Posts on Dinko Pehar

From ZSH to Fish

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

ZSH was my default shell for many years. I have modified and moved .zshrc across many different distributions of Linux. Recently I started working on a MacBook Pro, which has ZSH as the default shell. Using it for few months now, I noticed a few things about my ZSH configuration:

The startup of the new shell had minor delays before it could be used. These delays weren’t huge, but I started noticing it more and more on MacOS. We tend to interact faster with systems that gives us faster feedbacks.
My .zshrc configuration had some plugins and configurations from oh-my-zsh that Fish shell mostly provides out-of-the-box.

With this in mind, I wanted to know how fast can I migrate to Fish shell while converting my current .zshrc.

Fish Shell 🐠 #

Getting ready #

My .zshrc configuration looks like this:

# ---- ZSH ---- #
export ADOTDIR="$HOME/.antigen"
# Source antigen zsh plugin manager
source $HOME/.antigenrc
antigen init
# Autosuggestion color highlight
export ZSH_AUTOSUGGEST_HIGHLIGHT_STYLE="fg=#F2F0F6,underline"
export ZSH_AUTOSUGGEST_BUFFER_MAX_SIZE=30
# History settings.
export HISTSIZE=1000000
export HISTCONTROL='ignoreboth'
export HISTORY_IGNORE="(clear|history)"
SAVEHIST=$HISTSIZE
# Add wisely, as too many plugins slow down shell startup.
plugins=(copyfile
         extract
         git-extras 
         git-flow-avh 
         zsh-autosuggestions 
         zsh-completions
         zsh-syntax-highlighting 
         colored-man-pages
         z)

# ------------- #

# ---- User Configuration ---- #
## Nix specific
export NIX_PATH=darwin-config=$HOME/.nixpkgs/darwin-configuration.nix:$HOME/.nix-defexpr/channels${NIX_PATH:+:}$NIX_PATH
source $HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh
source /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/profile.d/nix-daemon.sh

eval "$(starship init zsh)"
# Leave less preview on screen when quit
export LESS="-RX"
export EDITOR='nvim'
export LESS_TERMCAP_md="${yellow}"
# ---------------------------- #


# ---- Alias ---- #
alias vim="nvim"
alias l="exa --long --header --all"
alias ls="exa --long --header"
alias tree="exa --tree --level=2"
alias cat="bat"
alias ping="ping -c 3"
# Add verbose output on these commands
alias rm="rm -v"
alias mkdir="mkdir -v"
alias mv="mv -v"
alias cp="cp -v"
# --------------- #

#THIS MUST BE AT THE END OF THE FILE FOR SDKMAN TO WORK!!!
export SDKMAN_DIR="$HOME/.sdkman"
[[ -s "$HOME/.sdkman/bin/sdkman-init.sh" ]] && source "$HOME/.sdkman/bin/sdkman-init.sh"

Setup #

Install Fish and Fisher (plugin manager for Fish):

brew install fish fisher

Fish configurations are located at ~/.config/fish. Now we can activate fish shell using fish command to get started.

Alias #

To convert aliases, simply paste them once in terminal and use funcsave to save them at ~/.config/fish/functions:

alias cp="cp -v"
alias mv="mv -v"
...
funcsave cp mv ...

ENV variables #

Use Universal Variables as:

set -Ux EDITOR "nvim"
...

This will write to ~/.config/fish/fish_variables once and export variables to all active shells as well.

Plugins #

Use Fisher to install several helpful plugins.:

fisher install jethrokuan/z             # Jump around the folders
fisher install decors/fish-colored-man
fisher install oh-my-fish/plugin-peco    # Ctrl + R for searching history
fisher install oh-my-fish/plugin-extract

Note that some of Fish plugins are enabled by default and there is no need to set the up like in ZSH.

I also found below plugins useful while converting my .zshrc (though you may won’t need them)

fisher install reitzig/sdkman-for-fish
fisher install lilyball/nix-env.fish
fisher install jorgebucaran/nvm.fish

Prompt #

I use Starship which is “Cross-Shell Prompt” so my configurations for Starship are automatically applied. To enable it, just use:

echo "starship init fish | source" >> $HOME/.config/fish/config.fish

Results #

Benchmarks #

Using hyperfine at first run, I’ve noticed Fish is faster than ZSH to some extent:

I got curious why both shells take so much time to start. Profiling both Fish and ZSH, I figured out that both of them have performance degradation due to SDKMan enabled (manages multiple Java Distributions similar to NVM).

Once SDKMan is removed for both shells, I re-ran benchmarks again:

With both shells being almost similar in my setup, Fish shell ran 3 times faster than ZSH.

Benefits #

I find my shell configuration more organized now using Fish. Syntax of Fish scripts feel lot more readable compared to ZSH/Bash scripts. Other noticeable features that I found useful:

Auto suggest command completions (fish_update_completions)
CTRL + R with Peco for searching history easily
Great plugins
Faster compared to my ZSH

Gotchas #

Although converting configurations was extremly fast, I spent a lot of time on following:

I keep backups of ZSH history dating back several years. There is a tool to convert ZSH history to Fish, but it didn’t kept timestamp of execution. Also, some of multiline commands (such as curl) broke fish_history file. The tool works, but may have to manually correct errors.
Poetry completions produce errors. I though it was error something due to Fish, but found out later that this will be fixed.
Some of the builds scripts (Makefiles, builds tasks…) exported certain ENV variables using export so running it with Fish produced errors.

Conclusion #

In this state, I have migrated from ZSH to Fish really fast and set it as default shell, keeping the same configurations. Without gotchas that I ran in to, time of converting was less than 10 minutes. I find my shell much faster now, using new plugins and some other that Fish provides by default.

At the end, I suggest you try it. If it doesn’t work, you can always go back to your previous configuration.

Shared on /r/fishshell

Moving to Bitwarden from LastPass with style

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A few days ago, LastPass struck a heavy blow on free users. They gave ultimatum to free users in which they have to choose one type of device they will use LastPass password manager - Mobile or Computer. This will make LastPass really cumbersome to use on both.

About Bitwarden #

Bitwarden is open source password manager. You can use it across all types of various devices, with unlimited number of items inside your Vault. It also offers Premium for 10$ a year, with remarkable feature - Bitwarden Authenticator.

Bitwarden Authenticator is used for 2FA. When you use autofill to sign into the site, Bitwarden silently copies 6 digit code into clipboard. So it’s a very good alternative to some other 2FA apps (grab your mobile device, see code, enter it manually).

Moving to Bitwarden… #

Bitwarden has a complete article on how to export your data from LastPass and import them into Bitwarden.

Since that article explains in details a convenient solution for most users, I wanted to explain my approach on exporting and importing data by using lastpass-cli and bitwarden-cli tools.

You can easily install or download both CLI tools by following instructions for your platform.

… with style #

First, use lastpass-cli to login inside your vault:

lpass login your_email@email.com

Once you enter your Master Password, export your data from LastPass into a file:

$ lpass export > my_passwords.csv

Now, login in into bitwarden by using bitwarden-cli:

$ ./bw login

On successful login, use exported data with format set to lastpasscsv to import it into Bitwarden:

$ ./bw import lastpasscsv my_passwords.csv

Now check your Bitwarden vault and you should see everything imported.

At the end, logout from both and remove exported file (my_passwords.csv) since it contains all your passwords in plain text.

Finishing thoughts #

Bitwarden made it easy to move from any password manager you are using by providing options and articles on how to do it. I’ve used a different approach because I used lastpass-cli to restore my SSH keys in the past and because I’m familiar with the CLI tool itself.

If you decide to delete your LastPass account, please make sure that all exported data inside LastPass vault match your Bitwarden vault. Don’t make hasty decision just to lose access to sites you like and passwords you can’t remember.

Linux utility & productivity tools

Mon, 30 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Using Linux for development at first can be daunting, but with the right tools and applications, you can become more productive. Here are few tools and utilities(in no particular order) I use day to day.

tldr #

If you are newcomer, you will love tldr.

From their website:

The TLDR pages are a community effort to simplify the beloved man pages with practical examples.

Chances are, you used the man command to read user manual about certain commands. These manuals are also lengthy; they provide a lot of information we don’t need at the moment. Finding solution by reading manual can also be complicated or cumbersome.

This is where tldr comes in. It simplifies command usage and gives us clear examples and info on certain command.

For example, if we ran tldr ls, we would get the output:


ls

  List directory contents.

  - List files one per line:
    ls -1

  - List all files, including hidden files:
    ls -a

  - Long format list (permissions, ownership, size and modification date) of all files:
    ls -la

  - Long format list with size displayed using human readable units (KB, MB, GB):
    ls -lh

  - Long format list sorted by size (descending):
    ls -lS

  - Long format list of all files, sorted by modification date (oldest first):
    ls -ltr

We can see clear usage of ls command. To install tldr, refer to their installation section.

Rule of thumb: If you are in a hurry, use tldr. If you look for something very specific in some command, use man.

StormSSH #

StormSSH is a command line tool to manage your SSH connections. You can use it to add, delete or edit hosts you want to connect to. All configurations are written in current user SSH config file.

Usage:


Add a host(port is optional, defaults to 22):
  $ storm add my_vps1 dev@192.168.12.1:22
  - Success  my_vps1 added to your ssh config. you can connect it by typing "ssh my_vps1".
  - storm add my_vps2 root@192.168.12.2
  - Success  my_vps2 added to your ssh config. you can connect it by typing "ssh my_vps2".

List all hosts added by storm:
  $ storm list
  - Listing entries:
     my_vps1 -> dev@192.168.12.1:22
     my_vps2 -> root@192.168.12.2
     
Delete a host:
  $ storm delete my_vps1
  - Success  hostname "my_vps1" deleted successfully.

The thing I like the most about storm is that it provides web interface(written in Flask) to add, delete and modify hosts. To use it, execute:

$ storm web

Read more about StormSSH usage at here.

Bat #

You can use Bat as alternative to cat command for more fancy output. If content can’t fit on screen, it will use pager (e.g. less) which you can use to navigate through content of a file.

So if you use bat main.dart to output content of a file, you will see file with Syntax Highlighting applied as below:

Short tip: Set alias cat="bat" for unobstructed work.

Exa #

As in previous example, Exa acts as modern replacement for ls command. I have multiple aliases set for exa as:

alias l="exa --long --header --all"
alias ls="exa --long --header"
alias tree="exa --tree --level=2"

Example output when I run ls:

Z #

Z is a utility for “jumping around”.

From description:

Tracks your most used directories, based on ‘frecency’. After a short learning phase, z will take you to the most ‘frecent’ directory that matches ALL of the regexes given on the command line, in order.

When you install it or enable it (I have this one enabled as ZSH plugin in ~/.zshrc), everytime you use cd to change directory, it will build it’s own db of visited directories. Then, using z project will take you to most frecent dir matching “project”, which can be located deeply as /path/to/nested/project.

Update(2023): I have been using a lot of tools and application with a recent switch to Nix. Make sure to check my dotfiles since they contain everything and more not specified at here.