Power-up macOS Zsh

When Apple switched to Zsh in macOS 10.15 Catalina, I relied on Armin Briegel's "Moving to Zsh" to guide me through the transition. This resource can be helpful for others making the switch.

As I adapted to Zsh, I noticed many users prefer Oh My Zsh for its useful features. However, I find it overkill for my needs, so I maintain my own config file for control and simplicity. I still reference Oh My Zsh plugins on GitHub for inspiration.

Below is my configuration file, with section explanations.

PATH
Adds your personal binaries (~/.local/bin) and common package manager locations (/usr/local/bin, /opt/homebrew/bin) to the front of the search path.

CMD HISTORY
Controls how command history is stored and shared.

• HISTSIZE / SAVEHIST: Number of commands kept in memory and saved to file.
• HISTFILE: Location of your history file.
• HIST_IGNORE_DUPS: Avoids saving duplicate commands.
• HIST_IGNORE_SPACE: Commands starting with a space are not saved (useful for sensitive input).
• SHARE_HISTORY: Shares history across multiple terminal sessions.
• INC_APPEND_HISTORY: Writes commands to history immediately (not just on exit).

PROMPT
Sets the Zsh prompt to show your username in cyan, a colon, your current directory in yellow, and a $ at the end.

SYSTEM INFORMATION & DIAGNOSTICS
Quick commands for checking system status and hardware.

• checkupdates / installupdates: Manage macOS updates via softwareupdate.
• sysinfo: Displays hardware details (CPU, RAM, model).
• meminfo: Shows memory usage stats.
• cpuinfo: Prints CPU model information.

SYSTEM CLEANUP
Manual maintenance function for performance and troubleshooting. Combines multiple cleanup tasks into one command.

• Flushes DNS cache (useful for networking issues).
• Clears user cache and log files to free space and remove stale data.

PRESENTER MODE
Useful for presentations or screen sharing. Toggles Finder visibility settings for a cleaner desktop.

• hideicons / showicons: Hide or show desktop icons.

FILE AND STORAGE
Improves file management and safety.

• Safer defaults: rm, cp, mv prompt before overwriting/deleting.
• ls, la: Enhanced directory listings with readable sizes and formatting.
• fileinfo: Displays file metadata.
• disks, freespace: Disk and storage inspection tools.
• targz(): Compresses files/folders into .tar.gz.
• rmdsstore(): Removes macOS .DS_Store files recursively.

NETWORKING
Useful commands for network info and troubleshooting.

• resetnetwork: Restarts network interface.
• listening: Shows active listening ports.
• myip: Gets public IP address from ifconfig.me.
• localip: Gets local IP address.
• ports: Lists open network connections.
• ping: Sends 5 ICMP packets.

HOMEBREW
Manages packages installed via Homebrew.

• brewup: Updates, upgrades, and cleans packages.
• brewlist: Lists installed packages.
• brewdeps: Shows dependency tree.

EXIFTOOL
Useful for privacy and file sanitization.

• Strips all metadata from files using ExifTool.

NMAP
Predefined scanning profiles using Nmap.

• nmap_open_ports: Show only open ports.
• nmap_fast: Quick scan of common ports.
• nmap_full: Full aggressive scan of all ports.
• nmap_udp: UDP scan.
• nmap_vuln: Runs vulnerability detection scripts.
• nmap_versions: Detects service versions and OS.

# PATH 
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"

# CMD HISTORY
HISTSIZE=5000
SAVEHIST=5000
HISTFILE=~/.zsh_history
setopt HIST_IGNORE_DUPS
setopt HIST_IGNORE_SPACE
setopt SHARE_HISTORY
setopt INC_APPEND_HISTORY

# PROMPT 
PROMPT='%F{cyan}%n%f:%F{yellow}%~%f$'

# SYSTEM INFORMATION & DIAGNOSTICS
alias checkupdates='softwareupdate -l'
alias installupdates='sudo softwareupdate -ia'
alias sysinfo='system_profiler SPHardwareDataType'
alias meminfo='vm_stat'
alias cpuinfo='sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string'

# SYSTEM CLEANUP
cleanup() {
  echo "Flushing DNS cache..."
  sudo dscacheutil -flushcache
  sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
  echo "Cleaning user caches and logs..."
  rm -rf ~/Library/{Caches,Logs}/*
  echo "Done."
}

# PRESENTER MODE
alias hideicons="defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false && killall Finder"
alias showicons="defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true && killall Finder"

# FILE AND STORAGE
alias ls='ls -GFh'
alias la='ls -A'
alias rm='rm -Iv'
alias cp='cp -i'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias fileinfo='mdls'
alias disks='diskutil list'
alias freespace='df -h'
targz() {
   local name="${1%/}"
   tar -czvf "${name}.tar.gz" "$name"
rmdsstore() {
  find "${@:-.}" -type f -name .DS_Store -print -delete

# NETWORKING
alias resetnetwork='sudo ifconfig en0 down && sudo ifconfig en0 up'
alias listening='lsof -iTCP -sTCP:LISTEN -n -P'
alias myip='curl -s ifconfig.me'
alias localip='ipconfig getifaddr en0'
alias ports='lsof -i -P -n'
alias ping='ping -c 5'

# HOMEBREW
alias brewup='brew update && brew upgrade && brew cleanup'
alias brewlist='brew list'
alias brewdeps='brew deps --tree --installed'

# EXIFTOOL 
alias exiftool='exiftool -all= -overwrite_original'

# NMAP 
alias nmap_open_ports='nmap --open'
alias nmap_fast='nmap -F -T5 --version-light --top-ports 300'
alias nmap_full='sudo nmap -sS -T4 -A -p1-65535 -v'
alias nmap_udp='sudo nmap -sU -T4 -A -v'
alias nmap_vuln='nmap --script=vuln'
alias nmap_versions='sudo nmap -sV -O -T4 -Pn'