Organize Your Zsh Configurations and Plugins
#zsh

Organize Your Zsh Configurations and Plugins

In this guide we are going to make our .zshrc file more readable and maintainable. We will split our aliases, functions, completions and plugins into their own files and folders.

Prerequisite

Note: Better not close the current terminal session. We’ll reload the session at the end.

Backup

Backup your .zshrc before you proceed.

command line 
cp ~/.zshrc ~/.zshrc.bak

Start fresh

Now open .zshrc the file with your favorite text editor, clear all the text-content and paste this lines:

default_file .zshrc 
# The completion system activation
autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

# extended history size
export HISTSIZE=1000000000
export SAVEHIST=1000000000
setopt EXTENDED_HISTORY

Config Folder

Create a folder to store our files.

command line 
mkdir -p ~/.config/zsh

Aliases

Aliases make our lives easier. Let’s create a aliases.zsh file in our zsh config folder.

command line 
touch ~/.conifg/zsh/aliases.zsh

open aliases.zsh and paste this lines:

Note: These aliases are hand crafted by me. You can tweak them to your liking.

default_file aliases.zsh 
# aliases
alias edit="open -e"
alias reload="source ~/.zshrc"
alias zshconfig="edit ~/.zshrc"

# React native aliases
alias iospod="cd iOS && pod install && cd .."
alias rnrelease="cd android && ./gradlew assembleRelease && cd .."
alias rndebug="cd android && ./gradlew assembleDebug && cd .."
alias rnbundlejs="npx react-native bundle --platform android --dev false --entry-file index.js --bundle-output android/app/src/main/assets/index.android.bundle --assets-dest android/app/src/main/res"
alias rnbundle="cd android && ./gradlew bundleRelease && cd .."

# NPM aliases
alias nr="npm run"
alias ni="npm install"
alias ns="npm start"
alias nu="npm uninstall"

#yarn aliases
alias yr="yarn run"
alias yi="yarn add"
alias ys="yarn start"
alias yu="yarn remove"

#pg aliases
alias pg_start="launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents"
alias pg_stop="launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents"

alias grep="grep --color"
alias ll="ls -al"

We need to source this file in our .zshrc for it to work. Open .zshrc and append this line,

default_file .zshrc 
[[ -f ~/.config/zsh/aliases.zsh ]] && source ~/.config/zsh/aliases.zsh

Completions

Some programs do not provide shell completions out of the box. For those programs we are going to create completions. First create the completions.zsh file:

Note: If you’ve not installed that kind of program, you can skip this.

command line 
touch ~/.config/zsh/completions.zsh

Now paste these lines (I am only using flutter):

default_file completions.zsh 
###-begin-flutter-completion-###

if type complete &>/dev/null; then
  __flutter_completion() {
    local si="$IFS"
    IFS=$'\n' COMPREPLY=($(COMP_CWORD="$COMP_CWORD" \
                           COMP_LINE="$COMP_LINE" \
                           COMP_POINT="$COMP_POINT" \
                           flutter completion -- "${COMP_WORDS[@]}" \
                           2>/dev/null)) || return $?
    IFS="$si"
  }
  complete -F __flutter_completion flutter
elif type compdef &>/dev/null; then
  __flutter_completion() {
    si=$IFS
    compadd -- $(COMP_CWORD=$((CURRENT-1)) \
                 COMP_LINE=$BUFFER \
                 COMP_POINT=0 \
                 flutter completion -- "${words[@]}" \
                 2>/dev/null)
    IFS=$si
  }
  compdef __flutter_completion flutter
elif type compctl &>/dev/null; then
  __flutter_completion() {
    local cword line point words si
    read -Ac words
    read -cn cword
    let cword-=1
    read -l line
    read -ln point
    si="$IFS"
    IFS=$'\n' reply=($(COMP_CWORD="$cword" \
                       COMP_LINE="$line" \
                       COMP_POINT="$point" \
                       flutter completion -- "${words[@]}" \
                       2>/dev/null)) || return $?
    IFS="$si"
  }
  compctl -K __flutter_completion flutter
fi

###-end-flutter-completion-###

Finaly source the file in .zshrc. Open .zshrc and append:

default_file .zshrc 
[[ -f ~/.config/zsh/completions.zsh ]] && source ~/.config/zsh/completions.zsh

Functions

I am using some function aliases so I like to keep them separate from the other aliases. You can use this file functions.zsh for any function you might want. Let’s create the file:

command line 
touch ~/.config/zsh/functions.zsh

Open functions.zsh and paste these lines:

default_file functions.zsh 
# for downloading gdrive files with wget
# usage gdive_download file_id output_file_name
gdrive_download () {
  CONFIRM=$(wget --quiet --save-cookies /tmp/cookies.txt --keep-session-cookies --no-check-certificate "https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=$1" -O- | sed -rn 's/.*confirm=([0-9A-Za-z_]+).*/\1\n/p')
  wget --load-cookies /tmp/cookies.txt "https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&confirm=$CONFIRM&id=$1" -O $2
  rm -rf /tmp/cookies.txt
}

# connect android device to port 8081 ( react native development )
# usage connect_rn_android device_id ( run `adb devices` to get the device id )
connect_rn_android () {
    adb -s $1 reverse tcp:8081 tcp:8081
    echo $1 connected to port 8081
}

Now append in .zshrc:

default_file .zshrc 
[[ -f ~/.config/zsh/functions.zsh ]] && source ~/.config/zsh/functions.zsh

Plugins

There are so many useful plugins available for zsh. I am using only few of them to make my life easier. Here’s the list:

  • git ~ The git plugin provides many aliases and a few useful functions.
  • you-should-use ~ Simple zsh plugin that reminds you that you should use one of your existing aliases for a command you just typed.
  • zsh-completions ~ Additional completion definitions for Zsh.
  • zsh-z ~ Zsh-z is a command line tool that allows you to jump quickly to directories.

I have gatherd all the above plugins in one place. Download zsh-plugins.zip to get started. Now extract the zip and move plugins folder to ~/.config/zsh folder.
Open .zshrc and append:

default_file .zshrc 
[[ -f ~/.config/zsh/plugins/plugins.zsh ]] && source ~/.config/zsh/plugins/plugins.zsh

We are done organizing. Your bulky .zshrc file should look like this:

default_file .zshrc 
# The completion system activation
autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

export HISTSIZE=1000000000
export SAVEHIST=1000000000
setopt EXTENDED_HISTORY


# my configs and setups
[[ -f ~/.config/zsh/aliases.zsh ]] && source ~/.config/zsh/aliases.zsh
[[ -f ~/.config/zsh/completions.zsh ]] && source ~/.config/zsh/completions.zsh
[[ -f ~/.config/zsh/functions.zsh ]] && source ~/.config/zsh/functions.zsh

# plugins
[[ -f ~/.config/zsh/plugins/plugins.zsh ]] && source ~/.config/zsh/plugins/plugins.zsh

Note: Now close all terminal session and start a new one to verify our changes.

Happy Hacking 😉