Fish Shell Cheatsheet - Shell Config

Fish ships with syntax highlighting, autocompletion, and magic Tab out of the box, making it great for users who do not want to rig their shell. The main switching cost is the syntax differing from Bash — set replaces export, the for loop differs, and so on — so this table lists those differences for an easy migration of habits.

SysOps·36 commands·Last updated 2026-07-21

Variables & Scope 7

set name "John"

Set a variable

echo $name

Use a variable

set -x PATH /usr/local/bin $PATH

Set an env var (export)

set -U fish_user_paths /usr/local/bin $fish_user_paths

Set a universal var (persistent)

set -l local_var "value"

Local var (current function only)

set -g global_var "value"

Global variable

set -e name

Erase a variable

Control Flow 5

if test -f file.txt\n echo "exists"\nend

Conditional (file exists)

if test $count -gt 5\n echo "many"\nelse\n echo "few"\nend

if-else branch

for file in *.txt\n echo $file\nend

Loop over files

while read -l line\n echo $line\nend < file.txt

Read a file line by line

switch $status\n case 0\n echo "success"\n case "*"\n echo "failed"\nend

Multi-branch switch

Functions & Aliases 7

function greet\n echo "Hello $argv"\nend

Define a function ($argv args)

funcsave greet

Save a function to the config

functions

List all functions

functions greet

Show a function definition

alias cls="clear"

Create an alias

abbr -a gco "git checkout"

Create an abbreviation (auto-expands)

funced greet

Edit a function interactively

Strings & Pipes 6

string length "hello"

Get string length

string split "," "a,b,c"

Split a string by delimiter

string join ";" "a" "b" "c"

Join strings with a delimiter

string replace "old" "new" "hello old"

Replace a substring

string match -r "^\d+" "123abc"

Regex match

echo "data" | string upper

Pipe to uppercase

Config & Theme 6

fish_config

Configure theme/prompt via web UI

fish_config theme choose Nord

Switch theme from CLI

set -U fish_greeting ""

Disable the greeting

fish_update_completions

Update completion scripts

cat ~/.config/fish/config.fish

View the config file

fisher install jorgebucaran/autopair.fish

Install a plugin with fisher

History & Keys 5

history

View command history

history search "git"

Search history

history delete "rm -rf"

Delete a history entry

Ctrl+R

Incremental history search

Alt+← / Alt+→

Move cursor by word

Tips

Fish's if/for/function/switch end with end (no fi/done/esac).
set -U sets a universal var, persisted and shared across sessions.
Fish has autocompletion out of the box; Tab to use, Alt+Right to accept.
fisher is Fish's plugin manager: curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jorgebucaran/fisher/main/functions/fisher.fish | source && fisher install jorgebucaran/fisher.
abbr is lighter than alias and auto-expands to the full command.
Fish isn't POSIX-compatible; can't run bash scripts directly, but is more intuitive.

Official References

Each command links to its official documentation below, so you can verify the latest usage and read deeper.

Linux man-pages

Maintained by LaoHand

Publicly updated on Jul 21, 2026, continuously proofread against official docs.

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