====== fish ======

The Friendly Interactive Shell: a user-friendly alternative to bash with useful defaults and no configuration needed.

===== What It Is =====

A command line shell that provides out of the box:

  * Syntax highlighting as you type: valid commands are colored, errors show before you run them
  * Auto-suggestions from history (accept with right arrow or ''Ctrl+F'')
  * Smart tab completion that reads man pages for options
  * Web-based configuration: ''fish_config'' opens a browser UI

Good for beginners and for machines where the terminal is the whole interface, like a [[guides:writerdeck|WriterDeck]].

===== Differences From Bash =====

  * Set variables with ''set name value'', not ''name=value''
  * ''$PATH'' is a list: ''set -Ua fish_user_paths ~/bin''
  * No ''export'', no ''~/.bashrc''. Config is stored in ''~/.config/fish/config.fish''
  * Scripts are not bash-compatible: fish has its own syntax (''end'' instead of ''fi''/''done'')
  * ''abbr -a'' replaces aliases for interactive use

===== Quick Config =====

<code fish>
# ~/.config/fish/config.fish
set -U EDITOR micro
set -Ua fish_user_paths ~/bin ~/.local/bin
abbr -a gs 'git status'
abbr -a up 'sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade'
</code>

===== See Also =====

  * [[terminal:shell:start|Shell Configuration]]
  * [[terminal:shell:bashrc|bashrc]]
  * [[terminal:start|Return to terminal]]
  * [[start|Return to wiki home]]