A one-run script that automatically sets up a beautiful and powerful terminal environment for both Windows PowerShell and Linux/WSL!

• 🎯 One-click setup - No more 5 manual steps!
• 🔄 Cross-platform - Works on Windows, Linux, WSL, and macOS
• 🤖 Smart detection - Automatically detects your environment
• ⚡ Modern tools - Uses the latest terminal enhancements

# Download and run the setup script
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aymaneallaoui/setup-terminal/master/setup.sh | bash

Or download and run manually:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/aymaneallaoui/setup-terminal.git
cd setup-terminal

# Make the script executable and run it
chmod +x setup.sh
./setup.sh

If you're on Windows and prefer PowerShell:

# Run directly in PowerShell
iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aymaneallaoui/setup-terminal/master/setup.ps1 | iex

setup.sh is safe to re-run and accepts a few flags:

./setup.sh                 # full setup, auto-detect (installs & uses zsh)
./setup.sh --shell bash    # configure bash only, don't install zsh
./setup.sh --no-chsh -y    # set up zsh but keep your current default shell
./setup.sh --no-install    # just (re)write configs for already-installed tools
./setup.sh --dry-run       # preview every action without changing anything
./setup.sh --help          # full list of options

Re-running never duplicates anything: all settings live in ~/.config/terminal-setup/ and are wired into your rc files via a single managed block. Your original ~/.bashrc / ~/.zshrc is backed up once to *.uts-backup.

Use Ctrl + F to search for files and Ctrl + R to search command history

Git commands auto-completion: git ch + Tab → git checkout

PowerShell commands auto-completion: Get- + Tab → Get-Command

• Starship - the single, fast prompt for both Bash and Zsh. Ships a Nerd-Font-free starship.toml so it renders cleanly even on a default WSL terminal.
• fzf - fuzzy finder (Ctrl+R history, Ctrl+T / Ctrl+F files). Key bindings are wired up reliably, even on slim/Docker/imported-WSL images that strip the packaged integration files.
• Zsh + Oh My Zsh with plugins:
  • zsh-autosuggestions
  • zsh-syntax-highlighting
  • zsh-history-substring-search
• Bash is always configured too (same prompt, aliases, history and fzf bindings), so things work even if you skip Zsh or chsh is unavailable.
• Git aliases and sensible shell defaults
• WSL integration - clipboard, opening files/URLs in Windows, browser bridging (see WSL Specific Issues)

All settings live in ~/.config/terminal-setup/ and are wired into your rc files through a single managed block, so re-running is safe and never duplicates configuration.

• Oh My Posh - Beautiful prompt system
• Scoop - Package manager for Windows
• PowerShell modules:
  • PSReadLine - Enhanced command line editing
  • Terminal-Icons - File and folder icons
  • Posh-Git - Git integration
  • PSFzf - Fuzzy finder integration
• fzf - File and history search
• Git aliases and auto-completion

pbcopy, pbpaste, and open / e work the same on every platform — the backend is picked automatically at runtime, so the same config is portable across machines:

On a headless server with none of these tools, the helpers simply stay undefined (no errors). To enable them on a Linux desktop:

sudo apt install wl-clipboard   # Wayland sessions
sudo apt install xclip          # X11 sessions

The setup includes these helpful git aliases:

gs    # git status
ga    # git add
gc    # git commit
gp    # git push
gpl   # git pull
gl    # git log --oneline --graph --decorate
gd    # git diff
gb    # git branch
gco   # git checkout
gst   # git stash

The prompt is Starship, configured in ~/.config/starship.toml. The setup ships a clean, Nerd-Font-free config; tweak it freely or start from a preset:

# Browse presets at https://starship.rs/presets/
starship preset nerd-font-symbols -o ~/.config/starship.toml   # needs a Nerd Font
starship preset plain-text-symbols -o ~/.config/starship.toml  # ASCII only

For PowerShell:

# Edit your PowerShell profile and change the Oh My Posh theme
oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "path/to/your/theme.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression

Linux / WSL / macOS: Put personal tweaks in ~/.config/terminal-setup/local.sh — it's loaded last by both Bash and Zsh and is never overwritten when you re-run the setup:

echo "alias myalias='my command'" >> ~/.config/terminal-setup/local.sh

PowerShell: Add to your PowerShell profile:

Set-Alias myalias 'My-Command'

Make sure the script is executable:

chmod +x setup.sh

Run this in PowerShell as Administrator:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

The script automatically installs dependencies, but if you encounter issues:

Linux/WSL:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl git build-essential

Windows: Install Git and PowerShell from their official websites.

The setup detects WSL automatically (and tells WSL1 from WSL2) and adds a few quality-of-life integrations:

Clipboard & opening things — pbcopy / pbpaste are bridged to the Windows clipboard and open / e open files in Explorer (see the Clipboard & Opening Files table). URLs open in your Windows browser via wslview ($BROWSER) when wslu is installed (sudo apt install wslu), and winhome jumps to your Windows user profile.

Fonts — the prompt is intentionally Nerd-Font-free, so it works out of the box. For richer icons, install a Nerd Font and select it in Windows Terminal:

1. Download a Nerd Font (e.g., FiraCode or CaskaydiaCove Nerd Font)
2. Install it in Windows
3. Set it in Windows Terminal → Settings → your distro → Appearance → Font

Slow tab-completion / $PATH pollution — by default WSL appends the entire Windows PATH, which can make completion sluggish. Disable it by adding this to /etc/wsl.conf, then run wsl --shutdown from Windows:

[interop]
appendWindowsPath = false

Still on WSL1? WSL2 is faster and more compatible. From an elevated Windows prompt: wsl --set-version <distro> 2.

CRLF line endings — if you cloned on Windows and run under WSL, shell scripts can break with bad interpreter errors. This repo ships a .gitattributes that forces LF on *.sh, and setup.sh self-heals if it detects CRLF in itself. To fix an already-broken checkout:

sed -i 's/\r$//' setup.sh

If you were using the old 5-step process:

1. Backup your current config (optional):

   cp ~/.zshrc ~/.zshrc.backup
   cp $PROFILE $PROFILE.backup  # PowerShell

2. Run the new setup:

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aymaneallaoui/setup-terminal/master/setup.sh | bash

3. Restart your terminal

The new setup will automatically detect and preserve compatible configurations.

Want to improve this setup? Contributions are welcome!

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature
3. Make your changes
4. Test on different environments
5. Submit a pull request

The script is designed to be extensible. To add support for a new environment:

1. Add detection logic in detect_environment()
2. Create a new setup function (e.g., setup_fish())
3. Add the case in the main function
4. Test thoroughly

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.

• Original setup by aymaneallaoui
• Enhanced with cross-platform support
• Thanks to the maintainers of:
  • Oh My Posh
  • Oh My Zsh
  • Starship
  • fzf
  • All the PowerShell and Zsh plugin authors

After installation, restart your terminal and enjoy:

• ⚡ Faster workflow with fuzzy finding
• 🎨 Beautiful, informative prompts
• 🔧 Powerful git integration
• 📝 Enhanced command editing
• 🚀 Cross-platform consistency

Star this repo if it helped you! ⭐