Ny way to get bash to have syntax highlighting like fish

bashfishsyntax highlighting

In the fish shell, the actual command line is syntax highlighted:

enter image description here

Is there any way to get this same behavior in bash?

There is something just like this but for zsh, not bash. Is it possible that this could be ported to bash?

To clarify for those who don't understand the screenshot, explanation, or link provided: I want to highlight the actual text that is entered at the terminal. The commands, parentheses, quotes, etc.

Best Answer

Bash uses readline for interactive input, so syntax highlighting would need to be implemented in that program. I found a Google Groups discussion about how to code such a feature.

The fish shell uses its own line editor that is specific to that program, and can not be directly ported.

You may find that zsh is very similar to bash, and its line editor is extendable. I found zsh-syntax-highlighting to enable this feature in zsh.

Troubleshooting

Save the following as test.sh and try to run it from fish.
```
#!/bin/bash

true && true
```
It works on my computer, and it should on yours.
Check if the first line of install.sh contains only the characters #!/bin/bash.

Invisible characters (such as a CR linebreak) could confuse fish.
Run
```
/bin/bash --version
```
to check that bash is actually bash and hasn't been accidentially replaced/modified over time.

install.sh

$SRC_USER is just a synonym the script creates for $SUDO_USER.

As a result, when the script is run with root privileges, the command

su ${SRC_USER} -c "sed -imod \"s|Exec=.*|Exec=${GUISCRIPT}|\" ${DESKTOP_LAUNCHER} && rm -rf ${DESKTOP_LAUNCHER}mod"

automatically uses the sudo user's default shell, which is fish.

To override this default, add the instruction -s /bin/bash to the su command.

Way to “source” a sh script from the fish shell

For sourcing a general sh script in fish, one option is the bass plugin, which can source a bash script's environment variables into fish.

If you have fisherman, you can install it with fisher install edc/bass, then run bass source <command>.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

When default shell is not bash-compatible, why do bash scripts not work well

Troubleshooting

install.sh

Way to “source” a sh script from the fish shell

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