How many Zsh scripts distributed via Homebrew ?
What is Zsh ? 🔗
Zsh, also known as the Z shell, is a Unix shell that functions as both an interactive command-line interpreter and a powerful scripting language. Created by Paul Falstad in 1990, it is an extended version of the Bourne shell (sh) that incorporates many improvements and features found in other shells like Bash, ksh, and tcsh.
Key Features and Advantages 🔗
Zsh is widely favored for its rich feature set designed to improve user productivity and customization.
- Advanced Auto-Completion: Zsh offers a sophisticated completion system that helps users navigate files and commands more efficiently. It can suggest options for command flags and automatically correct minor spelling errors in directory names.
- Plugin Ecosystem: The shell is highly extensible through frameworks like “Oh My Zsh,” which provides access to thousands of community-contributed themes and plugins to “supercharge” the terminal experience.
- Themeable Prompts: Users can extensively customize their command prompt to display relevant information, such as Git status or current directory path, often with color coding for better readability.
- Globbing: Zsh includes extended “globbing” capabilities (pattern matching), allowing for powerful file selection without needing external commands like
find.
Comparison: Zsh vs. Bash 🔗
While Zsh is based on the same Bourne shell architecture as Bash, there are distinct differences in their design philosophy and default behaviors.
| Feature | Zsh | Bash |
|---|---|---|
| Default Usage | Default shell on macOS and Kali Linux | Default on most Linux distributions (e.g., Ubuntu) |
| Customization | Extensive; massive plugin ecosystem (Oh My Zsh) | Moderate; manual configuration often required |
| Auto-Correction | Built-in spelling correction and case-insensitivity | Limited; requires specific configuration |
| Scripting | Powerful, but syntax can differ from standard POSIX | Standard for system scripts; highly portable |
| Floating Point | Native support for floating-point arithmetic | Integer arithmetic only (requires external tools like bc) |
Adoption and Compatibility 🔗
Zsh has seen significant adoption in recent years. In 2019, Apple replaced Bash with Zsh as the default login shell for macOS Catalina and subsequent versions, citing licensing and feature reasons. Similarly, security-focused distributions like Kali Linux adopted it as their default in 2020. While Zsh is largely compatible with Bourne shell scripts, it is not strictly POSIX-compliant by default, though it can be configured to emulate POSIX behavior when needed.
Statistics of zsh scripting language 🔗
On December 16th 2025, The number of CLI apps written in zsh and distributed via Homebrew Core Formulae is 4 apps.
You may like to compare it with Bash and Fish .
Scripts written in zsh and distributed via Homebrew Core Formulae 🔗
- zshdb : Debugger for zsh
- fizsh : Fish-like front end for ZSH
- pure : Pretty, minimal and fast ZSH prompt
- typewritten : Minimal zsh prompt
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