fish-shell/README.rst

.. |Cirrus CI| image:: https://api.cirrus-ci.com/github/fish-shell/fish-shell.svg?branch=master
      :target: https://cirrus-ci.com/github/fish-shell/fish-shell
      :alt: Cirrus CI Build Status

`fish <https://fishshell.com/>`__ - the friendly interactive shell |Build Status| |Cirrus CI|
=================================================================================

fish is a smart and user-friendly command line shell for macOS, Linux,
and the rest of the family. fish includes features like syntax
highlighting, autosuggest-as-you-type, and fancy tab completions that
just work, with no configuration required.

For downloads, screenshots and more, go to https://fishshell.com/.

Quick Start
-----------

fish generally works like other shells, like bash or zsh. A few
important differences can be found at
https://fishshell.com/docs/current/tutorial.html by searching for the
magic phrase “unlike other shells”.

Detailed user documentation is available by running ``help`` within
fish, and also at https://fishshell.com/docs/current/index.html

Getting fish
------------

macOS
~~~~~

fish can be installed:

-  using `Homebrew <http://brew.sh/>`__: ``brew install fish``
-  using `MacPorts <https://www.macports.org/>`__:
   ``sudo port install fish``
-  using the `installer from fishshell.com <https://fishshell.com/>`__
-  as a `standalone app from fishshell.com <https://fishshell.com/>`__

Note: The minimum supported macOS version is 10.10 "Yosemite".

Packages for Linux
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Packages for Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, and Red Hat Enterprise
Linux/CentOS are available from the `openSUSE Build
Service <https://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=shells%3Afish&package=fish>`__.

Packages for Ubuntu are available from the `fish
PPA <https://launchpad.net/~fish-shell/+archive/ubuntu/release-3>`__,
and can be installed using the following commands:

::

   sudo apt-add-repository ppa:fish-shell/release-3
   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install fish

Instructions for other distributions may be found at
`fishshell.com <https://fishshell.com>`__.

Windows
~~~~~~~

-  On Windows 10/11, fish can be installed under the WSL Windows Subsystem
   for Linux with the instructions for the appropriate distribution
   listed above under “Packages for Linux”, or from source with the
   instructions below.
-  Fish can also be installed on all versions of Windows using
   `Cygwin <https://cygwin.com/>`__ (from the **Shells** category).

Building from source
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If packages are not available for your platform, GPG-signed tarballs are
available from `fishshell.com <https://fishshell.com/>`__ and
`fish-shell on
GitHub <https://github.com/fish-shell/fish-shell/releases>`__. See the
`Building <#building>`__ section for instructions.

Running fish
------------

Once installed, run ``fish`` from your current shell to try fish out!

Dependencies
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Running fish requires:

-  curses or ncurses (preinstalled on most \*nix systems)
-  some common \*nix system utilities (currently ``mktemp``), in
   addition to the basic POSIX utilities (``cat``, ``cut``, ``dirname``,
   ``ls``, ``mkdir``, ``mkfifo``, ``rm``, ``sort``, ``tee``, ``tr``,
   ``uname`` and ``sed`` at least, but the full coreutils plus ``find`` and
   ``awk`` is preferred)
-  The gettext library, if compiled with
   translation support

The following optional features also have specific requirements:

-  builtin commands that have the ``--help`` option or print usage
   messages require ``nroff`` or ``mandoc`` for
   display
-  automated completion generation from manual pages requires Python 3.5+
-  the ``fish_config`` web configuration tool requires Python 3.5+ and a web browser
-  system clipboard integration (with the default Ctrl-V and Ctrl-X
   bindings) require either the ``xsel``, ``xclip``,
   ``wl-copy``/``wl-paste`` or ``pbcopy``/``pbpaste`` utilities
-  full completions for ``yarn`` and ``npm`` require the
   ``all-the-package-names`` NPM module
-  ``colorls`` is used, if installed, to add color when running ``ls`` on platforms
   that do not have color support (such as OpenBSD)

Switching to fish
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you wish to use fish as your default shell, use the following command, from inside fish:

::

   chsh -s (command -s fish)

``chsh`` wants a full path, this will try to find where fish is installed. If that doesn't work, try to pass the path manually - it will usually be ``/usr/local/bin/fish`` if you built from source, or ``/usr/bin/fish`` if you installed a package.

``chsh`` will prompt you for your password and change your default shell. Log out, then log in again for the changes to take effect.

Use the following command if fish isn’t already added to ``/etc/shells`` to permit fish to be your login shell (e.g. if ``chsh`` complains that it "doesn't exist" or similar):

::

   command -s fish | sudo tee -a /etc/shells

To switch your default shell back, you can run ``chsh -s /bin/bash``
(substituting ``/bin/bash`` with ``/bin/tcsh`` or ``/bin/zsh`` as
appropriate).

Building
--------

.. _dependencies-1:

Dependencies
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Compiling fish from a tarball requires:

-  a C++11 compiler (g++ 4.8 or later, or clang 3.3 or later)
-  CMake (version 3.5 or later)
-  a curses implementation such as ncurses (headers and libraries)
-  PCRE2 (headers and libraries) - optional, this will be downloaded if missing
-  gettext (headers and libraries) - optional, for translation support

Sphinx is also optionally required to build the documentation from a
cloned git repository.

Additionally, running the test suite requires Python 3.5+ and the pexpect package.

Dependencies, git master
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Building from git master currently requires, in addition to the dependencies for a tarball:

-  Rust (version 1.67 or later)
-  CMake (version 3.19 or later)
-  libclang, even if you are compiling with GCC
-  an Internet connection

fish is in the process of being ported to Rust, replacing all C++ code, and as such these dependencies are a bit awkward and in flux.

In general, we would currently not recommend running from git master if you just want to *use* fish.
Given the nature of the port, what is currently there is mostly a slower and buggier version of the last C++-based release.

Building from source (all platforms) - Makefile generator
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To install into ``/usr/local``, run:

.. code:: bash

   mkdir build; cd build
   cmake ..
   make
   sudo make install

The install directory can be changed using the
``-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX`` parameter for ``cmake``.

Build options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In addition to the normal CMake build options (like ``CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX``), fish has some other options available to customize it.

- BUILD_DOCS=ON|OFF - whether to build the documentation. This is automatically set to OFF when Sphinx isn't installed.
- INSTALL_DOCS=ON|OFF - whether to install the docs. This is automatically set to on when BUILD_DOCS is or prebuilt documentation is available (like when building in-tree from a tarball).
- FISH_USE_SYSTEM_PCRE2=ON|OFF - whether to use an installed pcre2. This is normally autodetected.
- MAC_CODESIGN_ID=String|OFF - the codesign ID to use on Mac, or "OFF" to disable codesigning.
- WITH_GETTEXT=ON|OFF - whether to build with gettext support for translations.

Note that fish does *not* support static linking and will attempt to error out if it detects it.

Help, it didn’t build!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If fish reports that it could not find curses, try installing a curses
development package and build again.

On Debian or Ubuntu you want:

::

   sudo apt install build-essential cmake ncurses-dev libncurses5-dev libpcre2-dev gettext

On RedHat, CentOS, or Amazon EC2:

::

   sudo yum install ncurses-devel

Contributing Changes to the Code
--------------------------------

See the `Guide for Developers <CONTRIBUTING.rst>`__.

Contact Us
----------

Questions, comments, rants and raves can be posted to the official fish
mailing list at https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fish-users
or join us on our `matrix
channel <https://matrix.to/#/#fish-shell:matrix.org>`__. Or use the `fish tag
on Unix & Linux Stackexchange <https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/fish>`__.
There is also a fish tag on Stackoverflow, but it is typically a poor fit.

Found a bug? Have an awesome idea? Please `open an
issue <https://github.com/fish-shell/fish-shell/issues/new>`__.

.. |Build Status| image:: https://github.com/fish-shell/fish-shell/workflows/make%20test/badge.svg
   :target: https://github.com/fish-shell/fish-shell/actions