| .builds | ||
| .github | ||
| benchmarks | ||
| build_tools | ||
| cmake | ||
| debian | ||
| doc_src | ||
| etc | ||
| osx | ||
| pcre2 | ||
| po | ||
| share | ||
| src | ||
| tests | ||
| .clang-format | ||
| .cppcheck.rules | ||
| .cppcheck.suppressions | ||
| .editorconfig | ||
| .gitattributes | ||
| .gitignore | ||
| .oclint | ||
| .travis.yml | ||
| BSDmakefile | ||
| CHANGELOG.md | ||
| CMakeLists.txt | ||
| config_cmake.h.in | ||
| CONTRIBUTING.md | ||
| COPYING | ||
| Dockerfile | ||
| fish.desktop | ||
| fish.pc.in | ||
| fish.png | ||
| fish.spec.in | ||
| GNUmakefile | ||
| README.md | ||
fish - the friendly interactive shell 
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 more on fish's design philosophy, see the design document.
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
You can quickly play with fish right in your browser by clicking the button below:
Getting fish
macOS
fish can be installed:
- using Homebrew:
brew install fish - using MacPorts:
sudo port install fish - using the installer from fishshell.com
- as a standalone app from fishshell.com
Packages for Linux
Packages for Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS are available from the openSUSE Build Service.
Packages for Ubuntu are available from the fish PPA, and can be installed using the following commands:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:fish-shell/release-3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fish
Instructions for other distributions may be found at fishshell.com.
Windows
- On Windows 10, fish can be installed under the WSL Windows Subsystem for Linux with
sudo apt install fishor from source with the instructions below. - Fish can also be installed on all versions of Windows using Cygwin (from the Shells category).
Building from source
If packages are not available for your platform, GPG-signed tarballs are available from fishshell.com and fish-shell on GitHub. See the 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,unameandsedat least, but the full coreutils plus find, sed and awk is preferred) - gettext (library and
gettextcommand), if compiled with translation support
The following optional features also have specific requirements:
- builtin commands that have the
--helpoption or print usage messages requireuland eithernrofformandocfor display - automated completion generation from manual pages requires Python (2.7+ or 3.3+) and possibly the
backports.lzmamodule for Python 2.7 - the
fish_configweb configuration tool requires Python (2.7+ or 3.3 +) and a web browser - system clipboard integration (with the default Ctrl-V and Ctrl-X bindings) require either the
xsel,xclip,wl-copy/wl-pasteorpbcopy/pbpasteutilities - full completions for
yarnandnpmrequire theall-the-package-namesNPM module
Switching to fish
If you wish to use fish as your default shell, use the following command:
chsh -s /usr/local/bin/fish
chsh will prompt you for your password and change your default shell. (Substitute /usr/local/bin/fish with whatever path fish was installed to, if it differs.) 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:
echo /usr/local/bin/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
Compiling fish requires:
- a C++11 compiler (g++ 4.8 or later, or clang 3.3 or later)
- CMake (version 3.2 or later)
- a curses implementation such as ncurses (headers and libraries)
- PCRE2 (headers and libraries) - a copy is included with fish
- gettext (headers and libraries) - optional, for translation support
Sphinx is also optionally required to build the documentation from a cloned git repository.
Building from source (all platforms) - Makefile generator
To install into /usr/local, run:
mkdir build; cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install
The install directory can be changed using the -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX parameter for cmake.
Building from source (macOS) - Xcode
mkdir build; cd build
cmake .. -G Xcode
An Xcode project will now be available in the build subdirectory. You can open it with Xcode,
or run the following to build and install in /usr/local:
xcodebuild
xcodebuild -scheme install
The install directory can be changed using the -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX parameter for cmake.
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-get 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.
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 gitter.im channel. Or use the fish tag on Stackoverflow for questions related to fish script and the fish tag on Superuser for all other questions (e.g., customizing colors, changing key bindings).
Found a bug? Have an awesome idea? Please open an issue.