Install Fish Shell, Fisher and Oh My Fish on Fedora 45 / 44

Fish gives you autosuggestions, syntax highlighting and man-page completions on the first prompt, with no plugin to install and no rc file to write. Fedora carries it in the main repository, so the install is one command. The work is in the details around it: making it the login shell, knowing which config file wins, picking a plugin manager that is still maintained, and removing it later without locking a user out. The steps below were run on Fedora 45 and Fedora 44 in October 2026 with fish 4.6.0, Fisher 4.4.8 and Oh My Fish version 8. Fisher was exercised on Fedora 45 and Oh My Fish on Fedora 44.

Original content from computingforgeeks.com - post 66610

Install fish from the Fedora repository

No extra repository is needed. Install the package:

sudo dnf install fish

On Fedora 45 the transaction pulls three small dependencies. Fedora 44 resolves the same four packages:

Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Package       Arch   Version          Repository      Size
Installing:
 fish         x86_64 0:4.6.0-2.fc45   fedora      21.2 MiB
Installing dependencies:
 ncurses-term noarch 0:6.6-3.fc45     fedora       1.8 MiB
 pcre2-utf32  x86_64 0:10.47-1.fc45.2 fedora     619.1 KiB
Installing weak dependencies:
 man-pages    noarch 0:6.13-6.fc45    fedora       2.9 MiB

Transaction Summary:
 Installing:         4 packages

Total size of inbound packages is 9 MiB. Need to download 9 MiB.
After this operation, 27 MiB extra will be used (install 27 MiB, remove 0 B).
[1/4] pcre2-utf32-0:10.47-1.fc45.2.x86_ 100% | 721.1 KiB/s | 240.9 KiB |  00m00s
[2/4] ncurses-term-0:6.6-3.fc45.noarch  100% |   1.9 MiB/s | 994.3 KiB |  00m01s
[3/4] fish-0:4.6.0-2.fc45.x86_64        100% |   4.4 MiB/s |   4.4 MiB |  00m01s
[4/4] man-pages-0:6.13-6.fc45.noarch    100% |   3.9 MiB/s |   3.9 MiB |  00m01s
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[4/4] Total                             100% |   3.4 MiB/s |   9.4 MiB |  00m03s
Running transaction
[1/6] Verify package files              100% | 117.0   B/s |   4.0   B |  00m00s
[2/6] Prepare transaction               100% |  50.0   B/s |   4.0   B |  00m00s
[3/6] Installing pcre2-utf32-0:10.47-1. 100% |  28.8 MiB/s | 620.0 KiB |  00m00s
[4/6] Installing ncurses-term-0:6.6-3.f 100% |  13.2 MiB/s |   2.2 MiB |  00m00s
[5/6] Installing fish-0:4.6.0-2.fc45.x8 100% | 106.7 MiB/s |  21.5 MiB |  00m00s
[6/6] Installing man-pages-0:6.13-6.fc4 100% |  11.0 MiB/s |   3.3 MiB |  00m00s
Complete!

Confirm the version:

fish --version

Both releases report the same build:

fish, version 4.6.0

The package registers itself as a valid login shell. Older guides tell you to append it to /etc/shells by hand. On Fedora that step is already done:

cat /etc/shells

The last two lines were added by the RPM:

/bin/sh
/bin/bash
/usr/bin/sh
/usr/bin/bash
/usr/bin/tmux
/bin/tmux
/usr/bin/fish
/bin/fish

Newer fish from the upstream build service

Fedora’s package trails upstream. The fish project publishes its own RPMs on the openSUSE Build Service, and the fish releases page lists what is current. When we checked, the build service had a Fedora 44 repository but no Fedora 45 one yet:

Source	Fedora 45	Fedora 44
Fedora repository	fish 4.6.0	fish 4.6.0
shells:fish:release:4 on OBS	No repository (404)	fish 4.9.3

On Fedora 44, add the repository with the release number filled in automatically:

sudo dnf config-manager addrepo --from-repofile=https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/shells:fish:release:4/Fedora_$(rpm -E %fedora)/shells:fish:release:4.repo

Fish from the Fedora repository is already installed at this point, so dnf install fish would report “Nothing to do”. Upgrade it instead:

sudo dnf upgrade fish

The build service package replaces the Fedora one. On the first transaction from this repository, dnf also imports the project signing key, as in the fresh-install output further down. Our test machine had already trusted it:

Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Package           Arch   Version        Repository                 Size
Upgrading:
 fish             x86_64 0:4.9.3-2.2    shells_fish_release_4  16.6 MiB
   replacing fish x86_64 0:4.6.0-1.fc44 fedora                 21.2 MiB

Transaction Summary:
 Upgrading:          1 package
 Replacing:          1 package

Total size of inbound packages is 4 MiB. Need to download 4 MiB.
After this operation, 5 MiB will be freed (install 17 MiB, remove 21 MiB).
[1/1] fish-0:4.9.3-2.2.x86_64           100% |   1.4 MiB/s |   3.9 MiB |  00m03s
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1/1] Total                             100% |   1.4 MiB/s |   3.9 MiB |  00m03s
Running transaction
[1/4] Verify package files              100% |  66.0   B/s |   1.0   B |  00m00s
[2/4] Prepare transaction               100% |  21.0   B/s |   2.0   B |  00m00s
[3/4] Upgrading fish-0:4.9.3-2.2.x86_64 100% | 124.9 MiB/s |  16.6 MiB |  00m00s
[4/4] Removing fish-0:4.6.0-1.fc44.x86_ 100% |   8.8 KiB/s |   1.7 KiB |  00m00s
Complete!

On a machine without fish yet, sudo dnf install fish after adding the repository installs the newer build directly. dnf imports the project signing key on that first install:

Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Package      Arch   Version          Repository                 Size
Installing:
 fish        x86_64 0:4.9.3-2.2      shells_fish_release_4  16.6 MiB
Installing dependencies:
 pcre2-utf32 x86_64 0:10.47-1.fc44.1 fedora                623.1 KiB

Transaction Summary:
 Installing:         2 packages

Total size of inbound packages is 4 MiB. Need to download 4 MiB.
After this operation, 17 MiB extra will be used (install 17 MiB, remove 0 B).
[1/2] pcre2-utf32-0:10.47-1.fc44.1.x86_ 100% | 596.5 KiB/s | 242.2 KiB |  00m00s
[2/2] fish-0:4.9.3-2.2.x86_64           100% |   1.9 MiB/s |   3.9 MiB |  00m02s
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2/2] Total                             100% | 711.8 KiB/s |   4.1 MiB |  00m06s
Running transaction
[3/3] https://download.opensuse.org/rep 100% |   2.5 KiB/s |   1.1 KiB |  00m00s
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[3/3] Total                             100% | 711.8 KiB/s |   4.1 MiB |  00m06s
Importing OpenPGP key 0xD880C8E4:
 UserID     : "shells:fish OBS Project <shells:[email protected]>"
 Fingerprint: 24A63B31CAB41B33EC48801E2CE2AC08D880C8E4
 From       : https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/shells:/fish:/release:/4/Fedora_44/repodata/repomd.xml.key
The key was successfully imported.
[1/4] Verify package files              100% | 117.0   B/s |   2.0   B |  00m00s
[2/4] Prepare transaction               100% |  24.0   B/s |   2.0   B |  00m00s
[3/4] Installing pcre2-utf32-0:10.47-1. 100% |  76.2 MiB/s | 623.9 KiB |  00m00s
[4/4] Installing fish-0:4.9.3-2.2.x86_6 100% |  77.3 MiB/s |  16.6 MiB |  00m00s
Complete!

The same command on Fedora 45 fails until the build service adds that release. Because the URL uses $(rpm -E %fedora), it starts working without edits once the directory exists:

 https://download.opensuse.org/reposito 100% | 181.0   B/s | 399.0   B |  00m02s
>>> Status code: 404 for https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/shells:/fish:/release:/4/Fedora_45/shells:fish:release:4.repo (IP: 195.135.223.226) - https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/shells:/fish:/release:/4/Fedora_45/shells:fish:release:4.repo
>>> Status code: 404 for https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/shells:/fish:/release:/4/Fedora_45/shells:fish:release:4.repo (IP: 195.135.223.226) - https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/shells:/fish:/release:/4/Fedora_45/shells:fish:release:4.repo
>>> Status code: 404 for https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/shells:/fish:/release:/4/Fedora_45/shells:fish:release:4.repo (IP: 195.135.223.226) - https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/shells:/fish:/release:/4/Fedora_45/shells:fish:release:4.repo
>>> Status code: 404 for https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/shells:/fish:/release:/4/Fedora_45/shells:fish:release:4.repo (IP: 195.135.223.226) - https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/shells:/fish:/release:/4/Fedora_45/shells:fish:release:4.repo
>>> Status code: 404 for https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/shells:/fish:/release:/4/Fedora_45/shells:fish:release:4.repo (IP: 195.135.223.226)
Failed to download repository configuration file "https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/shells:fish:release:4/Fedora_45/shells:fish:release:4.repo": Failed to download files

Everything else in this guide behaves the same with either build.

Make fish your login shell

On current Fedora, chsh ships in the base util-linux package, so there is nothing extra to install. Run it as your own user and type your password when asked:

chsh -s /usr/bin/fish

The change is written to /etc/passwd straight away:

Changing shell for josphat.
Password: 
Shell changed.

Check the account entry:

getent passwd $USER

The last field is now fish:

josphat:x:1001:1001:Josphat Mutai:/home/josphat:/usr/bin/fish

Log out and back in for the desktop session to pick it up. A new terminal then greets you with the fish banner, and the shell suggests completions from history as you type. The grey text in the next screenshot is an autosuggestion. Press the right arrow key to accept it.

Leave root on bash. Fish is not a POSIX shell, so scripts and recovery work stay simpler when the system accounts keep the default. Scripts with a #!/bin/bash line run under bash whatever your login shell is.

Know where fish reads its configuration

A fresh account has an empty ~/.config/fish. Fish creates files there only when you save something. These are the locations that matter:

Path	What it holds
~/.config/fish/config.fish	Your startup commands, read by every fish instance
~/.config/fish/functions/	One file per function, loaded on first use
~/.config/fish/conf.d/	Snippets read before config.fish; plugin managers write here
~/.config/fish/fish_variables	Universal variables, managed by fish itself
/etc/fish/config.fish	System-wide startup file, comments only on Fedora
/usr/share/fish/vendor_conf.d/	Snippets shipped by other Fedora packages

The vendor directory is where Fedora surprises people. List the system locations:

ls /etc/fish /etc/fish/conf.d /usr/share/fish/vendor_conf.d

Two snippets from other packages run in every fish session:

/etc/fish:
completions
conf.d
config.fish
functions

/etc/fish/conf.d:

/usr/share/fish/vendor_conf.d:
debuginfod.fish
nano-default-editor.fish

Read it before you set EDITOR yourself:

cat /usr/share/fish/vendor_conf.d/nano-default-editor.fish

It only applies nano when EDITOR is unset:

# Ensure GNU nano is set as EDITOR if it isn't already set
# This is set as a universal variable so that any other definition
# by the user would win
# Cf. https://fishshell.com/docs/current/index.html#variables-scope

if ! set -q EDITOR;
	set -x EDITOR /usr/bin/nano
end

Set variables, PATH, functions and abbreviations

Fedora’s default editor is nano, and Workstation ships only vim-minimal, which provides vi but no vim command. Install the full editor if you want vim as EDITOR:

sudo dnf install vim-enhanced

Fish has three variable scopes you will use: local, global and universal. A universal variable is saved to fish_variables and shared by every running fish. Set the editor that way and inspect it:

set -U EDITOR vim
set -S EDITOR

In the current shell, the global nano from the vendor snippet still wins, because a global beats a universal:

$EDITOR: set in global scope, exported, with 1 elements
$EDITOR[1]: |/usr/bin/nano|
$EDITOR: set in universal scope, unexported, with 1 elements
$EDITOR[1]: |vim|

Open a new terminal and echo $EDITOR prints vim. The vendor snippet sees EDITOR already set and does nothing. Note the word “unexported” in the output, though: a plain set -U is visible to fish but not to programs it starts, so git and sudoedit never see it. The set -gx line in config.fish below exports it properly.

Functions are saved one per file. Define one, then write it to disk with funcsave:

function ll; ls -lh $argv; end
funcsave ll
cat ~/.config/fish/functions/ll.fish

Fish reformats the body when it saves it:

funcsave: wrote /home/josphat/.config/fish/functions/ll.fish
function ll
     ls -lh $argv; 
end

Abbreviations are the catch. abbr --add typed at the prompt lasts only for that shell. In our test, a new shell listed no abbreviations at all. Put them in config.fish instead. Create the directory that the PATH line below expects, because fish_add_path skips paths that do not exist:

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
nano ~/.config/fish/config.fish

This is the file we ran on both releases:

if status is-interactive
    abbr --add gs git status
    abbr --add dnfu sudo dnf upgrade --refresh
end
set -gx EDITOR vim
fish_add_path ~/.local/bin
fish_config theme choose nord

The is-interactive guard keeps abbreviations out of scripts. set -gx sets the editor explicitly, so it no longer depends on the vendor snippet. fish_add_path stores the directory in the universal fish_user_paths list. The last line loads a colour theme, covered in the next section. Open a new shell and check the abbreviations:

abbr --list

Both survive now:

gs
dnfu

Type gs and press Space, and fish expands it to git status in place. The history then records the full command, not the shortcut.

Pick a prompt and a colour theme

Fish ships sample prompts and themes. List the prompts:

fish_config prompt list

Thirteen come with the package:

acidhub
arrow
astronaut
default
disco
informative
informative_vcs
minimalist
nim
pythonista
scales
simple
terlar

fish_config prompt show renders all of them in the terminal. To keep one, save it. The command asks before it overwrites the current prompt, so we piped the answer in:

echo y | fish_config prompt save informative_vcs

The prompt lands in your functions directory:

Overwriting
funcsave: wrote /home/josphat/.config/fish/functions/fish_prompt.fish

Themes work differently in current fish. fish_config theme save still works, but the man page marks it “not recommended” because it freezes colours into universal variables. A theme with light and dark variants then stops following the terminal background. Load the theme from config.fish with choose instead, as in the file above. A fresh account has no universal colour variables. If you ran theme save on an older setup, the leftover universal values are shadowed by the theme and only come back if you remove the choose line. Clearing them is optional tidying:

for v in (set -U --names | string match "fish*color*"); set -e -U $v; end

A new interactive shell then confirms where the colours come from:

fish -i -c "set -S fish_color_command"

The theme name is recorded next to the value:

$fish_color_command: set in global scope, unexported, with 2 elements
$fish_color_command[1]: |88c0d0|
$fish_color_command[2]: |--theme=nord|

fish_config theme list prints the bundled themes, including catppuccin, dracula, nord and solarized.

Use the web configuration tool

Run fish_config with no arguments on a desktop session. It starts a small Python web server, on port 8000 when that is free, and opens your browser on a URL with a random token in the path. Close the tab and press Enter in the terminal to stop it. The colors tab previews every theme against sample commands:

The prompt tab renders each sample prompt with your real user and host name, so you see the result before you commit to it:

The server binds to all interfaces, but it drops any client that is not on localhost before the token is even checked, so other machines on the network cannot use it. If port 8000 is taken, it uses the next free port up to 9000.

Manage plugins with Fisher

Oh My Fish was the default answer for years. Its own README now opens with a warning that it “has been unmaintained for years” and that some themes and packages are broken. For new setups, use Fisher. It is a single fish function, it records your plugins in a plain text file, and it can also install Oh My Fish packages.

The fzf.fish plugin used below needs fzf and fd, and its git searches need git, which Oh My Fish also requires. All three are in the Fedora repository:

sudo dnf install fzf fd-find git

Bootstrap Fisher from fish, not bash, since the installer is fish code piped to source:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jorgebucaran/fisher/main/functions/fisher.fish | source && fisher install jorgebucaran/fisher

Fisher installs itself as a regular plugin:

fisher install version 4.4.8
Fetching https://api.github.com/repos/jorgebucaran/fisher/tarball/HEAD
Installing jorgebucaran/fisher
           /home/josphat/.config/fish/functions/fisher.fish
           /home/josphat/.config/fish/completions/fisher.fish
Installed 1 plugin/s

Add two plugins in one call. fzf.fish binds fuzzy search for files, history, git log and processes. autopair.fish closes brackets and quotes:

fisher install PatrickF1/fzf.fish jorgebucaran/autopair.fish
fisher list

The list includes Fisher itself:

jorgebucaran/fisher
patrickf1/fzf.fish
jorgebucaran/autopair.fish

The same list is written to ~/.config/fish/fish_plugins. Commit that file with your dotfiles, and fisher update on a new machine installs everything in it. The same command updates all plugins in place. Remove one by name:

fisher remove jorgebucaran/autopair.fish

Fisher deletes exactly the files it installed:

fisher remove version 4.4.8
Removing jorgebucaran/autopair.fish
         /home/josphat/.config/fish/functions/_autopair_backspace.fish
         /home/josphat/.config/fish/functions/_autopair_insert_left.fish
         /home/josphat/.config/fish/functions/_autopair_insert_right.fish
         /home/josphat/.config/fish/functions/_autopair_insert_same.fish
         /home/josphat/.config/fish/functions/_autopair_tab.fish
         /home/josphat/.config/fish/conf.d/autopair.fish
Removed 1 plugin/s

Install Oh My Fish for its themes

The main reason to still install Oh My Fish is its theme catalogue. It installed and ran cleanly on the Fedora fish package in our test. Pick one manager per account. Do not run Oh My Fish and Fisher side by side. Download the installer and check it against the published checksum before you run it:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oh-my-fish/oh-my-fish/master/bin/install > install
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oh-my-fish/oh-my-fish/master/bin/install.sha256 | sha256sum --check

Only continue on OK:

install: OK

Run the installer with fish. Leave out the two flags to answer its questions yourself:

fish install --noninteractive --yes

It clones into ~/.local/share/omf and hooks itself in through conf.d:

Checking for a sane environment...
Installing Oh My Fish to /home/josphat/.local/share/omf...
Using release channel "stable".
Cloning master from https://github.com/oh-my-fish/oh-my-fish.git...
Writing bootstrap to /home/josphat/.config/fish/conf.d/omf.fish...
Setting up Oh My Fish configuration...
Updating https://github.com/oh-my-fish/packages-main master... Done!
Installing package default
✔ default successfully installed.
Installation successful!

List the themes it can fetch:

omf theme | head -30

The first rows of the catalogue:

Installed:
default

Available:
agnoster		gentoo			plain
aight			gianu			pure
anchor			gitstatus		puritan
ays			gnuykeaj		pygmalion
batman			godfather		random
beloglazov		graystatus		randomrussel
bira			harleen			red-snapper
bobthefish		heartsteal		rider
boxfish			idan			robbyrussell
budspencer		integral		sashimi
cbjohnson		jacaetevha		scorphish
chain			johanson		separation
clearance		kawasaki		simple
cmorrell		kovial			simple-ass-prompt
coffeeandcode		krisleech		simplevi
cor			l			slacker
cyan			lambda			slavic-cat
damin			lambda-zero		solarfish
dangerous		lavender		sushi
default			lolfish			syl20bnr
dmorrell		mars			taktoa
doughsay		mint			technopagan
easy-eel		mish			toaster
eclm			mokou			tomita
edan			mtahmed			trout
eden			nai			tweetjay

Install bobthefish, a powerline-style theme, and switch to it:

omf install bobthefish
omf theme bobthefish

The prompt redraws immediately. bobthefish draws arrow separators and a right-hand timestamp, so use a terminal font that carries powerline glyphs:

omf install adds plugins the same way, omf update refreshes everything, and omf remove takes a package out. When something looks wrong, run the built-in check:

omf doctor

A healthy install reports the versions it found:

Oh My Fish version:   8
OS type:              Linux
Fish version:         fish, version 4.6.0
Git version:          git version 2.56.0
Git core.autocrlf:    no
Checking for a sane environment...
Your shell is ready to swim.

Neither manager slowed shell startup in a way you would notice. Across 20 runs, an interactive fish -i -c exit took 14 to 19 ms per start, including the sudo -u overhead of the test loop, for a bare account (a throwaway user created for the timing), the Fisher account with fzf.fish, and the Oh My Fish account with bobthefish. That figure covers startup only, not drawing the prompt.

Remove fish without locking anyone out

Order matters here. The RPM removes fish from /etc/shells, but it does not touch accounts that still use it. We removed the package while a test account still had fish as its shell, then tried to log in as that user:

su: failed to execute /usr/bin/fish: No such file or directory

The account cannot start a login shell until root changes it. Find every account that still points at fish before you remove anything:

getent passwd | grep fish

On our Fedora 45 machine it found two, our own account and the timing test account:

josphat:x:1001:1001:Josphat Mutai:/home/josphat:/usr/bin/fish
baretest:x:1002:1002::/home/baretest:/usr/bin/fish

Then take out the plugin manager. With Fisher, pipe the list into remove:

fisher list | fisher remove

With Oh My Fish, run omf destroy in a terminal. It refuses to run without a TTY, and it asks for confirmation:

It leaves ~/.config/omf behind, so delete that by hand. For each other user that getent listed, switch the shell as root, replacing the name (we deleted our throwaway test user instead):

sudo usermod --shell /bin/bash otheruser

Switch your own account back to bash, then remove the package:

chsh -s /bin/bash
sudo dnf remove fish

dnf also drops the dependencies that came with it:

Package       Arch   Version          Repository      Size
Removing:
 fish         x86_64 0:4.6.0-2.fc45   fedora      21.2 MiB
Removing unused dependencies:
 man-pages    noarch 0:6.13-6.fc45    fedora       2.9 MiB
 ncurses-term noarch 0:6.6-3.fc45     fedora       1.8 MiB
 pcre2-utf32  x86_64 0:10.47-1.fc45.2 fedora     619.1 KiB

Transaction Summary:
 Removing:           4 packages

After this operation, 27 MiB will be freed (install 0 B, remove 27 MiB).
Running transaction
[1/5] Prepare transaction               100% |  40.0   B/s |   4.0   B |  00m00s
[2/5] Removing fish-0:4.6.0-2.fc45.x86_ 100% |  17.5 KiB/s |   1.7 KiB |  00m00s
[3/5] Removing ncurses-term-0:6.6-3.fc4 100% |  47.5 KiB/s |   2.7 KiB |  00m00s
[4/5] Removing man-pages-0:6.13-6.fc45. 100% |  45.6 KiB/s |   2.9 KiB |  00m00s
[5/5] Removing pcre2-utf32-0:10.47-1.fc 100% |  29.0   B/s |   5.0   B |  00m00s
Complete!

Your history and settings stay in ~/.local/share/fish and ~/.config/fish until you delete them, which makes a later reinstall pick up where you left off. If you are deciding between shells, our comparison of Linux and macOS shells sets fish against zsh and others, and the zsh with Oh My Zsh guide covers the closest alternative. The Starship prompt works in fish too if you want one prompt across every shell. For the rest of a fresh Fedora setup, see things to do after installing Fedora 45 and the dnf5 cheat sheet.