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Command Line

Changing Shell​

When using a terminal session to perform command-line activities, a Unix shell is used to interpret commands. The default shell on Solus is Bash, however changing your shell may enable additional features and functionality.

Solus makes available other shells via our repository, with a full list available in /usr/share/defaults/etc/shells. Common shells, aside from Bash, are:

Installation​

In order to use a shell different from Bash, you may need to install the respective package for the shell to be able to work. You will find those packages in the Software Center within the System utilities category, or via the command-line with sudo eopkg install <Name of the Shell>.

Example:

sudo eopkg install fish

Switching​

To switch to another shell, first install the appropriate package, followed by the command chsh (change shell) to change the shell for your user session, using the path provided in /usr/share/defaults/etc/shells. Lastly you need to log out and back in again for the change to take effect.

Example:

  • For zsh: chsh -s /bin/zsh

  • For fish: chsh -s /usr/bin/fish

Troubleshooting​

If the default shell is not changed, you must add the shell to /etc/shells via the command sh with sudo.

Example:

  • For zsh: echo "/bin/zsh" | sudo tee -a /etc/shells

  • For fish: echo "/usr/bin/fish" | sudo tee -a /etc/shells

fzf​

fzf is a general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder. It can be used as an interactive Unix filter with any list: files, command history, processes, hostnames, bookmarks, git commits, etc.

Installation​

The fzf project consists of the following components: an fzf executable, an fzf-tmux script for launching fzf in a tmux pane, shell extensions (including key bindings and command-line fuzzy auto-completion), and a vim/Neovim plugin file. They are all available in the fzf package in the Software Center or via eopkg in a terminal:

sudo eopkg it fzf

The shell extensions are not enabled by default after the fzf package is installed. The procedures to enable these features are described below. For more tips and examples on the usage of fzf, visit its GitHub repository and Wiki pages.

Fuzzy Auto-Completion​

Fuzzy completion for files and directories can be triggered by a trigger sequence (** by default) followed by the TAB key for bash and zsh. To enable this feature, add the following lines to the shell configuration file depending on the shell you use (~/.bashrc for bash and ~/.zshrc for zsh).

Bash​

FZF_COMPLETION_FILE=/usr/share/bash-completion/completions/fzf
[[ -f $FZF_COMPLETION_FILE ]] && source $FZF_COMPLETION_FILE

Zsh​

FZF_COMPLETION_FILE=/usr/share/zsh/site-functions/_fzf
[[ -f $FZF_COMPLETION_FILE ]] && source $FZF_COMPLETION_FILE

Key Bindings​

fzf can use specific key bindings to trigger a search over a list of files, command history and directories and paste the result onto the command-line. Follow these steps to set up the key bindings for your favorite shell.

Bash​

Add the following content to ~/.bashrc:

FZF_KEYBINDING_FILE=/usr/share/fzf/key-bindings.bash
[[ -f $FZF_KEYBINDING_FILE ]] && source $FZF_KEYBINDING_FILE

Fish​

First create the following directory if it does not already exist:

mkdir -p $HOME/.config/fish/functions

cd into this directory and make a file fish_user_key_bindings.fish with the following content:

function fish_user_key_bindings
  fzf_key_bindings
end

Then create the following symlink:

ln -s /usr/share/fzf/key-bindings.fish $HOME/.config/fish/functions/fzf_key_bindings.fish

Zsh​

Add the following content to ~/.zshrc:

FZF_KEYBINDING_FILE=/usr/share/fzf/key-bindings.zsh
[[ -f $FZF_KEYBINDING_FILE ]] && source $FZF_KEYBINDING_FILE

Powerline Shell Prompt​

Powerline is a statusline plugin for vim, and provides statuslines and prompts for several other applications, including zsh, bash, tmux, IPython, Awesome and Qtile.

Installation​

Powerline has two components, the plugin system itself powerline and the fonts powerline-fonts. Both are available in the Software Center or via eopkg in a terminal:

sudo eopkg it powerline powerline-fonts

To get powerline working inside your terminal, you need to add the following commands to the .bashrc inside your $HOME directory.

Shell Prompts​

The Powerline daemon is not running automatically by any of the bindings. It is advised to add the following before any other powerline-related code in the shell configuration file

powerline-daemon -q

Bash​

powerline-daemon -q
POWERLINE_BASH_CONTINUATION=1
POWERLINE_BASH_SELECT=1
source /usr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/powerline/bindings/bash/powerline.sh

Busybox and dash​

source /usr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/powerline/bindings/shell/powerline.sh

Fish​

set fish_function_path $fish_function_path "/usr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/powerline/bindings/fish/"

Zsh​

source /usr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/powerline/bindings/zsh/powerline.zsh

Read more about powerline on its docs website