How to configure the Terminal app with bash and iTerm2 with zshell and oh the zsh

bashitermterminalzsh

The Terminal app uses bash by default. And I don't want to change it. However I want to configure iTerm2 with zshell and oh my zsh. and I don't want bash on it. The instructions I checked online, make zshell default in both apps.

Best Answer

If your default system shell is bash, your Terminal should start with it. You can check it on General tab under Terminal Preferences. Should look like the following:

enter image description here

If bash isn't your default shell, you can change it by typing:

chsh -s /bin/bash

To configure iTerm2 with zsh you have to open Preferences and change the command on General tab on your default profile. You have to enter /bin/zsh or whatever shell you want.

some text here

To install oh-my-zsh type the following:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Related Solutions

MacOS – How to make terminal sessions resume on Lion with iterm2 and tcshrc

You could add something like this to the startup script of your default shell (mine is zsh, most people use bash, I guess, so you may have to tweak.)

Here's my bit of screen jiggery-pokery (in my .zshrc)

# Autoload screen if we aren't in it.  (Thanks Fjord!)
if [[ $STY = '' ]] then screen -xRR; fi

I got this from somewhere on the interwebs (I don't recall where, and I don't know who Fjord is, but good on him.

With this you can close your iTerm window, and it will resume where you left off when you reopen it. I highly recommend reading the screen man page also.

Issues with Unicode symbols in some applications running in Terminal.app and iTerm2

Interesting question! I did some tests on my side.

zsh

xXx:~/ $ <2691>                                                                                                                                                                                              
zsh: command not found: \u2691
xXx:~/ $??                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
zsh: command not found: ??
xXx:~/ $ ℃                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
zsh: command not found: ℃

I did also several tests with other shells and results are not the same:

sh

sh-3.2$ ⚑
sh: ⚑: command not found

bash

Ok, that should be the same as sh:

bash-3.2$ ⚑
bash: ⚑: command not found

csh/tcsh

[LeBouc-xXx:~] xXx% \U+2691
⚑: Command not found.

Apparently, all that shells are not set with the same input/output options. I tried with xterm/terminal and iTerm2 to see if I could be a software dependant problem. That's the same everywhere.

I don't have the time to search/read that but you might find some useful informations about the zsh line editor here.

If you find it, keep me up-to-date, I would be pleased to have the final answer to your question.