ZSH

PRIMARY CATEGORY → DESKTOP SETUP

ZSH → Z Shell

This Shell is prefered over bash or fish because of all the handy functionalities and customisation It offers to the users

It implements handy features such as →

Autocompletion ~ Autosuggestions ~ Syntactical Corrections ~ Advanced Globbing

Shared History between different terminals ~ Syntax Highlighting

Main File → ~/.zshrc

Source File → ~/.config/zsh/src/custom.zsh

Theme’s Configuration File (Powerlevel10k) → ~/.p10k.zsh

More info here

ZSH Manual

Plugins

Most of the above features can be implemented or enhanced through ZSH Plugins that are sourced from the .zshrc configuration file

The .zsh files related to the plugins below are sourced from the .zshrc configuration file

ZSH-autocomplete

Reference

It enhances the ZSH’s inherent auto-complete capability

.zsh file is sourced from .zshrc

~/.zshrc

if [[ -f /usr/share/zsh-autocomplete/zsh-autocomplete.plugin.zsh ]]; then
	source /usr/share/zsh-autocomplete/zsh-autocomplete.plugin.zsh
fi

ZSH-autosuggestions

Reference

It suggests commands as the user types based on history and the previous completions

.zsh file is sourced from .zshrc

~/.zshrc

if [[ -f /usr/share/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh ]]; then
  source /usr/share/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh
fi

ZSH-syntax-highlighting

Reference

It enables highlighting of commands while typing them in an interactive terminal

.zsh file is sourced from .zshrc

~/.zshrc

if [[ -f /usr/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh ]]; then
  source /usr/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
fi

Dracula Theme

There are different themes for this plugin, the one used in this setup enviroment is the Dracula Theme

Reference

To use it, just source, in the .zshrc file, the .zsh script resulting from the steps in the link above

~/.zshrc

if [[ -f /home/al3xbb/.config/zsh/zsh-syntaxhighlighting/themes/dracula.zsh ]] ; then
  source /home/al3xbb/.config/zsh/zsh-syntaxhighlighting/themes/dracula.zsh
fi

IMPORTANT
Note that the dracula.zsh script should only be sourced if the zsh-syntax-highlighting’s script has been sourced correctly previously

The above action is performed in the ZSH Custom Configuration File. It implements something like this →
$ [[ -f /plugin.zsh ]] && . /plugin.zsh && . /theme.zsh # Or source

ZSH-sudo

Reference

This plugins automatically places the sudo binary at the beginnng of the line by pressing the Esc key twice

.zsh file is sourced from .zshrc

~/.zshrc

if [[ -f /usr/share/zsh-sudo/sudo.plugin.zsh ]]; then
  source /usr/share/zsh-sudo/sudo.plugin.zsh
fi

Installation

CAUTION

First, see the bspwm, sxhkd and kitty installations before proceeding with this one related to ZSH

The above setup components facilitate the ZSH Configuration

sudo apt install -y -- zsh

User’s Default Shell

To change the users’ default shell to a ZSH one, as Root →

for _user in al3xbb root
do
    usermod --shell "$( command -v zsh )" "$_user"
done

Plugins

Plugins’ Path → /usr/share/ZSH_PLUGIN_NAME

To install most of the plugins → Autocomplete ~ Autosuggestions ~ Syntax-hightlighting

sudo apt install -y -- zsh-{autocomplete,autosuggestions,syntax-highlighting}

INFO

In this Environment Setup, the only ZSH Plugins to be used are ZSH-Syntax-highlighting and ZSH-Sudo

ZSH-Sudo

As Root, Install the ZSH-Sudo Plugin, as follows →

mkdir -p /usr/share/zsh-sudo ; (( $? )) || cd !$

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/refs/heads/master/plugins/sudo/sudo.plugin.zsh

ZSH-Syntax-Highlighting

It has been previously installed via apt in the /usr/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/

As mentioned in the ZSH-Syntax-Highlighting Plugin’s Section, the Theme selected for this plugin is the Dracula Theme

Install the above Syntax Theme as follows →

mkdir -p ~/.config/zsh/zsh-syntaxhighlighting/themes/ ; cd !$

git clone https://github.com/dracula/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git dracula

mv ./dracula/zsh-syntax-highlighting.sh ./dracula.zsh && rm -rf !$

CAUTION

Note that the dracula.zsh script should only be sourced if the zsh-syntax-highlighting’s script has been sourced correctly previously

See the Dracula theme Section for more information about the Source Code Block

Theme

Reference

The ZSH Theme to install → Powerlevel10k

IMPORTANT

Note that the following steps related to the ZSH Theme’s Installation should be applied for both non-privileged and privileged users

Being in this case for Root and al3xbb

Manual installation as follows →

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ~/powerlevel10k

To source the powerlevel10k script , insert this line at the beginning of the .zshrc file →

~/.zshrc

source /home/al3xbb/powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k.zsh-theme

Then, to start the interactive powerlevel10k’s setup →

Hack Nerd Fonts’s previous installation is required. See here

source ~/.zshrc

Do not forget to repeat the above steps for the other users

To set up a more granular configuration, just edit the .p10k.zsh file as follows →

.p10k.zsh - Modified Sections

In that powerlevel10k file, for this Setup Enviroment, as the non-privileged user, add/edit as follows →

Left Prompt Elements

~/.p10k.zsh

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=(
	os_icon
	dir
	vcs	
	context
	command_execution_time
	status
)

Righ Prompt Elements → All of them should be commented as in the configuration file

Regarding to the dir segment, the bold font can be disabled as follows →

~/.p10k.zsh

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_DIR_ANCHOR_BOLD=false # Or true to enable it

Repeat all the above steps as Root

Only as Root, add/edit as follows to add an icon as a context→

Icon’s Source

~/.p10k.zsh

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_CONTEXT_ROOT_TEMPLATE='󰈸' # Custom Icon
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_CONTEXT_PREFIX='' # Empty it

.ZSHRC File

Symbolic Link

To avoid having to modify, when a change is made, both the Root and the Non-privileged User’s .zshrc file, simply proceed as follows →

As Root

ln --symbolic --force -- /home/al3xbb/.zshrc ~/.zshrc

INFO

Above command just creates a symbolic link as ~/.zshrc which points to /home/al3xbb/.zshrc

Therefore, any changes made to the .zshrc file apply to both users

ZSH Plugins

As mentioned in the Plugins’ Section, each Plugin’s .zsh script must be sourced from the .zshrc file

In this environment setup, the sourced ones are → zsh-syntax-highlighting ~ zsh-sudo

Check if exist and source them →

ZSH-Sudo

~/.zshrc

if [[ -f /usr/share/zsh-sudo/sudo.plugin.zsh ]] ; then
	source /usr/share/zsh-sudo/sudo.plugin.zsh
fi

ZSH-Syntax-Highlighting → 🦇 Dracula Theme 🧛🏻‍♂️

~/.zshrc

if [[ -f /usr/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh ]]; then
  source /usr/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
 
  if [[ -f /home/al3xbb/.config/zsh/zsh-syntaxhighlighting/themes/dracula.zsh ]] ; then
    source /home/al3xbb/.config/zsh/zsh-syntaxhighlighting/themes/dracula.zsh
  fi
fi

ZSH Plugin and Plugin’s Theme sourced

Configuration File

ZSH

.zshrc

ZSH Configuration File → .zshrc

src/custom.zsh

ZSH Source File → custom.zsh

Powerlevel10k

.p10k.zsh

Non-Privileged User’s Powerlevel10k Configuration File → .p10k.zsh

Root’s Powerlevel10k Configuration File →.p10k.zsh

Parameters

Z Shell ~ .zshrc

PATH

PATH Enviromental Parameter

export PATH=/opt/kitty/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin:/opt/nvim/nvim-linux64/bin:/home/al3xbb/.fzf/bin

In addition to the usual paths such as /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin, others are added →

Kitty → /opt/kitty/bin
Neovim → /opt/nvim/nvim-linux64/bin
FZF → /home/al3xbb/.fzf/bin

This allows to use their binaries from any path relatively

Aliases

Various aliases are defined to carry out the following sustitutions →

batcat rather than cat

alias cat='bat' # Standard sustitution
alias catn='bat --style=plain' # Only shows Plain Text (No decorations)
alias catnp='bat --style=plain --paging=never' # Plain Text and No Pagination

Reference

lsd rather than ls

alias ll='lsd -lh --group-dirs=first'
alias la='lsd -a --group-dirs=first'
alias l='lsd --group-dirs=first'
alias lla='lsd -lha --group-dirs=first'
alias ls='lsd --group-dirs=first'

Reference

To remove the lsd’s Bold applied to the font and file icons, just declare the LS_COLORS parameter as It appears in the .zshrc configuration file

Command History

Command History File → .zsh_history

HISTFILE=~/.zsh_history

Command History File’s Size → Number of entries in .zsh_history

SAVEHIST=10000

Command History’s Memory entries → Number of entries in the History Memory

HISTSIZE=10000

To ignore duplicate entries in the Command History and Synchronise it between the open terminals →

setopt histignorealldups sharehistory # Respectively

Command Line Editor

Use the following ZSH Builints to enable the Command Line Editor →

autoload -U edit-command-line # Loads the ZSH Function deferred
zsl -N edit-command-line # Widget Creation from this ZSH Function
binkey '\C-x\C-e' edit-command-line # Widget-Keybind association

The above code ensures that the Command Line Editor can be accessed through C-x C-e as in bash

IMPORTANT

Note that the edit-command-line ZSH Function opens the Command Line Editor with the text editor set as value in the EDITOR parameter

It is necessary to stablish the Text Editor used in the Command Line Editor

This is carried out through the EDITOR parameter

Editor → Neovim

export EDITOR=/opt/nvim/nvim-linux64/bin/nvim

This is extremely useful when e.g. doing C-x C-e to open the Command Line Editor

Autocompletion System

To enable the ZSH’s Modern Autocompletion System →

autoload -Uz compinit && compinit

INFO

The above command deferred loads the ZSH’s compinit function and, if true, calls it

Note that the -U option causes its function reference to not be loaded into the ZSH Hash Table

While the -z option only checks that the function provided as an argument is strictly for ZSH

If the compinit function is loaded and called correctly, then various additional configurations are applied to the ZSH Autocompletion System

These can be found in the .zshrc configuration file

FZF - Fuzzy Finder

Reference

This Fuzzy Finder is mainly used to modify the C-r Shell’s shortcut for reverse history search

To load all FZF Functionality and Shortcuts in the ZSH Process Context →

[ -f ~/.fzf.zsh ] && source ~/.fzf.zsh

Then, to enable some FZF’s handy features →

export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS="--height 40% --border --preview 'bat --color=always {} 2> /dev/null'" # File Preview with BAT

export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND="fd --type f" # FD instead of Find

JAVA Troubleshooting

There are Windows Managers, such as bspwm, that do not perform any Windows Reparenting

Therefore, any Java Application that uses JWT, may experience some integration problems in an environment with these Windows Managers

In order to avoid the previous problems →

export _JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1

The above code simply tells Java to carry out the Windows Reparenting instead of the Windows Manager

IMPORTANT
Note that, in addition to the above measure, another is implemented in the bspwmrc
wmname LG3D &
This changes the current Windows Manager’s name, which the System recognises, to LG3D

LG3D is an old Windows Manager, and the Java Applications created with JWT run correctly on it

So changing the Windows Manager’s Name tricks Java into thinking It is running in a supported environment

Custom Functions

All the Custom Functions related to the .zshrc file are sourced from the custom.zsh script

There are several handy functions such as →

clearScreenAndScrollback → Reference

The remaining functions are related to the Pentesting Index Category

- ZSH CUSTOM FUNCTIONS

Powerlevel10k ~ .p10k.zsh

Reference

This ZSH Theme is extremely customizable

The basic units are the segments, which display specific information from different sources at the user’s prompt

The segments can be located in the left or right side (i.e. the left or right prompt)

In this environment setup, only those on the right are enabled →

OS_ICON

INFO

Note that the below code snippets are related to the .p10.zsh file

It displays the Operative System Icon

To enable it →

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=( os_icon )

To modify the displayed icon and its colour →

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_OS_ICON_CONTENT_EXPANSION='' # Custom Icon
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_OS_ICON_FOREGROUND=255 # Icon's Colour

DIR

It displays the Current Work Directory

To enable it →

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=( dir )

Note how the Current Work Directory changes continously

VCS

If the Current Work Directory is a Github Repository, It displays de Git Status

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=( vcs )

See → “on😺🌿master”

CONTEXT

In this case, if someone is connected to other host remotely, It shows the current user and hostname

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=( context )

See → “with test@parrot”

COMMAND_EXECUTION_TIME

It displays the last command’s time duration, from a sleep command to an SSH Session

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=( command_execution_time )

See → “Took⌛12s”

STATUS

It displays the Exit Code of the last command

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=( status )

See → “❌127/1/INT/TSTP ~ ✅1”

💥Cyb3rBook

Explorer

ZSH

PRIMARY CATEGORY → DESKTOP SETUP

Plugins

ZSH-autocomplete

ZSH-autosuggestions

ZSH-syntax-highlighting

Dracula Theme

ZSH-sudo

Installation

User’s Default Shell

Plugins

ZSH-Sudo

ZSH-Syntax-Highlighting

Theme

.p10k.zsh - Modified Sections

.ZSHRC File

Symbolic Link

ZSH Plugins

Configuration File

ZSH

.zshrc

src/custom.zsh

Powerlevel10k

.p10k.zsh

Parameters

Z Shell ~ .zshrc

PATH

Aliases

Command History

Command Line Editor

Autocompletion System

FZF - Fuzzy Finder

JAVA Troubleshooting

Custom Functions

Powerlevel10k ~ .p10k.zsh

OS_ICON

DIR

VCS

CONTEXT

COMMAND_EXECUTION_TIME

STATUS

Graph View

Table of Contents

Backlinks