Migrating from bash to zsh for Mac OS Catalina

Question

As some of you may know, after upgrading to Mac OS Catalina, Apple is prompting users to migrate to zsh as the default shell.

Now, there is a warning that comes up every time bash is opened. It can be disabled adding the line below to your ~/.bash_profile (for those interested).

export BASH_SILENCE_DEPRECATION_WARNING=1

However, I figure that many (including me) want to move on to zsh.

My current ~/.bash_profile looks like below:

# searches this directory for executables first
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"

# jenv
export PATH="$HOME/.jenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(jenv init -)"

# rbenv
export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(rbenv init -)"

# pyenv
export PATH="$HOME/.pyenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(pyenv init -)"

# nodenv
export PATH="$HOME/.nodenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(nodenv init -)"

# node-build-definitions
export NODE_BUILD_DEFINITIONS="/usr/local/opt/node-build-update-defs/share/node-build"

# bash auto-completion
if [ -f $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion ]; then
  . $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion    
fi

# git branch in prompt
parse_git_branch() {
    git branch 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/ (\1)/'
}

# bash profile theme
export PS1="\[\e[1;37m\]parthnaik:\[\033[33;1m\]\w\[\033[m\]\$(parse_git_branch) \n$ "
export CLICOLOR=1
export LSCOLORS=GxFxCxDxBxegedabagaced

# firevault memory security
alias sleepsafe='sudo pmset -a destroyfvkeyonstandby 1 hibernatemode 25 standby 0 standbydelay 0'
alias sleepdefault='sudo pmset -a destroyfvkeyonstandby 0 hibernatemode 3 standby 1 standbydelay 10800'

# enable / disable captive portal
alias disablecaptiveportal='sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.captive.control Active -bool false'
alias enablecaptiveportal='sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.captive.control Active -bool true'

I was hoping someone more knowledgeable than me can help me understand what goes where since there seems to be some conflicting information online.

So far, from what I have read, here are the different suggestions I have seen:

1. Copy pasting ~/.bash_profile to ~/.zshrc.
2. Adding the following code at the bottom of ~/.zshrc:

if [ -f ~/.bash_profile ]; then 
    . ~/.bash_profile;
fi

3. Creating a ~/.aliases file and a ~/.paths file and then sourcing/importing them to both ~/bash_profile as well as ~/.zshrc to maintain backward compatibility.

In addition to this, I have a .sh script that runs everyday automatically via command like:

sh script_name.sh

Should I change be changing this to use zsh like shown below? This should be the case if all .sh scripts with bash and zsh.

zsh script_name.sh

Looking for advice and best practises for migration although I know that any of the above would work in terms of functionality. Ideally, would like my theme, autocompletions and git branch settings (as shown in the ~/.bash_profile above) to work the same way as they do now.

For the theme, I know that there is a plugin called 'oh-my-zsh' available as well. Is this recommended to be installed?

Thank you for the help!

Solution

I decided to use the pure theme for zsh. My scripts work as normal, they just run via zsh now. Here is what my ~/.zshrc file looks like:

# PATHS AND ALIASES
# searches this directory for executables first
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"

# jenv
export PATH="$HOME/.jenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(jenv init -)"

# rbenv
export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(rbenv init -)"

# pyenv
export PATH="$HOME/.pyenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(pyenv init -)"

# nodenv
export PATH="$HOME/.nodenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(nodenv init -)"

# node-build-definitions
export NODE_BUILD_DEFINITIONS="/usr/local/opt/node-build-update-defs/share/node-build"

# firevault memory security
alias sleepsafe='sudo pmset -a destroyfvkeyonstandby 1 hibernatemode 25 standby 0 standbydelay 0'
alias sleepdefault='sudo pmset -a destroyfvkeyonstandby 0 hibernatemode 3 standby 1 standbydelay 10800'

# enable / disable captive portal
alias disablecaptiveportal='sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.captive.control Active -bool false'
alias enablecaptiveportal='sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.captive.control Active -bool true'

# CLI SETTINGS
# enable the default zsh completions
autoload -Uz compinit && compinit

# set colors for displaying directories and files when the ls command is used
export LSCOLORS='GxFxCxDxBxegedabagaced'
export CLICOLOR=1

# theme
fpath+=("$HOME/.zsh/pure")
autoload -U promptinit && promptinit
prompt pure

# change the path color
zstyle :prompt:pure:path color white

Comments

[leanne]

Don't know zsh best practices, but can tell you this: the export keyword is no longer necessary; your scripts will still run with sh, as that points to your default shell; your PS1 setup will need to be changed to zsh prompt expansions, though your parse_git_branch code and call in the PS1 will work as is... The PS1 is suggested to go into .zshrc, while the rest, I think, goes into .zprofile.

[philosopher]

Thank you @leanne. I did solve my problem and have posted the solution below.

[Felipe Centeno]

I thought ~/.bash_profile should go to what is now ~/.zprofile? Am I wrong? And if so, what is ~/.zprofile for then?

[philosopher]

You could place it there as well. There’s some differences between the 2 but in this case it will work the same.