How to install oh-my-zsh in cygwin

Aug 20, 2018

1. Install cygwin.

Download cygwin installer then execute:

./setup-x86_64.exe -q -P git,vim,curl,wget,zsh,chere

2. Install oh-my-zsh.

git clone https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh.git ~/.oh-my-zsh
cp ~/.oh-my-zsh/templates/zshrc.zsh-template ~/.zshrc

3. Make zsh as the default shell.

Add following line to the top of ~/.bashrc:

exec zsh

4. (Optional) Add cygwin to right-click context menu.

Run cygwin as administrator and execute:

chere -i -t mintty -s bash

5. (Optional) Use cygwin as integrated terminal in IDE (IDEA, VS Code, etc.).

Create a bat file named Cygwin-integrated.bat under C:\cygwin64 with following content:

@echo off
set CHERE_INVOKING=1
C:\cygwin64\bin\bash.exe --login -i

Make it executable:

chmod +x Cygwin-integrated.bat

Edit VS Code user settings (other IDEs are similar):

"terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\cygwin64\\Cygwin-integrated.bat"`