● fish Commands

488 2026-08-14 note ♑︎

fishfish (Friendly Interactive Shell) is a smart and user-friendly command line shell for macOS, Linux, and other Unix-like systems. It features syntax highlighting, autosuggestions, and tab completions that work out of the box. Installation bash brew install fish Key Features… provides intuitive commands for navigation, history, and variable management.

Navigation

# Directory navigation
cd                    # Change directory
cd ..                 # Parent directory
cd -                  # Previous directory
pushd .               # Push directory to stack
popd                  # Pop directory from stack

History

# History navigation
↑ / ↓                # Navigate history
ctrl + r              # Search history
alt + ↑ / ↓           # Navigate by directory
history               # Show history

Variables

# Set variables
set NAME value        # Local variable
set -x NAME value     # Export variable
set -U NAME value     # Universal variable (persistent)

# Use variables
echo $NAME

Functions

# Define function
function hello
    echo "Hello, world!"
end

# Call function
hello

# List functions
functions

# Edit function
funced hello

Aliases

Create aliases in ~/.config/fish/functions/ or directly in config:

# Simple alias
alias ll "ls -la"

# Function with arguments
function mkcd
    mkdir -p $argv[1]
    cd $argv[1]
end

Useful Built-in Functions

# Show file contents with syntax highlighting
highlight file.py

# Extract various archive formats
extract file.tar.gz

# Quick directory navigation
z                    # Jump to frequently used directories
z marks              # Show all marks

# Git integration
git status           # Enhanced git status

Environment Variables

# Set PATH
set -x PATH /opt/homebrew/bin $PATH

# Set editor
set -x EDITOR vim

# Set language
set -x LANG en_US.UTF-8

Universal Variables

Universal variables persist across sessions:

# Set universal variable
set -U EDITOR vim

# List universal variables
set -U

# Export universal variable
set -Ux PATH /opt/homebrew/bin $PATH

Special Variables

# Command line arguments
$argv                 # All arguments
$argv[1]              # First argument
$argv[-1]             # Last argument

# Exit status
$status               # Exit status of last command

# Process ID
$fish_pid             # Fish process ID

fish commands are designed to be intuitive and consistent, making shell interaction more efficient.

For fish configuration and setup, see fish Configurationfish configuration lives in ~/.config/fish/config.fish. Unlike bash/zsh, fish doesn't use . for sourcing files—use source instead. Setup Set fish as your default shell: bash Add fish to /etc/shells echo /opt/homebrew/bin/fish | sudo tee -a /etc/shells Set as default shell chsh…. For scripting details, see fish Scriptingfish scripting is cleaner and more readable than bash, with modern syntax and better error handling. Script Structure fish #!/usr/bin/env fish Comments start with # echo "Hello, world!" Variables fish Set variables set name "World" Use variables echo "Hello, $name"…. For the main fish overview, see fishfish (Friendly Interactive Shell) is a smart and user-friendly command line shell for macOS, Linux, and other Unix-like systems. It features syntax highlighting, autosuggestions, and tab completions that work out of the box. Installation bash brew install fish Key Features….