Highly Productive Terminal with Fish

One of the most frustrating things I had when using Linux was the terminal experience - why on earth didn't the tab key work like it did on Windows? I even created a configuration doc for bash to get it the way I wanted. But after I discovered Fish, everything changed. It already brings many native features and with a few more configurations, it becomes unbeatable. Check it out!

This step guide is based on Fedora, but it possibly works on other RedHat-based distros.

Installation

First, I recommend the Terminator terminal, which has nice features like tabs, splits, color customizations, etc. To install:

    sudo dnf install terminator

To install Fish, run:

    sudo dnf install fish
    sudo dnf install util-linux-user

The following commands make Fish the default shell:

    echo /usr/bin/fish | sudo tee -a /etc/shells
    chsh -s /usr/bin/fish

Here you can say hello to Fish!

Theme

There's Fish's visual package manager, Oh My Fish (OMF). To install:

    
    curl -L https://get.oh-my.fish | fish

It's recommended to install the Powerline fonts package:

    sudo dnf install powerline powerline-fonts

In OMF, I recommend installing the Agnoster theme:

    omf install agnoster 

At some moments, Fish inserts an underline, which I personally find ugly. It can be disabled with:

    set fish_color_valid_path --bold

Fisher Package Manager

Some Fish features are installed through its package manager, Fisher:

    curl https://git.io/fisher --create-dirs -sLo ~/.config/fish/functions/fisher.fish

Bookmark Path

A very cool feature is allowing you to jump to directories through aliases (also known as jump or bookmarks). For Fish, there's To. To install, we can do it through Fisher:

    fisher install joehillen/to-fish

To mark a directory:

    to add myproject

To jump to a marked directory:

    to myproject

FZF - Fuzzy Finder

FZF is a general-purpose fuzzy finder that can be used with Fish for incredible productivity. Install it with:

    sudo dnf install fzf

Then install the Fish integration:

    fisher install jethrokuan/fzf

Now you can:

• Ctrl+R - Search command history with fuzzy matching
• Ctrl+O - Open files with fuzzy search
• Alt+C - Change directory with fuzzy search

Conclusion

Fish is an excellent shell that provides a much better out-of-the-box experience than bash. With the additions of Oh My Fish, Fisher, and plugins like FZF, you'll have a highly productive terminal environment that makes working on the command line a pleasure rather than a chore.