iTerm2 + Oh My Zsh + Solarized color scheme + Meslo powerline font + [Powerlevel9k] - (macOS)

iterm2-solarized.md

Default

Powerlevel9k

iterm2-solarized_instructions.md

How to install

iTerm2

brew cask install iterm2

Or, if you do not have homebrew (you should ;)): Download and install iTerm2

iTerm2 has better color fidelity than the built in Terminal, so your themes will look better.

Get the iTerm color settings

• Solarized Dark theme (patched version to fix the bright black value)
• Solarized Light theme
• More themes @ iterm2colorschemes

Just save it somewhere and open the file(s). The color settings will be imported into iTerm2. Apply them in iTerm through iTerm → preferences → profiles → colors → load presets. You can create a different profile other than Default if you wish to do so.

Oh My Zsh

More info here: https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh

Install with curl

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

When the installation is done, edit ~/.zshrc and set ZSH_THEME="agnoster"

Powerlevel9k

If you prefer the Powerlevel9k look with added info such as exit codes and timestamps on the right, run:

git clone https://github.com/bhilburn/powerlevel9k.git ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/themes/powerlevel9k

Then edit your ~/.zshrc and set ZSH_THEME="powerlevel9k/powerlevel9k".

Powerlevel9k offers a whole lot more, best is to check out these user made configs yourself.

Install a patched font

• Meslo (the one in the screenshot). Click "view raw" to download the font.
• Source Code Pro has better alignment for the glyphs @14px.
• Others @ powerline fonts

Open the downloaded font and press "Install Font".

Set this font in iTerm2 (14px is my personal preference) (iTerm → Preferences → Profiles → Text → Change Font).

Restart iTerm2 for all changes to take effect.

Visual Studio Code config

Installing a patched font will mess up the integrated terminal in VS Code unless you use the proper settings. You'll need to go to settings (CMD + ,) and add or edit the following values:

• for Source Code Pro: "terminal.integrated.fontFamily": "Source Code Pro for Powerline"
• for Meslo: "terminal.integrated.fontFamily": "Meslo LG M for Powerline"
• for other fonts you'll need to check the font name in Font Book.

You can also set the fontsize e.g.: "terminal.integrated.fontSize": 14

Further tweaking

Things like

• auto suggestions
• word jumping with arrow keys / natural text editing
• shorter prompt style
• syntax highlighting

can be found in the section below.

Auto suggestions (for Oh My Zsh)

Just follow these steps: https://github.com/tarruda/zsh-autosuggestions#oh-my-zsh

If the auto suggestions do not appear to show, it could be a problem with your color scheme. Under "iTerm → Preferences → Colors tab", check the value of Black Bright, that is the color your auto suggestions will have. It will be displayed on top of the Background color. If there is not enough contrast between the two, you won't see the suggestions even if they're actually there..

Enable word jumps and word deletion, aka natural text selection

By default, word jumps (option + → or ←) and word deletions (option + backspace) do not work. To enable these, go to "iTerm → Preferences → Profiles → Keys → Load Preset... → Natural Text Editing → Boom! Head explodes"

Custom prompt styles

By default, your prompt will now show “user@hostname” in the prompt. This will make your prompt rather bloated. Optionally set DEFAULT_USER in ~/.zshrc to your regular username (these must match) to hide the “user@hostname” info when you’re logged in as yourself on your local machine. You can get your exact username value by executing whoami in the terminal.

For further customisation of your prompt, you can follow a great guide here: https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-customize-your-command-prompt--net-24083

Syntax highlighting

brew install zsh-syntax-highlighting

If you do not have or do not like homebrew, follow the installation instructions instead.

After installation through homebrew, add

source /usr/local/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh

to the end of your .zshrc file. After that, it's best to restart your terminal. Sourcing your ~/.zshrc does not seem to work well with this plugin.