As the default Zsh on CentOS is usually an older version, many cool things are not possible on this version of Zsh, like installing oh-my-zsh or using awesome powerlevel10k prompt system, it’s understandable if you’d like to have the latest Zsh on your system. Easy peasy !!

Note: Please remember to remove the sudo from the commands if you are already in “root” or sudo-er mode

We’ll be following these steps:

Install the pre-requisites

We need GCC (C++ compiler) and other related stuffs for building Zsh from the source code. 

$ sudo yum groupinstall "Development tools"  
$ sudo yum install ncurses-devel

Now, check if GCC is installed properly, by

$ gcc -v

Download the latest source

Now, we gonna get the latest code of Zsh.
Please update the link (in the shown command) with the latest by checking this web-folder.
Don’t forget to update the filename as well, if needed.

$ cd /usr/local/src
$ sudo curl -L https://www.zsh.org/pub/zsh-5.8.tar.xz \
-o zsh-5.8.tar.xz

Build & Install

Unzip the file, “dig in” to the folder, and build & install from the source. 

$ sudo tar -xf zsh-5.8.tar.xz  # the actual version of the downloaded file might be different
$ cd zsh-5.8
$ sudo ./configure && sudo make && sudo make install

Final steps

Add Zsh to the login shells by adding ‘/usr/local/bin/zsh’ on the last line of the config file, /etc/shells 

$ sudo -e /etc/shells
$ sudo chsh $USER

Update the system’s default symlink to the new Zsh version.

$ sudo ln -sf /usr/local/bin/zsh /bin/zsh
$ zsh --version

It’s always a good habit to clean up after doing stuffs. ;) 

$ sudo make clean

That’s it !

voila

Related

Want to have a super, cool-looking command shell? Gotcha, fam. Check out my blog on Pimping up My Linux Terminal.

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