Installing Fish on Windows (WSL) - A Complete step by step for Beginners (or not)

{ Versão em Português }

When you finish this Tutorial, you'll go from this:

To this:

About

Fish is a command interpreter; one of several translators between User and Operating System known as shell, such as: cmd, PowerShell, bash, zsh, etc..

One of the best things of Fish is that the AutoComplete and AutoSuggestion features are factory-installed, ready to use with no need to install or configure.

Click here to learn more about Fish Shell

Since Fish is a shell for Unix, that means, it doesn't work on standard Windows, so you will need to install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

IMPORTANT

Before proceeding with this tutorial, create a System Restore Point (C:/) - ALWAYS do that when installing or changing Windows settings.

WSL 2 Prerequisite

To install the latest and best version of WSL (WSL 2), your machine needs to support Hyper-V. In some cases, Windows 11 may have it enabled by default. To check, open the Task Manager.

If it's disabled, restart your machine and access the BIOS to enable it. The Hyper-V/Virtualization setting is usually found under Advanced or CPU Configuration.

Note: If you don’t have Hyper-V, you can still install WSL version 1.

Installation

Microsoft Documentation

• Install WSL
• Install WSL (manually)

1) Installing WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

Open Command Prompt (cmd) as Administrator and run the command below.

Note: If wsl --install returns the HELP Menu, this means you already have wsl installed - go to the next step

wsl --install

Note: If Ctrl + v doesn't work in the terminal, press the right mouse button to paste.

wsl --install will execute the following actions:

• Enables the WSL and Virtual Machine Platform components
• Downloads and install the latest Linux Kernel
• Downloads and installs the Ubuntu Linux distribution

After complete installation, Restart your Computer

Note: If the auto installation fails, install manually

2) Configuring Ubuntu

Now that WSL has been installed, click on the Start Menu and open the "app" Ubuntu

Note: If the app doesn't appear, click here and search for Ubuntu, select the installed version and click Start

Wait for the installation to finish and register a username and password

3) Installing Fish

Fish Documentation

• Official Website
• Official GitHub
• Installing

Open cmd and run the command bash or wsl to access your Linux (Ubuntu) environment

Installing the Fish repository

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

Note: if apt-add-repository is a not found command run sudo apt install software-properties-common

Checking and Installing Updates

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Installing Fish

sudo apt install fish

Sets Fish as default Shell

That's it, congratulations, you have installed the Fish Shell on your Windows.

Now just run the command fish in Ubuntu Terminal (bash or wsl) to access your new shell

Configuring Terminal's Appearance

Now let's make your terminal look nicer.

1) Installing Windows Terminal

We will no longer use the old standard terminal. Click here and install Windows Terminal

• To make some modifications to Fish, it is necessary to install the plugin manager Oh My Fish

2) Installing Oh My Fish (omf)

Oh My Fish Documentation

• Official GitHub

Open cmd through Windows Terminal and run wsl, then fish to access the Fish Shell.

To continue we need Git

sudo apt install git

Installing omf

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oh-my-fish/oh-my-fish/master/bin/install | fish

3) Installing the Theme

You can preview and choose another theme by clicking here

However, in this tutorial we'll install and configure the bobthefish theme

omf install bobthefish

4) Configuring bobthefish Theme

Use the command below to enter the fish folder and open it in Windows

cd ~/.config/fish/ && explorer.exe .

Now open the config.fish file, paste the codes below and then Save the file

if status is-interactive
	# Commands to run in interactive sessions can go here
	set -g theme_display_git_default_branch yes
	set -g theme_title_display_process yes
	set -g theme_title_display_path no
	set -g theme_title_use_abbreviated_path no
	set -g theme_date_format "+%d/%m/%y %H:%M"
	set -g theme_display_user yes
	set -g theme_display_hostname yes
	set -g fish_prompt_pwd_dir_length 6
	set -g theme_display_jobs_verbose yes
end

Click here to learn what each command above does

This will be the result

5) Installing Nerd Font

Nerd Fonts Documentation

• Official GitHub

To replace the "errors" [] with Symbols, we need to install a font from Nerd Fonts. We'll install SourceCode Pro (SauceCodePro NF). To see more Fonts click Here

You can install all the styles if you want. I usually install just these three: Regular, Semibold and Bold

After downloading, go to your Downloads folder in Windows and run all the .ttf files to install the font.

6) Configuring Windows Terminal

Now we can change the terminal font to fix the []

Click on the little arrow > Settings

Click Open JSON file in the lower-left corner of the screen

• Inside "profiles">"default" do the changes below, then Save the file:
  • Change the name of the "Ubuntu" you installed to Fish (or any other)
  • Add the theme (colorScheme) "Campbell"
  • Add the guid of Fish to be the default Windows Terminal Profile

If you want your Terminal to be translucent, add the values ​​below inside "defaults"

Note: Transparency effects must be enabled in Windows for this to work: Start Menu > Settings > Personalization > Colors

"defaults": {
	"opacity": 50,
	"useAcrylic": true,
	"font": {
        	"face": "SauceCodePro Nerd Font"
	}
},
"list":
[
	{
		"colorScheme": "Campbell",
                "icon": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11728505?s=48&v=4",
                "guid": "{51855cb2-8cce-5362-8f54-464b92b32386}",
                "name": "Fish",
                "hidden": false,
                "source": "CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu_79rhkp1fndgsc"
	}
]

Sets Fish as default Shell on Windows Terminal

chsh -s /usr/bin/fish

7) Configuring Symbols (Font)

You can choose between two symbol styles: PowerLine Fonts or Nerd Fonts

set -g theme_powerline_fonts yes

or

set -g theme_nerd_fonts yes

Note: Use yes to enable and no to disable (sets only one as YES)

THE END