Zsh (Z Shell) is a powerful UNIX shell that became macOS's default in Catalina (10.15). Oh-My-Zsh (OMZ) is the most popular community framework for managing Zsh configuration, bundling 300+ plugins and 150+ themes. Together they transform the terminal into a highly productive environment with smart completions, syntax highlighting, rich prompts, and extensible plugin architecture. This cheat sheet covers installation, plugin management, theme setup, shell options, globbing, parameter and history expansion, prompt customization, and the completion system.
What This Cheat Sheet Covers
This topic spans 15 focused tables and 137 indexed concepts. Below is a complete table-by-table outline of this topic, spanning foundational concepts through advanced details.
Table 1: Oh-My-Zsh Installation & Core Management
Oh-My-Zsh installs with a single shell command and manages itself as a Git repository inside ~/.oh-my-zsh. Understanding the key management commands lets you keep OMZ and its plugins current and swap between configurations cleanly.
| Command | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)" | • Downloads and runs the official install script • backs up existing .zshrc and creates a new one | |
echo $SHELL | • Shows the path to your active shell executable • confirm Zsh is set | |
chsh -s $(which zsh) | • Changes the default login shell to Zsh • requires logout/login to take effect | |
omz update | Updates OMZ framework and all bundled plugins to the latest version |