Choosing the right shell for your system can be a daunting task. There are a lot of choices available, with different features and capabilities. Two of the most popular shells are Bash and ZSH (Z Shell). Both of these shells are powerful and have their own unique advantages and disadvantages. In this article, we will be comparing the differences between ZSH and Bash to determine which one is better for your system.
Overview of Zsh on Linux
Zsh is a Unix shell that is powerful and highly customizable. It has a wide variety of features that make it an attractive choice for users. ZSH provides a lot of key features including spelling correction, interactive completion, customizing, configuration, performance, security, compatibility, command syntax, aliases, history, execution time, error handling, automation, extensibility, tab completion, complex commands, help system, debugging, remote connections, virtualization, globbing, aliases, cursors, multiplexing, history expansion, globbing, path expansion, extended globbing, autosuggestions, precision completion, plugins, custom prompts, path expansion, pathname expansion, automatic cd, and variables.
Overview of Bash
Bash (Bourne again Shell) is a Unix shell that is stable, reliable, and powerful. It has a long history of being the default shell for many Unix systems. Bash is the most popular shell for Linux and Mac OS X systems. It has a wide range of features that make it a great choice for users. Some of the key features of Bash include spelling correction, interactive completion, customizing, configuration, performance, security, compatibility, command syntax, aliases, history, execution time, error handling, automation, extensibility, tab completion, complex commands, help system, debugging, remote connections, virtualization, globbing, aliases, cursors, multiplexing, history expansion, globbing, path expansion, extended globbing, autosuggestions, precision completion, plugins, custom prompts, path expansion, pathname expansion, automatic cd, and variables.
Zsh vs Bash
Let’s now look at the comparison between ZSH vs BASH for your command-line. While both the shells are perfect for regular use, when you want to move into more specific use cases, both the shells perform differently because of the default features. Let’s check the individual features now.
Spelling correction
It’s easy to have typos while working exclusively on the shell. At such a time, having the capability to automatically correct spellings can be a boon.
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 1 | Spelling correction | Bash does not offer spelling correction out of the box, but it can be enabled with the help of a few commands. The first step is to install the ‘aspell’ package. To do this, simply type in the command `sudo apt install aspell`. This command will enable the shell to detect and correct spelling mistakes. To enable autocorrectionn of misspelled words, add the command `bind ‘set completion-ignore-case on’` to the .bashrc file. After these steps, the Bash shell will be enabled to automatically detect and correct spelling mistakes. | Zsh is a powerful, open-source shell that offers spelling correction out of the box. It can detect incorrect spellings and suggest proper corrections. It is capable of learning from past corrections and can even detect words that are not part of the system dictionary. To enable this feature, all one needs to do is enable the ‘correct_all’ option in the .zshrc file. To access the .zshrc file, simply type in the command “vim ~/.zshrc”. Once the file is opened, type in the command setopt correct_all and save the file. Zsh is now enabled to automatically detect and correct spelling mistakes. |
History Management
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 2 | History management | Bash has more basic history management features, such as the ability to recall and re-execute previous commands. | ZSH has more powerful history management features, such as the ability to search and edit previous commands, and to control how long commands are stored in the history. |
Tab completion
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 3 | Tab completion | Bash has a bare minimum tab completion features, such as the ability to complete command names and arguments. | ZSH has more advanced tab completion features, such as the ability to complete command names and arguments, and to perform recursive searches for completions. |
Aliases
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 4 | Aliases | ZSH allows you to create and customize aliases for frequently used commands or sequences of commands. | Bash also allows you to create aliases, but they are less flexible and customizable than in ZSH. |
Scripting
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 5 | Scripting | Bash has a number of features that make it well-suited for scripting, including: – A wide range of built-in commands and utilities for interacting with the operating system and performing common tasks. – Support for variables, arrays, and other data types. – Conditional statements and looping constructs for controlling the flow of a script. – Functions for organizing and reusing code. – A powerful command line editing and history feature. | Features that make Zsh a good choice for scripting include: – Improved command line editing and history features, including the ability to search through previous commands. – Better support for tab completion, including the ability to complete commands, options, and arguments. – Additional data types, such as associative arrays and floating-point variables. – Enhanced support for globbing (wildcard expansion). – Additional looping and conditional constructs. |
Scripting Note that shell scripting in ZSH is not completely compatible with Bash and it may require manual tweaking in the script.
Syntax
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 6 | Syntax | Bash and zsh have similar syntax, with some slight differences. For example, ZSH uses $~ to represent the current directory, while Bash uses $PWD to represent the current directory. | ZSH also has a few additional syntax features, such as the ability to use $^ to represent the first argument of the previous command, and the ability to use $* to represent all the arguments of the previous command. |
Completion System
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 7 | Completion System | Bash has a more basic completion system, with the ability to define custom completion functions, but without the ability to use external programs for completions. | ZSH has a more advanced completion system, with the ability to define custom completion functions and to use external programs to generate completions. |
Command Line Editing
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 8 | Command Line Editing | Bash has more basic command line editing features, such as the ability to use vi-style or emacs-style keybindings, but without the ability to perform inline editing. | ZSH has more advanced command line editing features, such as the ability to use vi-style or emacs-style keybindings, and the ability to perform inline editing of command lines. |
Job Control
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 9 | Job Control | Both bash and zsh support job control, allowing you to background and foreground processes, and to manage multiple processes simultaneously. | ZSH has a few additional job control features, such as the ability to display a process hierarchy and to perform job control operations directly on processes within the hierarchy. |
File Globbing
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 10 | File Globbing | Both ZSH and Bash support file globbing, which allows you to use wildcard characters to match and expand filenames. | ZSH has a few additional features for file globbing, such as the ability to use the ** operator to perform recursive globbing, and the ability to use the extendedglob shell option to enable additional globbing patterns. |
Modules
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 11 | Modules | Bash does not have a modular architecture, and all features are built-in to the shell | ZSH has a modular architecture, with the ability to load and unload modules that provide additional features and functionality. |
Themes
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 12 | Themes | Bash does not have a built-in theme system, but you can customize the appearance of the shell through the use of prompt customization and color settings. | You can switch themes using Oh-my-ZSH if you use ZSH, It allows you to easily install and customize themes that change the appearance of the shell. |
Multilingual Support
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 13 | Multilingual Support | Bash has limited multilingual support, and may not work as well with languages that use non-Latin characters or that are written from right-to-left. | ZSH has better multilingual support, with the ability to handle multiple character sets and to support right-to-left languages. |
Execution Priority
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 14 | Execution Priority | Bash does not have this ability, and all commands are executed with the same priority. | ZSH has the ability to define execution priority for commands, using the nice and nohup commands. |
File Name Generation
| No. | Feature | Bash | Zsh |
| 15 | File Name Generation | Both bash and zsh support file name generation, also known as “filename expansion,” which allows you to use wildcard characters to match and expand filenames. | ZSH has a few additional features for file name generation, such as the ability to use the ** operator to perform recursive expansion, and the ability to use the extendedglob shell option to enable additional expansion patterns. |
Conclusion: ZSH and Bash – Which one is better?
By the look of it zsh definitely better than bash. Because of its added capabilities over bash, apple ships macOS Catalina and higher with zsh as the default shell in its terminals. That said, ultimately, the choice between bash and zsh will depend on your specific needs and preferences. Both shells have their own strengths and weaknesses on a Linux system, and both can be effective for a wide range of tasks. It may be helpful to try both shells and see which one you prefer for your particular use case. Both the shells can be installed easily on any Linux distribution such as Ubuntu, although Bash is the default in most Linux distributions.
