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Shell Guide (Zsh & Bash)

Both shells share the same aliases, functions, and general workflow. Zsh is the primary shell and has additional features noted below.

Aliases

File Listing

Alias Expands To Description
ls ls --color=auto Colorized listing
ll ls -lah Long format, all files, human sizes
la ls -A All files except . and ..
l ls -CF Columns with type indicators

Navigation

Alias Description
.. Up one directory
... Up two directories
.... Up three directories
cdp Previous directory (cd -)

Zsh only: type a directory name without cd to enter it (AUTO_CD).

Directory Stack (Zsh)

Zsh pushes every cd onto a directory stack automatically.

Command Description
d Show last 10 directories in the stack
1 .. 9 Jump to that stack entry

Git

Alias Command
gs git status
ga git add
gc git commit
gd git diff
gl git log --oneline --decorate --graph
gp git push
gpl git pull

History & Utilities

Alias Description
h Show history
hg Search history (history | grep)
c Clear screen
now Print current timestamp
today Print today's date

Safety

rm, cp, and mv all prompt before overwriting/deleting (-i flag).

System & Network

Alias Description
df Disk free (human-readable)
du Disk usage (human-readable)
ports Show open ports
myip Show public IP address

macOS Only

Alias Description
showfiles / hidefiles Toggle hidden files in Finder
afk Lock screen
brewup Update, upgrade, and clean Homebrew

Linux Only

Alias Description
update apt-get update && upgrade
install apt-get install

Editing

Alias Description
zshrc Open ~/.zshrc in your editor
reload Re-source ~/.zshrc

Functions

Defined in ~/.shell_functions, available in both bash and zsh.

Function Usage Description
mkcd mkcd new-dir Create a directory and cd into it
extract extract archive.tar.gz Auto-detect and extract any archive format
psgrep psgrep nginx Search running processes by name
search search config Find files matching a name pattern
venv venv Toggle Python venv (activate, deactivate, or create)

GitHub Account Switching

Run gh-setup to configure your accounts interactively. Account settings are stored in ~/.gh-accounts. At shell startup, a gh-<name> command is generated for each account in that file, so the available commands depend on what you've configured.

For example, if you set up accounts named "personal" and "work", you get gh-personal and gh-work commands.

Each gh-<name> command switches both the gh CLI auth and the git user/email/signing config (written to ~/.gitconfig.local).

Command Description
gh-<name> Switch to a configured account
gh-whoami Show current GitHub and git identity
gist Shortcut for gh gist

Key Bindings

Zsh

Zsh uses emacs-style line editing by default.

Key Action
Up / Down Search history filtered by current input
Ctrl-R Reverse search history
Ctrl-Left / Ctrl-Right Jump by word
Home / End Beginning / end of line
Delete Delete character under cursor

Bash

Key Action
Ctrl-R Reverse search history
Tab Complete (shows all matches on first press)

Tab completion is case-insensitive in both shells.

History

Both shells keep 10,000 commands in memory and 20,000 on disk.

  • Commands starting with a space are not saved (useful for secrets)
  • Duplicates are removed
  • Zsh shares history across all open sessions in real time
  • Bash appends to history (no cross-session sharing)

Zsh-Specific Features

  • Spelling correction: mistyped commands prompt a suggestion
  • Extended globbing: ls **/*.py (recursive), ls ^*.txt (negation)
  • Menu completion: arrow keys to navigate completion options
  • Plugins (if installed):
    • zsh-autosuggestions - greyed-out suggestions from history (press Right to accept)
    • zsh-syntax-highlighting - live syntax coloring as you type

Prompt

Uses Starship if installed (brew install starship), configured via ~/.config/starship.toml. Falls back to a built-in prompt showing user@host:directory (git-branch).

Pager

less is configured with:

  • -R - show ANSI colors
  • -F - quit if output fits on one screen
  • -X - don't clear screen on exit

Local Overrides

Machine-specific settings (API keys, work paths, etc.) go in:

  • ~/.zshrc.local (zsh)
  • ~/.bashrc.local (bash)

These files are not tracked in the dotfiles repo.