Fish

Installing Fish

Homebrew didn't work last time I tried. You might have better luck:

brew install fish

Otherwise:

git clone git://github.com/fish-shell/fish-shell.git
cd fish-shell
autoconf && ./configure && make && make install

Then, to set it as your default shell:

sudo sh
echo "/usr/local/bin/fish" >> /etc/shells
exit
chsh -s /usr/local/bin/fish

Cool things about fish

Colouring. Executables and Functions are blue, arguments are cyan, errors are red, and more.
Always in reverse-incremental-search mode
Completes pathnames, executables, and options from manpages.

Differences between fish and POSIX shells

Setting environment variables is very different.

# bash
export RAILS_ENV=test
# fish
set -x RAILS_ENV test

#bash
RAILS_ENV=test rake ...
# fish
set RAILS_ENV test ; rake ...

# bash
unset RAILS_ENV
# fish
set -e RAILS_ENV

Fish also has Universal environment variables. These are synchronized automatically between all running fish sessions on a machine. To use these:

set -Ux VAR value
set -Ue VAR

Control structures are somewhat different too:

# bash
for i in *; do echo $i; done
# fish
for i in *; echo $i; end

# bash
if [ 1 ] ; then echo hi ; fi
# fish
if [ 1 ] ; echo hi ; end

Subshells too:

# bash
for i in `ls foo` ; ...
for i in $(ls foo) ; ...
# fish
for i in (ls foo) ; ...

And && and || don't exist:

# bash
autoconf && ./configure
# fish
autoconf ; and ./configure

# bash
make || do_failed
# fish
make ; or do_failed

More features of fish

Aliases are functions in fish. You can edit them live with the funced funcname command, and save them to ~/.config/fish/functions -- which is preloaded on shell init -- by using funcsave functionname.

fish_config shows a goofy web configuration thing that I don't have much use for.

rbenv / rvm

RVM integration for fish

Or add this to ~/.config/fish/config.fish for rbenv.

set PATH $HOME/.rbenv/shims $PATH
set PATH $HOME/.rbenv/bin $PATH
rbenv rehash >/dev/null ^&1

See my config

burke/fish.md