install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install bashish

local Homebrew formula metadata

MacPortsverified · 94%

sudo port install bashish

MacPorts ports tree · sysutils/bashish/Portfile · source: api.github.com

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 post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 1 platform targets.
Installs with 1 runtime dependencies.

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`	cli	global executable
`bashishtheme`	cli	global executable

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 generated2026-07-08

manager version2.2.4

manager updated

local dataok

upstreamnot checked

latest detectednot detected

https://bashish.sourceforge.net/

infoNo package-manager update timestamp was available.low confidence
infoRelease/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories.https://bashish.sourceforge.net/none confidence

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:bashish
Version	2.2.4
Package manager	Homebrew
Package manager page	https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/bashish
Homepage	https://bashish.sourceforge.net/
Upstream docs	https://bashish.sourceforge.net/
License	GPL-2.0-or-later
Source archive	https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/bashish/bashish/2.2.4/bashish-2.2.4.tar.gz
Dependencies	dialog
Bottle	available (on all)
Homebrew post-install	not defined
Service	none declared

registry facts

Source database details

Source Database	Homebrew formula API
Tap	homebrew/core
Full Name	bashish
Version Scheme	0
Revision	0
Bottle Stable Root URL	https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core
Deprecated	no
Disabled	no
Keg Only	no
URL Keys	stable

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

MacPorts ports tree · api.github.com · MacPorts ports tree: sysutils/bashish/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

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.

combined/bashish.yml

Used sources

Geiger risk classifier
Nucleus package database
av.db category and tag curation
cross-ecosystem install command graph
curated package history
external package-manager database matches
package relationship graph
package version freshness
package-page enrichment

Install bashish with Homebrew, MacPorts