How To Install Zsh on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Zsh on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Z shell (ZSH) Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) usable as an interactive login shell and as a shell script command processor. ZSH is the default shell of MacOS, also available for Linux and Windows users. Just like the Linux-native Bash shell, Zsh is also a scripting language that allows you to write your own scripts and automate tasks.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Zsh powerful Unix command interpreter on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 22.04, 20.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• An active internet connection. You’ll need an internet connection to download the necessary packages and dependencies for Zsh.
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install Zsh on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish

Step 1. First, make sure that all your system packages are up-to-date by running the following apt commands in the terminal.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install build-essential curl file git

Step 2. Installing Zsh on Ubuntu 22.04.

By default, the Zsh is available on Ubuntu 22.04 base repository. Now run the following command below to install the latest version of Zsh to your Ubuntu system:

sudo apt install zsh

Confirm the installation and check the installed build version of Zsh:

zsh --version

You might also want to check the exact location where your ZSH shell resides on your system. You can do this by making use of the whereis command:

whereis zsh

Step 3. Switch from BASH to ZSH.

Now we have to completely switch Bash to Zsh so you have to type the following command below:

sudo chsh -s /bin/zsh <username>

Then, you have to log out from the current user and log in again. Your ZSH is installed. You can check by this:

sudo nano /etc/passwd

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Zsh. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the Zsh powerful Unix command interpreter on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Zsh website.