Zsh Configuration Best Practices

• Use XDG

• Split configurations out by type:

  • zshenv.d/functions: Function Definitions
  • zshenv.d/programs: Program-specific environment variable declarations and exports (i.e. $EDITOR, $PAGER, etc.)
  • zshenv.d/settings: Zsh settings, such as completions, history, key bindings, etc.
  • zshrc.d/aliases: Zsh shell aliases

Conventions

Alias Conventions:

• For an alias that is a one-letter shortcut, we use a naming convention for the file: the letter, an equal sign, and the result. For example, the file g=git.zsh is the alias that sets g to run git.

• For an alias that is intended to launch a program, we use a convention of trying probable locations for the tool. For example, for the alias firefox, we look in order in /opt (e.g. typical for our custom installs), then on the path, then in the typical macOS location.

Program Environment Variable Conventions:

• $EDITOR: Set the default Editor for editing text files (i.e. vim, nano, vi, code, etc.)
• $PAGER: Set the default Pager to display text files (i.e. more, less, etc.)
• $BROWSER: Set the default Web Browser

($SEARCHER, $CLIPPER, $DATER, $JUMPER are other optional program environment variables).

Scripts

# clone
git clone https://github.com/noclocks/noclocks_zshconfig
 
# set config home
config=${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}
zshconfig=$config/zsh
 
# make directories
mkdir -p $zshconfig $zshconfig/{zshenv.d,zprofile.d,zshrc.d,zlogin.d,zlogout.d}
 
# copy/setup files
cp -R noclocks-zshconfig/zshenv.d/* $zshconfig/zshenv.d
cp -R noclocks-zshconfig/zprofile.d/* $config/zprofile.d
cp -R noclocks-zshconfig/zshrc.d/* $config/zshrc.d
cp -R noclocks-zshconfig/zlogin.d/* $config/zlogin.d
cp -R noclocks-zshconfig/zlogout.d/* $config/zlogout.d

Add this to the user’s .zshenv:

config=${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}
zshconfig=$config/zsh
 
for file in $zshconfig/zshenv.d/**/*(.N)
do 
    [ -x "$file" ] &&  . "$file"
done

Add this to user’s .zprofile:

config=${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}
zshconfig=$config/zsh
 
for file in $zshconfig/zprofile.d/**/*(.N)
do 
    [ -x "$file" ] &&  . "$file"
done

Add this to user’s .zshrc:

config=${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}
zshconfig=$config/zsh
 
for file in $zshconfig/zshrc.d/**/*(.N)
do 
    [ -x "$file" ] &&  . "$file"
done

Add this to user’s .zlogin:

config=${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}
zshconfig=$config/zsh
 
for file in $zshconfig/zlogin.d/**/*(.N)
do 
    [ -x "$file" ] &&  . "$file"
done

Add this to user’s .zlogout:

config=${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}
zshconfig=$config/zsh
 
for file in $zshconfig/zlogout.d/**/*(.N)
do 
    [ -x "$file" ] &&  . "$file"
done