macOS
Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install bashishlocal Homebrew formula metadata
MacPortsverified · 94%
sudo port install bashishMacPorts ports tree · sysutils/bashish/Portfile · source: api.github.com
brew / rank 10969
Install bashish with Homebrew, MacPorts
Theme environment for text terminals. Version 2.2.4 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with macports: sudo port install bashish.
install
Additional install commands
overview
Package summary
Theme environment for text terminals
Project links
Commands and aliases
- bashish
- bashishtheme
history
Project history and usage
Bashish is a terminal theme environment from the SourceForge-era desktop customization world. Its official site describes it as software that changes terminal colors, fonts, transparency, background images, and prompts for shells such as bash, zsh, and tcsh.
Project history
Bashish developed as a shell and terminal theming layer rather than a single prompt theme. Its README explains that application theming works by placing launchers in the path: the launcher applies a terminal theme, runs the real command with the original arguments and exit code, and restores the terminal afterward.
The 2.x ChangeLog shows a project concerned with terminal compatibility, startup speed, per-theme APIs, revision-control prompt indicators, and retro terminal themes. Version 2.2.2 explicitly notes a revival after bitrot, fixes for gnome-terminal behavior, new BashPrompt-derived themes, and the move to GitHub.
Adoption history
The official news page records early packaging interest: Debian request-for-sponsorship work, a Gentoo ebuild attempt, and Pascal Bleser's SuSE Guru repositories. The SourceForge file feed shows released source archives and distro packages for 2.2.x in 2010.
Bashish occupied a niche before modern prompt frameworks became common: it offered themed prompts, titles, and per-application terminal appearance across many terminal emulators and shells.
How it is used
The README tells users to run `bashish` once to set up shell startup files, restart the shell, list themes with `bashish list`, and select themes with commands such as `bashish conda` or `bashish conda blue`.
The project supports prompt theming for common shells and terminal theming for terminal emulators including xterm, rxvt, rxvt-unicode, gnome-terminal, Linux console, mlterm, SGI xwsh, Terminal.app, PuTTY, Cygwin, screen, and others, with varying feature support.
Why package nerds care
Bashish is package-nerd interesting because it captures a pre-Starship, pre-Powerlevel prompt era where terminal look-and-feel was managed by shell wrappers, startup-file edits, and terminal escape/control behavior rather than a single cross-shell binary.
It is also a small historical artifact of SourceForge distribution culture: tarballs, .deb, RPM, Slackware packages, Gentoo bugs, and distro repositories all appear in the official release trail.
Timeline
- 2006: Official news notes SuSE/Gentoo packaging work, Debian RFS activity, and Bashish 2.0.5/2.0.6 updates.
- 2010: SourceForge publishes the 2.2.4 source archive and distro packages; the ChangeLog calls out startup speedups and package fixes.
- 2010: Version 2.2.2 ChangeLog says Bashish is now on GitHub at `github.com/arnognulf/bashish`.
- 2010s: Later ChangeLog entries continue terminal compatibility and theme fixes, including Mac OS X foreground/background handling.
Related projects
- The Bashish ChangeLog imports or adapts themes from the BashPrompt project. Its own README positions it alongside shell prompt customization and terminal emulator theming rather than as a general shell framework.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: green
narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.
Risk classifier
green risk · low confidence · appliance
Why
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals
Signals
- metadata:no-higher-risk-signals
Install behavior
- No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
bashish | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
bashishtheme | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-08-03
manager version2.2.4
manager updated
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:bashish |
|---|---|
| Version | 2.2.4 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://bashish.sourceforge.net/ |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source database matches
Other package-manager records
Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.
MacPorts95%
bashish
sudo port install bashish- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bashish
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- cross-ecosystem install command graph
- curated package history
- external package-manager database matches
- pkg.so package database
- pkgdb category and tag curation