Nushell

Nushell is a powerful and modern non-POSIX shell written in Rust

Installation

Using nushell as a login shell is not recommended. Since nushell is not a POSIX shell, it cannot execute the global shell rcfiles, which means that various environment variables that the general NixOS configuration expects to be set will not be set. To avoid these problems use the default bash interactive shell as a login shell and launch nushell from there:

❄︎ /etc/nixos/configuration.nix

{ pkgs, ... }: {
  environment.shells = [
    pkgs.nushell
  ];

  programs.bash.interactiveShellInit = ''
    if ! [ "$TERM" = "dumb" ]; then
      exec nu
    fi
  '';
}

The Command Shell page explains the process for setting shells as login shells if this is still desired.

Configuration

Nushell can be configured with Home Manager

Example

A configuration with Starship prompt and autosuggestion support with carapace or fish shell:

❄︎ ~/.config/nixpkgs/home.nix

{ lib, pkgs, ... }:
{
  programs = {
    nushell = {
      enable = true;
      # The config.nu can be anywhere you want if you like to edit your Nushell with Nu
      configFile.source = ./.../config.nu;
      # for editing directly to config.nu 
      extraConfig = ''
        # Common ls aliases and sort them by type and then name
        # Inspired by https://github.com/nushell/nushell/issues/7190
        def lla [...args] { ls -la ...(if $args == [] {["."]} else {$args}) {{!}} sort-by type name -i }
        def la  [...args] { ls -a  ...(if $args == [] {["."]} else {$args}) {{!}} sort-by type name -i }
        def ll  [...args] { ls -l  ...(if $args == [] {["."]} else {$args}) {{!}} sort-by type name -i }
        def l   [...args] { ls     ...(if $args == [] {["."]} else {$args}) {{!}} sort-by type name -i }

        # Completions
        # mainly pieced together from https://www.nushell.sh/cookbook/external_completers.html

        # carapce completions https://www.nushell.sh/cookbook/external_completers.html#carapace-completer
        # + fix https://www.nushell.sh/cookbook/external_completers.html#err-unknown-shorthand-flag-using-carapace
        # enable the package and integration bellow
        let carapace_completer = {{{!}}spans: list<string>{{!}}
          carapace $spans.0 nushell ...$spans
          | from json
          | if ($in | default [] {{!}} where value == $"($spans {{!}} last)ERR" {{!}} is-empty) { $in } else { null }
        }
        # some completions are only available through a bridge
        # eg. tailscale
        # https://carapace-sh.github.io/carapace-bin/setup.html#nushell
        $env.CARAPACE_BRIDGES = 'zsh,fish,bash,inshellisense'

        # fish completions https://www.nushell.sh/cookbook/external_completers.html#fish-completer
        let fish_completer = {{{!}}spans{{!}}
          ${lib.getExe pkgs.fish} --command $'complete "--do-complete=($spans {{!}} str join " ")"'
          | $"value(char tab)description(char newline)" + $in
          | from tsv --flexible --no-infer
        }

        # zoxide completions https://www.nushell.sh/cookbook/external_completers.html#zoxide-completer
        let zoxide_completer = {{{!}}spans{{!}}
            $spans {{!}} skip 1 {{!}} zoxide query -l ...$in {{!}} lines {{!}} where {{{!}}x{{!}} $x != $env.PWD}
        }

        # multiple completions
        # the default will be carapace, but you can also switch to fish
        # https://www.nushell.sh/cookbook/external_completers.html#alias-completions
        let multiple_completers = {{{!}}spans{{!}}
          ## alias fixer start https://www.nushell.sh/cookbook/external_completers.html#alias-completions
          let expanded_alias = scope aliases
          | where name == $spans.0
          | get -i 0.expansion

          let spans = if $expanded_alias != null {
            $spans
            | skip 1
            | prepend ($expanded_alias | split row ' ' {{!}} take 1)
          } else {
            $spans
          }
          ## alias fixer end

          match $spans.0 {
            __zoxide_z {{!}} __zoxide_zi => $zoxide_completer
            _ => $carapace_completer
          } {{!}} do $in $spans
        }

        $env.config = {
          show_banner: false,
          completions: {
            case_sensitive: false # case-sensitive completions
            quick: true           # set to false to prevent auto-selecting completions
            partial: true         # set to false to prevent partial filling of the prompt
            algorithm: "fuzzy"    # prefix or fuzzy
            external: {
              # set to false to prevent nushell looking into $env.PATH to find more suggestions
              enable: true 
              # set to lower can improve completion performance at the cost of omitting some options
              max_results: 100 
              completer: $multiple_completers
            }
          }
        } 
        $env.PATH = ($env.PATH {{!}} 
          split row (char esep) {{!}}
          prepend /home/myuser/.apps {{!}}
          append /usr/bin/env
        )
      '';
      shellAliases = {
        vi = "hx";
        vim = "hx";
        nano = "hx";
      };
    };
    carapace.enable = true;
    carapace.enableNushellIntegration = true;

    starship = {
      enable = true;
      settings = {
        add_newline = true;
        character = {
          success_symbol = "[➜](bold green)";
          error_symbol = "[➜](bold red)";
        };
      };
    };
  };
}

See also

• Command Shell