Windows Terminal Tips, Tricks, and Productivity Hacks: Optimize your command-line usage and development processes with pro-level techniques

✍ Scribed by Will Fuqua

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 254
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Become an efficient command-line expert by harnessing the power of the new Microsoft Windows Terminal, and learn time-saving tricks for PowerShell, WSL2, and more

Key Features

• Customize and optimize your Windows Terminal and its shells
• Work effectively on the command line with split panes, hotkeys, and automation
• Use PowerShell and WSL2 efficiently to build, test, and deploy applications

Book Description

Windows Terminal is a new and open-source command-line application for Windows 10, built for the Command Prompt, PowerShell, Windows Subsystem for Linux, and more. It's fast, modern, and configurable thanks to its GPU-accelerated rendering, excellent UTF-8 support, and JSON-based configurability, and this book can help you learn how to leverage these features.

You'll start by learning the benefits of Windows Terminal and its open-source development, as well as how to use the built-in tabs, panes, and key bindings to build your own efficient terminal workflows. After you've mastered Windows Terminal, this book shows how to use and configure PowerShell Core and the Windows Subsystem for Linux within Windows Terminal. You'll maximize your productivity using powerful tools such as PSReadLine for PowerShell and ZSH on Linux, and discover useful tips and tricks for common developer tools like Git and SSH. Finally, you'll see how Windows Terminal can be used in common development and DevOps tasks, such as developing frontend JavaScript applications and backend REST APIs, and managing cloud-based systems like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

By the end of this book, you'll not only be well-versed with Windows Terminal, but also have learned how to effectively use shells like PowerShell Core and ZSH to become proficient at the command line.

What you will learn

• Install, update, and use Windows Terminal and its preview version
• Customize your Windows Terminal to be both visually appealing and functional
• Enable and effectively use the latest versions of PowerShell Core and Windows Subsystem for Linux
• Install and configure time-saving tools for the command line
• Work efficiently with common developer tools such as Git and SSH
• Build, deploy, and manage apps in the cloud using Windows Terminal
• Use Linux tools from Windows with ease

Who this book is for

This book is for developers, DevOps engineers, and sysadmins who want to become advanced command-line power users. Whether you're new to the command line or you already use Windows PowerShell every day, this book will have something for you.

Table of Contents

1. Getting started with the new Windows Terminal
2. Learning the Windows Terminal UI
3. Configuring an Ubuntu Linux profile
4. Customizing your Windows Terminal settings
5. Changing your Windows Terminal appearance
6. Setting up keyboard shortcuts
7. Hidden Windows Terminal Actions
8. Tips for using PowerShell like a Pro
9. Tips for using Ubuntu like an Expert
10. Using Git and GitHub with Windows Terminal
11. Building web applications with React
12. Building REST APIs with C# and Windows Terminal
13. Connecting to remote systems
14. Managing systems in the cloud
15. Windows Terminal Actions

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Title page
Copyright and Credits
Dedication
Foreword
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Section 1: Introducing the New Windows Terminal
Chapter 1: Getting started with the new Windows Terminal
Technical requirements
Why a new terminal?
The modern foundations of Windows Terminal
A Modern UI
Flexible JSON-based customization
Open source development
Installing Windows Terminal
Launching Windows Terminal
Summary
Further reading
Chapter 2: Learning the Windows Terminal UI
Technical requirements
Using the terminal tabs
Editing tab title appearance
Using terminal panes
Managing terminal output
Using the command palette
Keyboard shortcuts review
Summary
Further reading
Chapter 3: Configuring an Ubuntu Linux profile
Technical requirements
Why use the Windows Subsystem for Linux?
Installing Ubuntu Linux
Step 1: Install WSL2
Step 2: Install Ubuntu
Launching Linux
Installing Linux applications: nginx
Starting nginx
Bidirectional access in Windows and Ubuntu
Summary
Section 2: Configuring your Windows Terminal and its shells
Chapter 4: Customizing your Windows Terminal settings
Technical requirements
Introducing the settings.json file
Recovering from bad settings
The settings file structure
Useful Global Settings
Useful profile settings
Custom command-line profiles
Git Bash shell
SSH shell
C# interactive shell
Node.js interactive shell
Vim terminal shell
Summary
Chapter 5: Changing your Windows Terminal appearance
Technical requirements
Terminal color schemes
Built-in color schemes
Community-driven color schemes
Writing your own theme
Background images and translucency
Customizing PowerShell with posh-git, oh-my-posh, and PSReadLine
Oh-my-posh version 2
Oh-my-posh version 3
Changing the prompt without oh-my-posh
Changing command colors with PSReadline
WSL2 customization with oh-my-zsh
Command Prompt customization
Summary
Chapter 6: Setting up keyboard shortcuts
Technical requirements
Overview of the keyboard shortcut system
Building custom commands with "sendInput"
Configuring custom terminal layouts with "wt"
Additional uses of 'wt'
Summary
Chapter 7: Hidden Windows Terminal Actions
Technical requirements
Discovering unbound actions
Using actions for focus management
togglePaneZoom
toggleAlwaysOnTop
toggleFocusMode
Using actions for visual effects
setColorScheme
toggleShaderEffects
Using actions for tab manipulation
Closing multiple tabs at once
Changing tab colors
Summary
Chapter 8: Tips for using PowerShell like a Pro
Technical requirements
Installing PowerShell Core
Using built-in commands and aliases
Automatic Variable: $^ and $$
cd - and cd +
The ii command
History navigation with h and r
Pipelines and $_
Custom Profile Aliases and Functions
Configuring PSReadLine in PowerShell Core
EditMode
History Search
Better autocompletion
Command predictions
Programmable shortcuts
Adding the GNU coreutils to the path
Installing the z utility
Addendum – the full PowerShell $profile file
Summary
Chapter 9: Tips for Using Ubuntu like an Expert
Technical requirements
Using Ubuntu with Windows
Accessing Linux directories from Windows
Accessing Windows directories from Linux
Running Linux programs from inside Windows
Running Windows programs from inside Linux
Installing and configuring software
Choosing your shell
Using ZSH
Rerunning earlier commands
Using ZSH substitutions
Configuring aliases and functions
Quickly navigating to directories
Installing and using oh-my-zsh plugins
Enabling the z plugin
Enabling vi-mode
Installing zsh-autosuggestions
zsh-syntax-highlighting
Summary
Section 3: Using your Windows Terminal for development
Chapter 10: Using Git and GitHub with Windows Terminal
Technical requirements
Creating a modern Git installation
Installing Git
Installing OpenSSH
Starting our OpenSSH Agent
Setting up a private/public key pair
Testing our SSH authentication
Authenticating with Git on Linux
Tips for using Git effectively
Switching Git branches with git checkout -
Fixing typos with Git's autocorrect
Pushing to HEAD
Git aliases and command aliases
Tig
Viewing files on different branches
git reflog
Using GitHub from Windows Terminal
Creating repositories
Viewing pull requests
Checking out Pull Requests
Summary
Chapter 11: Building web applications with React
Technical requirements
Installing Node.js in WSL2
Adding a Node.js profile to Windows Terminal
Creating a React app
Developing in WSL2
Developing with a modern workflow
Summary
Chapter 12: Building REST APIs with C# and Windows Terminal
Technical requirements
Installing .NET and C#
Using dotnet script from Windows Terminal
Generating our REST API
Testing our REST API
Making changes to our REST API
Running unit tests with Windows Terminal
Summary
Chapter 13: Connecting to remote systems
Technical requirements
Connecting to Windows computers with WinRM and SSH
Connecting with WinRM
Connecting to Windows computers with SSH
Copying files with SCP
Connecting to Linux machines
Saving routinely accessed hosts and commands
Starting remote connections in Windows Terminal
Summary
Chapter 14: Managing systems in the cloud
Technical requirements
Using Microsoft Azure's Cloud Shell and az interactive
Using az interactive
Using Google Cloud Shell and gcloud interactive
Using gcloud beta interactive
Using AWS from Windows Terminal
Using aws-shell
Using the AWS Tools for PowerShell
Summary
Appendix Windows Terminal Actions
About Packt
Other Books You May Enjoy
Index