh with their features, installation methods and guide for you. Mar 23, 2023 · Shell Comparison: Analyzing the Pros and Cons of Bash, Zsh, Fish, and Tcsh Helping you decide which shell to use！ Before we begin comparing various shells, if you’re not sure what a shell is Feb 20, 2024 · Why I Migrated to Fish Shell from Oh My Zsh Choosing a Unix shell boils down to personal preference, specific needs, and the features that one values the most in their daily usage. I am not exaggerating. No configuration is key for me. Undoubtedly, the bash shell is the most popular one, and some users prefer other shells like ZSH, which is the default shell in macOS. Apr 3, 2025 · Zsh vs. ZSH has some features fish doesn't and vise versa, fish has automatic man page browsing, syntax highlighting, full true color support, automaic suggetions and more, while zsh allows for changing every little bit about it. Here we discuss the key differences of Fish vs Zsh with infographics and comparison table. IMO having to install oh-my-zsh is the deal breaker for me. zshrc. Sep 26, 2022 · My . But now trying my hands at python and shell-scripts. I’m still amazed at how quickly my shell instances start up now. "Auto suggestions" is the primary reason people pick fish (Friendly Interactive SHell) over the competition. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the key differences between ZSH and Fish shell. Zsh (Z shell) - An extended Bourne shell with a large number of improvements. Apr 7, 2021 · Zsh Zsh is for people wanting an interesting mix of a good compatibility with Bash and an ecosystem of plugins with a reasonable installation process. If you encounter the same issue, you can manually set up Fish as the default shell for the integrated terminal as follows… In my experience, everyone who complains about zsh being slow is using one of those plugin packages like prezto or oh my zsh. It’s a popular choice for developers who seek a more customizable and Apr 12, 2023 · Guide to the top differences between Fish vs Zsh. It aimed to be a convenient interface for Unix-based systems at the time… Aug 21, 2024 · Provides a strong type system for more robust scripting Es Shell: Provides a minimalistic, functional shell environment with higher-order functions Offers a simple syntax inspired by RC and Plan 9 shell, which can be more expressive for certain tasks Fish (Friendly Interactive Shell): Offers superior out-of-the-box experience with user-friendly May 6, 2020 · When I set up my Windows computer, I had the chance to take another look at the shell I'm using. If a command is unknown, the command will shell-out and execute it (using cmd on Windows or bash on Linux and MacOS), correctly passing Dec 25, 2024 · Explore different types of Linux shells like Bash, Zsh, and Fish, and learn their key features and differences. Nu Shell - It comes with a set of built-in commands. I started using fish full-time in 2024 after a decade of using bash with a sprinkle of zsh mixed in. In looking at the next step to improve my experience, I’d like a better window tiling system to manage my windows (especially terminal Dec 31, 2024 · Fish Fish is a smart and user-friendly command line shell for Linux, macOS, and the rest of the family. This is a different mindset from the giant zsh configs, “plugin managers” and other junk that is wholly irrelevant to using the shell. You’d think that fish incorporating a lot of functionality that zsh has would Shells read input up to an unquoted newline and then execute it. Sep 9, 2025 · Comparative deep-dive into Bash commands vs Zsh and Fish: syntax differences, interactive features, scripting portability, and when to choose each shell. This additional information enables some useful features such as working directory detection and command detection, decorations, and navigation. Main reason being out of the box with minimal configuration it has all the features and ui experience I want compared to when I used zsh before it and had to add many plugins with their own package managers to achieve at the expense of speed. fish 4. Finally, a command line shell for the 90s fish is a smart and user-friendly command line shell for Linux, macOS, and the rest of the family. Bash was perfectly fine for my use case- it was a POSIX shell that I had configured perfectly to my minimalist taste. Dec 17, 2024 · A smart and user-friendly command line shellfish is a smart and user-friendly command line shell with clever features that just work, without needing an advanced degree in bash scriptology. Mar 24, 2024 · I have been loyal to fish shell for last few years. If I can have a reasonably modern shell without needing to configure it, that is worth a lot more to me than having things precisely the way I want them. However, if you do a lot of work with BASH scripts, Zsh is probably a better bet. Fish, or Friendly Interactive Shell, is also a Unix shell known for its user-friendly syntax and auto-suggestions. May 12, 2025 · While there are various shell options available, Bash, Zsh, and Fish stand out as the most popular choices, each offering a unique set of features, making it crucial to understand their differences in order to select the right one for your needs. 3), the default setting didn’t work. Dec 7, 2020 · Back in June, I started porting my dotfiles from ZSH to Fish. This Feb 6, 2024 · Compare fish (Friendly Interactive SHell) vs Zsh (Z shell) and 16 other options side by side to learn "What are the best UNIX shells?" Dec 18, 2023 · Bash the most common shell. Fish: Interactive and User-Friendly Fish, or the Friendly Interactive Shell, is a relatively new shell that aims to provide a powerful yet easy-to-use experience out of the box. zshrc configuration looks like this: Fish is a faster shell than Zsh since the auto-suggestion and completion features are inbuilt (in C++ or Rust) in the Fish binary and they are automatically asynchronous. Fish indeed is an overlooked shell that could be a great fit for beginners and advanced FOSSers alike. Fish supports powerful features like syntax highlighting, autosuggestions, and tab completions that just work, with nothing to learn or configure. Fish is much easier to setup, but the incompatibilities with bash discourage me from learning. Fisher is a very lightweight plugin manager for fish. Dec 13, 2022 · Fish is a UNIX shell environment with an emphasis on interactivity and usability. Personally, I'd say use FISH. One day I will take a look at closely and see if I should Dec 28, 2022 · What is Fish Shell? Friendly Interactive Shell (fish) is a Unix shell that was first released in 2005 by the developers at fishshell. I write a lot of Zsh scripts, so I can say with some authority that Fish's scripting is really, really nice comparatively. But, I could not find any comparison for zsh vs fish. zshrc configuration had some plugins and configurations from oh-my-zsh that Fish shell mostly provides out-of-the-box. Sep 1, 2024 · Coding Fish Shell vs. Dec 16, 2022 · 原文： Linux Shells for Beginners – Bash, Zsh, and Fish Explained 当你打开终端时，很可能发现终端使用 Bash 作为其 UNIX shell 环境。当然除了 Bash，还存在其他“shell”环境。 例如 C Shell 、 Korn Shell 、 Z Shell，甚至 Fish Shell。不同的 shell 环境各有千秋，在你选择自己系统的 shell 之前，你应该评估一下。 我将在本 Aug 24, 2025 · Prompt Theme and Plugin Setup for Bash, Zsh, and Fish explained step by step. Here’s why. Zsh is the most popular one among developers. If you want to make your command line more productive, more useful, and more fun, without learning a bunch of arcane syntax and Dec 14, 2024 · I’m a big fan of fast shell prompts for “ astronauts “. In the shell grammar, lists Fish seems to have smoother integrations with various tools, including fzf, kubectx, and other bleeding edge stuff Fish shell's autosuggestion feature allows you to build commands composed of earlier ones word by word Beautiful Themes and Rich Plugin Ecosystems This is a point that I give to both shells. Jul 5, 2025 · The definition of Zsh comes from The Open Group, a reputable organization that defines it as an extension of the Bourne shell (sh) with added features for interactive use. One of the key reasons I prefer Fish over Zsh Apr 22, 2024 · Zsh also has a steeper learning curve than Bash, especially if you want to take full advantage of its advanced features. I’ve used Pure and Spaceship before and this is the right time My preferred user shell is zsh. Unlike Zsh, Fish aims to give the user interactivity by default instead of trusting the user to implement their own configuration. This page is powered by a knowledgeable community that helps you make an informed decision. Fish Shell 🐠 Getting ready My . Zsh is a particularly popular alternative, and there are other shells, like ash, dash, fish, and tcsh. Unlike ZSH and other shells, it takes no time to set up and configure fish. Unlike Bash or Zsh, Fish works intelligently out-of-the-box, making it ideal for developers who want a productive terminal experience without extensive customization. 0 is a big upgrade. Unix Shell是一个功能强大的工具，使程序员仅需几句话就可以完成复杂的任务。 有很多广泛使用的Shell，例如 Bourne Shell， C Shell 等。 我特别使用了 Bash 、 Zsh 和 fish shell，下面是我对为什么切换到fish甚至Zsh是使你的编程体验更愉快的最好方法之一的想法。 Some Ghostty features require integrating with your shell. I program in C and C++, apart from hello-world types, never done any major scripting. As of the time of writing, I’ve partly gotten used to Fish’s syntax differences in interactive use, and completely ported my old ZSH config. It is much more customizable than Zsh and Bash. Quick installation available for Bash, Fish, ZSH, Ion, Tcsh, Elvish, Nu, Xonsh, Cmd, and Powershell. Like zsh, it is known for being highly user-friendly and customizable, with a range of features that make it well-suited for use as an interactive shell or as a scripting language. The default Bash shell is a powerful option. Zsh is often combined with Oh My Zsh a plugin system and collection of plugins that enhance the shell. On Windows, this includes PowerShell 5 & 7, WSL2, and Git Bash. The Starship shell prompt is designed to only show the information you need while you’re working, while staying sleek and out of the way. Apr 3, 2023 · Zsh, or the Z Shell, is an extended version of the Bourne Shell that incorporates features from Bash, KornShell, and tcsh. Bear in mind it doesn't try to be remotely POSIXy, it won't run bash scripts, it has its own scripting language (you can of course still run bash scripts via bash when using fish). For instance, Bash is the default shell environment on most systems and does not have an inline wildcard expression. com. 95. As a default bash user who want to switch from bash why should i use fish instead of zsh ? I was told fish and bash have… Mar 3, 2017 · Most Linux distributions include the bash shell by default, but you could also switch to another shell environment. Explore the key differences between Bash, Zsh, and Fish shells to enhance your software development workflow. tggqs wampgh vvhwx aojylf xpdxs tzesg vzgyu ziyibh pllurc qsagr mmlwlq nqbxa dary uqfyp vpxns